translation research seminars in Edinburgh, Manchester and London

Those of our readers in the UK may be interested in some of the translation research seminar series taking place around the country. All are free of charge and open to everyone.


The seminar programme at the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies in Manchester is available here. Seminars begin on 4 October.


The joint Edinburgh/Heriot-Watt translation research seminar programme is as follows (no link to the website available):

Ian Mason, Professor Emeritus, Heriot-Watt University

Discourse and communities of practice in translating and interpreting

Wed., 26 Sept 2012, 4.30-6.00pm, Heriot-Watt University

Sandra Halverson, University of Bergen

Sharing and contesting concepts in Translation Studies

Wed., 10 Oct. 2012, 4.30-6.00pm, Heriot-Watt University

Loredana Polezzi, University of Warwick

Maps, texts and bodies: connecting translation and migration in today’s Europe

Wed., 31 Oct. 2012, 4.30-6.00pm, University of Edinburgh    

Piotr Blumczynski, Queen’s University Belfast

Translating religious and devotional texts: key words and ideological perspectives

Wed., 14 Nov. 2012, 4.30-6.00pm, University of Edinburgh

Clive Scott, University of East Anglia

The literary ambitions of literary translation

Wed., 16 Jan. 2013, 4.30-6.00pm, University of Edinburgh

Susan Hunston, University of Birmingham

Phraseology and evaluative language: issues in Corpus Linguistics

Wed., 30 Jan. 2013, 4.30-6.00pm, Heriot-Watt University

Pablo Romero Fresco, University of Roehampton

Joining the dots - accessible filmmaking

Wed., 13 Feb. 2013, 4.30-6.00pm, University of Edinburgh

Anne Martin, Universidad de Granada

Professional quality in court translation and interpreting in Spain

Wed., 27 Feb. 2013, 4.30-6.00pm, Heriot-Watt University

Venues

§  at University of Edinburgh: F21, 7 George Square (Psychology Building)

map at: http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/buildings/psychology-building

§  at Heriot Watt University: Lecture Theatre 3

map at: http://www.hw.ac.uk/student-life/campus-life/edinburgh/edinburgh-campus-map.htm

The Centre for Research in Translation and Transcultural Studies at the University of Roehampton has also announced its seminar series for the autumn (no link to website available):

Wednesday 10th October, 6.30-8 pm, QB 146
Elleston Kajiwara-Airey ‎(Pole To Win)
"Project management and/in localisation"

Tuesday 16th October, 6-7 pm, QB 141
Daljit Kang (Roehampton University)
"Project management and entrepreneurship: things postgraduate students don't get taught but need to know"

Thursday 25th October, 6-7 pm, QB 141
Charlotte Bosseaux (University of Edinburgh)
"Uncanny encounters: conceptualising dubbing"

Tuesday 13 November, 6-7pm, QB 141
Marcella De Marco (London Metropolitan University)
Gender in Audiovisual Translation (exact title TBC)

Tuesday 27th November, 6-7 pm, QB 141
Roslyn Bottoni (Directorate General for Translation, European Commission)
"Working as an editor at the European Commission"

Thursday 6th December 6-7 pm room TBA
Carol O'Sullivan (University of Portsmouth)
Targeting audiences? Translation, language politics and DVD menu design

"Languages and Authority:: Early-career scholar programme

The Institute for International and Regional Studies at Princeton University has announced the Fung Global Fellows Programme, a new scheme for early-career researchers. The theme for the first year is 'Languages and Authority':

In 2013–14, the program’s inaugural year, the fellows and the accompanying seminar series will focus on how languages interact with political, social, economic, and cultural authority.  Languages can be powerful tools for expressing and asserting authority.  Yet they also constitute forms of authority in and of themselves (such as in the standardization and uniformity that they impose). Languages as forms of authority are also contested, and language communities have often formed a basis for resisting authority. Possible topics for this cycle include the ways in which languages and language use interact with globalization, empire, decolonization, nation-state formation, nationalism, language policy, language ideology, social stratification, migration, commerce and trade, social and religious movements, and the sociology of knowledge production.

This seems as though it would be of great interest for translation scholars. The deadline for applications is 1 November 2012. More information here. 

part-time tutors sought for MA Translation Studies

We are seeking to enlarge our bank of part-time hourly paid tutors for the MA Translation Studies. We are particularly interested in hearing from colleagues who work Arabic to English, English to Arabic, English to German, English to Japanese and Russian to English. Teaching takes place both in Portsmouth and online.

The advertisement can be accessed here. 

Informal enquiries can be made to carol.osullivan at port.ac.uk.

Please note that this advertisement closes on Friday 28 September 2012.

