Dr. Amal Al Malki, Founding Dean of HBKU’s CHSS delivering the opening remarks at the 12th International Translation Conference at the QNCC.
Doha: Creativity when viewed as an ability to use imagination to create both corporeal and immaterial objects gets at the very heart of translation. The relationship between creativity and translation as well as the processes of linguistic, cultural, technological, social, and political mediation of creation was discussed by experts at an event, recently.
The Translation and Interpreting Institute (TII), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s (HBKU) College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), concluded its 12th International Translation Conference held as part of TII’s 10th anniversary at the Qatar National Conference Centre. The conference centred around the theme of ‘Translation and Creativity: An Interdisciplinary Encounter,’ and attracted 180 local and international participants.
Delivering the opening remarks, Dr. Amal Al Malki, Founding Dean of HBKU’s CHSS said, “Over the past 10 years, the TII has offered world-class education training and service in translation, interpreting, and foreign languages. But we have never stood still. Our work has consistently been informed by emerging trends and technological advances; and it has responded to global challenges and needs. This conference reflects our place at the forefront of translation studies globally, a place where we intend to stay.”
Dr. Al Malki added, “This years conference is a call to reinvent translation to ponder a paradigm shift enabled by creativity to view translation studies through an interdisciplinary lens enabling creativity to function as a force and also as an outcome. TII has always been a multicultural hub as we are the most diverse college and university. TII was established as a center of education, research and service but for all of us in TII it was and still is our creative lab where we use our tools, language, training, translation studies and inter cultural communication to create new solutions for the challenges our societies face.”
Citing the example of FIFA World Cup 2022, she stated, “We are proud of our role in making World Cup the most accessible. Across the years we have trained and prepared many of those who offered communication and accessibility services during the mega event. They were the translators, interpreters who served the multiple teams and set up the extra ordinary intercultural experience to the thousands who traveled to Qatar.”
“We provided accessibility training to hundreds of volunteers and supported the Supreme Committee auditing and setting up truly accessible venues. We supported the training for audio descriptive commentaries in Arabic and English in all football games in the tournament and provided audio description and multi-sensory experiences for persons with disability and cultural events across the country,” she added.
Also speaking during the event, Dr. Hatem Mheni, Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation Council, QNRF said, “Through co-sponsoring the 12th edition of the International Translation Conference, QRDC/QNRF is pleased to have contributed in bringing experts together to discuss aspects related to creativity in the fields of audiovisual, literary, media, machine translation and interpreting.”
Thirty experts, speakers, and guests from 19 countries shared their experiences and knowledge across a range of fields and contexts between translation and creativity, and how these are evolving within relevant disciplines and different parts of the world - through rapid technological advances, copyright policies, and political form.
The event’s itinerary included a variety of talks on creativity, presented by specialists in audiovisual, literary, media, machine translation, and interpreting fields. The schedule also encompassed academic panels, professional workshops, and a showing of The Translator, a 2020 film that recounts the narrative of a translator who ventures back to Syria after his brother’s capture by the Assad government. Following the screening, one of the film’s directors, Dr. Rana Kazkaz, who also serves as an Assistant Professor at Northwestern Qatar, led a Q&A session.
The Qatar National Research Fund, part of the Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation Council, co-sponsored the event as part of their commitment to foster original research in the humanities and other fields according to the country’s research priorities.
