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OSTI 2020 Virtual
Conference
From Masks to Mastery
September 12-13 and September 19-20, 2020 | via Zoom
Week 2 (Sep. 19-20) Speakers Bios and Session Abstracts
Go to Week 1 (Sep. 12-13) Speakers Bios and Session Abstracts
*Last Updated: 9/7/2020
Session 28 | Somrita Urni Ganguly Translating Disability: Social Activism and Literary Translation Bio Somrita Urni Ganguly is a professor, and award-winning poet and literary translator. She was a Fulbright Doctoral Research Fellow at Brown University, Rhode Island. She is the editor of Quesadilla and Other Adventures: Food Poems (2019), and has translated Dinesh Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Firesongs (2019), Ashutosh Nadkar’s Shakuni: Master of the Game (2019), and Shankarlal Sengupta’s The Midnight Sun: Love Lyrics and Farewell Songs (2018). Somrita translates from Bengali and Hindi to English, and was selected by the National Centre for Writing, UK, as an emerging translator in 2016. She received a grant to attend the 2020 BCLT International Literary Translation and Creative Writing Summer School at the University of East Anglia, UK. In 2017, she was invited as translator-in-residence at Cove Park, Scotland, and as poet-in-residence at Arcs of a Circle, Mumbai, an artistes’ residency organized by the US Consulate in Bombay. Somrita’s work has been showcased at the London Book Fair, and she has read her works in several cities such as Aligarh, Bloomington, Bombay, Boston, Calcutta, Chandigarh, Cove, Delhi, Hyderabad, Itanagar, London, Miami, Providence, Shantiniketan, and Singapore. She has been published in Asymptote, Words Without Borders, In Other Words, and Trinity College Dublin’s Journal of Literary Translation, among others. Somrita teaches British literature to undergraduate and graduate students in Calcutta. She has presented research papers at various national and international conferences in India, Singapore, the UK, and the USA, and has fourteen academic publications to her credit. She is a recipient of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund Award (2013) and the Sarojini Dutta Memorial Prize (2011). Session Abstract In times of growing intolerance, literary translation is and can be a form of social activism. By echoing voices from the margins, and translating feminist, Dalit, disability, and/or queer writings from around the world, literary translations can create a common ground to share diverse experiences and demonstrate how people’s struggles are not isolated. Choosing to translate literature from “banned” communities and marginalized cultures can help bring us out of our insular existence. In this presentation I shall discuss translating disability with a focus on two Bengali stories by the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) that I recently translated: ‘Subha’ and ‘Drishtidaan’. My translations highlight the desires of Tagore’s disabled women, their right to be represented as sexual beings, and also their right to represent other marginalized women from nineteenth century Bengal. I will highlight certain linguistic choices while advocating for the role that a literary translator can play through her active intervention in re-reading old texts, opening up spaces for dialogue, and leading to new interrogations. The linguistic choices of a translator raise questions of political correctness and permissibility. The issue of permissibility is complex and demands an analysis of power structures at work. Political correctness and the search for a perfect idiom is likely to not yield long-term results because words gather significance with changing times, policies and politics. Literary translation can help us try to fix attitudes, instead of simply trying to fix language.
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Session 29 | Judit Marin Interpreting for Pain Management Patients: New Trends and Treatments Bio Judit Marin is a freelance Spanish interpreter, translator, and trainer based in Northern California. She is an ATA-certified (English>Spanish) translator and a California Certified Medical Interpreter. She holds an M.A. in Spanish from U.C. Santa Barbara and a B.A. in Catalan Philology from the University of Barcelona. She currently serves as Vice President and Continuing Education Director for the Northern California Translators Association (NCTA). She received the Interpreter of the Year Award from the California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA), at their annual conference in 2018. You can contact her at marinjudit@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter: @juditoak. Session Abstract The purpose of this presentation is to introduce healthcare interpreters to medical terminology specifically related to pain management and to the new trends and treatments in this medical specialty. We will discuss the following topics: what is pain management; the complexity of this medical specialty and the challenges interpreters face in pain management settings; most common injuries and conditions that lead to a referral to pain management; and a description of treatments for pain (procedures, medications, functional restoration programs, etc.). Participants will receive terminology and glossaries (English, Spanish and Chinese) pertaining to this area of care.
