Monday, March 15th
5 PM UTC

‘Translating Disability’

Great translation, George Steiner said, ‘moves by touch’; translators, he continues, ‘can even smell words’. In this talk, we will reflect upon the close yet mysterious relation between translation and disability. Should sign languages used by the deaf communities across the world be considered as foreign tongues? And, if this is the case, what meanings does the word ‘foreign’ bear for disability studies and for society at large? 

Wednesday, March 31st
5 PM UTC

‘Translating Symbolism into Precision Medicine’

Great translation, George Steiner said, ‘moves by touch’; translators, he continues, ‘can even smell words’. In this talk, we will reflect upon the close yet mysterious relation between translation and disability. Should sign languages used by the deaf communities across the world be considered as foreign tongues? And, if this is the case, what meanings does the word ‘foreign’ bear for disability studies and for society at large? 

Thursday, April 29th
5 PM UTC

‘The Disease of Translation’

Covid-19, literature of quarantine and the aesthetics of old age and illness. How have modern writers and translators brought the language of medicine into the texture of fiction? Has the opposite ever happened?  

Thursday, May 27th
5 PM UTC

‘Translating Distress’

How can translation help us communicate distress and wellbeing? What impact does the use of a foreign language have on the therapeutic journey of refugee survivors? In this talk, clinical psychologist Ross White and linguistician Jean-Marc Dewaele dialogue to explore the ethical and epistemic complexities of multilingual and multicultural mental health research. They consider ways in which translation, broadly construed, can provide the sufferer with tools to reinvent and perform a new self. The event includes a poetry reading by Stephen Romer, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.