Teaching Translation and Interpreting Conference

April 6-7, 2019

Hunter College of the City University of New York

Organized by Margarit T. Ordukhanyan (Hunter College)

Co-sponsored by American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association,
with the participation of the National Language Service

With a growing demand for professionals in the language support services, teaching translation and interpretation is quickly becoming an educational imperative. By bringing together representatives of the industry and the academe, the conference aims to bridge the gap between the way translation is taught and the way it is practiced outside academic institutions. The conference addressed the need for new and innovative approaches to teach aspects of translation and interpretation at all levels of the undergraduate and graduate curriculum. While addressing various perspective and methodologies, the conference seeks to elevate the profile of translation pedagogy as an independent academic discipline and explore its impact on other professional fields. 
The event is free and open to the public. NB: if you are not a Hunter student or employee, you must RSVP below and bring a photo ID to get a pass at the main guest entrance (Hunter West). 
Saturday, April 6, 2019
9:00-10:15
Opening Remarks
Robert Cowan (Hunter College)

Keynote Address
“Emerging Contexts In Translation Pedagogy: Challenges and Opportunities”
Brian J. Baer (Kent State University)

Location: Faculty Dining Room, Hunter West 8th floor
 *Coffee and light refreshments provided starting 8:45
10:30 – 12:00
Translation Curriculum: What the Profession Needs

Chair: Margarit Ordukhanyan (Hunter College)
 
“Teaching Translation and Interpretation: What the Profession Needs”
Caitilin Walsh (American Translators Association)
 
“Training Translators to Work for International Organizations”
Mekki Elbardi (United Nations)
 
“Cultural Mistranslation and the Big Business of Faith-Based Non-Profits in the USA”
Adrian Izquierdo (Baruch College)
12:00– 13:00
Lunch Break

*Lunch served in Faculty Dining Room
1:00-2:30
Panel II: Intercultural Communication in Translation
Chair: TBD
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"Crossing Cultural Borders in a Digital World"
Annalisa Nash Fernandez (Because Culture LLC)

"Teaching Culture and Intercultural Communication to Future Translators and Interpreters" 
​Monique Roske (University of Maryland)
1:00-2:300
Workshop: Russian Translation Assessment
Facilitated by Annie Fisher (University of Wisconsin-Milwakee)

The workshop uses actual student assignments to discuss effective feedback, codification of errors, and other aspects of teaching Russian-language translation courses. 
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Location: Hunter West B126
2:45-4:30
Panel III: Translation and Technology
Chair: Annie Fisher (University of Wisconsin-Milwakee)

"Gauging and Establishing "Best" Practices in Online Translation Course Design
Andrew Tucker (Kent State University) and Erik Angelone (Kent State University)

“Leveraging Technology to Deliver Feedback in the Online Translation Course”
Annie Fisher (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)

"Enhancing Localization Graduate Employability Through Skill-Driven Curricula"
Loubna Bilali (Kent State University)

"Using and Integrating Large Institutional Websites in Translation Courses"
Françoise Herrmann (University of Maryland)
4:45-6:00
Roundtable: Translation, Community, Integration
Moderated by Julie Van Peteghem
 
“The impact of interpreting education on the psychological effects of language brokering”
Aida Martinez Gomez (John Jay College)

Followed by presentations by Hunter College students
6:30-9:00
Keynote and Reception

“Translation, the Liberal Arts and Global Humanities”
Aron Aji (University of Iowa)

Sunday, April 7

 8:45-10:30
Panel 1: Bringing Translation to the Classroom
Chair: Margarit Ordukhanyan (Hunter College)
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"Starting from Scratch: Developing an Introduction to Translation and Interpreting Courses"
Garrett Bradford (University of Maryland)
 
​"Pre- and Post-Translation Tasks in Translation Pedagogy"
Laura Ramirez Polo (Rutgers University)
 
“Community Engagement in Translation and Interpreting Courses”
Cristiano Mazzei (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
 
“Teaching Translation as Situated Learning: Benefits of Engaging Translation Students with Refugee Communities”
Laurence Jay-Rayon Ibrahim Aibo (Independent Scholar)

Coffee and light refreshments served starting 8:30

10:30-12:15
Panel IIA: Serving Spanish-Speaking Communities
Chair: TBD
 
“Serving Low-Vision Spanish-Speaking Community in the US”
María José García-Vizcaíno (Montclair State University)
 
