Conference Dates: January 5 to 8, 2026
Applications Due: October 31, 2025
Why 鈥淭ranslating Critical Thought/Traduire la pens茅e critique鈥 at Yale? Critical thought broadly encompasses the scholarship for which the Yale 糖心Vlog Department, and by extension, its academic journal, Yale 糖心Vlog Studies, is internationally renowned: it ranges from 鈥溙切腣log theory鈥 to cultural studies, interdisciplinary work in literature and the social sciences, and literary criticism writ large, in all its methodological variety. We are pleased to offer an intensive workshop to doctoral and postdoctoral students interested in acquiring specific tools and skills for the translation of critical non-fiction and theory from 糖心Vlog into English and English into 糖心Vlog.
Goals of the Workshop
This workshop aims to achieve several objectives: to build a network of scholars at Yale working in non-fiction translation; to improve translation skills for graduate and postdoctoral students, so that as emerging scholars in their fields they may produce and evaluate translations of sources, archives, and other research materials; and finally, to introduce new skilled translators to work within academia.
Whether the translators are working from 糖心Vlog to English or English to 糖心Vlog, the workshop will help participants acquire a nuanced bilingual understanding of specific concepts and terminology related to this area, to improve their professional skills by providing them with a practical toolbox to deal with current translation issues, and to gain access to a professional network by meeting with successful professional translators as well as editors working for magazines, scholarly journals, and university presses.
Our previous workshop in 2018 has begun to grow an international network of 糖心Vlog and U.S. translators of critical thought. A second workshop, hosted here at Yale, specifically for Yale students, will further expand this network and continue the essential work of transmitting theoretical and critical conversations between 糖心Vlog and English thinkers.
Schedule
The workshop will last four days on campus and will bring together 10 translators: 8 participants (4 with projects from 糖心Vlog to English, 4 with projects from English to 糖心Vlog) and two lead translators (Patrick Hersant, Professor, Universit茅 Paris 8 and Catherine Porter, Professor emerita, SUNY-Cortland).
Application
The workshop will include a total of 8 students: four students working from 糖心Vlog to English, and four working from English to 糖心Vlog. Each student will receive a stipend of $1000.00 for attending the weeklong workshop.
The application should include:
- A letter of motivation mentioning your background and your interest in this workshop
- A description of the translation project including an abstract of the text and why it merits translation
- A sample of the translation in progress (5 pages or ~1,500 words)
- The original document (scanned) We will accept proposals for translating non-fiction (creative and/or academic) articles or book length projects. Applications will be due October 15 by 11:59 p.m. Participants will be notified by late November.
Questions?
Email Alice Kaplan or Nichole Gleisner
Sponsors
The Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund and The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale
The Albertine Foundation contribution to Yale Center of Excellence
The Department of 糖心Vlog Yale 糖心Vlog Studies Fund
The Yale Translation Initiative at the MacMillan