prize for PhD thesis on localisation

The Localisation Research Centre (LRC), at the University of Limerick, invites entries for the 2011 LRC Best Thesis Award. The LRC Best Thesis Award, sponsored by Symantec, is an annual award given to the author of the best research publication in an area relevant to internationalisation and localisation.

Students who have completed a thesis on a relevant theme within the past two years are invited to submit their work to the LRC for consideration. Theses may be submitted prior to their degree award and will be judged by a panel of academic and industry experts.  

James Grealis, Senior Director of Operations with Symantec Ireland, said: “Symantec are delighted to sponsor this worthwhile award. As an industry we should encourage new thinking and the Best Thesis Award is an excellent example of encouraging change and critical analysis of the tools & processes that underline our industry. The award offers a prize of €1000, plus one item from Symantec’s range of retail professional products. As a world leader in Internet security, Research and Development is core to our business. Innovation is a key value in our world today. Symantec is proud to be the supporter of this LRC Award.”

Reinhard Schäler, director of the LRC at the University of Limerick said: “Ireland is a world leader in software localisation, a multi-billion euro business that employs approximately 12,000 people in Ireland alone. Research is the lifeblood of this industry and the LRC Best Thesis Award encourages researchers to address the issues faced by the localisation industry in order to sustain development of this key area, especially in the context of the emerging eContent industry.”

SCOPE
The scope of the thesis need not be confined to a technical area, and applications are also invited from students who are carrying out research into commercial and management aspects of the localisation industry. 

Possible areas of research might include:

	Global web design and content management
	Machine Translation and Computer-aided translation
	Computer Aided Translation
	Post Editing
	Localisation Workflows
	Terminology databases
	Software quality assurance and localisation
	Software engineering for the international market
	Internationalisation
	Project management and localisation

PRIZE
The winner will receive €1,000 and one of Symantec’s professional retail products. In addition, the winner will be invited to attend and possibly present at the LRC Internationalisation and Localisation Conference as well as contribute a paper to Localisation Focus, The International Journal of Localisation.  

SUBMISSION
Should you wish to enter your thesis, please forward a copy (hard copy and electronic copy) together with your full contact details, a short CV (max. one page) and relevant information on the thesis to:  

Localisation Research Centre – LRC “BEST THESIS AWARD” Department of Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS) University of Limerick – National Technological Park - Limerick - Ireland (Tel. +353-61-202881, email LRC at ul.ie)

By submitting their work authors acknowledge the right of the LRC to publish their work should it be awarded the LRC Best Thesis Award, or receive a special mention. 

Closing date for submission is 02 September.

two translation competitions

A quick reminder about two open literary translation competitions. The deadline for the Joseph Brodsky/Stephen Spender prize for the translation of Russian poetry into English is coming up (31 August). Electronic as well as postal entries are accepted.

The next deadline has been announced for one of the most established literary translation competitions in the UK, the John Dryden Translation Competition, jointly run by the British Comparative Literature Association and the British Centre for Literary Translation. Entries should be unpublished translations of prose, poetry or drama from any language into English. The deadline for the next competition is 15 February 2012.

two free webinars, 30 and 31 August

Two free webinars of translation interest:

1) Adobe and search ready writing as part of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Tuesday 30 August, 2:00pm EDT (11:00 PDT/18:00 GMT/20:00 CEST)

2) Choosing your clients wisely: the benefits of being selective
Question-and-answer session with Judy Jenner

Wednesday, 31 August, 10:00 AM Mountain (Denver) Time
Duration: Approximately 30 minutes

post-doctoral applied research position in Machine Translation

There's a two-year post-doctoral position in applied MT research available at Dublin City University:

The post-holder will be responsible for the specification, design, configuration and evaluation of system components of DCU’s MATREX machine translation framework for use in pilot and contract research engagements with commercial collaborators. This work will include development as necessary of additional tools in the MATREX framework for pre-processing and post-processing of collaborators’ data in the translation process.
He / she will work closely within a team of researchers and software developers and with other partners at various academic and commercial locations. The post-holder will also have the benefit of interaction with the wider CNGL research team, including the significant body of researchers working on Language Technology and Machine Translation at CNGL.
The deadline for applications is 9 September 2011. Further details and contacts here.

study bursaries from the Directorate-General for Interpretation (deadline 15 September)

There are bursaries available from the Directorate-General for Interpretation of the European Commission  for aspiring conference interpreters wishing to enrol on an MA course in conference interpreting. Conditions apply and the bursaries are restricted to certain language combinations.