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Session 31 | Dr. Marella Feltrin-Morris Off into the Great Unknown: Translation for Research Bio Marella Feltrin-Morris is Associate Professor of Italian at Ithaca College, specializing in modern Italian literature and translation. She holds PhDs in Comparative Literature and in Translation Studies, both from Binghamton University. Among her recent work are the articles “Pereira traduttore e l’etica della visibilità” (Forum Italicum, 2019) and “Welcome Intrusions: Capturing the Unexpected in Translators’ Prefaces to Dante’s Divine Comedy" (Tusaaji, 2018). Her translations of works by Luigi Pirandello, Massimo Bontempelli, Paola Masino, Stefano Benni, Dacia Maraini, Davide Rondoni and Fabio Pusterla have appeared in North American Review, Two Lines and Green Mountains Review, among other journals. Session Abstract One of the many challenges of navigating the field of translation is accounting for the types of practices one might encounter within the profession. The categories under which such practices are clustered—subject area, use of the end product, translation method—naturally overlap, and the resultant maze inadvertently causes certain kinds of translation to fall by the wayside. Such is the case with translation for research, i.e., the translation of specialized texts or, more often, portions of texts, typically commissioned by scholars and scientists with little or no knowledge of the source language, who may quote parts of the translation or integrate it into their own research. Ranging from mildly to highly technical, requiring hefty linguistic dexterity, and often destined to be ripped apart for mysterious goals, translation for research is the Wild West of translation. From the starting point of a particular project (the translation of a 17th-century letter detailing the life and journeys of Italian linguist and diplomat Giovanni Battista Vecchietti, a translation commissioned by a historian researching the perception and representation of Persia in the Italian Renaissance), this presentation intends to explore the tricky territory of translation to be used for research—specifically the translation of ancient historical documents. Among the aspects to be examined are how to handle text fragments, poor transcriptions, inconsistent punctuation or spelling, and negotiating the delicate relationship between translator and researcher.
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Session 32 | Dartagnhan Rodrigues The Interpreting Game: the use of a Videogame as a Support for Medical Interpreting Training Bio Dartagnhan Rodrigues has a Masters Degree in Education, is a Specialist in Higher Education Professors' Training, and is a translator and medical interpreter. He has written articles about the use of videogames for educational purposes and the use of videogames for interpreter training. His book about videogames and interpreter training (Portuguese version) will be released on Amazon.com in mid-June. http://lattes.cnpq.br/6846274606911435 Session Abstract My professional experience as a medical interpreter, the lack of professional medical interpreters as witnessed in the hospitals of Sao Paulo, and the preference of translation and interpreting students for this translation area instead of interpreting all were motivation to start this study. "The Medical interpreter," which is a game aimed at combining technology, semiotics, and teaching techniques based on Marcia Fusaro, James Paulo Gee, and Mark Prensky’s studies and supported by Paulo Freire and Lucia Santaella’s educational views, was developed as an attempt to improve medical interpreters' practice. After the game, students considered it an efficient offline tool for medical interpreter training. It preserves students' privacy because it does not expose their errors to their peers in the classroom.
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Session 34 | Dr. Gabriel González Núñez Two Legal Traditions: An Introduction to the Common Law and the Civil Law Bio Dr. Gabriel González Núñez, Assistant Professor, is the Director of UTRGV’s Translation and Interpreting Programs. He is also the Executive Consultant of the Translation & Interpreting Office in the areas of Legal and Institutional Translation and Interpreting. He holds a BA in Spanish Translation, a JD, an MA in Translation and Intercultural Studies, and a PhD in Translation Studies. At KU Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven), he was a Marie Curie Actions Fellow who carried out research into the role of translation policy in the integration of linguistic minorities. Before obtaining his PhD, he was adjunct faculty at Brigham Young University, where he taught Spanish translation and Spanish grammar, and at Utah Valley University, where he taught Spanish grammar. At UTRGV he teaches different translation and interpreting courses. He has published books and articles with highly reputable journals and publishers in the field. He has also worked as a lawyer, translator, interpreter, language teacher, and sports broadcaster. Additionally, he has in the past volunteered for a number of non-profit organizations. He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. Session Abstract Unlike mathematics or the hard sciences, the law does not lend itself to clean-cut translations from one language to another. Indeed, one of the biggest challenges faced by legal translators and court interpreters is the lack of full equivalents between legal cultures. This is the result of each legal tradition having its own distinctive history, doctrine, institutions, philosophy, and legal sources. The two major legal traditions in the world right now are the Common Law, rooted in English history, and the Civil Law, rooted in continental European history. The United States is a Common-law jurisdiction, while most immigrants who come from Latin America and Europe (as well as many from Asia and Africa) come from Civil-law jurisdictions. This presentation will briefly consider the history of each of these traditions and some of the major differences between them, especially in terms of the role played by legislation and judicial courts. This will serve as a starting point for those who wish to engage in many of the comparative law exercises that are at the heart of seeking for terminological equivalents when moving back and forth between English and other languages, especially Spanish.
