UCML plenary, 4 July 2014
Collaboration in
Languages: Celebrating
success
‘Translating Cultures: the place
of languages in thematic and
interdisciplinary research’
Charles Forsdick
AHRC Themes: Background
• ‘Future Directions’ consultation with
researchers (Feb-May 2009)
• Further consultation with key partners
& Subject Associations & via HEI visits
• Themes shaped and refined by
Theme Advisory Groups
AHRC Themes
• Science in Culture
• Digital Transformations
• Care for the Future
• Translating Cultures
• Connected Communities
(with other Research
Councils)
Translating Cultures: Overview
• In a world seen to be increasingly characterized by
transnational and globalized connections, need for
understanding & communication across diverse cultures;
• Role of ‘translation’, in its broadest sense, in the
transmission, interpretation, transformation and sharing of
languages, values, beliefs, histories and narratives;
• Addressing range of issues including:
cultural exchange & diplomacy,
multiculturalism, (in)tolerance, identities
& migration, youth / on-line language &
identity
• Promoting work across languages,
disciplines & sectors
Strategic objective 1
How can research into languages and cultures anywhere
in the world and at any time:
develop knowledge of the nature of translation as a process
that occurs across different languages, cultures,
generations, media, genres and sectors – and permit in
particular an emphasis on the cultural dynamics of
translation, as well as on analysis of its distinctiveness in
relation to other processes of interpretation, transfer,
imitation, transformation and exchange;
Strategic objective 2
How can research into languages and cultures anywhere in the world
and at any time:
engage effectively – from an Arts and Humanities
perspective – with key areas of public concern such as
diplomacy, commerce, conflict and security, economic
growth, migration, education, health and well-being, law,
ethics and the environment by informing the work of policy
makers and public, private and third sector organizations.
Translating Cultures: Aims
• explore the sites, locations and zones within,
across and between which translation occurs,
with particular reference to the role of translation in
connecting the global, regional, national and local;
• encourage understanding of the role of the
intermediaries who perform the work of translation;
• invite reflection on the vehicles of translation, such
as narratives, performances, objects and other
cultural artefacts;
• interrogate the contexts in which translation
occurs, both from a historical perspective and in
terms of more contemporary interactions such as
digital media and communications.
Scope
Translation is conceived in its broadest possible sense
and relates not exclusively to processes that are
interlingual, but also, for example, to those that are
intermedial or intercultural:
• Might also encompass issues such as the
‘untranslatable’, and the impact of what is
transformed, gained or lost in the process of
translation;
• Encourages engagement with the ways in which
translation – with ‘inward’ and ‘outward’ vectors –
may be seen to be constitutive of cultures in their
formation, projection and transformation.
• Contributes to understanding of the role of
translation both in processes of artistic and
literary creation, and as an active contributor
in the development of new knowledge and
understanding;
• Develops understanding of the ethics of
translation, in the light of a range of
phenomena including globalization and digital
communication;
• Permits a closer interrogation of the politics
and place of translation in a variety of public,
private and voluntary bodies and their wider
contexts.
