MA and postdoctoral funding in the UK - *now with added PhD funding!*

Recently seen:

For students hoping to take an MA in translation next year, there is an MA scholarship available from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for the MSc in Scientific, Technical and Medical Translation with Translation Technology at Imperial College London. Applicants must hold an offer of a place already, but it seems that there may still be time to apply for a place and the AHRC scholarship.

UPDATE, 2 June: There are also AHRC-funded PhD places at the University of Newcastle in translation and interpreting studies. Applications are especially welcome in the following areas of:

• Translating literature, especially poetry
• History of translation
• Interpreting
• Psycholinguistics of interpreting and translating
• Translation and culture; translation and ethics/ideology/power
• Translation products, processes and strategies
• Translator and interpreter training and assessment; reflective/autonomous learning

Supervision is available for Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Quechua and Spanish (good to see some real language diversity). For details about the department visit http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sml/research/overview/tis/index.htm. Deadline: 27 June 2011.

For post-doctoral scholars, applications for postdoctoral bursaries of 3-9 months are also invited by the University of Edinburgh for candidates whose work falls within the scope of one of the Institute for Advanced Studies' current Research Themes and/or across disciplinary boundaries in the Humanities. Translation is included. The bursaries are tenable in the period 1 September 2011-31 August 2012. Awards will be up to a maximum of £10,000. Applicants must have been awarded a doctorate, normally within the last three years, and should not have held a permanent position at a university, or a previous Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies. Those who have held temporary and/or short term appointments are eligible to apply.

The charming image of the doorknocker (in Portsmouth, no less!) is (c) J.L. Settle on flickr, with many thanks.

More on work placements

Some more on work placement opportunities: in London Atlas Translations have a work placement scheme. Places fill up quickly (not surprising if they get forty applications for each place!) and Comtec Translations also offer short and longer placements (see here for details). The Surrey-based company Kwintessential has an unpaid work experience scheme. 

The legal translation company Temple Translations in London participates in the National Graduate Placement Scheme. The NGPS's website does not have a lot of traffic (most companies tend to advertise via their own websites and networks) but the handbook is invaluable for students and companies seeking further information about how placements work.

P.S. Image is (c) sandrift, with thanks, at www.flickr.com.

webinars for translators and translation students

Lucy Brooks of eCPDWebinars has just sent details of a free webinar offered by eCPD Webinars on the subject of "Career Opportunities for Linguists".  eCPD Webinars is offering this webinar free of charge to all attendees. It should be of particular interest to translation students. The speaker is Rannheid Sharma, MCIL, MEI.

Date and time: June 14th at 11:30 a.m. All registrants will be able to view the webinar as a recording, whether they attend live or not. For further information and registration visit their website. Registrants will receive confirmation immediately after registering with Gotowebinar. 

For further details of a positively bewildering range of webinars, including one on 16 June led by our very own Ian Kemble, Charlotte Taylor, John Williams and Juliette Scott of the University of Portsmouth on how corpora can be useful for translators, click here.

TS opportunities in South Africa: doctoral scholarship and possible post-doc

Two interesting opportunities for young translation researchers in South Africa:

There is the possibility of a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa:

The Department of Language Management and Language Practice at the University of the Free State has a possible two-year postdoc of ZAR200,000 per annum to offer in translation studies. Interested candidates who have completed a PhD during the past ten years can send their CV to Kobus Marais at jmarais at ufs.ac.za. Preference will be given to African students working on the development of translation studies in Africa, preferably from a sociological or intercultural perspective, but the selection panel may also consider other candidates. The closing date is 11 June. The panel reserves the right not to offer a grant if a suitable candidate is not found. For questions, please contact Kobus Marais at jmarais at ufs.ac.za.  

