معرفی
Piet Van Poucke is an Associate Professor in Russian Language and Culture at Ghent University, where he serves as head of the Russian section within the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication in the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy. He is actively involved in multiple research groups including CLIV (Research Centre for Literature in Translation), where he collaborates on translation studies projects, and CERISE (Centre for Russian International Socio-political and Economic studies), which he coordinates annual lecture series for.
Van Poucke earned his PhD from Ghent University in 1999 with a dissertation on the early literary work of Russian-Jewish writer Ilya Ehrenburg. His academic journey has focused on Russian language, literature, and translation studies, with particular attention to the interplay between cultural contexts and translation practices.
His research interests span multiple interconnected domains within translation studies. He investigates the translation of journalistic texts between Russian and Western languages, with special attention to metaphor translation. His work on retranslation examines how literary works are translated multiple times across languages and cultures, and how these retranslations reflect changing cultural and political contexts. He also studies Western translation policies toward Russian literature and vice versa, exploring how geopolitical relations influence literary exchange. His research frequently employs critical discourse analysis to examine how translation shapes perceptions of Russia in Western media and vice versa.
Van Poucke's publication record reveals consistent focus on retranslation phenomena, with particular attention to Russian-Dutch literary translation history. His work bridges theoretical translation studies with practical analysis of news translation, especially regarding geopolitical events like the Crimean crisis. He has developed expertise in analyzing how translation websites like InoSMI refract Western news through Russian ideological lenses, revealing translation's role in shaping international perceptions.
As an academic leader, Van Poucke has supervised PhD candidates including Lidia Rura (2016) and currently leads multiple research projects extending through 2027-2030. His work receives support through university research funding and collaborative grants with international partners. He has organized significant academic events including the Retranslation in Context III conference in 2017.
Van Poucke is deeply embedded in research communities through his membership in CLIV, his role on the "Russia Platform" steering committee, and his coordination of CERISE lecture series. These affiliations position him at the intersection of translation studies, Russian cultural studies, and political discourse analysis, allowing him to pursue interdisciplinary research that examines translation's role in international relations and cultural exchange.