Theme Activity to Date
• 11 Research Development Awards
• Highlight notices in Networking & Fellowships: 30 and 37 awards made
• 3 large Theme Grants
• Research Innovation Awards
• Related awards made through responsive mode
Collaborations
•
AHRC-HEA symposia on interculturalism and translating
cultures
•
Institute for Government, policy workshops
•
BA/Guardian Language Festival
•
Cheltenham Literature Festival
•
MOD/Dstl
ML Research Fellowships
Dr Emma Campbell, University of Warwick
Translation in Medieval Francophone Texts and
Manuscripts
Dr Helen Finch, University of Leeds
Literary testimony, transnational memories: The politics
of transmission of Holocaust testimony in the German
cultural field
Dr Siobhan Shilton, University of Bristol
Transcultural Encounters: Postcolonialism in the Visual
Arts
ML Research Fellowships
Dr Gigliola Sulis, University of Leeds
The Island, the Nation, the World. Sergio Atzeni
and the post-modern definition of Sardinian
ethnic identity
Professor Stuart Taberner, University of
Leeds
German-language Literature and
Transnationalism
ML Research Development
Awards
Professor Hilary Footitt, University of
Reading
Languages and international NGOs: cultural
knowledge in communities in crisis
Dr Helena Miguelez-Carballeira, Bangor
University
Translation in Non-State Cultures: Perspectives
from Wales
ML Research Networking
Awards
Dr Lucille Desblache, Roehampton University
Translating Music
Professor Michael Heffernan, University of
Nottingham
Re-Enacting the Silk Road: Transnational Encounters
for the 21st Century
ML Research Networking
Awards
Dr Nicola McLelland, University of Nottingham
Towards a History of Modern Foreign Language
Teaching and Learning (MFLTL)
Professor Andrea Noble, Durham University
Photography and the Transnational Politics of Affect
Dr Emma Wagstaff, University of Birmingham
Contemporary French Poetic Practice: an
interdisciplinary approach
ML-focused Theme Large Grants
PI: Professor Charles Burdett,
University of Bristol
Transnationalizing Modern Languages:
Mobility, Identity and Translation in
Modern Italian Cultures
• Italy offers an exceptional example for the
study of ‘translating cultures’;
• Communities identified as ‘Italian’ have
formed all over the world, while in the last 30
years Italy has also become a destination
country for migrants from a variety of national,
religious and ethnic backgrounds;
• All these communities have shaped the way
in which 'Italianness' is understood within the
nation and beyond its confines, while
contributing to the formation of local identities
in linguistic and cultural contexts markedly
different from Italy.
• Seeks new framework for the discipline of
Modern Languages as a whole, one which
sees the study of the interaction of
cultures as its most essential characteristic;
• Brings together researchers from the different
subject areas of Modern Languages and
shows the importance of the connection with
research in other arts and social science
disciplines;
• Enhances public understanding of Modern
Languages by fostering public debate
between discipline specialists and policy
makers.
PI: Professor Alison Phipps, University
of Glasgow
Researching Multilingually at the Borders
of Language: the Body, Law and the State
http://researching-multilingually-at-borders.com
• How can translation and interpretation
processes and practices at the borders
of language, the body, law, and the
state be rigorously theorised and
researched, and research findings
effectively represented and evaluated,
in a multilingual manner?
• integrated and innovative programme that
promises: (a) to transform academic and
public understandings of processes and
practices of translation and interpretation; (b)
to develop more effective research
practices in contexts where more than one
language is used; and (c) to inform the work
of policy makers and public, private and
third-sector organisations in key areas of
public policy concern (education, health and
well-being, law, migration, and security).
Structure:
• Researching Multilingually and
Translating Cultures (RMTC) 'hub';
• five original case studies (involving
research in the UK and US, as well as
in Bulgaria, Gaza, The Netherlands,
Romania and Sierra Leone);
• Creative Arts and Translating Cultures
(CATC) 'hub'.
POTENTIAL OF LARGE-SCALE
COLLABORATION :
develop, within a single, integrated project, new
theoretical, conceptual and empirical
understandings of processes and practices of
translation, interpretation and representation,
and also of the methodological, ethical and
epistemological issues that arise when research
is conducted in contexts where more than one
language is used.
the place of languages in thematic and
interdisciplinary research
• Assert clear disciplinarity;
• Challenge to alinguistic/ linguistically
mute fields;
• Seek actively collaborative
interdisciplinary working on equal terms;
• Enhance internationalization of research
through language/multilingualism;
• Integrate questions of language to
issues of public concern.
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www.ahrc.ac.uk
www.translating.hypotheses.org/
www.translatingcultures.org.uk
@charlesforsdick
@Trans_Cultures
craf@liv.ac.uk
translatingcultures@liv.ac.uk