Professor Heidi Salaets

• KU Leuven -- Professional profile

Prof. dr. Heidi Salaets currently is the head of the Interpreting Studies Research Group at the Faculty of Arts of KU Leuven (Campus Antwerp, Brussels and Leuven). At the Antwerp Campus of KU Leuven, she teaches interpreting studies and trains interpreters (Italian-Dutch) both in the Master and in the EMCI (European Master in Conference Interpreting) postgraduate. On the same campus, she is also responsible for the evaluation procedure in the LIT-training (Legal Interpreters and Translators).

Since 2012, Heidi Salaets works together with Dr. Balogh for different DG-Justice projects, as coordinator and/or as a partner. Moreover, they work together for the TOCAT-project (Transnational Organised Crime and Translation: Improving police communication across languages) in the UK and for the Folitex-project (Forensic Linguistic Tap expert, former “wiretap interpreter”) with prof. dr. Alsulaiman.

The research interests of Heidi Salaets are linked with her general perception regarding valorization of research and impact on society and are related to: LIT, specifically on interpreting for minors, on interpreting for the police (national and international level), on interpreting in court, on LIT-training for LLDs (Languages of Lesser Diffusion) and on Folitex (Forensic Linguistic Tapexpert); Training of interpreters and joint interprofessional training; new technologies: VCI (Video Conference Interpreting)

Keynote abstract

FoLiTEx - who on earth is (s)he?

Telephone tapping or ‘wiretapping’ is the practice of intercepting telephone conversations performed by legal authorities. Several questions immediately arise when we analyse the terminology involved, especially with regard to taps in a Foreign Language (FL). In the field, this person is called a ‘wiretap interpreter’, a term that doesn’t cover what the professional actually does. Besides that: what about the ethical codes of a legal interpreter on the one hand and a ‘wiretap interpreter’ on the other hand? Their role and responsibilities are quite different.  Finally, is ‘wiretapping’ still the most accurate definition in contexts where we see wireless phenomena such as VoIP, Twitter, Skype, WIFI and Darknet? 

To get an answer to these questions, the Antwerp campus of KU Leuven organised a first international conference on ‘wiretapping’ in which it launched a new term for the ‘wiretap interpreter/translator’, namely FoLiTEx or Forensic-Linguistic Tap Expert. This new term addresses a lot of the issues regarding the tasks and responsibilities of such a FoLiTEx, all of which will be discussed during our talk.

Moreover, we want to focus on the future of the FoLiTEx without neglecting their past. Thanks to the beforementioned conference, we learned that there are few or no guidelines on the ‘translation’ task for tapping in Flanders or elsewhere. This is highly surprising when we consider the important tasks the FoLiTEx perform in the prevention of crime or terrorist attacks. Academic research on this topic resulted scarce. We will report on the most important findings of this conference by means of insights received from forensic linguists, police officers, tap experts, examining magistrates etc. from different European countries. We will also report on a national project on FoLiTex (funded by KU Leuven).

We are aware of the fact that more international research is certainly needed, as challenges become increasingly demanding every day. Future FoLiTEx will be faced with Internet tap, the use of new technology, and very fast-paced communication. A broader European project could enable further research in the European Member States where the situation of the FoLiTEx is mostly not regulated.