The legitimisation of hate speech

Hate speech, a phenomenon with global repercussions, represents a deeply complex form of violence to define and regulate, particularly due to the lack of legal consensus across countries with divergent judicial systems. The present research proposes a broad methodological framework for studying hate speech through the lens of translation, with the goal of fostering clear, neutral, and precise terminology that may support its legal treatment and institutional response. Particular attention is paid to the transfer and equivalence of key terminology, acronyms, and culturally embedded expressions related to hate discourse, especially between English and Spanish. The study also examines the linguistic strategies that sustain and legitimize hate speech—such as euphemisms, metaphors, emotionally charged language, and ideologically loaded terms—and evaluates the effectiveness and ethical implications of their translation, including through the use of machine translation and other AI-powered tools.

Alba Montes-Sánchez is Assistant Professor in the Degree in Translation and Interpreting at the University of Córdoba, where she also teaches in the Master’s Degree in Specialised Translation. She is a member of the HUM 947 Research Group “Texto, Ciencia y Traducción” and her working languages are English, German and Spanish. Her publications and contributions to conferences include those related to citizen security, specifically global terrorism, and agrifood translation. Her main line of research focuses on the European institutional sphere, as she has developed her career at the European Documentation Centre, part of the European Information Network of the Andalusian Regional Government.

This talk is being jointly organised by the Translating Across Languages and Cultures Conference Series", sponsored by the Institute of Language, Culture and Society (ILCS); and the Dialogue in Migration and Refugee Studies, organised by MRN and funded by the Jean Monnet grant. It will be hosted by Oxford Brookes University.