Terje Loogus elected as Director of the University of Tartu College of Foreign Languages and Cultures

On 13 April, the council of the University of Tartu Faculty of Arts and Humanities elected Terje Loogus, Associate Professor of Translation Studies, as the new Director of the College of Foreign Languages and Cultures. She will start in her new role on 1 September 2022. 

Terje Loogus said she decided to apply for the position thanks to the support of her colleagues and due to the desire to contribute to the future of the college. As a director, she plans to further develop the areas of teaching and research and to strengthen the cooperation both inside and outside the college. "The University of Tartu College of Foreign Languages and Cultures is like a bridge between a national university and international cooperation," added Terje Loogus. She also praised Kersti Lepajõe, the current director of the college, for her achievements in developing the structural unit. 

Terje Loogus will be director for the next five years. She was elected due to her outstanding teaching, research and management experience. Her main area of research is the relationship between translation and culture. She studied German philology and translation at the University of Tartu. In 2008, she obtained a PhD in translation studies, defending a dissertation on "Kultur im Spannungsfeld translatorischer Entscheidungen: Probleme und Konflikte" at the University of Mainz, Germany. She has completed additional courses at the University of Göttingen and participated in various training related to her field of research, teaching, supervision and management both in Estonia and abroad.  

Since 2007, Terje Loogus has been working at the University of Tartu. She has taught courses at all levels of study and has participated in many organisational and development activities related to teaching. Since 2015, she has been the head of the Department of Translation and Interpretation Studies and the Program Manager of the Translation Studies MA programme. In 2016, she was elected the program manager of the year at the University of Tartu. She has published numerous scientific publications and participated in various research projects, including applied research projects. Moreover, she has successfully organised several scientific conferences and regularly participates at international and local conferences. In addition to being an accomplished academic, Terje Loogus has twice won the Austrian State Prize for Literary Translation for remarkable translations of literature. 

The University of Tartu College of Foreign Languages and Cultures is a structural unit in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Its aim is to teach foreign languages and cultures at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as continuing education programmes. Altogether it is possible to learn more than 20 languages. The scholars of the college engage in multifaceted international research in European languages, European and North American literature, literary theory, translation studies and applied linguistics.