IF

• you are a national of an EU Member State or of one of the candidate countries (Croatia, FYROM, Iceland and Turkey);
• you already have a university degree or equivalent qualification, or are in the final year of a course leading to a university degree or equivalent qualification;
• you have one of the following language combinations:

1. Excellent command of your mother tongue, and a perfect understanding of

a) at least one of the following languages : Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and
b) of one or more of the following languages : Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Swedish or of the language of a candidate country (Croatian, Macedonian, Icelandic, Turkish);

2. Excellent command of two languages (to mother tongue level) of which one is a language mentioned under 1.a above and the other one of the languages mentioned under 1.b ;
3. Excellent command of your active language and a perfect understanding of at least two of the languages mentioned under 1.a ;

AND IF
 
you have applied or intend to apply for a full postgraduate course in conference interpreting offered for the year 2011/2012 by a recognised university or university-level institution

then you may apply for a Study BURSARY from the Directorate General for Interpretation.

In granting study bursaries, preference will be given to applicants offering a language combination which is most suited to DG Interpretation’s current and foreseeable requirements, in particular those with languages of the countries which joined the EU since 2004 or of the candidates countries and with less widely spoken EU languages. Assessment will be based on your full language combination, as well as other qualifications or expertise;
Please, note that

• Candidates who have received a bursary and pass their final examinations must undertake to sit an inter-institutional accreditation test and if successful, to give the EU Institutions first call upon their services for a period of three years;
• DG Interpretation bursary is intended as a contribution towards study expenses, but not necessarily covering all costs. It can be combined with additional funds provided by the university, by the Member State or by other public or private bodies;
• DG Interpretation bursary holders may not benefit at the same time from other bursaries or allowances offered by the European Union.
• Abandoning the course voluntarily during the postgraduate year may make you liable to repay all or part of the bursary;
• Subsequent recruitment as a freelance interpreter by DG Interpretation depends on the applicant's passing their final examinations and the relevant inter-institutional accreditation test;
• In awarding bursaries, DG Interpretation will endeavour to maintain an appropriate gender balance;
• Where the postgraduate course is of more than one-year duration, only final year students will be eligible. 

Further information and a list of the paperwork necessary for the application can be found at http://scic.ec.europa.eu/europa/jcms/c_6344/dg-interpretation-bursaries. The deadline is 15 September 2011.

British Academy post-doctoral fellowship scheme

The Centre for European and International Studies Research at the University of Portsmouth is interested in supporting outstanding post-doctoral scholars who wish to make applications to the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme. The Centre has a dynamic research culture across a wide range of disciplines and subject areas. Within the Centre, collaborative research is actively encouraged within and across the research clusters. Details of our research clusters can be found at www.port.ac.uk/ceisr.

Particular areas of strength in which we are seeking applications are:

Francophone Africa

Politics of Integration

Translation Studies.

We would be very pleased to hear from eligible candidates working in relevant subject areas and disciplines who are considering applying to the Postdoctoral scheme, and will be happy to provide support and guidance in preparing applications. Initial enquiries should be directed to tony.chafer at port.ac.uk (Francophone Africa) or natalya.vince at port.ac.uk (Politics of integration) or carol.osullivan at port.ac.uk (Translation) before 7 September 2011. The final deadline for applications to the scheme is 12 October 2011.

in-house posts and an internship

Some more job posts from Uwe Muegge which might be of interest (also retweeted via the MATSnews Twitter feed):

An English-French translation post in Toronto (looking for a native speaker of 'frenssh of parys' with a business specialism who can translate both ways, good luck to them);

A post with Deloitte in Montreal for a French to English translator;

A post in Dublin as a localization project manager; 

A part-time internship with the British Embassy in Brasilia (closing date 7 September; start date January, six months' initial contract).

Image (c) Sandrift on Flickr with thanks

doctoral and postdoctoral TS research positions, Leuven, Belgium

A great opportunity for TS researchers and aspiring researchers on a really interesting-looking project:

The K.U. Leuven research project '"Customs officers or smugglers?" studying the mediating activities of Belgian intercultural actors (translators, multilingual writers, self-translators, bilingual literature and art critics) and their networks' is offering two research Fellowships starting in October 2011:

1 Doctoral Researcher (48 months)
Must read French and Dutch. Good written English needed.

1 Postdoctoral Researcher (18 months)
Must read French; Dutch a bonus. Good written English needed.

Promoter: R. Meylaerts
Co-promoters: L. D'hulst and T. Verschaffel

Deadline for applications: 7 September 2011. For further information please contact reine.meylaerts at arts.kuleuven.be

new translation journals ahoy!

