Research Project

This event is part of a Fellowship project that involves examining the use of translation, specifically subtitling, by various activist groups connected with the Egyptian Revolution.

A brief summary of the project can be accessed on the website of the Centre for Translation & Intercultural Studies at the University of Manchester. See also the summary on the Arts and Humanities Research Council website.

 

 

The project builds on and extends earlier work by Mona Baker on the role of translation and interpreting in protest movements, and more broadly in mediating political conflict. Relevant publications include the following:

• Baker, Mona (2013) ‘Translation as an Alternative Space for Political Action’, Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest 12(1): 23-47.
• Baker, Mona (2010) ‘Translation and Activism: Emerging Patterns of Narrative Community’, in Maria Tymoczko (ed.) Translation, Resistance, Activism, Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 23-41.
• Baker, Mona (2009) ‘Resisting State Terror : Theorizing Communities of Activist Translators and Interpreters’, in Esperanza Bielsa and Christopher W. Hughes (eds) Globalisation, Political Violence and Translation,  Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 222-242.

Also of relevance and connected to this specific project:

• ‘The Prefigurative Politics of Translation in Place-based Movements of Protest’, in Rachel Gilmour and Tamar Steinitz (eds) Multilingual Currents: Literature, Language, Politics, Abingdon & New York: Rutledge. (in press)
• Video of Lecture at the American University in Cairo, 9 March 2015, titled Subtitling in the Context of Contemporary Political Activism
• A recording of a workshop on activist subtitling, organised by Mosireen in April 2014.
• Video of the First Annual Martha Cheung Memorial Lecture, titled The Prefigurative Politics of Volunteer Subtitling in the Egyptian Revolution, May 2014
• Interview with Free Word.

And on translation/interpreting and conflict:

• Baker, Mona (2010) ‘Interpreters and Translators in the War Zone: Narrated and Narrators’, The Translator: Studies in Intercultural Communication 16(2) : 197-222.
• Baker, Mona (2010) ‘Narratives of Terrorism and Security: ‘Accurate’ Translations, Suspicious Frames‘, Critical Studies on Terrorism 3(3) : 347-364.
• Baker, Mona (2008) ‘Ethics of Renarration: Mona Baker Is Interviewed by Andrew Chesterman’, Cultus 1(1) : 10-33.
• Baker, Mona (2008) ‘I’adat T’ateer al-Siraa’ fi-ltargama (Reframing Conflict in Translation)’, trans. Hazem Azmy, Fusul 74: 94-116.
• Baker, Mona (2007) ‘Reframing Conflict in Translation’, Social Semiotics 17(2) : 151-169.
• Baker, Mona (2006) Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account, London & New York: Routledge.