This paper looks into two of the main challenges that Translation Studies as an academic discipline is facing for the future. First, Translation Studies will have to negotiate the need for variety and the risk of fragmentation. Three aspects of this problem are investigated: the increasing fuzziness of the translation concept, the increasing number of possible relevant contexts, and the conflicts between ever more model disciplines. A second challenge concerns the tension between 'empirical' and 'postmodern' approaches within the field, which the paper tries to reduce to its most rudimentary logical basics in an effort to clarify the debate and encourage self-positioning.