What is the collective noun for translation studies journals? A gaggle of journals? A rake of journals? A flutter of journals? Anyway, this summer has seen just such a [insert collective noun of your choice] of new journal titles. They all look very interesting and are soliciting submissions.

1) In the Inuktitut language, the word tusaaji means “one who listens carefully.” It designates a person who has an exceptional capacity to listen to others. Tusaaji is also the Inuit word for “interpreter/translator”.

Tusaaji: A Translation Review is a space of collective inquiry into translation as the embodiment of larger questions of culture. We investigate translation at intersections across traditions, languages, and fields of knowledge and discourse. Our aim is to entertain a variety of voices in translation with a focus on the Americas.

Tusaaji is the online peer-reviewed journal of the Research Group on Translation and Transcultural Contact based in Toronto, at Glendon College (York University). Given its hemispheric focus, Tusaaji invites contributions in the languages of the Americas, both Euro-American and indigenous. [Many points to this journal for being the only one of the three which actually has its website up and sorted. -Ed.]

2) Published by St. Jerome in Manchester, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura in Rome and The Nida School for Translation Studies/Fondazione San Pellegrino, translation is a new multi-/trans-disciplinary journal, to appear in print and on the web, that hopes to broaden the discussion of translational phenomena and invite new thinking about what translation is today and how we can find new words to speak about it. It aims at establishing a dialogue with any area of research in which translation is implicitly or explicitly occupying a conceptual position – whether central or marginal.
A free copy of the inaugural issue can be requested from St. Jerome Publishing at: ken at stjeromepublishing.com
A journal website is being created at http://translation.fusp.it that will soon be activated [though not at time of posting].
Future issues will interrogate the place of translation in relation to memory, space, cinema, and community.
For more information, please contact siri.nergaard at gmail.com or JMaxey at americanbible.org.

3) Lastly but not leastly, the Department of Translation at The Chinese University of Hong Kong is pleased to announce the launch of the Journal of Translation Technology, the first peer-reviewed international journal in translation technology. The journal serves to promote the scholarly study of translation technology and publishes academic articles on the history, theory, and practice of the discipline and review articles of books on the field. The Journal of Translation Technology contains mainly English and Chinese articles while other languages will also be considered. It is a biannual publication and the first issue is expected to be released in January 2012. The Chief Editor is Prof. Chan Sin-wai.
We invite submissions of contributions related to the journal’s theme. Submissions can be sent directly to our new email address: jtt.tra at cuhk.edu.hk. For more information, please contact Miranda Lui at miranda at arts.cuhk.edu.hk. 

CFP: Comparing Centres, Comparing Peripheries (for young researchers in the humanities)

A conference that may also be of interest to graduate students in Translation Studies: 

British Comparative Literature Association (BCLA)/ SOAS Research Students Conference

19-21 Jan 2012, SOAS, UK

 
Comparing Centres, Comparing Peripheries

Keynote speakers: Prof. Susan Bassnett (Warwick), TBA

How do we, as young researchers in the humanities, identify what is central and peripheral to our topics, fields, academic circles? How does our work follow and challenge existing positionings? 

The problematic of the centre and the periphery presents itself as crucial for comparative research in the humanities. For example, literary or cultural comparison and translation are employed and studied as means of understanding what is relatively peripheral or unknown in terms of what is more central or familiar. Work on national literatures reveals intricate dynamics between the central and the peripheral, as well as the past and the present. Postcolonial research examines constructions of centres and margins in colonial, postcolonial, or neo-colonial settings, while studies of ‘world literature’ attempt to map literary capitals and provinces.

The conference intends to bring together postgraduate researchers from all universities working in comparative literature, literary studies, postcolonial studies, translation studies, world literature, or other related fields. N.B.: students whose research has a non-literary focus while engaging with these themes are also welcome.

