對談簡介：
有說，散文是種關於經驗的技藝。不過，假如一個人的經驗乏善足陳，又可以如何下筆書寫散文？在抒陳自我的生命經驗以外，散文的繁雜與野性，或許還能容納更多，譬如思想。從頭回顧散文的傳統，究竟可以發現甚麼？散文與文學理論，又是否有重合之處？
講者簡介：
葉梓誦
寫作、評論、翻譯、編輯，現為《字花》主編。2016年共同創辦文藝評論雜誌《SAMPLE》。散文集《斷層路徑》獲梁實秋散文大師獎，合譯有《困頓之書》等。
對談嘉賓簡介：
譚以諾
曾寫小說，間中寫評論，有時做出版
曾繁裕
倫敦大學國王學院比較文學博士，香港浸會大學中文系助理教授，主理散文創作課程。
About the Speaker:
Mr Yağmur Çakmak born in Turkey, after completing my full education in UK returned to Turkey to work in the shipping industry. Moved to Bodrum / Turkey where I have been living for the past 19 years. Started working for a law firm as a translator then resigned to work for myself as a Court Approved Sworn Translator. Presently giving service to all foreigners in the area not only as a translator but a consultant.
Abstract:
This talk will provide a brief introduction to artificial neural networks (ANNs) and their application in neural machine translation (NMT). We will explore relevant machine learning concepts, including supervised learning, as well as the distinctions between generative and discriminative models.
Next, we will delve into the architecture of NMT, followed by a comprehensive outline of the deployment pipeline. This will encompass essential stages such as data preprocessing, model training, evaluation, and inference.
By the end of the talk, participants will have a clear understanding of how NMT systems function and the critical steps required for their successful implementation. This foundational knowledge will serve as an excellent starting point for further exploration of NMT mechanisms in the context of translation processes.
About the Speaker:
Mr. Colman Tse holds a B.A. in Translation Studies from HKBU, and an Msc in Computer Science in the University of Birmingham. He worked as Senior Research Assistant and managed the deployment of a neural machine translation pipeline. He has published on non-autoregressive neural machine translation.
Abstract:
Intersemiotic relations offer a dynamic lens for understanding contemporary art by revealing how different sign systems interact and generate meaning across artistic disciplines. This approach transforms art interpretation from a static to a fluid, interconnected experience, exposing the complex networks of signification that emerge when creative languages dialogue and translate across mediums.
About the Speaker:
Enoch Cheung is an interdisciplinary artist who explores photography and imaging. His ongoing project, “Pseudo Something,” combines curatorship and art-making to explore different medium perspectives. He also delves into the intricate landscape of artistic works and academic disciplines, decoding contemporary art through the lens of intersemiotic relations.
His recent project “That-has-been” explores the concept of “pseudo memory” through an investigation of the Kowloon Walled City. In this solo exhibition, he combines drawing techniques with oral history, interviews, photographic archives, and personal childhood memories to reconstruct the cultural landscape of this historically significant site.
Enoch obtained his Ph.D. in Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies at HKBU. He also obtained B.A. and M.F.A. (Painting) from the RMIT University, Australia, M.F.A. (Interactive Media and Environment) at Frank Mohr Institute of Hanze University, the Netherlands and M.A. (Fine Art) at University of Arts London.
Abstract:
This talk will present different approaches to translating the pandemic and public health information to Manitobans during the height of the Covid-19 crisis (2020-2022). First, I examine the Government of Manitoba’s approach on its website and its associated social media accounts, notably YouTube. Although the Government of Manitoba tried to account for its population’s diverse demolinguistic profile, the analysis reveals some shortcomings, including, though not limited to, a disjointed user experience, lag time between the publication of English and French public health information, and culturally homogenous messaging. Second, I examine some of the citizen-driven approaches to crisis communication on social platforms that, arguably, were far more effective in reaching different constituents, notably younger cohorts who turned to platforms like Instagram and TikTok to obtain public health information. From these two analyses, I demonstrate how a concerted approach between governments and social media creators can be a more effective strategy to engage with different audiences, including those that do not regularly consult outlets that are more ‘traditional’. This concerted approach is not completely novel: although the Government of Manitoba did not officially mobilize a creator-driven strategy in terms of public health communication, other governments and jurisdictions did and these examples can be illuminating for future crisis communication strategy. Although the talk does focus on Manitoba and the Canadian context, I draw parallels with Hong Kong and other jurisdictions to compare and contrast key takeaways. The talk will also address some of the methodological, ethical, and social dimensions of undertaking social media research at a time of crisis.
