XX SYMPOSIUM ON TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES
KäTu2023: Translation/Interpreting and Sustainability
University of Turku, 13-15 April 2023
KäTu2023 SYMPOSIUM THEME
The theme of the 2023 KäTu Symposium is Translation/Interpreting and Sustainability. Through this theme, we wish to respond to the urgency of the concept of sustainable development, and promote the viewpoint of sustainability (ecological, social and economical) as an integral part of all human behavior. Needless to say, sustainable development, defined by the United Nations as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” (The Sustainable Development Agenda, FAQ) make great demands also on translation, both in the sense of product and process. As expressed by Michael Cronin in the introduction to his monograph Eco-Translation: Translation and Ecology in the Age of the Anthropocene (p. 1), ”translation as a body of ideas and a set of practices is central to any serious or sustained attempt to think about th[e] interconnectedness and vulnerability [of our species] in the age of human-induced climate change.”
The theme Translation and Sustainability and may be explored in relation to any of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/) and be related to various perspectives, including but not limited to the following:
- Eco-translation and environmental translation
- The political ecology of translation/interpreting
- Translation/interpreting and social equity
- High-Tech versus Low-Tech translation practices
- Emotion and psychological capital in language professions
- Linguistic and cultural diversity
- Sustainability and translation/interpreting technologies
- Sustainability and travel writing
- The sustainability of translation as a profession and industry
- Sustainable translation policies
- Interpreting and minority languages
- Translation and democracy
- Translation and peace
- Sustainable research in Translation Studies
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. One important target group is doctoral students, who are offered the opportunity to present their current work and receive valuable feedback.
For nineteen years, the KäTu symposia have brought together a wide array of participants interested in the field and its research, from translators and interpreters of spoken as well as sign languages, to 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 those Finnish universities which train future translators and interpreters. Hosting the symposium is rotated between these universities.
The 2023 symposium will be held at the University of Turku, which was also the host when the symposium was organised for the first time in 2003. The 2023 symposium is thus both the twentieth symposium and marks the twentieth anniversary of KäTu. To celebrate this, we will organise a session to remember the past where we wish to invite especially those who took part in organising the first symposium. To help with the commemoration of symposiums past, we would be happy to receive photos from these past symposiums. If you have any photos you would be willing to share, please contact leena.salmi@utu.fi.
2023 PLENARY PRESENTATIONS
Souleymane Bachir Diagne is Professor of French and of Philosophy and Director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Columbia. He is a modern-day philosopher whose area of expertise includes history of logic, history of philosophy, Islamic philosophy, African philosophy and literature. He is the author of African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson, and the Idea of Negritude (Seagull Books, 2011), The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa, (Codesria, 2016), Open to Reason: Muslim Philosophers in Conversation with Western Tradition, (Columbia University Press, 2018). Postcolonial Bergson (Fordham University Press, 2019). Last year, he published the book De langue à langue, l’hospitalité de la traduction (Albin Michel, 2022) where he takes a humanistic and ethical approach to translation between dominated and dominating languages. The title of Professor Diagne’s presentation is Humanism in Translation.
Séverine Hubscher-Davidson is Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies and Head of translation in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics at the Open University where she teaches. Her research is highly interdisciplinary and focuses on translation psychology and issues of wellbeing in the translation professions. She is the author ofImproving the Emotional Intelligence of Translators: A Roadmap for an Experimental Training Intervention. (co-authored w/ C. Lehr, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and Translation and Emotion: A Psychological Perspective (Routledge, 2021). She is currently working on a new book Psychological Capital and Sustainability in the Translation Profession to appear in Bloomsbury Academic. The title of Senior Lecturer Hubscher-Davidson’s presentation is The Psychology of Sustainability and Professional Translation: Taking the Long View.
