XXII SYMPOSIUM ON TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES
KäTu2025: Certainty / Uncertainty
University of Helsinki, Friday, 11 – Saturday, 12 April 2025
KäTu2025 SYMPOSIUM THEME
The theme for the 2025 KäTu Symposium is Certainty / Uncertainty
This year’s symposium theme evokes first and foremost the past history, the current situation, as well as the future of the translation and interpreting field. As the dominance of technology increases in the translation industry, people assert that this increasing dominance will sound the death knell to the traditional field of translation. And yet, our industry has demonstrated resilience through our ongoing development: We are at the vanguard in embracing with enthusiasm and optimism the challenges presented by this new era.
You may approach the symposium theme of certainty and/or uncertainty of the field from various perspectives, including the following:
- the future challenges we face in the translation and interpretation industry
- how we respond to artificial intelligence (AI)
- how certainty and uncertainty manifest themselves in us as students, professionals, teachers, researchers and others in our field.
In keeping with established KäTu symposium tradition, we also invite papers on other issues related to translation and interpreting, their research and pedagogy.
PURPOSE OF THE KäTu SYMPOSIA
The annual KäTu symposia offer researchers, teachers and practitioners of translation and interpreting a forum in which they may 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 offered the opportunity to present their work at the KäTu symposia and receive valuable feedback from experts in the field.
For over twenty years, the KäTu symposia have brought together translators and interpreters of spoken and signed languages, as well as translation and interpreting researchers, teachers, students, and those otherwise interested in the field and its research. Each symposium is a collaborative undertaking: Every year one of the Finnish universities which offers translation and interpreting studies hosts the KäTu symposium together with the Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL).
The 2025 symposium, our twenty-second KäTu symposium!, will be hosted by the University of Helsinki. The symposium weekend will culminate in Helsinki on Saturday evening in SKTL’s anniversary celebration.
PLENARY SESSIONS, PRESENTATIONS, WORKSHOPS AND POSTERS
The 2025 plenary presentations will be delivered by Assistant Professor Paola Gentile (University of Trieste, Italy) and Professor in Nonfiction Literature and Dean of the Faculty of Arts Pirjo Hiidenmaa (University of Helsinki).
In addition to the plenary lectures, the programme will consist of presentations in parallel sessions (20 minutes + 5 minutes for discussion), workshops and poster presentations.
The workshops will be allocated approximately two hours, which makes them well-suited for addressing a broad topic in general terms (as panel discussions or in small groups) or for investigating a specific problem-based topic together. There will be a separate session for poster presentations, and an award will be presented for the best poster.
KäTu 2025 will feature three workshops. Please note that Finnish is the working language for Workshops 1 and 2. The topics and conveners are:
Workshop 1, in Finnish: Palautteen anto tulkkauksen opetuksessa
Conveners: Stuart von Wolff, Tutta Saalin, Anu Viljanmaa, Erja Tenhonen-Lightfoot
Workshop 2, in Finnish: Yhteistyöstä varmuutta kääntämisen ja tulkkauksen opetukseen; Kääntämisen ja tulkkauksen opetusmenetelmävaranto -työpaja
Conveners: Minna Ruokonen, Päivi Kuusi, Maarit Koponen, Mari Pakkala-Weckström
Workshop 3, in Finnish and English: Kaunokirjallisuuden kääntäminen ja (käännös)teknologia: tutkimuksen, käytännön ja juridiikan näkökulmia [Literary Translation and (Translation) Technology considered from Research, Practice and Legal Perspectives]
Convener: Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov
Workshop abstracts and the call for workshop presentation proposals are available on the KäTu website.
Proposals for session presentations and posters are now due at the latest by: Wednesday, 29 January 2025. (Please note that this deadline has been extended).
Proposals may be a maximum of 2,500 characters in length including spaces (but excluding references). Proposals should be written in keeping with the template found here. Proposals are to be submitted as an attachment in rtf, doc or docx format. Proposal document names should adhere to the following format: poster_surname_firstname; abstract_surname_firstname, and in the case of multiple authors, the file name should be that of the first author. Please email your proposals to: abs-katu2025@helsinki.fi. You must specify in the she subject line of your e-mail message, as well as in your proposal, whether you are proposing a section presentation or a poster.
Notification of acceptance will come no later than Friday, 28 February 2025. Please click here for more information concerning evaluation criteria and the abstract evaluation process.
TRAINING EVENT FOR PhD STUDENTS
A training event aimed primarily at doctoral students, although also open to others, will be organized together with Langnet (the Finnish national network for PhD training in language studies) before the symposium and will take place on Thursday afternoon, 10 April 2025, from 12 to 16. There are two parts to this training event: a lecture followed by a text seminar. This year, the theme of the lecture is the publishing process, and the main idea of the lecture is to provide participants with a clear understanding of the different stages and components of the publishing process. Mari Wiklund, Senior University Lecturer at the University of Helsinki will deliver the lecture.
During the seminar invited doctoral researchers and researchers with proven experience in the field will provide feedback on the texts submitted by doctoral researchers. Doctoral researchers can participate by submitting their own text for consideration or by commenting on a text submitted by a seminar participant. Participants are to submit partial or complete texts, of a maximum 20 pages, which they have worked on and which are related to their research. The language of the seminar is Finnish, however, submitted texts for consideration may also have been written in English.
