From 10 May 10 to 18 May 2023, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS) held FHSS Lecture Series on Media Accessibility and Translation Studies. Dr. Iwona Mazur, Prof. Anna Matamala, and Dr. Sharon Black were invited to give lectures on media accessibility and translation studies to students and faculty with different backgrounds. This Lecture Series was funded by the FHSS Teaching and Learning Grant and organized by Dr. Kangte Luo, Assistant Professor at the Applied Translation Studies programme.

On 10 May, the first lecture of the series, entitled "A functional approach to audio description", was given by Dr. Iwona Mazur from the University of Mickiewicz (Poland). Dr. Mazur introduced the current research in the field of audio description from the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory and Skopo Theory, and explained how to help translators to better select translation strategies by analyzing source texts in audio description.

On May 17, Prof. Anna Matamala from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) was invited to give the second lecture of the series on the topic of "Media accessibility: research and training". Professor Matamala introduced the concept and importance of media accessibility, and presented the educational and research projects that she had been involved.

Dr. Sharon Black from the University of East Anglia (UK) gave the third lecture of the series on "Access to media, arts and heritage: An introduction to research and practice" on 18 May. Through a combination of lecture and interactive activities, Dr. Black introduced the audience a number of media accessibility services and professionals in the field of media and arts.

FHSS Lecture Series on Media Accessibility and Translation Studies was well received by students and faculty. During the three sessions, the audience interacted actively with the speakers to discuss issues related to media accessibility and audio description.

Reported by CHEN Yanying