XVIII SYMPOSIUM ON TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES
KäTu2020: Translation and Interpreting: Focusing on Quality
University of Helsinki, 16–18 April 2020
(Pre-Symposium Postgraduate Student Event and Kääntäjäkoulutuksen historiikki Workshop [History of Translator Training in Finland] 16 April 2020; Symposium proper 17–18 April 2020)
KäTu2020 SYMPOSIUM THEME
The theme of the 2020 KäTu Symposium is: Translation and Interpreting: Focusing on Quality. This year’s theme may be approached from a number of perspectives, including the following:
- Definitions and standards for quality in different contexts, and factors determining translation and interpreting quality
- Best practices for assessment of interpreting and translation quality
- Quality problems and best practices
- Quality and its relation to associated concepts, such as usability, accuracy, and equivalence
- Quality and its relation to phenomena such as the role and agency of the translator and interpreter
- The translation and interpreting market, and competitive bidding as a factor in quality
- Translator and interpreter training programmes as a guarantee of quality
- Theory – Practice quality correlation
- Mutability vs permanence and the notion of quality (for instance, from a historical perspective)
- Human, machine, and artificial intelligence (AI)
In keeping with established KäTu tradition, presentations and posters on other topics related to translation and interpreting are also welcome.
PURPOSE
The annual KäTu symposia offer researchers, teachers and practitioners of translation and interpreting a forum where they can discuss the diverse phenomena of the field, their ongoing research projects, and the state and development of Translation Studies in general. Doctoral students, in particular, are an important KäTu target group. They are offered the opportunity to present their work in its different stages of development, and receive valuable feedback.
For seventeen years, the KäTu symposia have brought together a wide array of participants interested in the field and its research: audience members and speakers, translators and interpreters of spoken as well as sign languages, researchers and teachers of translation and interpreting. The KäTu symposia are organised as a collaborative effort between the Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL), and the different Finnish universities which train future translators and interpreters. Hosting the symposium is rotated between these Finnish universities. The 2020 symposium will be held at the University of Helsinki, which is proud to be organising and hosting the event for the fourth time.
2020 PLENARY PRESENTATIONS
The plenary presentations for 2020 will be delivered by Professor Pamela Faber Benítez (University of Granada) and Professor Jörg Tiedemann (University of Helsinki). Professor Faber Benítez’s presentation is titled Terminological Competence and Quality in Specialized Translation, and Professor Tiedemann’s presentation is titled Open and Free: Tools for Translators and the Multilingual World.
WORKSHOPS AND PANEL DISCUSSIONS
There are nine workshops/panel discussions and their working language is Finnish, except for Workshop 9, for which the working language is English. Registration is required and takes place in conjunction with symposium registration.
WORKSHOP 1: Kääntäjäkoulutuksen historiikki. [History of Translator Training in Finland]. Organized by the members of the History Working Group: Outi Paloposki, Leena Salmi, Kaisa Koskinen, Esa Penttilä, Jaana Puskala, Mari Pakkala-Weckström, Gun-Viol Vik and Laura Ivaska. PLEASE NOTE: This workshop will be held on Thursday, 16 April, 16-20, and is open to all KäTu participants.
PANEL DISCUSSION 2: Arkilaatu ja laatuarki – kokemuksia laadukkaasta toimijuudesta kääntämisen ketjussa [Everyday Quality and Quality Every Day: High-Quality Agency Experiences in the ‘Translation Chain’]. Organized by Tiina Kinnunen and Satu Leinonen.
PANEL DISCUSSION/WORKSHOP 3: Kone saavutettavuuden palveluksessa: riittääkö laatu? [Increased Accessibility through Machine Translation: Achieving a Satisfactory Level of Quality?]. Organized by members of the MeMAD project: Maija Hirvonen (University of Tampere), Maarit Koponen (University of Helsinki), Liisa Tiittula (University of Helsinki) and Kaisa Vitikainen (University of Helsinki/Yleisradio – The Finnish Broadcasting Company).
