91ÉçÇø

María Sierra Córdoba Serrano is an Associate Professor (Professional) with 91ÉçÇø’s M.Sc.Ìý(Applied) in Multilingual Digital Communication. She has served in several leadership positions at 91ÉçÇø SCS, including the inaugural Graduate Program Director for this new program until December 2024, Assistant Dean of Curriculum and Program Development (2020–2023) and Director of Translation Studies (2018–2021). She has been the driving force behind a series of fundamental programming changes aimed at connecting disciplines and professions in new ways, including the design of the online Multilingual Digital Communication program from the ground up to meet the rapidly changing and interconnected needs of the language/translation, communication and tech/AI industries.

Prior to joining 91ÉçÇø, and after studying and freelancing in Spain, Belgium and the U.K., and completing a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Translation Studies at the University of Ottawa, she landed a full-time academic position at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (California) in 2009, where she served as an Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor for eight years, and Translation Chair for two years.

As a scholar-practitioner, she is interested in multilingualism management and is currently leading a SSHRC-funded project on multilingual crisis communication in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is the author of a book on the sociology of translation (Le Québec traduit en EspagneÌý: analyse sociologique de l’exportation d’une culture périphérique) and the co-author of a special issue of theÌýInternational Journal of the Sociology of LanguageÌýon minority languages and translation policies. She has also published numerous book chapters and articles in international peer-reviewed journals, and presented at many national and international conferences.

From 2022 to 2024, she was a member of the Canadian General Standards Board Committee on Translation Services tasked with reviewing the national translation standard (CAN/CGSB-131.10-2017). She is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Canadian Language Industry Association.

She has translated two award-winning novels by Quebec author Nicolas Dickner into Spanish. Notable translation clients over the years have also included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Shoah Memorial in Paris, The Understanding Group and the National Steinbeck Center.

Languages: Spanish, French, English (passive languages: Portuguese, Arabic and Catalan)

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