About the Speaker:
Renée Desjardins (pronouns: she/her) is an associate professor at the Université de Saint-Boniface in Winnipeg (Treaty 1) and a visiting professor at the McGill University School of Continuing Studies. She is the author of Translation and Social Media: In Theory, in Training, and in Professional Practice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and the co-editor of When Translation Goes Digital: Case Studies and Critical Reflections (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). Her most recent work examines translation in the creator, influencer, and gig economies. She currently holds two national research grants from the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada: an Insight grant for a project titled: TikTokers, Instagrammers, Podcasters, Livestreamers – and Translators: Translation in the Creator Economy, and a Connection grant as a team member for the LINET, a French-language research group focused on translator education, translation pedagogy, and new technology.
Moderator: Dr. Clara Chuan Yu (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Selected References:
Denisova, A. (2019). Internet Memes and Society: Social, Cultural, and Political Contexts. Routledge.
Desjardins, R., Laczko, M.(forthcoming). *Translation and pandemic communication on Instagram: an analysis of three Manitoban accounts. Dans Giannakopoulou, V. and Sütiste, E. (dir.), Transmedia in Translation and Transculturation. John Benjamins.
Desjardins, R. (2022). Hello/Bonjour won’t cut it in a health crisis: an analysis of language policy and translation strategy across Manitoban websites and social media during COVID-19. In Lee, T.K. & Wang, D. (Eds.) (2022), Translation and Social Media Communication in the Age of the Pandemic. Routledge.
Federici, F.M. & O’Brien, S. (Eds.). (2019). Translation in Cascading Crises. Routledge.
González, E., Stachowiak-Szymczak, K., Amanatidou, D. (Eds.). (2023). Community Translation: Research and Practice. Routledge.
Hunt, M., O’Brien, S., Cadwell, P., and O’Mathúna, D.P. (2019). “Ethics at the Intersection of Crisis Translation and Humanitarian Innovation.” Journal of Humanitarian Affairs 1 (3): 23–32.
O’Brien, S. (2022). “Crisis Translation: A Snapshot in Time.” INContext 2 (1): 84-108.
Ødemark, J., Fraas Henrichsen, G., Engebretsen, E. (2021). “Knowledge Translation.” In Susam-Saraeva, S. and Spišiaková, (Eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Health. pp.149–61. Routledge.
Wang, D. & King Lee, T. (Eds.). (2022). Translation and Social Media Communication in the Age of the Pandemic. Routledge.
Abstract:
In his talk, the speaker will relate how he became aware of fundamental cognitive challenges in conference interpreting as a student and how he theorized them later into explanatory ‘Effort Models’, with simple cognitive processes and cognitive problem triggers that account for recurring performance weaknesses in the interpreters’ output. He will explain the concept of language availability and how both comprehension availability and production availability are central to interpreting performance. This will lead to a discussion of performance improvement over time, which involves the build-up of linguistic and extra-linguistic knowledge, the improvement of language availability including the availability of trans-linguistic correspondences, strategies and tactics. A link will be established between observational facts and constructs and theories from cognitive science, including automatic and controlled operations, automation of the latter, working memory and long-term memory, semantic networks and the representation of knowledge in the brain.
About the Speaker:
Professor Daniel Gile is Professor Emeritus at Universite Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle. His initial training was in mathematics. He also has a PhD in Japanese and a PhD in linguistics. He has been an AIIC conference interpreter for over three decades. He has extensive experience in interpreter and translator training and in training and supervising researchers in various parts of the world. Daniel Gile has published widely on conference interpreter training and on research into translation and interpreting. He is the author of three books, including Basic Concepts and Models for Translator and Interpreter Training, the co-editor of several collective volumes, a guest-editor of several special issues of translation journals and the author of a large body of research articles. He is the founder of the CIRIN network which is devoted to research into interpreting and which has been publishing semesterly Bulletins over 25 years (see www.cirinandgile.com). He is also a founding member and former president of the European Society for Translation Studies, and a member of editorial boards of several translation journals.
Sign language interpretation sponsored by Brainfood.