There is also a doctoral scholarship at the University of the Witwatersrand:

The Faculty of Humanities invites applications for the post of Associate Lecturer in Translation and Interpreting Studies in the School of Literature and Language Studies. The department is looking for a young enthusiastic scholar who is interested in making a positive and innovative contribution to the discipline. The successful candidate will be involved in teaching, administration, curriculum development, and research, including postgraduate supervision at Honours and MA level. This is a three year development position during which time the successful applicant would be expected to complete a PhD.

Requirements: MA in Translation or a related field, and a strong interest in carrying out research at doctoral level. Applicants should ideally have at least two language combinations and professional experience in the field. Samples of professional translation work should be submitted together with the application.

Enquiries: Professor Judith Inggs (e-mail: Judith.Inggs at wits.ac.za).

TO APPLY FOR THE ABOVE POSITION: Submit a letter of application, a full curriculum vitae, research sample, certified copies of qualifications and identity document as well as the names and contact details (including e-mail) of three referees to  Mrs Pumla Ngcobo, Humanities Human Resources Office, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Private Bag 3, WITS, 2050. CLOSING DATE: 30 June 2011

European Masters in Translation

 To all our readers, I am delighted to announce that Portsmouth has just become a member of the European Masters in Translation network. This is an initiative set up by the Directorate-General for Translation at the European Commission to improve translator training across Europe by setting baselines for curricula, infrastructure and skills/competences acquired, and by promoting exchange and dialogue between translation programmes. The network has fifty-four members across twenty countries, including eleven programmes in the UK. There's a factsheet for students (yet to be updated) on the DGT's website.

Portsmouth is also a member of the sister network, OPTIMALE (OPtimising Translator training In a MultilinguAl Europe), established in 2010 through a grant from the Erasmus Lifelong Learning fund, which brings together seventy institutions across Europe to promote high-quality training for translator trainers. There's a survey on the Optimale website aimed at translation companies and employers, about the skills they want from translators - click here to take the survey, and please also feel free to forward the link to anyone you think might be interested.

For more information on the Portsmouth MA programme, Optimale, the EMT or our translation events and seminars more generally, please click here or contact Begoña Rodríguez de Céspedes at  translation at port.ac.uk.

Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 - voting open

 Hi all,

I'm excited to say that MATSnews was longlisted again this year in the Language Professionals category for the Top 100 Language Blogs, now rechristened the Top 100 Language Lovers. The competition is divided into four categories: Language Learning Blogs, Language Professionals Blogs, Language Facebook Pages, Language Twitterers. If you enjoy reading the blog, do consider voting for us here - and whether or not you vote, do take a look at the list of fantastic translation blogs on offer.

It's been really evident over the last year or two how important translators' blogs as well as Twitter and Facebook have become in building up an online community - probably more important than translation researchers' blogs, though that will come too. Four blogs that are on my Google Homepage: Corinne McKay's Thoughts on Translation; Judy and Dagmar Jenner's Translation Times; Sarah Dillon's There's Something About Translation; Jill Sommer's Musings From an Overworked Translator.

Not to forget Mox's brilliant cartoons that always make me smile...

I'd be interested to hear from our readers whose blogs and Twitter feeds they follow.

more career opportunities

If you feel stifled (or watched unnervingly from across the table) in your current job but don't feel a new career in interpreting is for you, well, there are some toothsome-looking career opportunities adorning the ITI's website.

CPW Group is looking for a French-English financial translator for its London office;

bmp translations in Basel, Switzerland is looking for a German-English and French-English translator (further languages an advantage) with experience in technical/engineering, banking/financial or pharmaceutical/
medical fields.

Siemens is also hiring for a German-English technical translator in Offenbach.

The website of the Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer also lists a number of jobs and placements (click on 'Aktuelles') for translators with German.

Coincidentally (or not!) the University of Salford are also looking for a Lecturer in German who can teach translation at undergraduate and postgraduate levels (deadline 7 June).

Is it just me, or is there a beautiful synergy here...?

European Institutions WLTM interpreters, GSOH, trilingual, first language English...

