Translation Frames: Gateways and Gatekeeping
30 June - 1 July 2008, Hulme Hall, University of Manchester
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
- Michael Cronin (Dublin City University)
- Moira Inghilleri (University College London)
However translation is defined or understood, whether in Eurocentric and modern Arabic ideas of 'transferring across', or in terms such as the Hindi anuvad (speaking after, following) and rupantar (change in form), the Igbo tapia and kowa (to break up and tell or narrate differently) or the Chinese fanyi (turning over and interpreting/exchanging) (Tymoczko 2007), the notion of some kind of transformative act seems to be unavoidable. One way of conceptualising these transformative acts is to employ the notion of framing, which has been defined as 'strategic moves that are consciously initiated in order to present...a particular position within a certain perspective' (Baker 2006: 106). Yet, framing is a broad concept used in many disciplines, and might also be thought of in other ways.
The aim of this conference was to investigate the idea of transformative frames and practices by exploring what translation as gatekeeping (a term taken from media studies) prevents, restrains, and constrains, and alternatively (or simultaneously), what translation as a gateway, allows, permits, and conveys. It also aimed to consider the practical, social, and geo-political implications of these 'gates'. Papers addressed the following topics, amongst others:
- Translation and interpretation as re-narration or re-presentation
- Translation and interpretation and the negotiation of power/resistance
- Translation, migration, and imagined communities
- Translation and multimodal analysis
- Translation, globalisation, and technology
- Translators and interpreters as agents
- News and media translation, and the roles of translators, interpreters, and fixers
- Translating and interpreting conflict and situations of violence
- Translating social policy and social-political texts
Papers were presented by doctoral candidates, MA students, and established researchers working in translation, interpreting and audio visual translation. There was an emphasis on work that draws on innovative theoretical approaches to translation and/or investigates distinctive case studies that can enrich and extend translation theory. The conference created a lively, discursive, and progressive forum with sessions and keynote speakers particularly addressed to postgraduate students and questions of research. Speakers had the opportunity to submit their papers for selection and publication in a special conference edition of the CTIS Occasional Papers.
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
- Amer Al-Adwan
- Amal Ayoub
- Michela Baldo
- Ahmed Saleh Elimam
- Vicki Flippance
- Sue-Ann Harding
- Mahmoud Al-Herthani
- Suhad Hijazi
- Wai Ling Looi
- Matthew Maltby
- Yu Zhongli
AWARDS
The conference organising committee were awarded first prize in the postgraduate section of the University of Manchester Team Working Awards 2008.
The team was also successful in winning support for the conference from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
- Conference poster (, 3,911 KB)