[Bilimsel Haber] CFA- Summer School on Cultural Translation, Halle, Germany

[Gonul Pultar]

CFA- Summer School on Cultural Translation, Halle, Germany

Posted by: Ildiko Beller-Hann <ildiko.beller-hann at owz.uni-halle.de>

The Graduate School Asia and Africa in World Reference Systems at the 
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany invites applications 
for a Summer School on Cultural Translation to be held in Halle/Saale, 
Germany 13.07.08 - 20.07.08

The Summer School is intended as a forum to introduce students to the 
notion of cultural translation with reference to both theoretical and
empirical perspectives. Understood as a key concept for the description 
of social change, "translation" is used here as both the discourse about 
and practice of socially and politically embedded processes produced and 
informed by cultural encounters. The Summer School aims to introduce 
participating postgraduate students to situate their research in the 
context of international scholarship and help them identify directions 
for further independent work through introducing them to ongoing 
academic research and debates in the field of cultural translation. It 
also aims to open up new perspectives in understanding cultural 
encounters not as a disruptive activity but as an ultimately creative 
and constructive process, which conceives mediation between different 
registers of cultural exchange as a continuum.

It aims at making students ask (if not necessarily answer) questions
such as: How do we recognize, identify, account for and explain cultural 
encounters? What does it mean to translate texts or other cultural 
products? What sort of relationships can be revealed between author and 
text, original and copy, and how can such complex webs of relationships 
be (dis)entangled and rendered comprehensible? What role does 
translation play in the transmission of knowledge and in the 
dissemination of information? How does translation construct 
representations of marginalized groups or cultures? What sorts of 
intended (and unintended) strategies are involved in the process of 
cultural translation and how do these relate to the respective 
ideological and political contexts? What factors account for the success 
and failure of translation in specific historical contexts? It is 
envisaged that students will be able to benefit from informal 
discussions with all participants, and that the exposure to
disciplines other than their own will give them new impulses which in 
turn can serve as a source of inspiration for their own research. 
Students will also have an opportunity to present and discuss their 
ongoing projects, to receive feedback from their peers, and from the 
participating faculty.

The invited lecturers represent a wide range of subjects, underlining 
the interdisciplinary nature of the study of cultural translation. 
Historians and anthropologists, literary scholars and translation
studies experts have been invited alongside scholars representing
Arabic, Persian and Tibetan Studies whose work intersects with the
perspective of cultural translation.

The working language of the Summer School is English; teaching is 
planned for six working days.

Participants are expected to pay a registration fee of 100 EUR. There is 
no tuition fee. Accommodation and travel expenses will be paid by us.

Applicants should be registered PhD students whose proposed research 
focuses on, or would greatly benefit from, the academic discourses on
cultural translation, and whose work is regionally directly related to 
African or Asian societies and cultures.

Applicants are asked to send
  - a cover letter
  - a CV
  - the title of their research project and details of their academic
    affiliation
  - a reference letter from the supervisor

to: Dr. Ildikó Bellér-Hann
Graduate School Asia and Africa in World Reference Systems
Mühlweg 15
Halle/Saale
D - 06114
Germany
Application deadline: 10 May 2008
Contact e-mail: ildiko.beller-hann at owz.uni-halle.de



Distrib. by: Central-Eurasia-L - Announcement List for Central Eurasian 
Studies