XXI SYMPOSIUM ON TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES
KäTu2024: CONNECTION
University of Tampere, 19-20 April 2024
KäTu2024 SYMPOSIUM THEME
The theme of the 2024 KäTu Symposium is Connection. The theme is meant to highlight the importance of translation, interpreting, and other translatorial activities in enabling connection between languages and cultures. How does translatorial action build or support connections at different levels – between people, communities, ideologies, and worlds? What is the role of translatorial actors (for example, translators, interpreters, or other actors that cross language boundaries) in creating and maintaining connections? And what is the role of automated translatorial action (machine translation)? What is the potential of translatorial action to connect people in general? What happens when connection is not possible or not desired, despite or even because of translatorial action?
The theme can be approached from a number of perspectives, for example:
- Social networks in the translation and interpreting field (connections within the language services industry, between translators and interpreters in the industry and people outside it, and connections between industry and research)
- The role of artificial intelligence in establishing, maintaining, or obstructing connections (machine translation, generative AI)
- The connection between translations and their source texts as well as the disconnects (translation through intermediate languages, transediting, pseudotranslations)
- Source texts and their connections with contexts (AV translation, multimodality)
- The connections between texts and readers (reception studies, user-centred translation)
- Connections and communication in interpreted communication (connections in on-site and remote interpreting, lingua francas as interpreting languages, interpreters’ interaction skills, challenging interpreting situations)
- The interface between translation and interpreting and other functions (e.g., translation revision)
- Accessibility services as connection builders (audio description, speech-to-text interpreting, subtitling, Easy Language)
- Connections between translatorial action and other (professional) work, in private or public sectors (paraprofessional translation; volunteer translation and interpreting, fan translation)
- How translator and interpreter training interacts with research, the profession, and other actors
- Connections between Translation Studies and other disciplines, between different disciplines, and within Translation Studies itself
In keeping with established KäTu tradition, presentations and posters on other topics related to translation and interpreting are also welcome.
PURPOSE OF THE KÄTU SYMPOSIA
The annual KäTu symposia offer researchers, teachers and practitioners of translation and interpreting a forum where they can discuss the phenomena of the field, their ongoing research projects, and the state and development of Translation Studies in general. One important target group are doctoral researchers, who are offered the opportunity to present their current work and receive valuable feedback.
We would also like to extend a warm welcome to those in the public and business sectors whose daily work involves translating, interpreting, summarizing, or giving information in multilingual contexts.
Held since 2003, the KäTu symposia have brought together – as speakers and listeners – translators and interpreters of spoken and sign languages as well as researchers, teachers, students, and others interested in translation and interpreting. The symposia are held on a rotating basis at each of the Finnish universities train future translators and interpreters. The responsible university organizes each symposium in collaboration with the Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL). The 2024 symposium will be held at Tampere University, which is hosting the symposium for the fifth time.
PRESENTATIONS, WORKSHOPS AND POSTERS
The 2024 plenary presentations will be given by Professor of Interpreting Studies Franz Pöchhacker (University of Vienna) and Tiina Kinnunen, founding member and chairperson of The Translator’s Guide to the Industry. In addition to the plenary presentations, the programme will consist of presentations in parallel sessions (20 minutes + 5 minutes for discussion), workshops, poster presentations, and panel discussion (in Finnish). The theme of the panel discussion is the meaning of empathy in multilingual connections. The panelists will speak about the topic from the research, industry and training perspectives. The discussion will be moderated by writer–journalist Roman Schatz.
Workshops are sessions of approximately 1.5 hours that are devoted to general discussion of a specific topic (in either a panel discussion or small working groups) or for collaborative investigation of a topic. There will be a dedicated session for poster presentations and a prize for the best poster.
KäTu 2024 will feature three workshops. The topics and conveners are:
- Workshop 1 (in Finnish): Tekoälyn rooli kääntämisen ja tulkkauksen opetuksessa: Kääntämisen ja tulkkauksen opetusmenetelmävaranto -työpaja [The role of AI in the teaching of translation and interpreting: workshop of the Finnish Database for Teaching Methods in Translation and Interpreting]. Conveners: Minna Ruokonen, Mari Pakkala-Weckström, Päivi Kuusi and Maarit Koponen.