Hello all, I read on the grapevine that apparently...:

The European Institutions are looking for talented linguists! We want to encourage talented language graduates to do a Masters in Conference Interpreting and eventually join us here at the European Commission.

Over the next 5-10 years we are facing an acute shortage of English language conference interpreters, with approximately 50% of our current English interpreters heading towards retirement in that time. This means finding 200 English conference interpreters by 2020.

To work for us graduates should have an excellent command of English as their first language, a thorough knowledge of two other EU languages, and a postgraduate qualification in conference interpreting. Many postgraduate courses both in the UK and abroad are still open for applications for the academic year 2011-2012 so please advise students to check them out!

See the National Network for Interpreting and, for the Irish speakers among you, NUI Galway.

For more information please visit our website and join our Facebook page. Watch our video on YouTube.

Thank you for your help in spreading the word!
Kind regards,

David Smith, Head of English Interpreting, DG Interpretation, European Commission
SCIC-euroscic at ec.europa.eu

Hi all,

Just a quick reminder that registration closes on Sunday 22 May for our one-day introduction to legal translation workshop (details below). Feel free to retweet, FB and otherwise forward to interested parties.

As part of a new series of translation CPD events held at the University of Portsmouth, we are organising a day-long introduction to legal translation. The workshop will be led by Richard Delaney, barrister, practising translator and translator trainer. The workshop will begin at 10.30 and finish at 16.00. Lunch is included. The cost is £45 for the day, and there is a discounted fee of £40 for ITI members. Students are welcome and there is a discounted student rate of £20. The course covers will suit students and practising translators wishing to build up a specialism in legal translation.

Further details and a link to online registration are available here. For any queries, please email translation at port.ac.uk.

Lectureship at Portsmouth in Translation Studies and Technical/Professional Communication

Some of our readers may be interested in this post at Portsmouth:

UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

School of Languages and Area Studies

Lecturer, Translation Studies and Technical/Professional Communication
Closing date: 27 May 2011

The School wishes to appoint a Lecturer to contribute to a range of programmes across the School, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Applicants will be expected to have proven experience of teaching in the areas of Translation Studies and Technical/Professional Communication at university level.

We are looking for a versatile individual with the following skill set; fluency in a foreign language, professional translation experience, expertise in translation technologies (CAT tools) and in technical and professional writing.

Applicants should possess a PhD (or be nearing completion) in translation and/or technical communication. The capacity to teach both in classroom and online environments will be an advantage. The successful candidate will also be research and/or knowledge transfer-active and will be expected to contribute to the profile of the School and/or CEISR [the research centre for European and International Studies] in these areas.

For further information or details of this position, contact John Naysmith (Head of School), john.naysmith at port.ac.uk, +44 2392 846050 or Ian Kemble (Postgraduate Programmes Coordinator), ian.kemble at port.ac.uk, +44 2392 846220. Salary and deadline details here. A job description and person specification are available here.

in-house translation/interpreting position (EN-DE), Illinois

I have just seen a job advertisement for an in-house translator and interpreter at Lions' Club International in Illinois which may interest some of our readers.

CFP: Conference on non-professional interpreting and translation, Italy, May 2012

This looks like a good conference, on a very interesting topic which is dear to all our hearts... :)

The First International Conference on Non-Professional Interpreting and Translation
17-19 May 2012 Forlì

The Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators (SSLMIT) and the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in Translation, Languages and Cultures (SITLeC) of the University of Bologna at Forlì present the First International Conference on Non-professional Interpreting and Translation. The aim of this conference is to provide a forum for discussion in a relatively recent and often neglected field of language and cultural mediation. The conference will take place from 17th to 19th May 2012, in the city of Forlì, Italy.

More information available here.

ITI Wessex Trados workshop at Portsmouth, Friday 10 June 2011

Dear all,

Our friends at ITI Wessex are organising another one-day Trados workshop on Friday 10 June. Details are below. There is a discounted rate for students. Please note that the deadline for deposits is 20 May. Registration is by email to Wendy Rees at wendy at intoenglish.net. Further enquiries to Wendy on 023 8074 0770 or Katie Santos on 07748093770. 