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Session 35 | Meghann Darne, LCSW Radical Wellness through a Cultural Lens Bio Meghann Darne, LCSW has been practicing Social Work for over 16 years both as a direct service worker, advocate, educator, and administrator. She draws on her experience as a social worker working with oppressed and marginalized populations, her years as a foster parent providing care for teen girls, as well as her clinical expertise as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She runs a full- time private practice utilizing Internal Family Systems and Narrative- and Solution-Focused Therapy models. She works with young adults, couples, and families and specializes in Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and Grief and Loss. Meghann provides trainings and consulting for groups and corporations in self-care, grief and loss, and trauma and the brain. Session Abstract This hour-long workshop will be a sample of my full-day training called Radical Wellness. Full description below:
Radical Wellness is a dynamic workshop that will bring a new understanding of self-care. Participants will learn creative ways to understand the needs of your brain, heart, and body. Radical Wellness tools can be used to help guide others and yourself toward a unique plan for sustainable wellness. Due to time constraints for this training we will focus on understanding our needs and creating a sustainable plan utilizing self- compassion.
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Session 37 | Mary Jane White Marina Tsvetaeva into our American Canon (Poetry in Translation) Bio Mary Jane White is a retired trial lawyer who also holds a MFA Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has been awarded two NEA Fellowships, one in poetry and one in translation. Her Tsvetaeva translations appear along with early original poems in Starry Sky to Starry Sky (Holy Cow! Press 1988), New Year’s, an Elegy for Rilke (Adastra Press 2007); Poets Translate Poets, (Syracuse 2013). After Russia: Poems of an Emigrant, After Russia, Poem of the Hill, Poem of the End and New Year’s (a bilingual text) is forthcoming in 2020 from Adelaide Books (NYC/Lisbon). Contact her at maryjanewhite@gmail.com. From the jacket copy: "These poems by Tsvetaeva positively scorch the page. What other poet, of this or any century, can match her for ferocity? Wrested from the maelstrom, her imagery alone is a perpetual revelation: unadorned, unprecedented, brutally on target. English-language readers owe a profound debt of gratitude to Mary Jane White for these brilliant translations.” Linda Gregerson, Caroline Walker Bynum Distinguished University Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI. Session Abstract
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Session 38 | Dr. Carola Berger Watch out—there's a scam in your inbox! Bio Carola F. Berger is an ATA-certified (EN>DE) English-German patent translator with a PhD in physics and a master’s degree in engineering physics. After being defrauded by an impersonator at the beginning of her career, she did some in-depth research on online fraud, which led to several presentations and articles on scams in publications such as The ATA Chronicle and Translorial, the journal of the Northern California Translators Association (NCTA). Carola is currently serving as Administrator of ATA’s Science and Technology Division and as Webmaster on NCTA’s Board of Directors. Session Abstract Scams are on the rise in online commerce, especially when transacted entirely online. Thus the language profession is particularly vulnerable to fraudulent schemes. Even knowledgeable professionals can fall victim to scammers. However, as we will see in this presentation, the risks can be minimized. We will discuss the most common forms of scams targeting translators, and increasingly, interpreters. The packaging of these scams is ever evolving (social media instead of emails, video “interviews” instead of CV theft, etc.), but the underlying principles stay the same. We will present specific real-life examples and concrete actions to protect against these fraudulent schemes. A list of resources complements these action items.
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Session 41 | Host: Allison A. deFreese Literary Translation Open Mic Bio Allison A. deFreese, MA, MFA, MAIT, is an Oregon-based literary translator and poet. Her work has appeared in Arkana, Asymptote, the Bangalore Review, CrazyHorse, the Decadent Review, and Waxwing. She has several book-length literary translations forthcoming in summer, 2020, among them María Negroni’s genre-defying collection Elegy for Joseph Cornell and Soaring to New Heights, the autobiography of NASA astronaut José Moreno Hernández who previously worked as a child migrant farmworker and was the first person to speak Spanish from outer space. Allison A. deFreese's translation of Verónica González Arredondo's award-winning book I Am Not That Body, a work addressing immigration and the disappearances of girls and women making the journey to the U.S. Border, won the 2020 Pub House Press (Montreal) international chapbook manuscript competition and was published on June 20, 2020—the solstice.Session Abstract Please join OSTI for a virtual Literary Translation Open Mic! Bring a work in progress to read or come and listen to poems, short stories, and creative nonfiction from around the world! We want to hear you! To sign up for a five-to-eight-minute spot to read or present at one of two live, virtual events to be held during the 2020 Oregon Society for Translators and Interpreters conference, please email Allison deFreese at: AlasVerdesTranslationNW [at] gmail.com. We hope to see you there!
