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The Linguist 54,5

The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology

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thelinguist.uberflip.com 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

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