"El perfil del intérprete como mediador”

The aim of this paper is to share some considerations on interpreting from three points of view: profession, training and research. The first part is devoted to a bird’s eye view on mediation and interpreting as they have been developing in Italy in the last fifteen years. This overview shows considerable fragmentation and, according to the author, an excessive emphasis on techniques and separation. Conference interpreting, on one side, is still considered “first-class” interpreting, although the national market is constantly changing and can, potentially, offer other occasions for interpreting and mediation as a result of massive migration. “Potentially” since this need is not taken into due account by public institutions which go on satisfying these multilinguistic and multicultural needs on an emergency basis. University training offer, on the other side, is trying to comply with new mediation needs, maintaining some courses in conferences interpreting, sometimes mixed and joined with liaison interpreting. The author’s final proposal is to avoid fragmentation and separation and try to focus more on continuities and common points between interpreting and mediation than on technicalities and diversities. Some practical examples are given.