Abstract:
This workshop discusses the historical context of translation in literature and religion, examines the role of translation and cultural encounter between English and other languages like Spanish, French, and Chinese, especially as they relate to and surround figures like Bartolomé de Las Casas, Matteo Ricci, and Ezra Pound, who are key to writing, cultural encounters and translation between Europeans and the Indigenous peoples of the New World and with the Chinese, two significant moments in history that led to the transformation of culture in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. These central figures in religious, literary, and cultural exchange in encounters that changed history wrote and were written about, translated and were translated culturally. The chapter also draws on translations of Aztec accounts of the encounter between Spaniard and the Mexica (or Aztec) as well as the work of Chinese scholars in areas like translation and the work and translation of Ezra Pound as something that can deepen scholarship in the West. There are different sides to questions and these texts by the Aztec and Chinese writers and scholars enrich understanding of cultural translation and exchange. Translation in religion and literature adds something to the language and culture of the translating culture. Translation is necessary for the identity of cultures, including that of English, a global language. By examining different texts, especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we can see how important texts about culture and cultural contact are to the formation of identity surrounding religion, culture, and language.
About the Speaker:
Jonathan Locke Hart is Honorary Professor and was Chair Professor at the School of Translation Studies, Shandong University, Weihai, where he also serves as the Director of the International Cooperation Centre for Cultural Studies and Digital Humanities. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Member of Academia Europaea, and a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at Victoria College, University of Toronto. Additionally, he is an Associate of the Harvard University Herbaria and a Life Member of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge. Prof Hart has authored over twenty books, edited multiple volumes, and contributed numerous chapters. He has received many international awards, including two Fulbright scholarships to Harvard. His service on national and international committees, such as Fulbright and Killam, complements his academic achievements. He has held visiting appointments at prestigious institutions, including Harvard, Cambridge, Princeton, and the Sorbonne-Nouvelle (Paris III), as well as UC Irvine. Hart has also delivered classes, talks, readings, and lectures internationally.
**Resources & References** (changes may be made to the contents by the workshop leader)
Talk: Overview of Digital Research Methods in the Arts and Humanities
This talk will explore how digital research methods can be adopted in translation studies research and teaching in order to collect, prepare, analyze, visualize and present research data. It will begin by critically discussing digital tools and their strengths and weaknesses for humanities research in general, and translation studies research in particular. Next, to better contextualize how digital tools could be incorporated into humanities research, this talk will review existing and potential research projects that have adopted digital tools, paying particular attention to the methodological approaches adopted in each project. Finally, this talk will conclude with some considerations for how digital tools could be gradually adopted by researchers with different levels of technological expertise and incorporated into pedagogical practice.
Workshop/Session 1: Organizing, Managing, and Archiving Research Data
This workshop will discuss data organization, project management and data archiving research data using digital tools. We will brainstorm about workflow practices for different contexts, such as collecting and storing multimedia data, text data and structured datasets. Guiding principles for data management, such as FAIR and CARE, will be presented as part of a larger discussion of metadata. Finally, we will explore some examples of web presentations for research data and consider why and how researchers might want to archive or present their data online.
Tools that could be explored:
- Trello (Trello.com)
- Zotero (zotero.org)
- WordPress (wordpress.org)
Workshop/Session 2: Visualizing Qualitative Data
This workshop will provide an overview of the contexts in which qualitative visualizations might be created, including to depict decisions and processes, to visualize concepts and theories, to visualize text, to depict relationships, to compare and contrast variables, to depict changes over time and to show geographic and spatial details. Examples of visualizations and best design practices will be discussed in a participatory format. While the focus will be on translation studies, the examples will be relevant to humanities research in general. The use of qualitative visualizations in the classroom will also be addressed.
Tools that could be explored:
- Data Visualizaton Catalogue (datavizcatalogue.com) and Text Visualization Browser (textvis.lnu.se)
- Flow Map (flowmap.blue)
- Voyant Tools (voyant-tools.org)
- Sutori (Sutori.com)
- MindMup (mindmup.com)
About the Workshop Leader:
Julie McDonough Dolmaya is Associate Professor and Chair of the School of Translation, York University. Her research interests centre around translation in digital spaces, with a particular focus on crowdsourcing. Her Wikipedia-related research has explored issues such as linguistic justice, revision practices, and translator motivations within the Wikipedia community. With Minako O’Hagan, she co-edits Digital Translation: International Journal of Translation and Localization, published biannually by John Benjamins. Her book, Digital Research Methods for Translation Studies, will be published by Routledge in December 2023.
