Dr Minako O’Hagan (Auckland), ‘The role of translation studies in shaping translation in society'

This event is part of the CenTraS Translation and Technologies Seminar Series 2020-21. 

Dr Minako O’Hagan (University of Auckland, New Zealand), ‘Exploring the role of translation studies in shaping translation in society’.

Abstract

This presentation seeks to address the ongoing changes taking place in translation in society and to explore how translation studies (TS) can contribute to shaping translation in the future.  Translation has never been so visible as today as it is used and practiced by people in everyday contexts facilitated by technology. Vast quantities of translation are churned out by machine translation (MT) while the number of active ad hoc human translators is growing. Technological advances have contributed not only to enhancing MT but also empowering enthusiastic fans, eager crowdsourcing participants and members of society to practice translation, paid or unpaid.  While sophisticated research in TS is providing new insights into the translation phenomenon, technology users make up their own minds about the advantages of translation apps and whether such tools or volunteer translators can be trusted.  These issues are pertinent to the role of the TS discipline and its future direction.  In this presentation I will explore this evolving topic, drawing on research on fan translation, citizen and community translation and the use of MT in society.  In the event of rapid AI deployment in translation, the discipline urgently needs to consider its future role and how it can best contribute to shaping translation that is advantageous to society and to help professional translation flourish.