 

Papers may address questions which include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Comparison as a movement from centre to periphery or in reverse

- Translation as an exchange between centres and peripheries

- Postcolonial challenge to the opposition of centrality and marginality

- World literature, its capitals, provinces, and geographies

- Relationships between comparative literature, postcolonial studies, translation studies, world literature, and other related fields: perceived centres, overlaps, and peripheries

- Topics and concerns at the centres of our disciplines; topics marginalized within those disciplines; new research shifting the centres of the disciplinesCentrifugal and centripetal forces in interdisciplinary research

- Relationship between the core/periphery binary and contemporary academic practice

- Academic centres and margins; publishing centres and margins

- Centres and margins of the past, as seen today

- Centres in dialogue and conflict

- Peripheral traffic, bypassing the centre

- Peripheries within centres and centres of peripheries

Please send a 250 word proposal for a 20 minute paper and a short bio to Dorota Goluch and Rashi Rohatgi at d.goluch.09 at ucl.ac.uk and researchsoc at soas.ac.uk by 20 November 2011. Please use the same contacts for queries.

jobs in London and Brighton, FR-EN, EN-RU

Just seen two in-house jobs (tweeted by Uwe Muegge) which might interest readers:

A marketing agency in central London is looking for a French-English web translator to translate promotional materials for their British market. This could include:- promotions, newsletters, blogs, terms and conditions, gif/jpg banners. Basic knowledge of html needed. Photoshop CS2 and Dreamweaver would be an advantage.
You need to have British English to Mother tongue standard with excellent French skills.

Disney Interactive Media Group are recruiting in Brighton for an English-Russian translator and editor with a vocation to 'deliver Disney content to fans, whenever and wherever they want it, through numerous interactive media platforms'. Job description includes translation/editing of regular weekly content (e.g. newspapers, in-game catalogs, stage scripts), translation of blog posts, posting/reply to comments, retrieve and edit user-generated content, translate/edit out-of-game content on request.

Must have strong attention to detail, current knowledge of and interest in Russian popular culture, ability to prioritize and manage tasks, and be a solution-oriented creative thinker. Further details here. 

postdoctoral fellowships in the Humanities, Texas

Recently seen on academia.edu. Translation Studies is not specified in the ad but I see no reason why translation-related studies wouldn't be eligible, what? Deadline is 30 November 2011 for Mellon Fellowships running from 2012 to 2014.

Three Postdoc Fellowship Openings in the Humanities Research Center at Rice University, Houston, Texas

The Humanities Research Center (HRC) awards up to three postdoctoral fellowships for two-year appointments (approval of the second year is dependent upon satisfactory performance during the first year). The fellowships are designed to encourage interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching and to support research projects in the humanities. This includes, but is not limited to history, philosophy, languages, literature, linguistics, religious studies, art history and the arts. Proposals employing humanistic approaches are welcome from anthropology and other social sciences, natural sciences, music, architecture, and engineering.

Fellows teach two courses per academic year and are expected to make significant progress in their research. Fellows meet with other HRC affiliates regularly to share works in progress and otherwise participate in the intellectual life of the Center.

Fellows receive $40,000 salary per year plus $2000 moving and research funds and are eligible for university benefits.

Eligibility
- Applicants must have received the PhD between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2012.
- Fellowship recipients cannot have accepted or currently hold a tenure-track position.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- Teach one course per semester in the humanities.
- Participate in the intellectual life of the Humanities Research Center and make significant research progress.

translators sought for Front Line.

This may be of interest to current students or graduates:

Front Line, The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, is seeking professional translators to assist with the translation of our website, e-bulletin, training documents and other general correspondance.

Selected candidates should be a native speaker of the target language and fluent in the source language, they should have a professional qualification and/or experience in translation, a proven commitment to human rights and an understanding of the work of Front Line.

Language pairs needed:
English to Arabic Arabic to English
French to English English to French
Spanish to English English to Spanish
English to Russian Russian to English
English to Farsi

Applications including a cv with specific details of previous translation experience and qualifications, references and a cover letter, should be sent to Tara Madden, Program Manager, at tara at frontlinedefenders.org

Front Line pays on a per word basis, please include rate of pay in your cover letter. Please put the relevant language pair in the subject bar of your email.

Translation readings in London and Chichester

I was delighted to hear that Juan Pablo Villalobos' Down the Rabbit Hole had been longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. It is not only his first novel but it is also one of the first publications of the literary translation co-operative Andotherstories and it is the first translation ever to be longlisted for the prize. Lots of firsts! :) This series of readings may interest our readers on the London-Portsmouth corridor...

And Other Stories nos. 1 and 2 launch
 
Wednesday 17 August, 6.30pm.
The European Bookshop, 5 Warwick Street, London W1B 5LU

At the European Bookshop, Clemens Meyer and Juan Pablo Villalobos will talk about their work and read some carefully selected extracts from All The Lights and Down the Rabbit Hole, with their translators Katy Derbyshire and Rosalind Harvey.