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Session 42 | Judit Marin Drugs, Alcohol and Fentanyl: Interpreting for Chemical Dependency Patients Bio Judit Marin is a freelance Spanish interpreter, translator, and trainer based in Northern California. She is an ATA-certified (English>Spanish) translator and a California Certified Medical Interpreter. She holds an M.A. in Spanish from U.C. Santa Barbara and a B.A. in Catalan Philology from the University of Barcelona. She currently serves as Vice President and Continuing Education Director for the Northern California Translators Association (NCTA). She received the Interpreter of the Year Award from the California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA), at their annual conference in 2018. You can contact her at marinjudit@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter: @juditoak. Session Abstract Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States was in the midst of an opioid crisis. The demand to interpret at chemical dependency programs will continue to increase as patients struggle with additional problems such as financial hardships, job loss and difficulties to access care due to the focus on treatment for COVID-19. This presentation will review specific terminology related to addiction, particularly opioid pain medications, illicit drugs such as non-pharmaceutical Fentanyl, and other substances. We will also discuss the special challenges for interpreters in this field: patients’ language filled with drug-related slang, and unique references to the world of addiction. This presentation will provide the tools to successfully interpret in group-treatment therapy and in the ever-evolving world of chemical dependency.
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Session 44 | Dr. Roxana Fitch-Romero New Features in Online Spanish Slang and Dialect Dictionary/ Jergas Hispanas [Spanish] Bio Roxana Fitch-Romero, born in Tijuana BC, Mexico. B. A. in Italian from UCLA; M. A. in Spanish Applied Linguistics from U. Autonoma de Queretaro; Ph. D. in Spanish Philology from U. Autonoma de Barcelona. Translator (English-Spanish-Italian) and translation professor (English-Spanish) at Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, campus Tijuana. Creator and webmaster of www.jergasdehablahispana.org, from 1997 to present. Author of Diccionario de coloquialismos y términos dialectales del español, a dictionary of Spanish slang from Spain and Latin America, published by Arco Libros (Madrid) in 2011. Session Abstract Known for over 20 years as Jergas de habla hispana, the Spanish online dictionary specializing in dialect and slang terms has been updated and improved to better serve its users. Besides the new name, the dictionary offers options for different types of word/phrase searches, according to users’ needs. The dictionary’s search engine has undergone changes so that there are now several ways to search for terms to avoid getting too many irrelevant results: by exact term (write foco and you will get results solely for entries whose headword is foco); by keyword (enter foco and you will get results for entries containing the word foco, which will include the headword foco, as well as the idiom prendérse[le] el foco); there is a reverse search possibility, in which the user may search the dictionary based on a keyword present in the definition. This works by setting the country specification first and then entering a standard word for the search. Thus, by entering joven under Colombia, some of the results will be entries for culicagado, sardino, pelado and hembrito. For two types of searches there is an option for general, non-country-specific searches or searches restricted to a specific country. Another type of search maintained from the earlier version of the dictionary is the alphabetical listing of headwords, which allows users to quickly scan the contents of the dictionary alphabetically for a specific country. Other changes involve how certain headwords for idioms are presented, which offer stronger clues on how they are used.
