Involved in Translation Studies in Africa? Looking to decolonise your mind as a translator?

The Department of Afroasiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice (DASL) at the University of the Free State in South Africa is presenting the first Spring School for Translation Studies in Africa from 28 September to 3 October 2009.

The Spring School is presented for masters and doctoral students in translation studies from all over Africa with the aim of working towards an African agenda for translation studies.

The aim is to present the Spring School on an annual basis at various locations on the African continent.

• Aims
• Teaching staff
• Programme
• Pre-reading
• Date and venue
• Registration process
• Application form
• Payment form
• Accommodation form
• Certification

The Spring School for Translation Studies in Africa (SSTSA) aims at providing a voice to translation scholars in Africa. Making this voice heard implies decolonising their own minds. The SSTSA wants to be instrumental in this respect by exposing post-graduate students in translation studies to the most recent trends in translation theory and practice and by creating networks amongst scholars and future scholars for discussing uniquely African notions of translation. These aims include:

• contributing to the development aims of NEPAD and the AU, amongst others, in facilitating effective communication and the effective dissemination of information in Africa;
• engaging with African thought, African culture, and the interface between oralate and literate communities as dialogue partners for translation studies;
• playing a social-critical role in fostering the decolonisation of the African mind;
• developing a uniquely African agenda for translation studies;
• promoting research in translation studies in Africa, especially empirical research concerning the role of translation in the communication needs in Africa as well as in the development aid community in Africa;
• enhancing research skills in translation studies in Africa;
• offering academics and advanced students in translation studies in Africa the opportunity to meet, debate relevant issues, and network;
• enhancing translator education at African universities;
• enhancing translation practice in Africa; and
• providing the above in Africa in order to make it available to more students at affordable prices.

The SSTSA aims at achieving this by way of the following:

• presenting the SSTSA annually;
• inviting scholars from Africa to present lectures and conduct workshops;
• inviting one non-African speaker every year to foster dialogue with translation studies across the globe – at least every second year, this speaker should be from a third-world country;
• interacting with scholars in related disciplines, e.g. African Studies, Communication Studies to exploit various approaches to Translation Studies as an interdisciplinary field; and
• presenting topics relevant to African interests in Translation Studies.

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• Christiane Nord (Guest speaker)

Emeritus Prof of the University of Applied Studies Magdeburg-Stendal, Magdeburg/Germany. Prof Extraordinary of the Department of Afro-Asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein/South Africa (since 2007). Guest Professor of the Foreign Language Department of the Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, Beijing, China (2007). Guest Professor of Nankai University, Beijing, China (2007). Honorary Prof of the University of Vigo, Spain (since 2008). Member of the Flying Staff of the German-Jordanian University, Amman (since 2008)

Trained as a translator for Spanish and English at Heidelberg University, PhD in Romance Studies (Spanish Language and Literature) and “habilitation” (qualification for a full professorship at a German university) in Translation Studies (Vienna 1993). Involved in translator training institutions at the Universities of Heidelberg and Hildesheim (Germany), Vienna and Innsbruck (Austria), and, from 1996 to 2005, Magdeburg (Germany), holding a chair for Specialized Communication and Translation Studies. Subscribing to the “Functional Approach” in Translation Studies. Short-time teaching appointments in translation theory and pedagogy in many countries, apart from Europe mainly Latin America, South Africa, Asia, and Arabic countries. CETRA (Center for Translation Studies of the Catholic University of Louvaine, Belgium) professor 2000 in Misano Adriatico. Member of the Board of the European Society of Translation Studies (EST). Important publications: Text Analysis in Translation (1991, revised 2ndedition 2005, transl. into Arabic in press; German original Textanalyse und Übersetzen, 1988, rev. 4th edition 2009), Einführung in das funktionale Übersetzen (1993), Translating as a Purposeful Activity (1997, transl. into Chinese 2005, Korean 2006), Kommunikativ handeln auf Spanisch und Deutsch (2003) and more than 150 articles in German, English or Spanish on topics related to translation theory, methodology and teaching. New German translation of the New Testament and Early Christian Texts (together with Klaus Berger, professor for New Testament Studies at the University of Heidelberg, Germany), published by Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt/M., in 1999.

• Christine Antonissen

Christine Anthonissen is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University since 2004. She was formerly attached to the Department of Linguistics at the University of the Western Cape. Her research focuses mainly on Discourse Studies, Critical Discourse Analysis and social aspects of Bilingualism and Multilingualism. She has done an analysis of media discourses of the late 1980s considering how the South African news media managed stringent censorship regulations. More recent work relates to discourses in coming to terms with a traumatic past, related to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and discourses between health workers and patients in an HIV/AIDS clinic. Currently she is engaged in an interdisciplinary project investigating characteristics of language shift from Afrikaans to English in a number of Western Cape communities, tracing the causes of the shift and features of the various dialects that are used in the communities. She is member of the editorial board of Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics (SPIL), the Journal of Language and Politics (Benjamins, editors Ruth Wodak, Paul Chilton) and Language Assessment Quarterly (Routledge, editor Antony Kunnan).

• Ilse Feinauer

Prof Ilse Feinauer is Associate Professor in the Dept of Afrikaans and Dutch at the University of Stellenbosch. She coordinates and teaches translation studies as part of the postgraduate programmes in translation, but she also teaches Afrikaans linguistics. She is co-author of a Learner’s Dictionary of Afrikaans Basiswoordeboek vir Afrikaans as well as co-editor of a volume on Afrikaans syntax Sintaksis op die voorgrond. She has published in the field of syntax as well as lexicography, but nowadays her research has shifted towards translation studies. She has a special interest in reader-centred translation, DTS and media translation. She is on the editorial board of Lexikos, an international journal for Lexicography, member of the training committee of SATI and member of various other associations such as EST, IATIS and Afrilex.

