Beyond Fault Lines: Translating "the Gulf" – March 23rd – 24th 2015

Conference-Banner5thConferecneLocation:  Qatar National Convention Center, Doha, Qatar

Deadline for proposals: October 30th, 2014
Conference dates:
 March 23rd – 24th, 2015

Conference is organized by: Translation and Interpreting Institute (TII)

“Beyond Fault Lines: Translating ‘the Gulf’” is the sixth in a series of annual international conferences that aim to create a Gulf-based platform for discussing issues related to translation. It will be held from March 23 to March 24, 2015 at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC), Qatar.

The conference features keynote addresses, panels and workshops. The aim of “Beyond Fault Lines: Translating ‘the Gulf’”is to re-center, reconnect, and expand the field of translation beyond its traditional borders.

This year’s TII conference’s topic is epitomized by an ambivalent symbol that embraces and divides at the same time—the G/gulf.
On the one hand, it takes as its thematic point of departure the geographical feature of the region—the gulf and its metaphorical extensions, be they tectonic fault lines, desert expanses, seasonal rivers, mountains and valleys, or even the fissures created by urban construction, but also those that connote schism, separation, or division. In this context, the term ‘gulf’ generates a great deal of meanings and imaginaries that are subject to slippage and semantic shift. Instead of simply retracing old ‘fault lines’, this conference proposes a pre-emptive suspension of ‘finding faults’ in order to allow for a more productive conversation on divergent forms of theoretical inquiry and methodological approaches within and around the discipline. Its aim is to arrive at new formulations of translation networks and fresh connections between areas of division — cultural, linguistic, theoretical, epistemic and political among others — and to enhance the mutual respect that can emerge from translation and its interdisciplinary academic study.
On the other hand, the countries of the Gulf continue to grow as global players, notably through ambitious government-led initiatives in the areas of education, culture, and media. In Qatar, the Al Jazeera Network now broadcasts across the globe in several languages, in spite of presumed cultural divides in parallel with Qatar Foundation’s commitment to education, research across disciplines and translation as a leading and fast growing academic field. In Saudi Arabia, the King Abdullah International Prize for Translation has been a catalyst for dialogue and understanding between cultures worldwide. In the United Arab Emirates, the Kalima Project is engaged in translating important literary and academic works from and into Arabic. All of these endeavors have at their heart the common aim of building connections between the Gulf and the rest of the globe, as well as laying the foundations for intellectual and material development in the region. Given this perspective, the goal of this year’s conference is to explore translation as a key vehicle in the creation of knowledge and the bridging of gaps within and across cultures, in and beyond the Gulf.
Proposed Topics:

  • Topographies of Translation
  • Translation Fault Lines
  • Translation and Interpreting in Arab Media
  • Translating the Current Political Scene in the Arab Word Across Cultures
  • Reconsidering Literary and Theoretical Orientalisms
  • New Directions in Postcolonial / South-South Translation
  • Arab and Other Non-Western Approaches to Translation and Gender
  • Expanding Global Translation Networks
  • Deconstructive Geographies, Poststructural Displacements, Translation Slippage
  • Migration and Communication Networks
  • Translating and Representing Difference
  • The Relationship between of Translation and History
  • Translation as a Tool for the Creation of a Knowledge-Oriented Society
  • Translation and the Knowledge Economy