Followed by a Q&A session and the vital drinks reception.
Free, booking essential. Please email the European Bookshop: sms at esb.co.uk

Matinée reception – Clemens Meyer
 
Thursday 18 August, 2 - 4pm, reading starts at 2.30pm.

Ritter/Zamet, 80a Ashfield Street, London E1 2BJ
Rigo Schmidt - recent paintings (a Leipzig-based painter)
+ Clemens Meyer reading from All the Lights

Clemens Meyer in conversation with the writer and critic Stuart Evers and his translator Katy Derbyshire
 
Thursday 18th August, 6:30pm
34 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8DZ
 
A discussion to mark the launch of Clemens Meyer’s first and long-awaited book in English, All the Lights. Clemens Meyer will be in conversation with Stuart Evers, a critic and author of Ten Stories about Smoking, and with Katy Derbyshire, translator of All the Lights and a number of other contemporary German works of fiction.
Followed by a drinks reception.

Free, booking essential. Email jimenagorraez at gmail.com
 
Juan Pablo Villalobos on his novel and Mexican Literature
Thursday 18th August, 6pm. Pallant House Gallery, Chichester

With thanks for the support for events from the German Embassy and the Mexican Embassy in the UK; these translations supported by the Goethe-Institut and Spanish Ministry of Culture.

Translation and Terminology traineeships at the European Parliament

I have just seen an advertisement for a translation traineeship in the terminology department of the European Parliament. It seems to be part of the European Parliament's general traineeship scheme; interest in the terminology traineeship should be stated in the application.

Some details about the general traineeship scheme (more details here):

Paid traineeships are awarded solely to graduates of universities or equivalent institutions. Their purpose is to enable trainees to supplement the knowledge which they acquired during their studies and to familiarise themselves with the activities of the European Union and, in particular, the European Parliament.
Applicants for a paid translation traineeship must:

• be nationals of a Member State of the European Union or of a candidate country (Croatia, Iceland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro or Turkey);
• be aged 18 or over on the traineeship starting date;
• not have been awarded any other paid traineeship, or have been in paid employment for more than four consecutive weeks, with a European institution or a Member or political group of the European Parliament;
• have obtained, before the deadline for the submission of applications, a university degree after a course of study of at least three years' duration;
• have perfect knowledge of one of the official languages of the European Union or of the official language of an applicant country and thorough knowledge of two other official languages of the European Union.

Paid translation traineeships are awarded for a period of three months. On an exceptional basis, they may be extended for a maximum period of three months.

Starting dates of traineeships and deadlines for the receipt of applications
Starting date of traineeship	Application period
1 January	15 June - 15 August (midnight)
1 April	15 September -15 November (midnight)
1 July	15 December - 15 February (midnight)
1 October	15 March - 15 May (midnight)

We advise you not to wait until the last day to apply, to prevent the system from becoming overloaded because there are a large number of applications.

Translation traineeships are assigned to Luxembourg. For guidance, in 2011 the scholarship amounted to EUR 1 213.55 a month.

poems about translation 9: 'Translator (James Covey)'

We haven't had one of these for a little while. Today, just because, here's a poem about one of the best-known court interpreters in US history. James Covey was a Mende ex-slave and British sailor who interpreted at the Amistad trial in 1840. This is Elizabeth Alexander's response from a longer poem: Translator (James Covey).

Bargain basement rates

Hmm. Looked around a bit at other translation jobs posted on the geekfreelancers site (see English-Japanese pharmaceutical translator wanted), because I hadn't come across it before (I saw the original ad somewhere else). It may be a great site, but there are some eye-wateringly low rates offered here, eek. (Peanuts, monkeys, labourers, hire etc.). I was forcibly reminded of Danilo Nogueira's and Kelli Semolini's lovely post We want a discount. Perhaps everyone should just print out and stick on the fridge door a copy of Marta Stelmaszak's pleasing response, No you're not getting a discount...

Or we could just enjoy this video, which never fails to amuse (it's not translation-specific but will ring bells with any freelance writer or content creator...):

English-Japanese pharmaceutical translators wanted

For our Japanese colleagues, I have just seen an advertisement for JP-EN translators of pharmaceutical documents, to start as soon as possible. The company application page is here, and they also seem to be looking for English-language copyeditors and subject experts.