CFP--Translation Studies

Sat Feb 13 04:23:35 UTC 2010

Thanks to both Susan and Melissa for their remarks.  I was somewhat taken aback by Prof. Parthe's 
response to my posting, and remain unsure whether it was directed at the field of translation studies, 
the shape of this particular conference, or elsewhere.  But in fact the conference looks like a good venue 
for taking up the challenge, vague as it is, that Prof. Parthe has issued.  In any case, I should think that 
the weightiness of what might take place there would depend on the participants, their papers, their 
discussions, and resulting publications--not on the call for papers.  I myself am not directly involved in 
translation studies or this conference--I posted the CFP to support my colleagues at Illinois who are 
organizing it and in the hope that there might be significant participation by colleagues in Slavic who do 
work in translation studies and/or practice, rendering it an event all the more enrichening for me, my 
colleagues, and our students.

So please, don't be inhibited--submit proposals!

I'll repeat the CFP below:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
International Conference Announcement and First Call for Papers

“Shifting Paradigms: How Translation Transforms the Humanities”

October 14-16, 2010

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Levis Faculty Center

Organizers:

•The Center for Translation Studies of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
•The Université Denis-Diderot, Paris, France

Summary

This conference will convene scholars and practitioners to present state-of-the-art research on 
translation and the humanities. In particular, we seek to assess if, and how, academic disciplines 
comprising the humanities consider translation to be constitutive of their practice.

Translation scholars have called for  a paradigm shift in defining the relationship between translation 
and the humanities.  While it is acknowledged that a large share of our common knowledge is conveyed 
through translation, too little has been said about the way knowledge itself is built and circulated, 
particularly in the domain of interpretive disciplines.

A focus of this conference will be to assess whether and how this shift is actually taking place, by 
reviewing:

a) How the shift of translation theory away from a Eurocentric perspective may impact the various 
disciplines in the humanities that work on and with cultural transfer;

b) The ways in which translation itself  transforms the humanities.

The conference will address these questions by focusing on the nexus of theory, practice, and 
institutional settings in which translation takes place. The gathering aims to foster theoretical 
frameworks through which to account for the cultural and linguistic determinants of the various 
humanistic disciplines, building upon such concepts as, for instance, the dislocation of culture (H. 
Bhabha), the ethnocentric violence of translation (L. Venuti), the experience of the foreign (A. Berman), 
and the dissymmetry of cultural transfer.  We are especially interested in papers that bring theoretical 
sophistication and historical research to bear on practical issues of writing, reading, and publishing 
translations as well as their uses in academic institutions.

Keynotes and Panel Distribution

Plenary Address:

Catherine Porter, President, Modern Language Association and director of the 2009 MLA Presidential 
Initiative, « The Tasks of Translation in the Global Context. »

Keynote presentations will frame the topics for thematic panels.

Keynote — A New Geography : Translation and the Dislocation of a Eurocentric Perspective
Speaker : Jean-Noël Robert, professeur à l'Ecole pratique des hautes études

                Suggested topics :

•              Language Domination and New Experiences of the Foreign
•              Recalling the Leading Role of Translation in the History of Sciences
•              Translation and Popular Culture in an Era of Globalization
•              Translation and the Transfer of New Ideas and Concepts
•              Between Languages :  Anthropological and Psychological Dimensions of Translation
•              Non-European Contributions to Translation Theory

Keynote — « Genealogies of Theory and Practice : Jerome and the Institutions of Translation »
Speaker : Lawrence Venuti, Temple University

                Suggested topics:

•              Changing Relations between Translation Theory and Practice
•              Pedagogies of Translation and their Conceptual Bases
•              Reading, Teaching and Publishing Translated Texts
•              The Institutional Sites of Translation
•              Translation as a Transformative Factor of Disciplines
•              The Role of Translation in the Understanding of Cultural Transfers

Preliminary Call for Papers

Proposals are invited from scholars and practitioners of translation, whatever their discipline and 
academic affiliation,  for individual papers (30 minutes), 20-minute presentations on panels of three 
speakers (90 minutes), and performance events. The conference languages are English and French. 
Conference papers will be published online.

Please send proposals to translation at illinois.edu and include:

Name/s and academic or institutional affiliations and titles of participants
Paper or Panel Title
Abstract (maximum 300 words)
Contact information (email)

Dates:

Proposal submissions: April 15, 2010
A final conference announcement and program will be published on June 15, 2010

University of Illinois Organizing Committee:
Elizabeth Lowe, Associate Professor and Director, Center for   Translation Studies (elowe at illinois.edu)
Patricia Phillips Batoma, Lecturer, Center for Translation Studies (pphillip at illinois.edu)
Reinhard Mayer, Visiting  Professor, Center for Translation Studies (rmayer at illinois.edu)

Anastasia Lakhtikova, Lecturer, Center for Translation Studies   (Conference Coordinator) 
(alakhtik at illinois.edu)

Scientific Committee:

Nancy Abelmann, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Illinois
Fethi Benslama, Université Paris-Diderot, Professeur, UFR Sciences humaines cliniques
Prof. Antoine Cazé ,Université Paris-Diderot, Professeur, UFR Etudes anglophones
Wail Hassan, Associate Professor, Comparative and World Literature , University of Illinois
Claire Joubert, Professeur, Université Paris 8
Jean-René Ladmiral, Professeur émérite, Université Paris X Nanterre
Dr. Rainier Lanselle ,Université Paris-Diderot, Maître de conferences, UFR Asie Orientale
Jean-Philippe Mathy, Head, Department of Comparative and World  Literature, University of Illinois
Frédéric Ogée, Université Paris-Diderot, Professeur, UFR Etudes anglophones
Rajeshwari Pandharipande, Professor, Departments of Linguistics and   Religious Studies, University of 
Illinois
Emmanuel Poisson, Université Paris-Diderot, Maître de conférences, HDR, UFR Asie Orientale
Joyce Tolliver, Associate Professor, Spanish, Gender and Womens  Studies, University of Illinois
Lawrence Venuti, Temple University

Michael Finke, Professor and Head
Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
3072 FLB, MC-170
707 S. Mathews Ave.
Urbana, IL  61801

mcfinke at illinois.edu
(217) 244-3068

SPRING SEMESTER 2010:
Visiting Fellow
Slavic Research Center
Hokkaido University
Kita9, Nishi7, Kita-ku
Sapporo 060-0809, Japan

Fax: 81-11-706-4952

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