Translation is an essential tool that connects cultures and people throughout the world; manuscripts and writings from both ancient and modern civilizations are unlocked by academics who study the social, historical and linguistic aspects of original texts.
Starting this September, graduate students at the University of Oregon can earn a graduate specialization in translation studies, an option afforded to all majors but targeted at students studying languages, literatures, anthropology, international studies and folklore. It is designed as an academic concentration that gives students the opportunity to apply translation studies to different disciplines and classes.
A graduate specialization is either a subdivision of a major or an interdisciplinary track that offers a strong, graduate-level program of study. Once approved, graduate specializations are indicated after the major on official records and transcripts once the student graduates.
The Translation Studies Working Group — a group of faculty and graduate students that explores the research, teaching and practice-related aspects of translation — will oversee the graduate students’ specialization process.
“We thought it was time for it,” Susan Anderson, a professor of German who also serves as the senior vice provost for academic affairs, said of the specialization. “I think there’s a huge interest in translation — not just the actual translating of one language into another but the ideas of cultural translation and translation from one medium to another.”
After the working group collaborated on a proposal that took more than a year to complete — not to mention the approval process it had to go through to get the green light — the graduate specialization will finally be an option starting this academic year.
“It will be a flexible and student-designed specialization,” said Amalia Gladhart, a professor of Spanish and the head of the Department of Romance Languages. “It’s designed to piggyback on their graduate work and pulls together courses that might be offered in different departments.”
Requirements for the 18 credits of course work include one core course — in either romance languages or comparative literature — along with 12 credits of electives and at least two organized colloquia. Students will present either a translation project or a theoretical paper during the term and serve as a respondent during another one.
“It’s designed to create a greater coherence to their interests and it will allow students who are more interested in the theoretical questions and the students interested in the literary translation practices to work together,” Gladhart said.
Students interested in the new graduate specialization should email Jeffrey Librett at jlibrett@uoregon.edu ore Karen McPherson at ksmcpher@uoregon.edu to sign up.
— By Nathaniel Brown, Public Affairs Communications