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Session 45 | Toc Soneoulay-Gillespie, MSW, Liana Brackett, and Erik Bjorn Hindman Health Inequities in our Medical System Bio Toc Soneoulay-Gillespie is 1.5 generation Lao refugee born in a refugee camp in Thailand. She resettled in the U.S. with her parents in the late 70’s, shortly after the Secret War in Laos. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology/Sociology from Eastern Oregon University and a Master of Social Work from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Ms. Soneoulay-Gillespie was appointed by Governor Brown to serve as commissioner on the Oregon Commission on Asian Pacific Islander Affairs and as a council member of the Governors Behavioral Health Advisory Council. In her current role as Social Services Manager at Care Oregon, she works to identify opportunities to collaborate with community partners related to social determinants of health strategies that promote health equity and improve health outcomes for historically marginalized communities. Prior to this role, she served as the Director of Refugee Resettlement at Catholic Charities of Oregon Liana Brackett, lives in Los Angeles, CA, and is an On-Camera Meteorologist for The Weather Channel (national TV network). She graduated from UC Davis with a degree in atmospheric science and then spent 7 years working for the National Weather Service in Portland, Or. She currently hosts her own show, Weekend Weather Today, on the app Quibi and works for Fox 11 as a freelance meteorologist. These have been interesting times for Liana, who is biracial. Being half Black and half Mexican has created a unique world perspective for her, one that she hopes can bring people together in divisive times like these. Session Abstract With COVID-19 racing through our communities, many of us are quick to say the feel good slogan, “we are all in this together.” Is that really the case with all communities, in particular, communities of color and our communities with Limited English proficiency? How do we as a medical community help address health disparities that have been there all along, when now with COVID-19 we are seeing an even larger increase inhealth inequity in our medical system? This presentation will address the current challenges our communities of color face and how we as a medical system need to be listening differently.
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Session 47 | Ivonne Saed, (and Allison A. deFreese) In Collaboration: The Author and Literary Translator Exchange Bio Graphic designer, writer, translator, and photographer, Ivonne Saed has extensively explored the crossroads between the visual and the textual, both in her creative work and in teaching. She is the author of the novel Triple crónica de un nombre (Lectorum, 2003) and the non-fiction Sobre Paul Auster: Autoría, distopía y textualidad (Lectorum, 2009). She co-authored Literatura: imaginación, identidad y poder, Vampiros transmundanos y tan urbanos, and ¡Madres! Cuentos (y precauciones) de maternidad. Saed has published book reviews, short fiction and photos in periodicals like Reforma and Crónica (Mexico), Literal Magazine (US), and Arquivo Maaraví (Brazil). Her documentary Naïve premiered in 2011 as part of Object Stories, a Portland Art Museum project, and she produced Vida Sefaradí: A Century of Sephardic Life in Portland. Saed has taught at Marylhurst University, Oregon State University and Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico), and she’s been a Delve Seminar guide for Literary Arts, in Portland, Oregon, since 2011. Her work has been discussed by academics in a number of publications and has been staged by Jewish Theatre Collaborative (Portland) and Jewish Women’s Theatre (Los Angeles). Allison A. deFreese, MA, MFA, MAIT, is an Oregon-based literary translator and poet. Her work has appeared in Arkana, Asymptote, the Bangalore Review, CrazyHorse, the Decadent Review, and Waxwing. She has several book-length literary translations forthcoming in summer, 2020, among them María Negroni’s genre-defying collection Elegy for Joseph Cornell and Soaring to New Heights, the autobiography of NASA astronaut José Moreno Hernández who previously worked as a child migrant farmworker and was the first person to speak Spanish from outer space. Allison A. deFreese's translation of Verónica González Arredondo's award-winning book I Am Not That Body, a work addressing immigration and the disappearances of girls and women making the journey to the U.S. Border, won the 2020 Pub House Press (Montreal) international chapbook manuscript competition and was published on June 20, 2020—the solstice. Session Abstract Language is more than a set of words or way of saying things. Language is an essential element of our brain structure, and an important part of our social and cultural fabric. Translating literature includes elements of creative writing, as the translator recreates the original work in a new context and for a different audience. In addition, literary translation often forces the target language into saying things that are not necessarily natural in the original language or context, or to use words with somewhat different cultural connotations than the original text. The goal of this workshop is to reflect on the many challenges we find in literary translation, to seek solutions to common issues in translating culturally and linguistically nuanced tests, and to discuss opportunities that arise when collaborating with a living author. We'll explore the kinds of conversations that are helpful in understanding cultural viewpoints on social issues, like immigration and feminism, while honoring the original text through the translator's creativity.
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Session 48 | Erik Bjorn Hindman The Future of Language Access Bio Erik oversees client relations at an interpreting company in the Portland area. He has dedicated the past two years to the reimagining of interpretation and translation services available to the Oregon market, and to making health equity more tangible and easily achievable through language access means. Session AbstractErik will be discussing what the future holds for interpreters and how these changes will positively impact patient experience and health outcomes. Erik will also be laying out the highlights of how to implement a language access plan for your freelance medical interpreting business or healthcare organization and help you to create concrete business justification for this budgeting and implementation investment.
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