Translating Resistance and Truth in Times of Global Crisis

Register for Online Event Series by Translation Village

Translating Resistance and Truth in Times of Global Crisis, 30 September 2024

In celebration of International Translation Day, join us for an online event series hosted by Translation Village, bringing together translation activists, scholars and organisations from around the world who are using their skills and expertise to challenge the status quo, build collective power and inspire solidarity and resistance in the times of global crisis.

Translators and interpreters are the lifelines of critical communication, often shaping the narratives that impact lives in the face of economic crises, wars, genocides, forced migrations, systemic injustices, pandemics and ecological disasters. When communities drive translation through activism, cooperation and solidarity, it becomes a powerful movement for social change and resistance, democratising knowledge and spreading truth. Without it, both the words and the world fall silent—no communication, no connection, no dialogue.

As the world undergoes yet another transformation, threatening the very essence of translation and translators with the exploitative dominance of indifferent machines and artificial intelligence, the urgent roles and responsibilities of translators have never been more crucial. Starting on the day of International Translation Day, this webinar series will discuss the vital role of language workers in global crises, reflecting on their responsibilities and challenges as life-saving communicators, truth-tellers and advocates of justice in a world that demands more from them.

Our first event will host Prof Mona Baker and the Guerrilla Translation and Media Cooperative, who will discuss how translation communities can resist, challenge and transform dominant power structures and inspire collective power. This event is free and open to all, but registration is required. Further details about the event, including speakers and their presentations, can be found below.

📅 Date: 30 September 2024, Monday
🕒 Time: London (BST): 17:00 – 19:30. Istanbul-Cairo (GMT+3): 19:00-21:30. Berlin-Barcelona (CEST): 18:00 – 20:30. New York (EDT): 12:00 – 14:30. Los Angeles (PDT): 09:00 – 11:30.  Dubai (GST): 20:00 – 22:30. Delhi (IST): 21:30 – 00:00

💻 Platform: Zoom (Zoom link will be shared prior to the event)

Speakers

Prof Mona Baker, Affiliate Professor at the Centre for Sustainable Health Education (SHE), University of Oslo

Talk Title: Activist Translator Communities in the 21st Century: Challenging or Reinforcing Structures of Power?

Mona Baker will explore the transformative potential of translation in reconfiguring social and political relations, as well as the risks of reinforcing existing power structures. Drawing on the work of activist groups such as Guerrilla Translators and Respond Crisis Translation, Baker will critically analyse the language policies and political positioning of volunteer translation communities, highlighting how some well-intentioned groups may unintentionally perpetuate inequality and epistemic injustice.

Mona Baker is Affiliate Professor at the Centre for Sustainable Health Education (SHE), University of Oslo, where she is responsible for developing the Sustainability & Health (SHE) Corpus, co-coordinator of the Genealogies of Knowledge Research Network, and Director of the Baker Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at Shanghai International Studies University. She is author of In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation and Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account; co-author (with Eivind Engebretsen) of Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics; editor of Translating Dissent: Voices from and with the Egyptian Revolution (winner of the 2016 Intranews Linguist of the Year Award); and co-editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies and the Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media. Her articles have appeared in a wide range of international journals, including Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, Social Movement Studies, Critical Studies on Terrorism, Social Semiotics, Translation Studies and The Translator. She posts on translation, citizen media and Palestine on her personal website and tweets at @MonaBaker11.

2nd Speaker: Guerrilla Translation and Media Cooperative

Talk Title: Economic Resistance and Ethical Transformation: The Role of Translation Cooperatives in Global Crises

Guerrilla Translation and Media Cooperative is a Spain-based translation cooperative, collectively owned and governed by a group of translators and interpreters. They will present their innovative dual-function cooperative model, which combines voluntary activist translation work with income-generating language and communication services. The cooperative demonstrates how translation cooperatives can resist industry precarity, economic crises, gender inequalities and technological disruptions by centering livelihood, care work and pro-bono contributions. They stand against exploitative use and practices of machine translation and AI technologies, emphasising ethical, human-driven translation activities that avoid reinforcing harmful practices. For more information about them: https://guerrillamedia.coop/en/

www.translationvillage.org

Instagram: @TranslationVillage Youtube: Translation Village LinkedIn: Translation Village Twitter: @cevirikoyu

Sponsored by: Localex Translation, a collective of translators providing language services.