Wikiproject Translation Studies: how to get involved

There is a long tradition among academics of treating Wikipedia with caution, or even disdain. Many of us don’t allow students to use it as a reference for academic essays. At the same time it’s very widely used by translators (see e.g. Alonso 2015), and it’s thus part of our role as trainers to teach students how to use it in their practice. Wikipedia has a translation interface and associated translation projects (see e.g. Panigrahi 2014) and the relevance of this aspect of Wikipedia for both research and training is increasingly evident (Ronen et al. 2014, McDonough Dolmaya 2014, 2015).

Academics use Wikipedia to different extents in their work (see Aibar et al. 2015). I know I use it a lot as a quick point of reference. Of course, it has to be taken with the appropriate pinch of salt. But whatever our relationship with Wikipedia, we must recognize that it is an important resource used by specialists and non-specialists across all subjects and disciplines all over the world. It is therefore relevant for us as scholars to consider what information Wikipedia holds about translation and Translation Studies. Other disciplines and scholarly associations are already doing this (see e.g. Ridge 2013; Hodson 2015; Machefert 2015; Whysel 2015).

Some of the initiatives already in progress seek to improve the visibility of less-studied and less-chronicled issues, for example female scientists or alternative perspectives on the First World War. Other initiatives seek to encourage greater diversity among Wikipedia editors (see e.g. Wexelbaum et al. 2015). Such initiatives speak to central Translation Studies concerns, which include increasing the visibility of translators as well as improving public understanding of translation and interpreting practices.

Translation Studies researchers who look at TS-related pages may have noted problems with some content. The Translation page, for instance, covers a huge range of phenomena, some of which are key concepts in their own right; not all of these have pages of their own. I was very surprised to find that ‘literary translation’ is not a heading in Wikipedia, for instance; it's just a sub-section on the translation page. Literary translation is a very specialized and separate area of translation, with different professional associations, different requirements, different norms and often different practitioners, so the creation of separate entries for this seems very desirable. The only language in which there seems to be a separate entry for literary translation at the moment is Spanish. Many bibliographical references for TS content are outdated, and links may be broken. While some important Translation Studies scholars have pages on Wikipedia, many others do not. Some pages are available in very few languages. Quality of entries is variable, and there are lots of stubs.

The European Society for Translation Studies set up an initiative, led by Dr Esther Torres Simón, Dr David Orrego Carmona and yours truly, to see what could be done to improve Translation Studies content. We ran two editing events in June 2015 and January 2016 to gauge interest, and created or edited a number of articles (for a sample, see James S. Holmes in English and Spanish; Indirect Translation; Retranslation). Further work was done on the main Translation Studies entry. See here for a list of articles created so far.

This work culminated in the setting up of the Wikiproject: Translation Studies in spring 2016. Participation in the project is warmly welcomed from anybody with an interest in improving the quality of Translation Studies content in any language. This may involve anything from proofreading and error correction to translating content to adding of new sections or indeed new entries. It may also include groundwork such as tagging articles which are of interest to the project.

This will inevitably be an incremental process. Wikipedia is a crowd-sourced environment where many different users negotiate their understanding of subject matter, so this is an initiative that is likely to take time. Anybody with an interest in taking part in the project, from experienced Wikipedians to newbies, is invited to contact me (you can find my email address here).

We are running a third Editathon to coincide with the 2016 EST Congress at Aarhus from 14 to 17 September 2016. A training event before the Congress on 14 September will be followed by three days of editing with support for on- and offsite editors. Expressions of interest in participating in this Editathon can be sent to me by email or you can signup via the event page here, any time before the event). For catering purposes, anyone wishing to attend the training event in Aarhus on 14 September should notify us by 11 September (extended deadline).