Workshop Moderators:
Dr. Catherine HARDIE (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Dr. Clara Chuan YU (Hong Kong Baptist University)
Registration (closed):
Registration is required to join this Workshop. As seats are limited, registration will end when all seats are filled. Upon successful registration, participants should receive a confirmation email.
Lunch will be provided for successfully registered participants.
Abstract:
During the last three decades, the digitalization brought by the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) has led to the emergence to a large number of digital texts genres and texts that are now an integral part of modern societies. Translation plays a key role in the “global digital village”, and translated tweets, corporate websites, social networking sites, digital news or YouTube videos have attracted the attention of Corpus-based Translation Studies (CBTS) scholars. Product research in digital spaces requires special attention in methodological and theoretical issues. As Biber wrote in his seminal paper, “theoretical research should always precede the initial corpus design and actual compilation of text” (Biber 1993: 256). Similarly, special attention should be paid to research methods. What is a “text” in digital spaces? How are textual populations delimited? What role plays the study of “digital genres” in the compilation and analysis process? How can digital translated texts be processed and analyzed? This paper will present an overview of the main methodological issues in the study of translated digital texts and potential avenues for research.
About the Speaker:
Miguel A. Jiménez-Crespo holds a PhD in Translation and Interpreting Studies in the program ‘Translation, Interpreting and Cognition” from the University of Granada, Spain. He is a Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Rutgers University, where he directs the graduate and undergraduate program in Spanish – English Translation and Interpreting. He is the author of Crowdsourcing and Online Collaborative Translations: Expanding the Limits of Translation Studies published by John Benjamins in 2017 and Translation and Web Localization published by Routledge in 20013. His papers have appeared in the top -tier Translation Studies journals such as Target, Meta, Perspectives, Linguistica Antverpiensia, TIS: Translation and Interpreting Studies, Jostrans, Monti or Translation, Cognition and Behaviour. He has been the co-editor of the John Benjamins journal JIAL: the Journal of Internationalization and Localization, and he is a member of editorial boards of several translation journals.
Abstract:
The use of corpus data in interpreting research is recent. In 1998 Miriam Shlesinger called upon the interpreting research community to start collecting corpus data for interpreting and so far mostly small collections have been compiled, which I have called “nano-corpora” elsewhere. As is well known, the size of a corpus and the (meta-)information included in it crucially determine what can be done with it. I will illustrate with examples from my own work what can be done, and what seems out of reach for the moment. I will argue that corpus-based interpreting studies should resist the appeal of theoretical frameworks that have inspired many translation scholars working on translation corpora, i.e. the universals of translation framework. Rather, a rich corpus of interpreting, even of limited size, can reveal many interesting facts about interpreting that experimental setups could never lay bare.
About the Speaker:
Bart Defrancq is an Associate Professor of interpreting and legal translation at Ghent University (Belgium). He is head of the training programmes in interpreting, conference interpreting and sworn interpreting. His research focuses on simultaneous conference interpreting and on police interpreting, areas for which he compiled corpora. Recently he has also been involved in research on CAI tools. He is an associate editor of Interpreting and an editorial board member of The Interpreters’ Newsletter, and currently president of CIUTI.
Abstract:
Cognitive approaches have long used methods from varied frameworks to explore the mental processes underlying interlingual reformulation (IR) –i.e., translation and interpreting in any of their modalities. Throughout the last fifty years, insights have been gained through the formal tools of generative-transformational grammar, quantitative psychological approaches, think-aloud protocols, and, more recently, eye-tracking and keylogging technologies. This bulk of research has greatly contributed to understanding mental processes during IR, but it is mostly uninformative about the biological systems in which they are embedded. To shed light on the issue, translation scholars must become acquainted with neuroscientific techniques. Behavioral, hemodynamic, electrophysiological, and even brain-invasive data have fruitfully complemented textual and behavioral evidence about verbal processes other than IR, such as monolingual production and word reading. By the same token, the inclusion of neuroscience methods in the agenda of cognitive translatology could be critical to understand how translation and interpreting mechanisms are embedded in other neurocognitive domains and, more generally, within the human organism. In this talk I will survey the tenets of relevant techniques, review the evidence they have afforded regarding IR, and outline key questions for further research. The focus will be on behavioral and neuropsychological methods, positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and electroencephalography (EEG). This way, I aim to foster a more active involvement of cognitive translatologists in brain-based research.