Professor Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov is Professor of Multilingual Translation Studies and Vice Head of the School of Languages and Translation Studies at the University of Turku. Her research interests include literary translation, translation history, and ethics of translation. Throughout her career, she has worked on the notion of ”voice” in translation, which she has examined from theoretical, historical, and ethical perspectives. The title of Professor Tailvalkoski-Shilov’s presentation is Kohti vihreämpää käännösteknologiaa: katsaus aihetta koskevaan tutkimukseen (Towards Greener Translation Technology: A Review of Relevant Literature.)
WORKSHOPS
The Symposium has 4 workshops. Their working languages vary (see below). Registration is required for all workshops in conjunction with symposium registration.
WORKSHOP 1 (working languages: Finnish and English): Kohti kestävää tulevaisuutta: translatoristen ammattien tulevaisuuden tutkimuksen työpaja / Towards a Sustainable Future: A Workshop on the Future of the Translatorial Professions. Organised by Kaisa Koskinen (Tampere University), Juha Eskelinen (University of Helsinki), Minna Kujamäki (University of Eastern Finland).
WORKSHOP 2 (working languages: Finnish and English): Miten integroida ympäristökysymyksiä käännös- tai tulkkauskursseille? Kääntämisen ja tulkkauksen opetusmenetelmävaranto -työpaja / How to Incorporate Environmental Aspects into Translator and Interpreter Training? Organised by Päivi Kuusi (University of Helsinki) & Minna Ruokonen (University of Eastern Finland).
WORKSHOP 3 (working language: Finnish): Yhteistyöllä tulkkauksen opetus kestävälle pohjalle (Working Together to Create a Sustainable Basis for Interpreting Teaching). Organised by Tutta Saalin (University of Eastern Finland).
WORKSHOP 4 (working language: Finnish): Selkomukauttaminen ja sen strategiat (Easy Language adaptation and Its Strategies). Organised by Marja Kivilehto (Tampere University) ja Idastiina Valtasalmi (Tampere University).
PRESENTATIONS AND POSTERS
Session 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 Thursday April 13th, after the welcoming event organized in celebration of the 20th KäTu-symposium. An award will be given for the best poster.
Deadline for submitting proposals for presentations and posters: Friday, 20 January 2023
The maximum length of a proposal is 2,500 characters – including spaces, but excluding references. The proposals must be submitted as email attachments using the template that can be found here. The proposal and the subject line of the email must specify the format of the proposal: session presentation, poster, or workshop presentation (including the workshop number). Please submit your proposal in rtf, doc, or docx format to katu2023@utu.fi. Notifications of acceptance of proposals for presentations and posters will be announced by Monday, 20 February 2023. For information concerning the process and criteria for evaluating abstracts, please visit here.
SPECIAL TRAINING EVENT FOR PHD STUDENTS ON Thursday, 13 April 2023
A pre-symposium training event will be organised on Thursday, 13 April 2023. It is aimed primarily at doctoral students but is open to everyone. The workshop is organized in collaboration with the Langnet network and the Doctoral Programme Utuling. The topic of the event is Tutkijan paikat: refleksiivisyyttä käännöstietelijöille [The Researcher’s Position: Reflexivity for Translation Scholars]. The event consists of a lecture by Professor Kaisa Koskinen ja University Lecturer Sari Hokkanen and a collaborative, hands-on workshop.
The workshop is organised in Finnish.
CONFERENCE LANGUAGES
The primary working languages of the symposium and its sessions are Finnish, Swedish and English.
TIEDON HELMI (PEARL OF WISDOM) AWARD
The Pearl of Wisdom award, granted annually by the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL), will be awarded at the symposium for the seventh time. The award is granted in alternate years on the basis of research or teaching merits. The awardee can be either a person, an organisation or a community, and the award can be granted for an extraordinary individual undertaking, a long-term activity, or their life’s work. In 2023, the award will be granted on the basis of research merits.