“Spanish Translation for Community Based Organizations"
E. Diana Biagioli (Independent Professional)
 
“Designing a Concentration in Translation for a Four-Year College”
Reyes Lazaro (Smith College)
10:30-12:15
Panel IIB: Teaching Russian Through Translation
Chair: Brian J. Baer

*Presentation titles subject to change

"Translating Anna Akhmatova"
Julia Trubikhina (Hunter College) and Christopher Czubay (Hunter College)

"Teaching Translation as an Advanced Language Course"
Ainsley Morse (Pomona College)
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Nadya Peterson (Hunter College)
12:15-1:00
Lunch Break
1:00-2:30
Panel III: Bringing Translation to Non-Translation Classrooms
Chair: Esther Allen (Baruch College)
 
"Teaching Translation from All Languages: Evaluation, Integration, and Relevant Readings (for the Professor Who Knows Only Some of Them)"
Sibelan Forrester (Swarthmore College)
 
“Possibility of the Impossible: Comparing Translations of Osip Mandelstam’s Epigram to Stalin”
Ian Probstein (Touro College)
 
“Comparative Translations in the Intermediate Hindi Classroom”
Jason Grunebaum (University of Chicago)
​2:45-4:15
Panel IV: Roundtable – Reading like a Translator
Chair/Discussant: Julie Van Peteghem (Hunter College)
 
Karen Emmerich (Princeton University)
Anne Janusch (University of Chicago)
Jennifer Zoble (New York University)
4:30-5:30
Panel V: Issues of Inclusivity, Gender, and Diversity in Translation
 Chair: Esther Allen (Baruch College)
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“Teaching Translation through Gender Topics: Adapting the Instructional Design of an Introductory Translation Course”
 Iván Villanueva-Jordán (Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas)

“The Gender Gap in Translation: Translator Advocacy and Curricular Applications”
 Margaret Carson (Borough of Manhattan Community College)

5:45-6:00
 
Continuing Conversations: Looking Ahead
Margarit Ordukhanyan (Hunter College)

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Aron Aji is the Director of MFA in Literary Translation at University of Iowa. A native of Turkey, he has translated works by Bilge Karasu, Murathan Mungan, Elif Shafak, LatifeTekin, and other Turkish writers, including three book-length works by Karasu: Death in Troy; The Garden of Departed Cats, (2004 National Translation Award); and A Long Day’s Evening, (NEA Literature Fellowship, and short-listed for the 2013 PEN Translation Prize). He also edited, Milan Kundera and the Art of Fiction. Aji leads the Translation Workshop, and teaches courses on retranslation, poetry and translation; theory, and contemporary Turkish literature. He is also the president of The American Literary Translators Association.
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  • Brian James Baer is Professor of Russian and Translation Studies at Kent State University. He is the author of the monographs Other Russias (2009) and Translation and the Making of Modern Russian Literature (2016), as well as the editor of several collected volumes, including Beyond the Ivory Tower: Re-thinking Translation Pedagogy with Geoffrey Koby (2003), Contexts, Subtexts, Pretexts: Literary Translation in Eastern Europe and Russia (2011), Researching Translation and Interpreting, with Claudia Angelelli (2015), Translation in Russian Contexts, with Susanna Witt (2018), and Queering Translation, Translating the Queer, with Klaus Kaindl (2018). He is founding editor of the journal Translation and Interpreting Studies and co-editor of the Bloomsbury book series Literatures, Cultures, Translation. He is also the translator of Juri Lotman's final monograph, The Unpredictable Workings of Culture (2013), and a forthcoming collection of essays by Lotman on cultural memory. He is the current president of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association.
​Short bios for all other presenters forthcoming. ​

​Logistics and Accommodations

Hunter College is located on Manhattan's Upper East Side, on the intersection of 68th Street and Lexington Avenue and is easily reachable by subway, with the 6 (Hunter College stop) and F, N, Q (Lexington 63rd St. stop). Upon arrival at Hunter, you must check in with a valid photo ID at the security desk located on the first floor of Hunter West Building (south-west corner of 68th Street and Lexington Avenue). 

If you are traveling from out of state, some nearby options for accommodations include Bentley Hotel, Renaissance Hotel New York 57, and The Franklin.
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