About the Speaker:
Adolfo García, Ph.D., is an expert in the neuroscience of language and social interaction. He serves as Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Center (Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina), Atlantic Fellow and Associate Specialist at the Global Brain Health Institute (University of California, San Francisco), Adjunct Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Argentina), Adjunct Professor of Neurolinguistics at the Faculty Education of the National University of Cuyo (Argentina), member of the Management Committee of the “Translation, Research, Empiricism, Cognition” (TREC) Network, honorary member of the Center of Cognitive Neuroscience at La Laguna University (Spain), and High-Level Talent appointed by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. He has received training in cognitive neuroscience, translation, and foreign-language teaching, alongside postdoctoral studies at the Institute of Cognitive Neurology (Argentina) and research stays at New York University and Rice University (United States). He now leads research projects in over ten countries across the globe. Moreover, he serves as Director of the Master’s in Language and Cognition, a postgraduate program he created at the National University of Cuyo. His teaching career includes graduate and postgraduate courses in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and China. He has more than 170 publications, including books, chapters, and papers in leading journals, mainly focused on neurolinguistics and bilingualism. He has offered more than 150 presentations and speeches at international academic meetings and science dissemination events. Moreover, he is the host of the TV show “Of brains and words” and of a radio column titled “Mind and communication”. His scientific contributions have been recognized by awards and distinctions from the Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States, the Ibero-American Neuroeducation Society, the Argentine Association of Behavioral Science, and the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires.
Abstract:
- Conceptual foundations and distinctions
- Influential ideas about interpreting
- Models of interpreting
- Paradigms in Interpreting Studies
About the Speaker:
Franz Pöchhacker is Professor of Interpreting Studies in the Center for Translation Studies at the University of Vienna. Trained as a conference interpreter in Vienna and Monterey (A: German, B: English, C: Spanish), he worked as a freelance conference and media interpreter for some 30 years. He has done research on simultaneous conference interpreting as well as media interpreting and community-based interpreting in healthcare and asylum settings, and published on general issues of interpreting studies as a discipline. He has lectured widely and is the author of the textbook Introducing Interpreting Studies (2004/2016), editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Interpreting Studies (2015), and co-editor, with Minhua Liu, of the journal Interpreting.franz.poechhacker@univie.ac.at
Abstract:
Although imagology, the field studying national and cultural images, for decades has focused on literary discourse, recently there is a tendency to include forms of recontextualization in non-fiction. In modern media societies, journalistic discourse is highly influential in producing and distributing national and cultural stereotyping. This presentation will concentrate on the role of translation in the transfer of such images. It will offer examples of images in both literary and media discourse (from novels, but also from political and sports journalism): auto-images, hetero-images and meta-images, as well as the conscious and unconscious changes involved.
About the Speaker:
Luc van Doorslaer is the director of CETRA, the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Leuven (Belgium), where he works as a Professor in Translation and Journalism Studies. As a Research Associate he is affiliated with Stellenbosch University (South Africa). Since 2016 he has been Vice President of EST, the European Society for Translation Studies. Together with Yves Gambier, he is the editor of the online Translation Studies Bibliography (13th release 2016) and the four volumes of the Handbook of Translation Studies (2010-13). Other recent books edited include Eurocentrism in Translation Studies (2013), The Known Unknowns of Translation Studies (2014), Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology (2016) and Border Crossings. Translation Studies and other Disciplines (2016). His main research interests are: journalism and translation, ideology and translation, imagology and translation, institutionalization of Translation Studies.
Dialogue Title: 語言鑑證 vs 鑑證語言
Abstract:
The idea of prefiguration originally derived from anarchist discourse; it involves experimenting with currently available means in such a way that they come to mirror or actualize the political ideals that inform a movement, thus collapsing the traditional distinction between means and ends. Practically all the literature on prefiguration has so far focused on structural, organizational and interactional issues. Existing literature has examined how activist communities attempt to create in their own interactions and in the way they organize their work the kind of society they envision: non-hierarchical, non-representational, respectful of diversity, etc. This lecture will explore the extent to which volunteer subtitling undertaken by disparate individuals for collectives connected with the Egyptian Revolution supports or undermines the prefigurative agendas of these collectives. In doing so, I will attempt to extend the current definition of prefiguration to encompass textual, visual and aesthetic practices that prefigure activist principles and actualize them in the present, focusing on the level of experimentation involved in subtitling video clips produced by two Egyptian collectives: Mosireen (http://www.youtube.com/user/Mosireen) and Words of Women from the Egyptian Revolution (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoJMzdw8wTSR5NY3zENZCmg).
