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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER The Linguist 27
FEATURES
possessed as an instrument of discovery and
exchange would have ceased to exist."
5
The impulse to shore up and defend some
little niche, either for 'translation proper' or,
indeed, for any other narrowly conceived
field of practice, does, however, seem
counterintuitive to linguists. We are, after all,
seasoned travellers not just between
languages and cultures, but also between
subject areas, disciplinary traditions and
specialised discourses of all descriptions.
Despite the common image of the solitary
translator labouring away in isolation, we are
collaborators at heart, and it was on this
premise that Steven Cranfield (Department of
Leadership and Professional Development),
Paresh Kathrani (Westminster Law School)
and I formed the Translaborate research
group at Westminster a year ago. We wanted
to explore, on the one hand, both the
practical and the conceptual confluence of
translation; and, on the other, collaboration
as an allied and equally widely applied
notion, raising questions of power, degrees
of equality of participation, and mutuality of
influence as intrinsic values of practice.
Working on the assumption that the two
terms complement each other, we aim to
explore the translation models that could
make it easier for ideas or objects to move
between disciplines and fields. Most
importantly, we are interested in how such
models can benefit both translation and the
various other fields of research and practice
that are currently so interested in the notion
(but perhaps not always the concrete
practices) of translation. Central to our project
is a conception of translation as collaboration.
Following the successful one-day
symposium in June (see side panel), the
Translaborate group will host a series of
smaller workshops on translaborative themes
over the coming year, while a selection of
papers drawing on the insights gained at the
symposium will be published as a special
issue of Translation and Translanguaging in
Multilingual Contexts in 2017. In the
meantime, we will be working to expand the
Translaborate network to provide a productive
and critical space for both scholars and
practitioners to make links with other
disciplines, as well as with one another, and to
develop translaborative thinking and practice.
For more information about the
Translaborate group and details of future
events, email a.alfer01@westminster.ac.uk.
EXPLORATION: The University of
Westminster (above), where the first
symposium on Translaboration, exploring
collaborative translation and
interdisciplinary work in this area, was held
Notes
1 Bachmann-Medick, D (2009) 'Introduction:
The Translational Turn' in Translation Studies 2
(1), 2-16
2 Rottenburg, R (2003) 'Crossing Gaps of
Indeterminacy: Some theoretical remarks' in
Maranhao, T and Streck, B (eds), Translation and
Ethnography: The anthropological challenge of
intercultural understanding, Tucson: University
of Arizona Press, 30-43
3 Czarniawska, B and Joerges, B (1996) 'Travels
of Ideas' in Czarniawska, B and Sevón, G (eds)
Translating Organizational Change, Berlin/New
York: Walter de Gruyter, 13-48
4 Bassnett, S and Lefevere, A (1998)
Constructing Cultures: Essays on literary
translation, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 138
5 Trivedi, H (2005) 'Translating Culture vs.
Cultural Translation' in 91st Meridian, 4/1,
http://iwp.uiowa.edu/91st/vol4-num1/translating
-culture-vs-cultural-translation
Website accessed 1/9/15
