Kobus Marais is professor of translation studies in the Department of Linguistics and Language practice of University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. He has published four monographs, namely Trajectories of translation: The thermodynamics of semiosis (2023),  A (bio)semiotic theory of translation: The emergence of social-cultural reality (2018), Translation theory and development studies: A complexity theory approach (2014) and Representation in Old Testament narrative texts (1997). He has also published five edited volumes, one with Ilse Feinauer, Translation studies beyond the postcolony (2017), and three with Reine Meylaerts, Complexity thinking in translation studies: Methodological considerations (2018), Exploring the implications of complexity thinking for translation studies (2022), and The Routledge Handbook of translation theory and concepts (2023). In addition, he edited Translation beyond translation studies (2023). His research interests are translation theory, complexity thinking, semiotics/biosemiotics and development studies.

Xany Jansen van Vuuren obtained her Ph.D. from the University of the Free State in 2022, where she is also a lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Language Practice. She teaches interpreting and translation on undergraduate and postgraduate level.

With regard to research, her areas of focus include ecosemiotics, eco-translation, knowledge translation, translation and activism, and interspecies translation and interpreting. She is currently completing her monograph, entitled “Interpreting, communication and animal welfare: An ecosemiotic analysis of interspecies translation” with De Gruyter Mouton.