Sponsors

Translation@Michigan has received generous support from sponsors within and beyond the University, including:

Mellon Sawyer Seminar: Sites of Translation in the Multilingual Midwest (2020)

Funded by the Mellon Foundation, this seminar series draws on interdisciplinary resources at the University of Michigan, as a public university dedicated to global initiatives as well as local outreach, in order to investigate how translation is situated in multiple locations in the multilingual Midwest. Who translates, and why? What is translated, and for whom? How is translation disseminated, when and where? We ask these questions in order to move beyond a narrow framing of translation as a process and product of language transfer, often with an emphasis on literature as the preferred translational resources.  We challenge that idealized framing by juxtaposing and analyzing multiple histories and practices of translation in the Midwest, and affirming the centrality of translation in a region that is commonly assumed to be homogeneous and monolingual.

During 2021 and 2022, the seminars will explore translational activities in diverse cultures and communities of the Midwest, and build an agenda for collaborating on research and teaching around this topic at the University of Michigan and other Midwestern universities and colleges. The seminars will develop a comparative frame of analysis, highlighting various language practices that allow different language groups to assert their own cultural identities, while at the same time engaging in community-building efforts to integrate into a multicultural and multilingual American society.

MCubed: Engaging Translation (2014)

As part of the Third Century Initiative, sponsored by the Provost, the MCube for “Engaging Translation” is spearheaded by the Department of Comparative Literature in collaboration with various units across the University of Michigan campus. We seek to support research in Critical Translation Studies – i.e. the study of translation under theoretical, historical, political, economic, and aesthetic aspects –, to promote the practice of literary translation as an ancient liberal art, and to engage the university’s global community and its vast linguistic competencies in a number of community-oriented projects designed to assist Michigan’s international citizenry. In the long run, “Engaging Translation” will bring together faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, and interested citizens beyond campus who want to a) think critically about the nature of translation in the broadest sense, b) co-ordinate linguistic resources in the interest of the community and the common good, c) identify global literary works for translation and publication.

LSA Translation Theme Semester (Fall 2012)

The Fall 2012 Theme Semester on Translation, sponsored by the UM College of Literature, Science and the Arts and coordinated by the Department of Comparative Literature, encompassed a wide range of courses, lectures, and events designed to encourage students and faculty across campus to explore translation, broadly understood as an interaction between languages, media, cultures, and disciplines.