• Hendrik Kockaert

Hendrik J Kockaert [PhD, Johannesburg] is a Senior Lecturer of Second Language Acquisition [French], Terminology, Medical Translation, Legal Translation, and Translation Technology at Lessius University College in Antwerp, Belgium. He is a Visiting Professor of Terminology and Translation Technology at the Universidad de Granada, and is a nominated expert for ISO/TC 37/SC 1/ WG 1 & WG 2. He is also the convener for WG 5: Guidelines for applying UML notation in terminology work [ISO 24156]. He is the Administrative Editor & and member of the Editorial Board for JIAL, theJournal of Internationalization and Localization, a new peer reviewed journal in co-operation with LISA, Fachhochschule Köln, Kent State University, Brigham Young University and Lessius University College.

He has presented papers on terminology standardization, concept modelling in terminology, legal translation, and translation evaluation. He develops a translation quality assurance software tool in co-operation with Palex Languages & Software, Tomsk, Russia.

• Kobus Marais

Kobus Marais was born in Tarkastad in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. He holds a PhD in Ancient Near Eastern literature, a Masters Degree in Translation Studies, and a Baccalaureus Degree in Theology.

Kobus joined the UFS in July 2006 as Senior Lecturer and mainly focuses his research on translator education in the field of Translation Studies. He teaches translation theory and practice and text theory at undergraduate and postgraduate level. He is also involved in community service learning and is interested in engaged research into translation issues within the African context

• Jacobus Naudé

Jacobus Naudé was born at Frankfort and matriculated at the Wilge River High School. He studied at the universities of Massachusetts (Amherst), Stellenbosch and the Free State and obtained the following degrees from 1978-1996: BA (with distinction in Hebrew), BA Hons (cum laude), BTh (cum laude), MA (Semitic languages, cum laude), M.Th (cum laude), MA (Linguistics), D.Litt.

His full time academic career started in 1983 with an appointment as junior lecturer in the Department of Semitic Languages (nowadays Afroasiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice). He was promoted from senior lecturer to professor during January 2002. He is manager of the Programme in Language Practice since 2004. From 2006 he serves as Chair of the Department. He teaches translation studies, theoretical linguistics (syntax), Dead Sea Scroll studies, Hebrew and Aramaic grammar. Under his supervision already 18 M.A. dissertations are completed.

He undertook research at the universities of California, Santa Cruz (1991), Oxford (1994) and Cornell (1997). He read 22 papers at international meetings and 36 papers at national meetings. He is co-author of A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar (Sheffield, 1999) and co-edited Contemporary Translation Studies and Bible Translation. A South African Perspective. He published 66 scientific articles, 34 review articles and 11 popular scientific articles. Research areas include contemporary translation studies and Bible translation, diachronic and comparative syntax of Afroasiatic, pronominal systems, lexicographical theory of Bible, and Qumran Hebrew and Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic linguistics

He is referee of 8 academic journals as well as of the NRF. He is member of 4 national and 4 international academic societies and serves on the management of the Linguistic Society of Southern Africa, the SGB on translation, interpreting and editing (SAQA) and the Church Advisory Committee on Bible Translation of the Bible Society of South Africa.

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The dates for the 2009 Spring School are 28 September 2009 to3 October 2009.

The 2009 Spring School will be presented at the Interpreting Centre in the Winkie Dereko Building on the campus of the University of the Free State.

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ELIGIBILITY
The Summer School is open to suitably qualified students from Africa.

Candidates should normally hold a postgraduate degree or equivalent in a relevant subject (typically a humanities subject involving cross-cultural studies), should be proficient in English, and should either have started or be actively considering research, i.e. masters or doctoral studies, in translation and/or intercultural studies.

The term ‘translation studies’ covers all branches of the academic study of translation and interpreting. ‘Intercultural studies’ covers any form of communication across cultural boundaries.

REGISTRATION

The following forms should be downloaded, completed and forwarded to jmarais@ufs.ac.za by 31 July 2009. Please follow the instructions on the form for sending proof of payment.

FEES
For students who are sponsored by an institution, the 2009 Spring School fee is R1500.
For self-funded students the fee is R1000.

Please note that the fee covers access to library and computer facilities as well as tuition, course materials, and refreshments. It does not cover travel, accommodation, or meals.

If you wish to be considered for a place in the 2009 session of the Spring School please download and complete an application form.

Download Application Form

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If you wish to secure your place in the 2009 session of the Spring School please download the payment form, complete it and return it with proof of payment.

Download Payment Form

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Affordable accommodation is available on campus. Prices are R150 per night per person or R94 per night per person sharing. This accommodation does not include meals. If you wish to make use of this option, you should download the accommodation form, complete it and forward it to the address indicated on the form.

Download
Accommodation Form

The following are external accommodation options close to the campus. Organising this accommodation is the participant's own responsibility.

Meals are available on campus at a number of places.

The campus also has a convenience store with general groceries.

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ASSESSMENT

Assessment is based on an oral presentation at the end of the course and the submission of a detailed research proposal of some 3000 to 5000 words within two months after the end of the Spring School.

CERTIFICATES

Certificates of attendance are issued at the end of the course. Formal ‘Pass’ certificates confirming successful completion of the Spring School are issued when all assessed work has been delivered and approved.

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