About the Speaker:
Mona Baker is Professor of Translation Studies at the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester, UK and is currently leading the Citizen Media at Manchester initiative (www.citizenmediamanchester.wordpress.com). She is author of In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation (Routledge, 1992; second edition 2011) and Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account (Routledge, 2006), Editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (1998, 2001; second edition, co-edited with Gabriela Saldanha, 2009); Critical Concepts: Translation Studies (4 volumes, Routledge, 2009); and Critical Readings in Translation Studies (Routledge, 2010). Her articles have appeared in a wide range of international journals, including Social Movement Studies, Critical Studies on Terrorism, The Translator and Target. She is founding Editor of The Translator (St. Jerome Publishing, 1995-2013), former Editorial Director of St. Jerome Publishing (1995-2013), and founding Vice-President of IATIS (International Association for Translation & Intercultural Studies – www.iatis.org).
Research in neuroscience is changing the way human mental and physical faculties are understood. Most disciplines in the humanities and social sciences are being shifted by the findings of the new science of mind. This presentation is a preliminary exploration of some of the implications of research in neuroscience for translation studies. Under standings of both the processes and products of translation are opened up by what has already been discovered.
In this presentation emerging views of the ways that perception, memory, and language are interrelated serves as a foundation for revisiting current theoretical presuppositions about how translators approach the interface of languages and cultures involved in any act of translation or interpreting. They illuminate the skills of translators and interpreters, the nature of multilingualism, and theoretical discourses in translation studies, including discourses about such things as the ideology of translation, the relationship between a translation and the receiving culture, and the invisibility of translators. In this overview Professor Tymoczko attempts to synthesize some of the large questions that the new science of mind raises for translation studies and to outline challenges that face the field in the coming decades.
Abstract:
Research in neuroscience is changing the way human mental and physical faculties are understood. Most disciplines in the humanities and social sciences are being shifted by the findings of the new science of mind. This presentation is a preliminary exploration of some of the implications of research in neuroscience for translation studies. Understandings of both the processes and products of translation are opened up by what has already been discovered. In this presentation emerging views of the ways that perception, memory, and language are interrelated serve as a foundation for revisiting current theoretical presuppositions about how translators approach the interface of languages and cultures involved in any act of translation or interpreting. They illuminate the skills of translators and interpreters, the nature of multilingualism, and theoretical discourses in translation studies, including discourses about such things as the ideology of translation, the relationship between a translation and the receiving culture, and the invisibility of translators. In this overview Professor Tymoczko attempts to synthesize some of the large questions that the new science of mind raises for translation studies and to outline challenges that face the field in the coming decades.
About the Speaker:
Maria Tymoczko is professor in comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts. Her fields are Translation Studies; Celtic medieval literature; and Irish Studies. Her critical studies The Irish “Ulysses” (University of California Press, 1994) and Translation in a Postcolonial Context (St. Jerome Publishing, 1999) have both won prizes and commendations. Professor Tymoczko has edited several volumes including Born into a World at War (with Nancy Blackmun, 2000), Translation and Power (with Edwin Gentzler, 2002), Language and Tradition in Ireland (with Colin Ireland, 2003), Language and Identity in Twentieth-Century Irish Culture (with Colin Ireland, 2003; special issue of Éire-Ireland), and Translation as Resistance (2006, special section in The Massachusetts Review). Her most recent book is Enlarging Translation, Empowering Translators (St. Jerome Publishing, 2007), a major reconceptualization of translation theory, and the edited volume Translation, Resistance, Activism (University of Massachusetts Press, 2010).
Abstract:
This lecture explores the paradox that poetry, which has often been dismissed by translation studies scholars as untranslatable has in practice been endlessly translated, often well translated over time, and figures prominently in any account of World Literature. Looking to ways in which the lyric poem’s aesthetic, even “untranslatable” qualities in fact make it central – rather than peripheral – to translation studies, the talk then goes on to discuss ways in which the lyric can highlight ethical as well as aesthetic issues in the translation and transmission of what we call World Literature. Textual examples will be drawn from the poetry of several cultures. The discussion closes with a suggestion that translation studies might itself be expanded and transformed through greater attention to the particular challenges posed by the translation of lyric poetry.