References
Aibar, Eduard, Josep Lladós-Masllorens, Antoni Meseguer-Artola, Julià Minguillón, Maura Lerga. 2015. Wikipedia at university: what faculty think and do about it. The Electronic Library (33)4: 668-683. Online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EL-12-2013-0217
Alonso, Elisa. 2015. Analysing the use and perception of Wikipedia in the professional context of translation. Journal of Specialised Translation 23. Online at http://www.jostrans.org/issue23/art_alonso.php
Evans, Siân, Jacqueline Mabey and Michael Mandiberg. 2015. Editing for Equality: The Outcomes of the Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thons. Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America 34(2): 194-203
Fahmy, Sarah. 2012. Rewriting History: The JISC/ Wikipedia World War One Editathon [blog post], July 2. Online at https://jiscww1.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2012/07/02/rewriting-history-the-jisc-wikipedia-world-war-one-editathon/.
Hodson, Richard. 2015. Wikipedians reach out to academics. Nature (7 September 2015), doi:10.1038/nature.2015.18313
McDonough Dolmaya, 2014. Analyzing the Crowdsourcing Model and Its Impact on Public Perceptions of Translation. The Translator 18(2): 167-191
McDonough Dolmaya, 2015. Revision History: Translation Trends in Wikipedia. Translation Studies 8(1): 16-34. Online at http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/t6JuCRMRgdU2wSgYuSQD/full (open access at time of writing)
Machefert, Sylvain. 2015. Improving the articles about modern art in Wikipedia: a partnership between Wikimédia France and the Pompidou Centre. Art Libraries Journal 40: 34-40. doi:10.1017/S030747220000033X.
Panigrahi, Subhashish. 2014. Doctors and Translators Are Working Together to Bridge Wikipedia's Medical Language Gap. Online at http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/07/27/doctors-and-translators-are-working-together-to-bridge-wikipedias-medical-language-gap/, 27 July
Ridge, Mia. 2013. New Challenges in Digital History: Sharing Women's History on Wikipedia (March 23, 2013).Women's History in the Digital World. Paper 37. [conference paper] Online at http://repository.brynmawr.edu/greenfield_conference/papers/saturday/37
Ronen, Shahar, Bruno Gonçalves, Kevin Z. Hu, Alessandro Vespignani, Steven Pinker and César A. Hidalgo. 2014. Links that speak: The global language network and its association with global fame.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111(52): E5616.
Thomas, Amber. 2012. 21st-century Scholarship and Wikipedia. Ariadne 70. Online at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue70/thomas#36
Whysel, Noreen. 2015. Information Architecture in Wikipedia. Bulletin of the Association for Information Science and Technology 41(5): 26-33 Online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bult.2015.1720410508.
Wexelbaum, Rachel S.; Herzog, Katie; and Rasberry, Lane. 2015. Queering Wikipedia. Library Faculty Publications. Paper 49. Online at http://repository.stcloudstate.edu/lrs_facpubs/49
Yong, Ed. 2012. Edit-a-thon gets women scientists into Wikipedia. Nature News, Oct 22, 2012. Online at http://www.nature.com/news/edit-a-thon-gets-women-scientists-into-wikipedia-1.11636.

N.B. This post is an extended version of a piece signed by Carol O'Sullivan, Esther Torres Simón and David Orrego Carmona which originally appeared in the newsletter of the European Society for Translation Studies.

'Tis the Season for Thinking About Summer (Schools)

Recent forays onto the European Society for Translation Studies Facebook page (a good place to lurk, as witness the 7,287 likes at time of writing) suggest that, once again, it is the season for thinking about summer schools.

Three summer schools have announced their lineup for next year (note that all information is taken from the respective websites and no guarantee is made of its accuracy). 

The long-running CETRA Summer School is now in its twenty-seventh year and will be held at the Antwerp campus of the University of Leuven from 24 August to 4 September 2015. This year's visiting professor is Judy Wakabayashi. Two partial scholarships are available. Applications close 2 April 2015.

The fourth annual EMUNI Agricola Translation Studies Doctoral and Teacher Training Summer School will take place from 1 to 12 June 2015 in Turku, Finland. The guest professors will be Yves Gambier and Andrew Chesterman. The summer school is named for the sixteenth-century Finnish translator Mikael Agricola. Applications close 28 February 2015.

The ninth Nida School of Translation Studies, an initiative of the Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship, takes place from 18 to 29 May 2015. The guest professors are Susan Bassnett and Sandra Bermann. It takes place in Misano Adriatico (Rimini), Italy. The website says a limited number of partial bursaries are available on the basis of need and merit. Applications close 31 January 2015.

Edinburgh Interpreting Research Summer School has not yet announced dates but looks as though it is expected to run again in 2015.

The European Society for Translation Studies has an annual Summer School Scholarship with a deadline on 1 May 2015 which contributes 1,000 euro towards the cost of any recognised translation or interpreting summer school. You have to be an EST member at the time of application.


Some readers will have noticed an omission from this list. The Translation Studies Summer School which used to run between Edinburgh, Manchester, UCL and latterly Hong Kong has been discontinued. Many of the staff involved have set up a new initiative, ARTIS (Advancing Research in Translation and Interpreting Studies) which provides academic support for translation and interpreting research training events. These events can be held anywhere in the world; see the website for upcoming events or follow @ARTISinitiative on Twitter for information about the next call for events.

