Translation Events

Visit the MLAC Events page for some forthcoming translation and translation adjacent seminars, workshops, guest lectures and so on.

The Translation Zone Events Archive below gives you a flavour of what to expect in any year. 

Archive Events

• Annual Postgraduate Conference in Translation Studies.  The Centre for Intercultural Mediation hosts an annual postgraduate conference (interrupted due to covid since 2020).  For past conferences, see here
• 6 June 2022.  The Memory of the Air.  Belgian writer Caroline Lamarche, translator Katherine Gregor and publisher Aina Marti discuss the forthcoming publication of The Memory of the Air (La Mémoire de l’air originally published by Gallimard in 2014) in English by Héloïse Press.  The roundtable, chaired by Dominique Carlini-Versini, explores the many ‘lives’ of the text, from writing, to translation, to publication. Organised by Dominique Carlini-Versini and Catherine Doustessyier-Khoze and hosted by the Living Texts research group.
• 28 April 2022.  Adas Raum (Fischer Publishers, 2021).  Sharon Dodua Otoo, an emerging public intellectual in Germany offers a short reading from her new novel, an interview with Yael Almog and a stimulating conversation (in English) with students and staff at MLAC.  Born in London, Otoo won the prestigious Bachmann prize in 2016, for a literary work in her second language, German.  Her recent novel, Adas Raum, engages with the colonial history of both Germany and the UK.  She has long worked to advance black rights activism and feminism though literary projects. Organised by Yael Almog and hosted by the Living Texts research group.
• January to April 2022.  Arts of Translation Masterclasses:  Interpreting (Dr Kevin Lin OBE), Translating Fiction (Penny Johnson and Tina Kover), Translation Collectives (Ruth Clarke), Translating Academic Writing (Clelia Boscolo), Freelance Translation (Kim Sanderson).
• 14 March 2021.  Alexander Pushkin: A Life.  Patrick Geoghegan and a panel of distinguished poets, writers, translators and literary scholars - including our very own Dr Viktoria Ivleva - explore the life and intellectual legacy of Russian Poet, Novelist and Playwright Alexander Pushkin. 
• 9 March 2021.  Translation and Eros.  Caroline Sauter (Goethe Institute, Frankfurt) reflects on how Translation and Eros/eros have been closely linked since Plato’s Symposium. In Diotima’s speech, transmitted – translated – by Socrates, Eros is a being of desire, a mediator, an intermediate creature whose “business” it is to “interpret and deliver”. Departing from Plato, and drawing on theories by authors such as Lacan, Kristeva, Cassin, Apter, Derrida, or Hamacher, as well as on concrete translation examples (such as Anne Carson’s Sappho translation, or Peggy Kamuf’s translation of Hélène Cixous’ Insister), my lecture will delineate the intricate relationship between translation and Eros/eros in both theoretical and practical terms. I will also critically study erotic metaphors in translation theory (fidelity, language kiss, cunnilingus), and, finally, describe translation activity as privileging the erotic “inter-space” that Cassin names entre (in the double sense of the verbal imperative “enter!” and the preposition ‘in-between’). Organised by Yael Almog.
• January to April 2021. Arts of Translation Masterclasses: Translating Poetry (Jessica Rainey), Freelance Translation (Kim Sanderson), Translating across Media (Peter Bush), Academic Translation (Francesco Manzini), Translating Fiction (Tina Kover) and Art in Translation (Claudia Hopkins).
• 25 February 2020.  Translating Across Worlds: Translation, Creativity and International Politics in Contemporary Francophone Women’s Writing. Ananda Devi, Colette Fellous, and Sophie Lewis visit Durham University for a one-day event on translation, creativity, and politics. Born in Mauritius, Ananda Devi is a novelist, short-story writer and poet. Translated into a dozen languages, she is considering a powerful voice in modern African writing in French and has won several prestigious literary awards. The day features a creative writing workshop, translation workshop, and panel discussion exploring the roles played by translation and creative writing in making sense of the world around us in view of colonial legacies, nationalist movements, and rising extremism, where women are often the primary victims but also the most powerful voices. Organised by Amaleena Damlé and Rebekah Vince in collaboration with Les Fugitives.
• From this workshop emerged the bi-lingual (French and English) collection of short stories and poetry, Une danse de funambule: Transpositions in art, text, and language, edited by Amaleena Damlé and Rebekah Vince, translated by Khalid Lyamlahy, and featuring contributions by Ananda Devi, Sam Bootle, Amaleena Damlé, Ita Mac Carthy, Jessica Rainey, Kim Sanderson and Rebekah Vince.