WORKSHOP 4: Kääntäjien aineistot arkistoissa [Translators’ Archives]. Organized by Laura Ivaska (University of Turku) and Sakari Katajamäki (SKS – The Finnish Literature Society).
WORKSHOP 5: Selkokieli ja kääntäminen: Kääntäjäopiskelijoiden valmiudet selkokielistäjinä [Plain Language and Translation: Translation Students’ Abilities in Crafting Easy-to-Read Texts]. Organized by Päivi Kuusi (University of Helsinki) and Leealaura Leskelä (Selkokeskus – The Finnish Centre for Easy Language).
WORKSHOP 6: Stereotypiat kumoon, käännösala tunnetuksi! [Down with Stereotypes, Up with the Reputation of the Translation Industry!]. Organized by Minna Kujamäki, Juho Suokas, Niina Syrjänen and Erja Vottonen (University of Eastern Finland), Maarit Laitinen (SKTL – The Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters) and Taina Ukkola (Kieliasiantuntijat ry).
WORKSHOP 7: Termityön iloa! Tieteen termipankista kääntämisen opetuksen ja tutkimuksen työväline [The Joy of Terminology Work!: The Helsinki Term Bank for the Arts and Sciences as a Tool for Teaching Translation and Translation Research]. Organized by Johanna Enqvist, Ritva Hartama-Heinonen, Päivi Pasanen and Kaarina Pitkänen-Heikkilä (University of Helsinki).
WORKSHOP 8: Yhteistyöllä laatua opetukseen: kääntämisen ja tulkkauksen opetusmenetelmävaranto [Better Teaching Quality through Collaboration: The Interpreting and Translation Pedagogical Resources Platform]. Organized by Päivi Kuusi (University of Helsinki), Minna Kujamäki (University of Eastern Finland) and Minna Ruokonen (University of Eastern Finland).
WORKSHOP 9: Assessment of quality in (re)translating musicalized prose: A case study on the Finnish, Swedish, and Italian (re)translations of the ‘Sirens’ episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Organized by Arianna Autieri (University of Warwick) and Lauri A. Niskanen (University of Helsinki).
Full Workshop descriptions can be found here.
PRESENTATIONS AND POSTERS
Presentations should last 20 minutes, after which there will be 5 minutes for questions and 5 minutes to allow for changing rooms. Presentations will be held in parallel sessions. There will be a dedicated session for poster presentations on Friday, in conjunction with the afternoon coffee break.
Proposals (of up to 2,500 characters, including spaces, but excluding references), should be submitted in rtf, doc, or docx format in email attachments to katu2020@helsinki.fi by Friday 17 January 2020 at the latest. The subject line of the email message, and of the proposal, must specify whether the proposal is for a presentation or poster.
Notification of acceptance will be announced by 7 February 2020. For information concerning the process and criteria for evaluating abstracts please visit the KäTu Symposium website: https://katu-symposiumi.com/about-katu/.
POSTGRADUATE STUDENT EVENT: “POPULARIZATION OF RESEARCH AND GRANT FUND APPLICATIONS”, 16 April 2020, 12-16
A pre-Symposium student training event will be held the day before the start of the Symposium proper. This even is organized in co-operation with the Langnet network network and is funded by a Kopiosto grant from the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters. Although this event is aimed primarily at postgraduate students, anyone interested is welcome to attend.
The theme of the event is popularizing research and applying for grant funding. The training event includes both lectures and a workshop. The lectures deal with raising the profile of research through its popularization, applying for funding, as well as developing a research plan. During the workshop, participants will receive feedback from experienced researchers and postgraduate students on their own research plans. The working languages of the training event are Finnish and English.
More information on this event, including the registration process will be available here.
WORKING LANGUAGES
The primary working languages of the Symposium and its section are Finnish, Swedish and English. Enquiries about the use of other languages, as well as interpreting possibilities, should be addressed to the organizers.
PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE
Thursday 16 April 2020
12.00–16.00 Postgraduate student event
16.00–20.00 Workshop 1: Kääntäjäkoulutuksen historiikki [History of Translator Training in Finland].
Friday 17 April 2020
9.00–11.00 Workshops and session presentations
11.00–12.00 Lunch break
12.00–14.00 Workshops and session presentations
14.00–16.00 Opening of the Symposium and Pamela Faber Benítez’s plenary presentation
16.00–18.00 Workshops and session presentations
19.00–21.00 Reception hosted by the City of Helsinki
Saturday 18 April 2020
9.00–9.45 Section V Meeting of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters
10.00–11.00 Jörg Tiedemann’s plenary presentation
11.00–11.15 Tiedon helmi (Pearl of Wisdom) Award presentation
11.15–12.15 Lunch break
12.15–16.45 Workshops and session presentations
16.45–17.00 Closing of the Symposium
TIEDON HELMI (PEARL OF WISDOM) AWARD
The Tiedon helmi award, granted annually by the Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters, will be awarded at the Symposium for the fifth time. The criteria for granting the award alternates every year between research and teaching merit, and is awarded to either a person or a community, for an extraordinary undertaking, a long-term activity, or their life’s work. In 2020, the award will be granted on the basis of teaching merit.
The decision on the award is made by the Board of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters on the basis of the proposal of the Committee of the Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section. The proposal is based on nominations received from members of that section. Members must carefully observe the nomination principles, which are available, in Finnish, on the section site. Access to the site is limited to members of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters, once they have logged in.
Proposals detailing the reasons for the nomination should be sent to the Section Vice Chair, Minna Ruokonen, minna.ruokonen@uef.fi, no later than Friday 14 February 2020.
SYMPOSIUM PUBLICATION
Articles based on the presentations delivered at the Symposium will be compiled in the 14th volume of peer reviewed electronic MikaEL publication. All KäTu2020 speakers, poster presenters, and panel and workshop organisers are invited to submit their previously unpublished articles. The 14th volume of MikaEL will be published in March-April 2021, before the next KäTu Symposium. Publications from previous symposia can be accessed online here. The editors for the 14th volume of MikaEL will be announced at the Symposium, and contributor guidelines will be sent to all participants via email after the Symposium; they will also be available on the MikaEL website.
REGISTRATION AND SYMPOSIUM FEE
Registration for the symposium opens in February 2020 and will be available here. A single registration form will be used to sign up for all KäTu events, available on the Symposium website.
The symposium fee is 80 euros for non-members of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters, 40 euros for members and doctoral students, and 20 euros for students (prices include 24% VAT). The fee covers the symposium materials, as well as the coffee breaks on both days.
ACCOMMODATION
Conference participants are responsible for making their own hotel arrangements and for paying for their accommodation themselves. A number of rooms have been set aside in hotels in the vicinity. These rooms are available for a limited period of time and/or as long as these rooms are available. Further information on hotel rooms.
INFORMATION AND CONTACTS
The KäTu2020 Symposium programme will be published in March on the symposium’s web site, before registration deadline. We kindly ask you to use the following e-mail address for all questions and enquiries you may have: katu2020@helsinki.fi. The Conference Secretary is Ms Aino Suoranta of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL).
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
University of Helsinki
Simo Määttä (Chair of the Local Organising Committee)
Elina Billhardt
Ritva Hartama-Heinonen
Irina Kudasheva
Laura Leden
Mari Pakkala-Weckström
Päivi Pasanen
Kaisa Vitikainen
The Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters
Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section
Ritva Hartama-Heinonen, University of Helsinki (Section Chair)
Juha Eskelinen, University of Helsinki
Anne Ketola, Tampere University
Minna Ruokonen, University of Eastern Finland
Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov, University of Turku
We look forward to welcoming you to Helsinki!
Kääntämisen ja tulkkauksen tutkimuksen symposiumi 