Event:                    ITI Wessex Trados Workshop

Venue:                  University of Portsmouth, Park Building, PO1 2DZ

Date & Time:       Friday 10 June 2011, 1000-1700

Course trainer:    Mrs Daniela Ford (MITI), official Trados trainer

Lunch:                   Please bring your own packed lunch.

Programme:

10 to 11am:            Introduction (presentations and workshop summary).

11 to 1pm:              Theory (discussion points, Q&A) and practice.

1 to 2pm:                Lunch break & networking.

2 to 5pm:                Hands-on workshop 

Cost:                     £40 per person. Student rate: £30.

Payment:             A deposit of £20 must be deposited in the ITI Wessex bank account by 20 May. Please note that this deposit is non-refundable except in the event of cancellation of the workshop. Details can be obtained from Wendy or Katie.

Certificates of attendance will be handed out. ITI members should bring their ITI CPD record booklets.

Poems about translation 8: Twm Morys, 'To My Translator'

Les Murray is a very difficult act to follow, so it's been an (a)eon since we had a Poem About Translation. But lo, here is the Welsh poet Twm Morys with a series of poems, all of them presented as being in some way concerned with translation. First is Morys' poem 'CV' in Welsh, French and two different English versions. Then follows a number of poems with literal and more 'polished' English translations, and notes by Morys.

'To my Translator' is the one which caught my eye. In his notes, Morys says of the poem that:

This is a poem about a poem about to be translated! By the time it lands on the translator’s desk, it will have been prepared already for the operation by being put into English. The poem in English is like a note for the surgeon attached to the (dead) body. But in the original language, this hasn’t happened yet, of course! The poem in Welsh tells us what the surgeon will do to it, after it’s been “prepared.”

So it's a poem about translation which is first presented in a literal translation, in order that it can be translated by some eager-beaver non-Welsh-speaker, and then actually translated. (I think). The prickly literal translation, which I hope Mr Morys will not mind us reproducing in full, reminds us by its strangeness how much interpretation and rewriting takes place between the poem and its translation. Is it just me, or does it also act as a mischievous reminder to those of us who don't read Welsh that we have to take it on trust that this is actually a translation at all...?

To the One Who is in My Translating

By to him my receiving,
my brain and my insides
after going, without blood (any) more,
without breath, in ice,
this one will-be-able, like a surgeon,
to my opening without nausea.
And without mess, transplant,
put himself into the hole black.
After doing (of) the needlework,
Not you-will-see trace (of) his hand, either.
May-put the doctor then
On me the name which he-wishes.

Click here to read Morys' more fluent English translation, and wonder. Click here for another piece by Morys on Welsh prosody (but be warned that it may make your head chime).

For more information on the EmLit project, of which these translations were part, click here.

(Btw the workshops run by the Poetry Translation Centre at SOAS also work by means of literal translations into English. Their excellent site has lots of poems in the original, juxtaposed with the working literal and the polished 'final' draft, for your reading enjoyment.)

Translation Live event, London, 19 June 2011

Just heard about a forthcoming Live Translation event, organised by the London Review Bookshop, with two translators talking about 'competing' translations of the same work. Sounds like fun!

Live Translation: Shaun Whiteside, Mike Mitchell, Daniel Kehlmann and Daniel Hahn
Sunday 19 June at 11.00 a.m.
Venue: Stevenson Room, British Museum

This event is about cracking open the process of translation and taking a look at its inner workings. Two translators – Shaun Whiteside and Mike Mitchell – go head to head with their versions of a previously untranslated work; with the help of the author and chair, the variations and nuances of the text, in both languages, are brought to light. Novelist Daniel Kehlmann will be providing the challenge, and our chair is Daniel Hahn, interim director of the BCLT and chair of the Translators Association. Shaun Whiteside’s translations from German include works by Bernhard Schlink, Freud, Schnitzler and Musil. Mike Mitchell’s translations include works by Goethe, Adolf Loos, and Oskar Kokoschka. Both translators’ work has won the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for German translation.

guest lecture at Portsmouth on corpus linguistics

UPDATE: Unfortunately this lecture will not now take place; we will be rescheduling for later in the year.