12th Portsmouth Translation Conference

Registration is now open for the twelfth annual Portsmouth Translation Conference. This year's topic is

'Those who can, teach': 

Translation, Interpreting and Training

The keynote speakers are

• Dr Dorothy Kelly (University of Granada), author of A Handbook for Translator Trainers 
• Daniel Toudic (University of Rennes 2), the co-ordinator of the OPTIMALE translator training network

You can register online for the conference at http://www.port.ac.uk/research/translation/portsmouthtranslationconference/. You can also download the latest programme there.

Attendance is free for qualified UK secondary school teachers and undergraduate students, supported by the National Network for Translation, an initiative of Routes into Languages.

Please contact the conference organisers at translation at port.ac.uk with any queries or enquiries.

Poems about translation 12: A pair of small ears

I was at a pleasing (and unexpected) spoken word/live music event the other evening at one of my favourite pubs, the King Street Tavern in Portsmouth. Among the entertainments was a very lovely reading by a Hampshire-based poet called Maggie Sawkins. Her poem 'A pair of small ears' begins

I have come to translate the silence.
I've bought paper and pencils
and a pair of small ears. 

Since by now you will be quivering with suspense to know how the paper, the pencils and the ears are going to get the job done, I am happy to say that the rest of the poem can be read here. 

Literary translation events part 1: across the Channel

There are lots of interesting literary translation events coming up soon, some of them to mark St. Jerome's Day at the end of the month. Readers in Germany and Italy may find these two events of interest:

1) Viele Wege führen nach Rom ... und zum Literaturübersetzen. 

Berufskundeseminar für Einsteiger und Zukunftsplaner

Monday 17 September, 0931-1700 (sign-up deadline Monday 10 September) 

Literarisches Colloquium, Berlin 

Das Seminar richtet sich an alle, die mehr über die Wege zum Literaturübersetzen und die rechtlichen und wirtschaftlichen Seiten dieses Berufs erfahren wollen. Besprochen werden: Möglichkeiten des Einstiegs, Auftragsakquise, Vertragsgestaltung, Honorare, Urheberrecht, Künstlersozialkasse, VG Wort, Stipendien, Übersetzerverband und Gewerkschaft. 

Seminarleitung: Claudia Steinitz (seit 20 Jahren Übersetzerin aus dem Französischen) und Jochen Schwarzer (seit 15 Jahren Übersetzer aus dem Englischen). 

Für einen Imbiss und Getränke bitten wir vor Ort um einen Unkostenbeitrag von 10 Euro. Anmeldungen erforderlich – bitte mit kurzer Angabe, ob Sie über das Literaturübersetzen noch nachdenken oder schon auf dem Weg dazu sind. Bitte bis 10.9.2012 per Mail an: claudia.steinitz at bluewin.ch.

More information at http://www.lcb.de/home/

2) X Giornate della traduzione letteraria

28-30 September 2012

Palazzo Battiferri - Urbino

Organised by Stefano Arduini e Ilide Carmignani

Registration: €100 for the three days

This is a long-running seminar on literary translation, now in its tenth year, featuring some of the most prominent literary translators and publishers in Italy and abroad. It's always near the start of term and every year I am sad that I can't attend. 

The Giornate feature talks and round tables as well as workshops on literary translation from English, French, German, Russian and Spanish. Lots of invaluable information on how the literary translation industry works, how to pitch a book to a publisher and so on.

A number of literary prizes are associated with the Giornate. Participants are eligible to put in an entry for the Premio Harlequin Mondadori, a prize for translating romantic fiction. This year's theme is historical romance. The text for translation (English to Italian), and some hints and tips in Italian for translating this genre of fiction, can be downloaded from the Prize's webpage. The deadline for entries, which must include proof of registration for the Giornate, is the end of February 2013. 

More information at http://traduzione-editoria.fusp.it/giornate-traduzione-letteraria or at their Facebook page. 

The geographies of Translation Studies in Europe

A forthcoming conference asking some intriguing questions: 

A NORTH-SOUTH ENCOUNTER OR DIVIDE?

Different Forms of Translation Scholarship in Europe

One-day Symposium at Lessius Antwerp, Wed 10 Oct 2012

Organisers: Luc van Doorslaer & Peter Flynn (CETRA & Lessius)

There are various traditions in translation scholarship and research which are less well known, often paradoxically, because they have not been translated into the dominant language(s) of scholarship: among such traditions are those in the German-speaking countries and Eastern-Europe (viz. important work by scholars like Jírí Levý, which dates back to the 1960’s and 1970’s, and has only recently been made available in English). On the other hand, new geographical and cultural encounters and/or borderlines are being constructed, explored and deconstructed – viz. the conference called ‘Translating from the South’. In this respect, conference participants often encounter different paradigms and traditions in Translation Studies or in translation scholarship under whatever name, depending on the session they are attending. Broadly speaking, these differences are stereotypically explained in terms of a seeming ‘divide’ between Germanic (and later Anglophone) and Romance scholarly traditions in Europe. This can give rise to such surprised questions as ‘Toury, c’est qui?’ or ‘Ladmiral, who the hell is he?’ Yet the seminal work of these and other scholars has helped form these different traditions and as the saying goes: “the past is a foreign country”. We can wonder then to what extent scholarly language use and methods stem from different more local, situated or historical approaches to and views on the object of study. To what extent did these various objects and concerns shape subsequent methodologies and theorizing in general? Did encounters take place or were lines of division drawn during these developments and if so which? This symposium will address these and other questions in an attempt to gain insight into how language and culture might determine translation scholarship and its various methodological traditions and concerns.