- Workshop 2 (in English): Speculative Research and Translation Fiction. Convener: Mattia Thibault.
- Workshop 3 (in Finnish): Yhteyden rakentaminen tai katkeaminen institutionaalisissa vuorovaikutustilanteissa [Building or Breaking Down Connections in Institutional Communication]. Conveners: Eliisa Pitkäsalo and Taina Pitkänen. This workshop welcomes presentations by participants on the workshop topic.
All workshop abstracts and the call for presentation proposals for workshop 3 are available on the KäTu website.
Deadline for submitting proposals for workshop and session presentations and posters: Monday, January 22, 2024. (Deadline extended on 11 Jan.)
To submit a proposal:
- Use this template to write your proposal, which should be a maximum of 2,500 characters (including spaces but excluding references).
- Name it according to the last name of first author of the paper and save it in rtf, doc, or docx format. For example: lastname.docx.
- Send it as an attachment in an email to katu2024@tuni.fi. In the subject line of the mail, specify whether you are proposing a presentation or poster.
Notifications of acceptance of proposals for presentations and posters will be announced on or before February 26, 2024. For information concerning the process and criteria for evaluating abstracts, please go here.
TRAINING EVENT FOR DOCTORAL RESEARCHERS ON APRIL 18, 2024
A pre-symposium training event will be organised on Thursday, April 18, 2024. It is aimed primarily at doctoral researchers but is open to everyone. Further information will be posted on the symposium website in February.
CONFERENCE LANGUAGES
The primary working languages of the symposium and its sessions are Finnish, Swedish and English. If you would like to use another language and require interpreting services, please contact the symposium organizers.
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 ninth time. The award is granted in alternating years for merits in research or teaching. The awardee can be either a person, an organization, or a community. The award can be granted for an extraordinary individual undertaking, a long-term activity, or life’s work. In 2024, the award will be granted for merits in teaching.
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 should carefully observe the nomination principles, which are available in Finnish here (requires logging in and access is limited to members of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters).
Proposals, which should detail the justifications for the nomination are to be sent to Vice President Minna Ruokonen, minna.ruokonen@uef.fi, no later than February 15th, 2024.
PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE (changes possible and likely)
Thursday 18.4.2024
12:00-16:00 Postgraduate student event
Friday 19.4.2024
9:00–10:30 Workshops and session presentations
10:30–11:00 Coffee break
11:00–12:15 Opening of the Symposium and the first plenary presentation
12:15–13:15 Lunch break
13:15–15:15 Workshops and session presentations
15:15–16:00 Coffee break and poster presentations
16:00–17:30 Session presentations
About 19:00: Conference dinner, Ravintola Tampella, (at your own expense)
Saturday 20.4.2024
9:00–9:45 Meeting of the Section for Teachers and Researchers of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters
10:00–11:00 Second plenary presentation
11:00–11:15 Tiedon helmi (Pearl of Wisdom) award presentation
11:15–12:30 Lunch break
12:30–14:00 Session presentations/ panel discussion
14:00–14:30 Coffee break
14:30–16:00 Session presentations and Closing of the Symposium
PUBLICATION
A selection of articles based on the symposium presentations will be compiled in Mikael 18:1. Mikael is an open access journal that publishes both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed articles within Translation and Interpreting Studies. Participants of or those whose abstract has been accepted to the KäTu2024 symposium may submit an article proposal to the publication.
Mikael 18:1 will be published in April 2025 before the next KäTu symposium. Pre-2024 publications can be accessed here. Contributor guidelines will be sent to all participants via email after the symposium and they will also be available on the Mikael website (https://journal.fi/mikael/kirjoitusohjeet).
INFORMATION AND CONTACT DETAILS
Further details on the KäTu2024 Symposium will be published on the symposium website. For all correspondence concerning the event, please use the symposium email address: katu2024@tuni.fi
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
University of Tampere
Anni-Kaisa Leminen (Chair of the Local Organising Committee)
Maria Annukka Jakkula
Dinah Krenzler-Behm
Mary Nurminen
Anu Viljanmaa
The Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters
Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section
Eliisa Pitkäsalo, Tampere University (Section Chair)
Juha Eskelinen, University of Helsinki
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 