Multilingualism in Academia: Are we all translators?
Esa Penttilä (University of Eastern Finland)
Research work is typically multilingual, and this multilingual reality is so ingrained in researchers’ everyday activities that it often remains unacknowledged even to the researchers themselves how communication in this type of environment requires constant interlingual meaning shifts, in other words, translation and interpreting. The translatorial activities involved in research are multifarious and often conducted by researchers themselves as part of their expert work. The translatoriality involved in research may also have consequences on the formation of scholarly and scientific knowledge during the process. Therefore, I argue in favor of increasing our awareness of translatorial aspects of research work. In this presentation, I will discuss the versatile reality of translatoriality in research work and make suggestions on how to increase awareness of all those involved in multilingual research activities.
Esa Penttilä is senior lecturer in English Language and Translation and Head of School of Humanities at the University of Eastern Finland. He defended his PhD on idiomatic constructions in English at the University of Joensuu in 2006. His background is in cognitive linguistics, and his present research interests include non-professional translation, multilingual communication, cognitive translation studies, and metaphors in thought and language. In 2011–2013, Penttilä worked at the University of Tampere.
Organized by Nadja Grbić and Rafael Schögler
Thursday, 20 April 2023
18:00
University of Graz
Department of Translation Studies
Merangasse 70, 8010 Graz
SU 33.0.008 (ground floor)