CFP--Translation Studies
Valentino, Russell
russell-valentino at UIOWA.EDU
Sun Feb 14 02:52:55 UTC 2010
Dear Professor Parthe,
Maybe there's something between Rochester and Illinois that I'm not quite getting in this exchange, but it seems pretty odd to be criticizing a CFP on this list. Whose chosen discipline should we turn our eyes on next? Which CFP will we say is cutting edge and which could have worked just as well for a conference "a few years ago?" Which key keynoter who appears not to have been included will we point to as inexplicably absent? I'm not one of the organizers of the conference in question, and I have no plans to participate, but are these really substantive reasons to find fault with trying to bring people with similar interests together to share their insights?
The divide between translation theory and translation practice that you point to has been around for a long time, and it's true that many (though not all) working translators don't think much of theory in their practice. But this CFP appears to have a different aim, which is to get people thinking about the relation of translation to the humanities and the manner in which knowledge is constructed and conveyed through translation. The Venuti keynote title would appear to take up this question clearly enough by invoking Jerome, whose translation provided the foundation for some 1500 years of Western Civilization. How the fact of translation might have played a role in constructing civilization is worth taking up, it seems to me.
I'm sure there are different ways to take up such questions, and probably ways that this particular CFP could be improved. But dismissing the enterprise as "humanities lite" is not helpful. I think we should wish the conference organizers well in putting together a meaningful event.
Russell Valentino
-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Kathleen Parthe
Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 12:51 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] CFP--Translation Studies
A CFP frames the direction of a conference - that
is its purpose. In this case, the CFP sounds
like it could have worked just as well for
Post-Colonial Studies or Post-Modernism a few
years ago, just to mention two possibilities,
although, inexplicably, Zizek has been left out .
Translators in our field do remarkable work that
contributes tremendously to our teaching and
research, and they have done it thus far without
translation theory. We should encourage
translators, the presses that publish them, and
the departments as they evaluate faculty who have
chosen translation as their contribution to the
profession. The topics listed below appear to do
very little of that.
>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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--
Kathleen Parthe
Professor of Russian
Director of Russian Studies
424 Lattimore Hall/Box 270082
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627-0082
kathleen.parthe at rochester.edu
(585) 275 4176 (office)
(585) 273 1097 (office fax)
(585) 271 8433 (Roch. apt)
(609) 683-9523 (Princeton home)
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