About the Speaker:
Sandra Bermann is Cotsen Professor of the Humanities, Professor of Comparative Literature, and Master of Whitman College at Princeton University. In addition to writing articles and reviews in scholarly journals, she is author of The Sonnet Over Time: Studies in the Sonnets of Petrarch, Shakespeare, and Baudelaire, translator of Manzoni’s On the Historical Novel and co-editor of Nation, Language, and the Ethics of Translation. Her current projects focus on lyric poetry, translation, historiography and literary theory, and new directions in the field of comparative literature. A recipient of Whiting and Fulbright Fellowships, she has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Columbia University Institute for Scholars at Reid Hall in Paris. At Princeton, she served as Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature for twelve years, and co-founded the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication. She recently completed a term as President of the American Comparative Literature Association.
Co-organizers in the UK: The Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at the University of Manchester, the Centre for Intercultural Studies at University College London (UCL), and the Translation Studies Graduate Programme at the University of Edinburgh
Co-organizers in the UK: The Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at the University of Manchester, the Centre for Intercultural Studies at University College London (UCL), and the Translation Studies Graduate Programme at the University of Edinburgh
Abstract:
Rhetoric includes poetics, the production of texts, as well as aesthetics, the analysis and appreciation of texts. But rhetorics vary from one culture to another. Each culture has its own hermeneutic circle for interpreting its own cultural references, but one culture’s hermeneutics may not be commensurable with another culture’s literary traditions or imaginaire. Each culture has its own semiotic system, or semiosphere, but apparently similar signs may have very different connotations across cultures. For all of these reasons, and more, the field of comparative cultural studies requires an interdisciplinary approach as well as a cross-cultural approach in order to come to terms with the varieties of cultural manifestations that are grounded in specific cultures, and to respect such cultural production on its own terms, in one native context, while comparing them to the terms of a different native context.
About the Speaker:
International & Intercultural Studies (UAB); Director, Asia Programme, CIDOB Foundation, Barcelona; Member of the Board of Advisers, Casa Asia (Asia House), Barcelona; Member of the Board, Venice International University. Ph.D. in English Literature, Universitat de Connecticut (USA). Research projects: edition, commentary & translation of the classical Chinese texts Sunzi bingfa & Laozi daodejing; study of the sociolinguistic profile of the Chinese-speaking community in Catalonia (Spain); non-European translation studies; Chinese-European & Arabic-European cross-cultural transfer. Director, Asia Seminar, Menéndez-Pelayo International University in Barcelona: Asia Today. Postcolonialism and the New World Order (2002), Multilateralism versus Unilateralism in Asia: The International Weight of “Asian Values” (2003); Development and Transition in Asia (2004); Regionalism and Development in Asia: Models, Tendencies & Processes (2005); Development in Asia: Risk Scenarios & Opportunities (2006); Civil Society & Governance in China, India & Southeast Asia (2009). Co-organiser, 7th ASEF University, Barcelona, November 2002.
Co-organizers in the UK: The Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at the University of Manchester, the Centre for Intercultural Studies at University College London (UCL), and the Translation Studies Graduate Programme at the University of Edinburgh
Abstract:
The interpreter’s role generally assumes three dimensions: the interpreter’s own attitudes towards his/her role, the institutional requirements specified in the codes of conduct for professional interpreting, and the expectations and attitudes that interpreting service users have of the interpreter. With the role descriptions of the three parties compared and contrasted, this paper attempts to draw a real picture of the interpreter’s role through empirical studies from a sociolinguistic perspective. It is observed from real life interpreting events that an interpreter usually acts simultaneously as a translator (an animator with no turn management), a discourse process coordinator (an animator or author with some turn management), and a discourse co-constructor (an author with substantial turn management), exerting certain influence on the direction and/or outcome of the interaction in an explicit or implicit way. Such a role performance often deviates from the role descriptions of the institutional norms and interpreting service users. It is the paper’s conclusion that given the complexity of both the macro and micro context of an interpreter-mediated encounter and of the relationships between the interpreter and each client, the interpreter’s role can be ambiguous, complicated and multidimensional and defies any simplified and decontextualized definitions.
About the Speaker:
Prof. Dr. REN Wen is the vice dean of the College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Sichuan University. She was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Wisconsin, Madison between 2001 and 2002, and a visiting scholar at Peking University between 2007 and 2008. She is the team leader of English/Chinese Interpreting Course at Sichuan University which has been rated as a national-level Excellence Course by the Ministry of Education since 2008. In 2009 she was invited by the SIM University in Singapore to be the external assessor of the English/Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation courses for its B.A. degree program. In the past few years she has also been the trainer of the Interpreting practice/teaching/research workshops organized by the Chinese Translators Association.