See symposium website https://www.lessius.eu/northsouth

Call for Proposals: Yale UP translation project

Seen on Twitter:

Dear colleagues,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce a new project I am coordinating through Yale University Press and to invite proposals for translations.

Our series “World Thought in Translation,” supported by a major grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, will make important works of political, legal, social and ethical thought available in English translation. Its focus will be on previously untranslated texts from outside European traditions, particularly the Middle East and the broader Islamic world, South Asia, China, East Asia, and Africa, but the series will also be open to important but under-studied works originally written in European languages, particularly from Russia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
The series will embrace both pre-modern and modern classics. Our primary criteria are the enduring influence of the texts for political and social debate and their unavailability to a wide English-speaking audience. We thus intend to fill the most urgent gaps faced by faculty seeking to teach courses on the political thought of non-Western societies. Given that the works in question will be unfamiliar to students, the translations will be accompanied by interpretive and analytic essays to give readers a basic introduction to the texts’ backgrounds, the circumstances in which they were written, and their subsequent influence within and outside their cultures.

These books are intended to be useful to faculty and students not only in political science departments but also in such fields as anthropology, history, religious studies, area studies and law. Some of the works are expected to reach a sizeable popular audience beyond the university.

We already have a number of projects in the pipeline, including translations of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi’s (d. 1285) Al-Ihkam fi Tamyiz al-Fatawa ʿan al-Ahkam wa Tasarrufat al-Qadi wa-l-Imam (translator: Mohammed Fadel, Toronto) and Muhammad Rashid Rida’s Al-Khilafah aw al-Imamah al-‘Uzma (translator: Simon Wood). We are also considering proposals to translate Rashid al-Ghannushi’s al-Hurriyat al-’amma fi’l-dawla al-islamiyya, al-Raghib al-Isfahani’s K. al-dhari’a ila makarim al-shari’a and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s Mizan al-’amal.

I would like to invite members of this scholarly community to submit proposals for collaboration. We take a wide view of what would make a valuable contribution, and are interested in proposals from all languages of the Muslim world. We are open to all kinds of proposals from any time period, any country, any language and any intellectual persuasion from the broader Islamic world.

Please address all queries to me at andrew.march at yale.edu.

Best wishes,
Andrew

Andrew F. March
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Yale University
http://www.yale.edu/polisci/people/amarch.html

Two post-docs with Scots Gaelic and Italian

For colleagues out there looking for post-doctoral research positions:

1) Research Assistant in Scots Gaelic Women’s Poetry 1400-1800

Aberystwyth University - Department of English and Creative Writing

(Fixed term for 3 years)
Grade 6: £25,251 - £30,122 per annum

This post is part of the Leverhulme project 'Women's Poetry 1400-1800 in English, Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, Scots and Welsh'. The start date is 1 February 2013. If you have the relevant specialist knowledge of Scots Gaelic (with a doctorate in Scots-Gaelic or equivalent), this post provides an excellent opportunity to develop your academic research career.

Informal enquiries welcome: contact Dr Sarah Prescott, on 01970 622791 (scp at aber.ac.uk).

Ref: E.12.02
Closing date: Monday 10 September 2012

For information and application forms please go to www.aber.ac.uk/en/hr/jobs/vacancies-external

2) Research Associate, Dante in Modernism

The University of Manchester - School of Arts, Languages and Cultures

Closing date : 19/09/2012
Reference : HUM-01610
Salary : £29,249
Employment type : Fixed Term
Duration: 15 weeks
Hours per week : 0.7FTE


Applications are invited for a British Academy / Leverhulme Trust Research Associate post.

You will work with the Principal Investigator, Dr Daniela Caselli, on her project 'Dante in Modernism' (phase 1) and be responsible for sifting the primary and secondary sources for occurrences of Dante (both in digitalised and textual format), electronic downloading of periodical articles found; documenting them with full bibliographical reference; reproducing every occurrence in its original context; and ultimately integrate all the findings into a database in beta form.

This appointment will begin on 15 October 2012 and last 15 weeks.

Informal inquiries may be made to Dr Daniela Caselli, Principal Investigator, Division of English and American Studies. Email:  daniela.caselli at manchester.ac.uk

More information at http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AFB604/research-associate-dante-in-modernism/