Readers looking for more practically-oriented events, rather than research training, may wish to keep an eye on Translate in the City, the BCLT Summer School, Traduttori in Movimento, the Assises de la Traduction Littéraire or the Giornate della Traduzione Letteraria.

UPDATE 17 December: The long-running translation programme at the University of Ottawa offers two summer schools in 2015: a summer school in Chinese-English translation and interpreting, and a summer school in translation pedagogy for translator trainers. More information here. Application deadline 15 January.

Summer is coming...


Image by Tai on Flickr with warm thanks.

Applications open for European Society for Translation Studies Event Grant

EST Translation Studies Event Grant

The EST Translation Studies Event Grant is awarded annually to help finance Translation Studies events (conferences, symposia, guest lectures, courses, exhibitions). It may be used to cover a wide range of documented expenses such as bursaries, travel, accommodation, or preparation of conference materials.

Deadline: January 31, 2015

Amount: Up to 1000 euros

Rules and procedures

1. At least one member of the organizing or scientific committee must be a paid-up member of the European Society for Translation Studies.
2. The funds have to support a Translation Studies event. This may include symposia, courses, visits of keynote speakers, etc.
3. Applications should explain the circumstances under which the request is made and include details about the specific use of the sum requested.
4. The Event Grant Committee will conduct an evaluation of each application on the basis of: a) the needs demonstrated in the application, b) the importance of the event for the Translation Studies community, and c) compliance of the event with the EST’s general philosophy of making Translation Studies accessible to all.
5. The sum granted will be transferred to the applicant’s account after invoices and/or receipts have been received.
6. Applications should be sent by email to the Chair of the Event Grant Committee, Magdalena Bartłomiejczyk: magdalenabartlomiejczyk[at]hotmail.com. Reception will be acknowledged.
7. The deadline for submitting applications for 2015 is January 31, 2015. The decision of the Committee will be announced at the beginning of March. The grant may thus be requested for events that are planned for between March 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016.

European Society for Translation Studies Translation Prize

The EST Translation Prize, of 2000 euros, is awarded annually for the most deserving project to translate key texts in Translation Studies (including research on interpreting and localization).

Deadline: June 1, 2013

Rules and Conditions

1. The prize shall be used to assist with the translation, editing and/or publication of a book or group of articles in any of the sub-fields of Translation Studies.
2. The prize may be paid to a translator, group of translators, or academic publisher or journal.
3. The translation may be from any language and into any language.
4. The translation shall not have been published prior to the awarding of the prize (six weeks after the application deadline), since the purpose of the prize is to promote translations that would otherwise not lead to publication.
5. The translation shall be published within two years of the awarding of the grant.
6. All publications and promotional materials associated with the translation shall bear the mention “With the support of the European Society for Translation Studies”.
7. Applications will be evaluated on the basis of: a) potential impact of the project on international Translation Studies, b) feasibility of the project, c) pertinent experience of the translator or translators.

For further details including instructions for applicants, see the relevant page on the EST website. 

EST Summer School Scholarship (extended deadline)

This grant from the European Society for Translation Studies may interest some of our readers who are working on PhDs in translation; it can be used for any recognised translation research summer school (and there are more of them than you might think!)

Extended deadline: May 15, 2013

http://www.est-translationstudies.org/committees/summer_school/ss_grant.htm

Students who are preparing a doctoral dissertation in the field of translation studies are invited to apply for this scholarship of 1,000 euros.

Applicants need not be EST members at the time of applying, but must become members if their application is successful.

The grant can be for any summer school organized in the field of Translation Studies.

The applications will be scrutinized by the committee, who will base their judgement on the application as a whole, taking into account all information asked for: the technical quality of the project, the applicant's competences and needs, and the relationship between the project and the summer school programme intended to follow.

To apply, please fill in the application form (including the attachments) and send it to Iwona Mazur – imazur[at]ifa.amu.edu.pl. Along with the form, applicants are asked to send a letter of recommendation from their dissertation advisor as a PDF or scanned attachment.

Receipt of complete applications will be acknowledged by e-mail.

The name of the scholarship recipient will be announced on the Society's website in the second week of June each year and notice will also be sent (by e-mail) to each of the candidates.

