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What’s Wrong with this Picture? These images are taken from the HathiTrust repository. This is a text written in Persian by Sayyid Jamāl al-Din. What’s wrong with it? It is upside down, and it appears backward, with the volume beginning on the last page (the 36th and last page of the digital version contain the […]

Written by Marina Mayorski (Graduate Student Research Assistant and PhD Candidate, University of Michigan) As a scholar of Judaic Studies, I study literary texts written in three different Jewish languages – Hebrew, Ladino, and Yiddish. Searching academic repositories for material written in non-Roman writing systems can be an excruciating task. Consider the following title, taken

In the first installment of this Mellon-Sawyer seminar series, the scholars who led the conversations in Jewish Multilingualism in the Midwest: Yiddish Translations of Urban Experience went beyond textual illustrations of this theme. Interestingly, several sessions were linked by their relation to visual culture. The materials explored during the seminar converged in their incorporation of

Yopie Prins and Silke-Maria Weineck convened a two-day virtual seminar on “Translating the Midwest” at the 2021 annual meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association.  The seminar explored how different language communities in the Midwest represent themselves in various forms of literary production and translation, and considered why this “regional” perspective should change how we

LSA undergraduate Charlotte Fater was selected for a summer 2020 internship as a Michigan Library Scholar. Her project was to work on the installation of a library exhibit curated by Dr. Marlon James Sales, Translation and Memory: The Literary Worlds of the Spanish Philippines. Here are Charlotte’s reflections on adapting–or rather, translating–a physical exhibit into a

Recordings from Dr. Marlon James Sales’ Sawyer Seminar, “Translation and Memory: Hispanofilipino Literature and the Archive in the US Midwest,” are now available on the Department of Comparative Literature YouTube channel. Both the roundtable and book talk between Harold Augenbraum and Gina Apostol can be found below. We also invite you to explore the associated

On March 12, 2021 (3-4pm EST) the public was invited to a book talk between Harold Augenbraum, editor, translator, and former executive director of the National Book Foundation, and award-winning author Gina Apostol. RECORDING OF EVENT HERE  The conversation revolved around Augenbraum’s translations of the novels Noli me tángere and El filibusterismo by Philippine national hero José

Following the successful launch of the Mellon-Sawyer seminar series on February 4th, Professor Mikhail Krutikov published an essay that surveys the fascinating events of Jewish Multilingualism in the Midwest: Yiddish Translations of Urban Experience in the Yiddish language version of the Jewish news publication Forward. Titled “Young Scholars Discover Yiddish  Literature in the American Midwest,” the

As part of the first Mellon-Sawyer seminar in the series Sites of Translation in the Multilingual Midwest, Mikhl Yashinsky’s fascinating performance “Ezra Korman, Poet of my City” drew more than 90 attendees and provided us with a stirring and thought-provoking testament to the enduring legacy and vibrancy of the midwest’s multilingual cultural ambient. Mikhl Yashinsky

The first installment of the Mellon-Sawyer seminar series, Sites of Translation in the Multilingual Midwest, took place on February 4-5, 2021. The seminar, titled Jewish Multilingualism in the Midwest: Yiddish Translations of Urban Experience, was coordinated by Maya Barzilai (University of Michigan), and brought together scholars of Jewish culture and history, hailing from various Midwestern institutions. The seminar