Dr Amal Mohammed Al Malki, Founding Dean at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), delivers the opening remarks at the 10th Annual International Translation Conference organised by HBKU at the QNCC yesterday. O
Doha: In the presence of over 40 academics and researchers specialising in various fields of translation from 22 countries, Translation and Interpreting Institute (TII) affiliated to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) yesterday launched its 10th Annual International Translation Conference at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC).
The two-day conference highlighted the importance of the role of translation and interpretation in the exchange of knowledge and extending bridges of communication between peoples. The event was held under theme ‘Translation Beyond the Margins’. “In our 10th conference we have taken on the challenge to go beyond the margins. We organise it by celebrating linguistic and cultural diversity and by breaking down linguistic barriers.
We also do it by fostering collaboration and supporting innovation,” said Dr Amal Mohammed Al Malki, Founding Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at HBKU. Al Malki said: “Today we take yet another step towards the future: At this conference we will be testing live machine translation. We thank our colleagues at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) who are here to share the outcome of years of hard work developing a deep learning system that recognizes, transcribes and translates human voice automatically.”
“Translation Beyond the Margins goes beyond boarders and territories and beyond imposed mental and physical divisions to build common grounds for exchange and discussion. Translation here switches into an agent of change in the globalization era with the power to set the rules of cultural engagement. Academia and professionals intersect to shape and define the experiences around us that require mediation, and the translator becomes at the heart of this as a cultural mediator.” Speaking about the translations’ importance, she stressed that translation is an attempt to make sense of the world, beyond the linearity that the pages of the book ‘might’ suggest! “Like writing, translation is an act of agency, a choice, a decision and an ideology. You cannot talk about translation in isolation of ideology and power relations.”
A number of issues were discussed at the conference such as translation and interpreting profession; translation technology bridges disciplines among any other issues. “The European Commission gave special importance to translation and it began from four languages and now reached to 24 languages. It also keens to make all publications available to the public, taking into account the accuracy of the translation of terminology and especially legal issues,” said Rytis Martikonis, one of the speakers at the conference.