The award decision is made by the board of SKTL, based on a proposal by the committee of the Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section. Suggestions for nomination can be sent by any member of the Section. Members must carefully observe the nomination principles, which are available in Finnish here. (Requires logging in, access is limited to members of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters.)
Proposals, which must detail the grounds for the nomination, should be sent to the Section Secretary, Sari Hokkanen, sari.hokkanen@tuni.fi, no later than Wednesday, 15 February 2023.
PUBLICATION
Articles based on the symposium presentations will be compiled in the next issue of the online MikaEL publication. MikaEL is an open access journal that publishes both peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed articles within Translation and Interpreting Studies. Publications from previous symposia can be accessed here.
The editors for the next issue of MikaEL will be announced at the symposium, and contributor guidelines will be published after the symposium.
REGISTRATION AND SYMPOSIUM FEE
Registration for the symposium opens in March 2023 and will be available soon. A single registration form will be used to sign up for the symposium and all the workshops.
The symposium fee is 120 euros for non-members of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters or 65 euros for SKTL members and doctoral students, or 20 euros for undergraduate students (prices include 24% VAT).
ACCOMMODATION
Conference participants are requested to make their own hotel reservations and pay for their own accommodation. Quota reservations have been made at hotels in the city centre; the lower prices can only be guaranteed for a limited time and are subject to availability. More information about the hotels will be added here soon.
INFORMATION AND CONTACT DETAILS
Circulars pertaining to the KäTu2023 Symposium will be published on the symposium website. The preliminary programme of the conference will be published on Tuesday, 28 February 2023. For all correspondence concerning the symposium, please use the symposium email address: katu2023@utu.fi.
THE COVID-19 SITUATION
While closely monitoring national and regional developments and recommendations, the organisers are planning for an onsite conference in Turku.
PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME
Thursday, 13 April 2023
12.00–14.00 Doctoral researchers’ training event
13.00–14.00 KäTu Conference registration
14.00–16.00 Section presentations and workshops
16.00–16.30 Official opening of the symposium
16.30–17.30 Plenary presentation (Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov)
17.30–17.50 Pearl of Wisdom award & Doctoral Dissertation in Translation Studies awards
17.50–18.10 Remembrance of Symposiums Past: KäTu 20 years
18.10–19.00 Posters presentations and mingle with sparkling wine and non-alcoholic alternatives
Friday, 14 April 2023
8.30–9.00 Registration
9.00–10.30 Section presentations
10.30–10.45 Break
10.45–12.45 Section presentations and workshops
12.45–14.00 Lunch (at own cost)
14.00–15.00 Plenary presentation (Séverine Hubscher-Davidson)
15.00–15.30 Coffee break with posters and sponsor presentations
15.30–17.30 Workshop, panel discussion and section presentations
17.30–18.30 Meeting of the Section for Teachers and Researchers of SKTL
19.00–19.30 Dinner reception at Turku City Hall
Saturday, 15 April 2023
9.00–10.00 Plenary presentation (Souleymane Bachir Diagne) and poster award
10.00–10.15 Break
10.15–11.45 Section presentations
11.45–13.15 Lunch (at own cost)
13.15–15.15 Section presentations, workshop and panel discussion
15.15–16.30 Coffee, poster award closing of the symposium
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
University of Turku
Xiaoyi Cheng
Tiina Holopainen
Léa Huotari (Chair of the Local Organising Committee)
Laura Ivaska
Malin Podlevskikh Carlström
Leena Salmi
Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov (Doctoral event)
Damon Tringham
Outi Veivo
The Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters
Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section
Esa Penttilä, University of Eastern Finland (Section Chair)
Juha Eskelinen, University of Helsinki
Sari Hokkanen, Tampere University (Secretary)
Minna Ruokonen, University of Eastern Finland (Vice-chair)
Gun-Viol Vik, Diaconia University of Applied Sciences
Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov, University of Turku
Kääntämisen ja tulkkauksen tutkimuksen symposiumi 