The Language Across Borders research cluster of the Centre for European and International Studies Research at the University of Portsmouth is delighted to announce a guest lecture by Dr Ramesh Krishnamurthy of Aston University. Dr Krishnamurthy has twenty years of experience as a corpus linguist and lexicographer. He will be speaking on the topic

'Accessing All Areas: corpus analysis methods in interdisciplinary applications'

Venue: Park 2.09
Date/time: 5pm-6.30 pm, Thursday 12 May 2011

Abstract: Every human activity and every academic discipline generates texts. Applying corpus analysis methods to these texts can often generate new insights into the underlying themes and threads in various fields, and discover aspects that are often missed by qualitative approaches. This talk will describe and discuss a wide range of applications in pedagogy, translation, literature, forensics, sociology, politics, computer science and the natural sciences.

The talk is open to all and will be accompanied by drinks. MA and research students are warmly invited.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Translation and Memory (11th Portsmouth Translation Conference)

We are delighted to announce the call for papers for this year's conference. It will be a workshop conference in collaboration with the British Comparative Literature Association. 

'Translation and Memory' 

Saturday 5 November 2011

 
Date: Saturday 5 November
Venue: Park Building, University of Portsmouth. 

Keynote speakers:

Professor Bella Brodzki (Sarah Lawrence College, New York)

Dr Siobhan Brownlie (Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester)

Dr Ayman El-Desouky (School of Oriental and African Studies)

There are many points of contact between memory and translation. They exist in a set of metaphorical relationships; translation is how works live on, how they transcend borders and are remembered by subsequent generations. Memory itself can be considered a form of translation, a form of carrying across of meaning from one time and place to another. The movement of written and spoken texts across cultures, and the agents who make that possible, have a major role to play in cultural contact and renewal. Translation is fundamental to how we remember and represent the past. In translation and interpreting, text and speech are disarticulated and reconstituted, re-membered, in a different form. The translator's own memory is a key tool in the task of translating or interpreting. For the past decade or more, professional translators have been increasingly under pressure to engage with Translation Memory (TM) tools such as Trados, Déjà Vu or MemoQ, a relocation of the translator's memory with major implications for professional practice and the future of the industry.

The British Comparative Literature Association and the University of Portsmouth are delighted to announce the collaborative conference 'Translation and Memory'. We invite contributions on any aspect of the conference theme. It is our hope that, as in previous years, the conference will bring together scholars and translators in a mutually enriching dialogue. Topics might include, but are by no means limited to:

·         Translation and cultural memory; translation as remembering

·         Translating the past; translation history

·         Translated selves: exile and memory

·         Translating biography and memoir

·         Translation, trauma and memorial

·         Translators' lives and stories

·         Memorable and forgotten translations

·         Translation and forgetting

·         Translation memory tools

·         Translation memory, copyright and ownership

·         Memory in consecutive interpreting

·         Memory in translator and interpreter training

We welcome a broad range of disciplines, including Translation Studies, comparative literature, cultural studies, film and media studies and history, and approaches to translation. Presentations may have a theoretical, empirical, critical, pedagogical, technological or professional focus. Proposals for practical workshops are warmly welcomed, e.g. for instance, workshops on translating memoir and autobiography; interpreting exercises; TM software workshops.

Enquiries and/or abstracts of 300 words should be sent to Dr Margaret Clarke at margaret.clarke at port.ac.uk by 30 June 2011. A refereed publication will follow the conference. For more information and a downloadable copy of the CFP, click here.