%0 Journal Article %A Monzó-Nebot, Esther %A Wallace, Melissa %T Research methods in public service interpreting and translation studies: epistemologies of knowledge and ignorance %D 2020 %@ 2341-3778 %U http://hdl.handle.net/10017/44591 %X How disciplines approach their objects of inquiry is a result of their epistemological traditions, which include decisions about what they choose to examine and what they decide to ignore. As an interdiscipline, Interpreting and Translation Studies (ITS) was born to overcome the limits of discipline-specificapproaches to translation and interpreting, andwhen observingcomplex real-life phenomena,examining issuesthrough an interdisciplinarylenscan revealthings thatapproaches from single disciplines on their own would miss. This feature article reviewshow ITS hasshapedPublic Service Interpreting and Translation (PSIT),focusing specifically on the advantagesand vulnerabilities that its interdisciplinary nature yields as regards research methods.Three distinctive featuresand their impact on research methods are examined: (1) the complexity of the object ofinquiry, (2) the novelty of the disciplinary field that aims to scrutinize and to explain PSIT, and (3) the changes that the social sciences in general have undergone and are currently undergoing, openingupnew opportunities for research practices and methodological reflections. Contemplations ofthese features revealissues identified and the efforts undertaken to tackle them in relation tothe internal and external validity of research studies as well asunexplored strengths and roadblocks in the path towards achieving a critical mass of studies that can adequately represent the relevance of PSIT in contemporary societies. %K Research methods %K Public service interpreting and translation %K Epistemology %K Epistemologies of ignorance %K Métodos de investigación %K Traducción e interpretación en los servicios públicos %K Epistemología %K Epistemologías de la ignorancia %K Filología %K Philology %~ Biblioteca Universidad de Alcala