SYMPOSIUM LANGUAGES
The primary working languages for the symposium and its sessions are Finnish, Swedish, and English. Please contact the symposium organisers if you would like to present in a language other than these or for information regarding the feasibility of interpreting services.
TIEDON HELMI (PEARL OF WISDOM) AWARD
For the tenth time in conjunction with the KäTu Symposium, the Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL) will present the Tiedon helmi (Pearl of Wisdom) award. This award is granted every other year for either research or teaching merit. The award is presented to an individual or organisation for an extraordinary achievement, long-term activity or a person’s life’s work in the field of teaching or research. In 2025, the award will be presented for research merit.
The decision concerning the award recipient is made by the board of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL) based on the recommendation of the Committee of the Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section, serving as the award jury. Nominations may be submitted by any member of that section. Members must carefully observe the nomination principles, which are available in Finnish in the members’ section of the Association’s website. To access this information, please log in to the members’ section here with your SKTL credentials.
Please submit nominations, including the grounds for nomination, to section Vice-Chair Minna Ruokonen, minna.ruokonen@uef.fi, no later than 25 February 2025.
DOCTORAL DISSERTATION AWARD IN TRANSLATION STUDIES
The Doctoral Dissertation Award in Translation Studies, granted by the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL), will be awarded for the second time at the KäTu Symposium. This award is granted every second year, coinciding with the Pearl of Wisdom award for research. The award recognises a researcher who has written an excellent doctoral dissertation in the field of Translation Studies at a Finnish university within the previous two calendar years. The recipient is not required to be an SKTL member.
The award decision is made by the board of SKTL, based on the recommendation made by a separately selected award committee. Proposals for nomination were to be submitted by 31 December 2024, and are currently under consideration. The nomination principles, which are available in Finnish, are accessible by members of the Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters. To access this information, please log in to the members’ section here with your SKTL credentials.
PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE
Thursday, 10 April 2025
12.00–16.00 Training event for PhD students
Friday, 11 April 2025
9.00–10.30 First Workshop and session presentations
10.30–11.00 Coffee break
11.00–12.15 Symposium opening and first plenary presentation
12.15–13.15 Luncheon break
13.15–15.15 Second Workshop and session presentations
15.15–16.00 Coffee break and poster presentations
16.00–17.30 Session presentations
About 19.00: Reception at Helsinki City Hall
Saturday, 12 April 2025
9.00–9.45 Meeting of SKTL (Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters) Section V for Teachers and Researchers
10.00–11.00 Second plenary presentation
11.00–11.20 Coffee break
11.20–11.45 Presentations for Tiedon helmi (Pearl of Wisdom) award and the Doctoral Dissertation Award in Translation Studies
11.45–12.45 Luncheon break
12.45–14.45 Section presentations / Third Workshop
15.00.–16.00 (Session presentations and) Symposium closing
SKTL anniversary celebration
SYMPOSIUM PUBLICATION
Articles based on the symposium presentations will be compiled in Issue 19:1 of Mikael: Finnish Journal of Translation and Interpreting Studies. Mikael is an open-access online journal that publishes both peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed articles within Translation and Interpreting Studies. All KäTu2025 speakers, poster presenters and workshop organisers are invited to submit their previously unpublished manuscripts based on their symposium workshop, presentation, or poster for publication. Only those presenters specifically named in the Symposium’s accepted abstracts can be acknowledged as authors.
Mikael’s issue 19:1 will be published in April 2026, before the next KäTu Symposium. Publications based on previous symposia can be accessed here and the Mikael call for papers, publication timetable and style guide can be accessed here. Contributor guidelines will be sent to all participants via email after the symposium; they will also be available on the Mikael website.
INFORMATION AND CONTACT DETAILS
Circulars pertaining to the KäTu2025 Symposium will be published on the symposium website. For all correspondence concerning the symposium, please use the symposium email address: katu2025@helsinki.fi
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
University of Helsinki
Anne Riippa
Mari Pakkala-Weckström
Juha Eskelinen
Stuart von Wolff
Carmen Acosta Vicente
Merja Nivala
Marjut Alho
Erja Tenhonen-Lightfoot
Léa Huotari
Julia Ekman
The Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL)
Teachers’ and Researchers’ Section
Eliisa Pitkäsalo, Tampere University (Section Chair)
Juha Eskelinen, University of Helsinki
Satu Valkiainen, Tampere University (Secretary)
Minna Ruokonen, University of Eastern Finland (Section Vice-Chair)
Lena Segler-Heikkilä, Diaconia University of Applied Sciences
Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov, University of Turku
WELCOME TO HELSINKI!
English translation by the following University of Helsinki MA Translation and Interpreting students:
Janina Hietala-Lilja, Melissa-Aleksandra Hyrynen, Jaana Ikonen, Aleksi Jakonen, Valo Kauppinen, Kati Knuutila, Tomi Kolu, Jonna Kuokka, Fanny Laaksonen, Isabella Lu, Anni Miettinen, Kimi Mikkonen, Philippa Money, Paula Peltonen, Heini Petäjistö, Ville Raivio, Rasmus Reidla, Tiia Toivari
Kääntämisen ja tulkkauksen tutkimuksen symposiumi 