The fall 2011 Humanities Forum at Hamilton will address the topic of “Translation and Cultural Exchange.” As communication becomes increasingly international via the media, translation - especially language translation - is vital to understanding politics, social life, religion, culture and art. This two-year forum offers multiple perspectives that will challenge audiences to think about how meaningful words, sentences, and paragraphs can be translated from one language to another. All series events are free and open to the public.
The series opens with translator, author and critic Edith Grossman presenting the Hansmann Lecture on Thursday, Sept. 15, at 4:10 p.m., in the Science Center’s Kennedy Auditorium. Her lecture is titled “Why Translation Matters,” based on her book of the same name.
Grossman is the acclaimed translator of Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, and many other distinguished Spanish-language writers. Her translation of Don Quixote is widely considered a masterpiece. The recipient of numerous prizes for her work, she was awarded the Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation by PEN in 2006, an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2008, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009, and the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize in 2010.
Other events in the series, all of which will take place in the Science Center’s Kennedy Auditorium unless otherwise noted, include:
Thursday, October 6 • 4:10 p.m.
Sheila Fisher, Professor of English, Trinity College
The Art of Translating Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Monday, October 17 • 4:10 p.m.
David Rosenthal, Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Linguistics, and Coordinator of Interdisciplinary Concentration in Cognitive Science, Graduate Center, City University of New York
Translation, Theory, and Understanding
Tuesday, November 8 • 4:10 p.m.
Anthony Kronman, Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Hansmann Lecture: Education in an Age of Disenchantment
Thursday, Dec. 1 • 4:10 p.m.
Steven Yao, Professor of English, Hamilton College
Ezra Pound’s Cathay: The Translation that Changed (English Literary) History
(Science Center, room 3024)
These events are sponsored by the Dean of Faculty, the Yordán Lecture Fund, and the Hansmann Lecture Fund.