Panel proposals, European Society for Translation Studies Congress, Germersheim, 2013

There is still time to submit panel proposals, aka thematic sessions, for the 2013 EST Congress. The Congress takes place every three years; the general topic of the 2013 congress is 'Translation Studies: Centres and Peripheries'. It will be held from 29-31 August, 2013 in Germersheim, Germany (part of the University of Mainz). From the conference website:

Each thematic session should include at least three speakers and will be presented and conducted by a session moderator (or two co-moderators). Each session should be dedicated to a clearly defined topic related to the general topic of the conference and structured around a pre-determined set of questions, formulated by the session moderator. The moderator will be responsible for specific publicity concerning the session, inviting papers, selecting presenters, and proposing the list of selected presenters and abstracts for approval by the Scientific Committee. To submit a panel proposal, the moderator does not have to be a member of the EST.

If you would like to moderate or co-moderate a specific thematic session, please use the form below to submit a short description of the proposed session, indicating the theme and some possible speakers. The proposal should be of at least 500 words with five keywords. (You might like to cut-and-paste from a Word document.)

The deadline for panel proposals is tomorrow (30 April). The open call for papers will follow and abstracts will be due in autumn 2012. Just to emphasise that you don't have to be an EST member to submit a panel proposal!

Reminder: EST Book Purchase grant deadline is 31 March 2012

Just a quick reminder that the deadline for the European Society for Translation Studies Book Purchase Grant is 31 March. The Book Purchase Grant of c.1000 euro is awarded annually to enable an academic institution to buy Translation Studies publications with a view to building capacity in the discipline. Open to all Universities, faculties, departments and research groups with at least one EST member on the staff.

For more details see the EST website.

European Society for Translation Studies research grants

This is just a quick reminder that the European Society for Translation Studies offers a number of small grants to support translation research.

The deadline is approaching for the Event Grant, which closes this coming Tuesday 31 January. The grant awards up to 1000 euro annually to help finance Translation Studies events (conferences, symposia, guest lectures, courses, exhibitions).

In these times of shrinking library budgets, EST also offers a Book Purchase Grant of up to 1000 euro annually to enable an academic institution to purchase Translation Studies publications. The aim is to enhance translation research in new contexts. 

There is also a Summer School Scholarship to enable doctoral researchers in Translation Studies to attend an appropriate summer school (some of the many options can be found under the Summer School tag on this blog). As with other grants, applicants need to be or become members of the EST.

Anyone with any questions or comments about the EST can contact our indefatigable General Secretary, Alexandra Assis Rosa, here. You can also Follow EST on Twitter and Like EST on Facebook.

European Society for Translation Studies Wikipedia page

The European Society for Translation Studies now has its own Wikipedia page. You're all warmly invited to read and review.

The Society also has a website with useful translation research resources and a Facebook page if you'd like to get more involved.

applications closing for EST summer school scholarship (1 May)

Dear all, 

Just in case any readers were intending to put in at the last minute for the EST Summer School Scholarship, the deadline is 1 May. 

Students preparing a doctoral dissertation in the field of translation studies who are paid-up EST members are invited to apply for this scholarship of 1,000 euros.

The applications will be scrutinized by the committee, who will base their judgement on the application as a whole, taking into account all information asked for: the technical quality of the project, the applicant's competences and needs, and the relationship between the project and the summer school programme intended to follow.

To apply, please fill in the application form (including the attachments) and send it to Iwona Mazur –  imazur at ifa.amu.edu.pl. Along with the form, applicants are asked to send a letter of recommendation from their dissertation advisor as a PDF or scanned attachment.

Receipt of complete applications will be acknowledged by e-mail.

The name of the scholarship recipient will be announced on the Society's website in the second week of June each year and notice will also be sent (by e-mail) to each of the candidates.

Previous scholarship holders:
2006: Cristina Valentini (Forlì)
2008: Elisabet Tiselius (Stockholm), Alberto Fernández Costales (Oviedo)
2009: Hanna Pięta (Lisbon), Maria Tymczyńska (Poznań), Alice Leal (Vienna)
2010: Sabina Tcaciuc (Aston)

European Society for Translation Studies Book Grant deadline 31 March 2011

The European Society for Translation Studies Book Purchase Grant is awarded annually to enable an academic institution to purchase Translation Studies publications. The aim is to enhance translation research in new contexts.

Deadline: March 31, 2011

Amount: About 1000 euros per year

For rules and procedures and a list of previous recipients of the grant please see the EST website.