On the 13th of November, Xinyuan Liu was invited by Professor Eli-Marie Danbolt Drange, the group leader of the Multilingualism in Society and Education at UiA, to deliver a talk entitled ‘Do translator-technology interaction modes augment students’ autonomy or group collaboration strategies? A multi-method qualitative study’.
This talk aimed to discuss the impact of technology on student translators’ attitudes and behaviours. Xinyuan conducted a thematic analysis of students’ written reflections and translation logs and found that students’ autonomy and collaboration strategies were augmented by translation technologies in different ways.
Earlier in September, Morten Beckmann participated in the international conference Trextuality 2. Material Turns in Translation: Intermediality and Circulation at the University of Galway, Ireland. The conference gathered scholars to explore how translation interacts with materiality, media, and circulation in contemporary contexts.
Morten’s presentation, titled “Bible Leaks and the Opening of Pandora’s Box: Negotiating Bible Translation with the Audience in the Media,” examined translation as a situated process within institutional structures, focusing on the Norwegian Bible Society and its recent release of Bibel 2024.
The talk analyzed how the draft translations was leaked to the media before publication, inviting audience feedback on changes such as gender-inclusive language and texts related to homosexuality and hell. While intended to foster dialogue, these leaks sparked intense public debate and accusations of “wokeness,” illustrating how consumer and media agency can influence institutional decision-making.
Drawing on New Framing Theory and an infrastructural lens, Morten highlighted how media framing amplified polarization and how the Protestant infrastructure—lacking a central ecclesiastical authority—both enables and constrains translation processes.
This case study sheds light on the complex interplay between translation, audience participation, and media dynamics, revealing how translation decisions are negotiated in public arenas rather than behind closed doors.
From the 8th to 10th of September, one member of our research group participated in the 8th edition of Using Corpora in Contrastive and Translation Studies at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. The conference aimed to bring together researchers and scholars working with corpus-based approaches in language and translation research.
On the 9th of September, Xinyuan Liu delivered a poster presentation that focused on data triangulation, titled “Do data collection methods impact translation quality? An investigation of Chinese-English translation in varying translator-computer interaction modes”. She and her co-author, Sandra Halverson, investigated whether translation product data collected in laboratory and naturalistic settings demonstrated consistent translation quality and whether the effects of the independent variables were the same across different data collection environments.
The abstract submission for the 5th ICTIC conference to be held at the University of Agder in June 2025 has been extended from the 31st of August till the 15th of September.
After four successful and inspiring conferences in Argentina, Germany, Italy, and Chile, ICTIC 5 will be hosted by the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway. We are happy to welcome you from 2-4 June 2025 to Norway’s southern summer destination. The theme for the fifth iteration of the ICTIC conference is Translation and Cognition on the ground.
Studying cognition in translation and interpreting on the ground in this multitude of situations may include, but is not limited to topics such as translation and cognition in the context of:
under-researched languages
under-resourced languages
under-researched translation settings
non-professional translation
politics, power
intralingual translation, accessibility, easy/plain language
crisis settings
technologies
workplace scenarios
interpreting settings
Translator and interpreter training
Neuroscientific aspects of translation and interpreting
sociology
emotions
Submissions to any of the topics above are invited, and participants may submit an abstract for either a full paper or a poster. ICTIC 5 extends a particular welcome to early-career researchers and new scholars to the field. ICTIC 5 is hosted by Agder Forum for Translation Studies and the University of Agder under the auspices of the TREC network.
Our leader, Sandra L. Halverson, has recently edited a new book together with Jun Pan and Jeremy Munday.
The book, entitled “Interlingual Readings of Political Discourse”, presents an overview of the expanding interdisciplinary domain encompassing translation, interpreting, and political discourse. It showcases recent research by scholars from various countries, offering insights into emerging trends and perspectives within this interdisciplinary realm.
Covering intersections and interactions among monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual translation and interpreting, the book aims at fostering a more comprehensive discussion of the interdisciplinary nature of translation and politics
Earlier in January, Jean Nitzke participated in the International Conference on “Creativity And Translation In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence” at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. The conference aimed to explore how the latest technological developments regarding generative AI and machine translation influence the theory, practice, and didactics of translation and interpreting with a focus on creative aspects.
Jean’s presentation focused on generative AI and machine translation in teaching translation technologies for languages of low diffusion and minority languages. She explored not only how these technologies should be integrated into the courses, e.g. for post-editing, but also how they can enable the students to use their studying languages in such a course, even if the course instructor has no language proficiency.
From 2024, we will offer a one-year training programme in translation for public services (“Oversettelse i offentlig sektor”) consisting of six courses ranging from practical translation classes to classes on translation technologies and sight translation. The courses, which will be delivered online through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions, consist of 30 Credits and aim to equip participants with basic translation skills in the context of Norway’s public services. In 2024, the programme will focus on the following language pairs: Norwegian—Arabic/Tigrinya/Ukrainian. The general units will be taught in English. Norwegian and Arabic, Tigrinya and Ukrainian (depending on the language pathway students are registered in) will be used to teach the practical translation units.
In connection with this new programme, Jean attended inDialog4 – a conference on public service interpreting and translation that gave her great insights into the recent developments of a very friendly and welcoming research field. Although the main focus of the conference was on public service interpreting, insights derived from the training of translators in the context of public services will be meaningful to this scholarly area.
The University of Agder hosts weekly seminars for the local community of Kristiansand, typically on Saturdays (Lørdagsuniversitet). One of our members, Chiara Astrid Gebbia, recently had the unique opportunity to share her research during one of these events.
On the 7th of October, Chiara delivered a speech centered around the question: “Can Metaphors Die?”. Metaphors play a ubiquitous role in our daily communication, often evading our conscious awareness. They reside within the folds of polysemy in our language and subtly influence our perception of professional roles, including that of translators.
In her presentation, Chiara breathed new life into these metaphors, shedding light on their significance and impact.
The National Science Week (Forskningsdagene) is an annual event in Norway where research institutions all over the country present some of their work to the public. Amongst other events, the University of Agder took to the streets (Forskningstorget) on September 23rd to disseminate its research with the vibrant local community of Kristiansand. Two members of our AFO group, Jean Nitzke and Chiara Astrid Gebbia, were given the responsibility of managing the exhibit that showcased the Department of Foreign Languages and Translation.
To welcome attendees of all age groups, we designed two engaging hands-on activities centered around the metaphors and idioms we commonly employ in our daily lives. Visitors were also encouraged to share their own metaphors that encapsulated their perspectives on translation and languages to enrich the event.
And finally, Sandra Halverson and Jean Nitzke got the chance to represent the translation-related study programs of UiA at the Interpreting Day (Tolkens dag) at OsloMet on September 25th. The afternoon not only offered a very interesting program, but also gave enough time for inspiring and meaningful conversation. Many thanks to the colleagues at OsloMet for giving us the opportunity!
In early September, Jean Nitzke traveled to Santiago de Chile to present at the Fourth International Conference on Translation, Interpreting, and Cognition (ICTIC 4). ICTIC is a biannual conference where researchers on cognitive translation and interpreting studies from all over the world meet to exchange on their current research. Starting in Argentina in 2017, the conference has become an established event for the research community and tries to alternate between hosting universities in Southern America and Europe.
This year’s theme was “Methods we live by” and Jean presented on “Simulating realistic translation workflows in translator education: The challenges of hybrid teaching and multilingual courses”. She focused on the challenges and solutions on a course unit she and Sandra developed in the internally funded project simulating a translation office.
And we proudly announce that the next ICTIC in early June 2025 will be hosted by us! So, put a note in your calendar, save the date, and stay tuned.