For many years, she has been teaching interpreting at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has rich consecutive as well as simultaneous interpreting experience. The senior foreign politicians and dignitaries for whom she had interpreted include former Prime Minister of Australia Robert Hawke, former Prime Minister of New Zealand Mike Moore, former UN under Secretary-General Jeffrey Sachs, former USTR Robert Zoellick, former US ambassador to China Joseph Prueher, former Prime Minister of Pakistan Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Sri Lanca Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, etc. She has been invited to be the judge at the English speaking competitions and English interpreting competitions at the provincial, regional and national levels. She also coached students who won champions at the national English speaking and English interpreting competitions.
Her major areas of research include interpreting studies, translation studies and EFL public speaking. She has published about 30 papers, one monograph, two translated works and 5 textbooks, with two more being compiled.
About the Speaker:
Having graduated from a postgraduate course at the English Department of Beijing Foreign Studies University in 1965, Shi Yanhua began to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. Between 1971 and 1975, she stationed at the UN headquarters to interpret and translate for China’s permanent representative and deputy permanent representative. During 1975-1985, she was the interpreter for top leaders in China, including Deng Xiaoping, Hu Yaobang, and Li Xiannian, and received a number of top U.S. leaders including President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. During this period, Shi also participated in a number of important diplomatic negotiations such as the China-US negotiation on the establishment of diplomatic relations, the negotiations on the China-US joint statement on US arms sales to Taiwan, and negotiations with other countries in the process of establishing diplomatic relations. During 1985-1988, she was the permanent counselor at China’s mission to the UN and was in charge of handling part of the agenda items in the UN Security Council as well as issues raised in the UN General Assembly relating to Cambodia, Afghanistan and non-colonization.
During 1989-1990, Shi was political counsel at China’s embassy in Belgium and its mission to the European Community in Brussels. She then served as the Director-General of the Department of Translation and Interpretation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China between 1991-1994 before serving as China’s Ambassador to Luxemburg during 1994-1998. During 1998-2000, she became minister counselor at the China’s Embassy in France.
She is now language expert at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Vice President of the Translators Association of China, Chairperson of the Advisory Committee of the Translation Association of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, and Consultant on the English translation of public notices in Beijing and Shenzhen.
About the Speaker:
Ambassador Wu is currently Member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Group of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Member and Vice President of the European Academy of Sciences, Member of International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, Professor of China Foreign Affairs University, and Honorary President of the International Bureau of Exhibitions (BIE).
From 2003-2008, Ambassador Wu served as President of China Foreign Affairs University, Executive Vice President of China National Association for International Studies, Vice Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee and Spokesman of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Earlier, he served as China’s Ambassador to France (1998-2003); to the United Nations Office in Geneva and to other international organizations in Switzerland (1996-98); and to the Netherlands (1994-95). Before that, he was Director General of the Information Department and Spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry (1991-1994), deputy chief at China’s embassy in Belgium and its mission to the European Community in Brussels (1989-90) and Counselor at China’s mission to the United Nations in New York (1985-89).
From 2003-2007, Ambassador Wu served as President of International Bureau of Expositions (BIE), making him the first Asian to take up the post.
Ambassador Wu was born in 1939. He graduated from the Department of French at Beijing Foreign Studies University and from 1959 to 1971 interpreted many times for Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. In 1971, he became a member of China’s first delegation to the United Nations.
He was awarded by French President Jacques Chirac the honor of Knight of the French Legion of Honor in 2003.
Co-organizers in the UK: The Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at the University of Manchester, the Centre for Intercultural Studies at University College London (UCL), and the Translation Studies Graduate Programme at the University of Edinburgh
In November 1998, the Centre organised a Postgraduate Students Conference on “Translation, Culture and Ideology”. First of its kind in the translation academic field in Hong Kong, the conference provided local postgraduate students with valuable exposure and an opportunity not only to exchange their views but also to benefit from the comments of local teaching staff who attended the conference. In particular, the students gained tremendously from the incisive remarks of the guest speaker, Professor Lawrence Venuti, an eminent scholar in the discipline.
(jointly organized with the Department of English, Chinese University of Hong Kong)