Saturday 26 April 2014

Funded places on translation/transgender workshop, Arizona

Recently circulated, and may be of interest: 

The University of Arizona College of Humanities, Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry, and Institute for LGBT Studies seek self-nominations for two funded slots at a small, four-day collaborative workshop and salon on Translating Transgender, January 5-10, 2015, in Tucson, AZ. A 250-500-word Statement of Interest, a current CV, and a translation (or piece of translation / transgender scholarship) pertinent to the topic should be sent to Prof. David Gramling at dgl at email.arizona.edu by June 1, 2014. See workshop description here:

Translating Transgender: A Scholars’ and Practitioners’ Workshop at the University of Arizona

Rationale:

Translation practitioners and scholars know from experience that translating (and being translated) has more to do with the immutable dynamics of translingual betweenness than with the mere accurate rendering of “x” from one language to another. This de-norming and de-substantializing of translation, as well as the productive debates about language(s) that have emerged from these processes over the past two decades, share a great deal with the de-norming of gender, the body, and identity at the heart of Transgender Studies.

Meanwhile, due to the stigma on researching non-normative genders throughout history, few primary and secondary texts about transgender lives and ideas over the centuries have been translated from language to language in any formal or systematic way. Meanwhile, precisely this stigma has meant that queer and transgender thinkers and artists have tended to become translators, travelers, exiles, and multilinguals in greater numbers and velocities than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. The result for us today is that the accessible literatures in transgender studies (and related fields like LGBT Studies and Queer Studies) remain more Anglophone, more monolingual, and less translated than they historically ought to be, while the subjects who produced those literatures have often been archetypes of transnational and translingual border-crossing.

The Workshop and Salon:

On January 10-15, 2015, we will assemble in balmy Tucson a small group of national and international scholars and practitioners in the fields of translation studies and transgender studies to explore together the methodological and epistemological relationships between these two domains of inquiry and practice—through semi-structured salons, discussions, and readings. In the evenings, we will open the group up to a more public audience for 'translation slams' and readings in the vibrant Tucson arts community. The atmosphere, we hope, will be informal, collaborative, speculative, and rejuvenating for the upcoming Spring Semester 2015.

In preparation, invited participants would be asked to undertake and circulate among the group a new translation (long or short, from / to any language, in any genre) in the weeks prior to the workshop that explores some aspect of transgender embodiment / enlanguagement, gender variability and transition, etc., and how those phenomena are dynamized or problematized by translation process and practice. This new piece would serve as an entry point for other participants to get to know each others' current work. Ultimately, we would also invite participants to contribute (after the workshop) to a special issue of the Duke University Press journal Transgender Studies Quarterly on "Translation / Transgender"—whether in the form of a scholarly critique / essay or poetic / literary contribution. 

Please send self-nominations (see criteria above) by June 1 to Prof. David Gramling, dgl at email.arizona.edu.

David Gramling, PhD

Director of Graduate Studies & Assistant Professor
University of Arizona  |  Department of German Studies 

Faculty Affiliate, SLAT, CMES, & LGBT Studies
Co-Editor, Critical Multilingualism Studies  |  cms.arizona.edu 

1512 E. First St.  |  301 Learning Services Building
Tucson, AZ 85721  |  520.822.6251  |  www.livelongday.info

Friday 11 April 2014

ARTIS symposium programme now available

The first symposium of ARTIS (Advancing Research in Translation and Interpreting Studies) is happening next month on 13 May in Manchester, and the programme is now available online (click here to download).

It's on performative and cognitive approaches to TS research, and the programme is mostly early-career researchers, with a smattering of more experienced speakers. Looks fascinating. Looking forward to it!

There is no charge for registration.