HSA Roundtable: Haiti in Translation, Call for Participants

Roundtable Proposal, Call for Participants

Haitian Studies Association, 31st Annual Conference 

17-19 October, 2019, Gainesville, FL

“Haiti in Translation: History, Politics, and Practice”

From Latin roots meaning “to carry across,” translation has been mobilized by theorists such as Paul Gilroy and Édouard Glissant as a metaphor for the Atlantic world— a mutable, heterogeneous geography defined by histories of transaction and transformation. While translation exists as a crucial part of the metaphorics of Caribbean philosophy and socio-cultural theory, translation should also be considered for the way it intervenes in the material concerns and practical logistics of everyday life in the Caribbean and its diasporas (Forsdick 2015). These concerns helpfully expand discussions around translation in the Caribbean to include issues of materiality, specifically the ways in which linguistic communication through translation is informed by access to environmental, technological, educational, and economic resources.

This roundtable centers Haiti in these conversations, with a particular focus on translation as practice: who translates Haitian cultural production? Where do Haitian texts circulate in translation? How does translation mediate relationships among the various linguistic communities of Haiti, both within and across its national borders?

This roundtable invites participants from a variety of disciplinary and professional backgrounds, particularly those who are involved in translation projects/processes (such as professional translators and/or interpreters, publishers, editors, educators) and those involved with or interested in the circulation and reception of Haitian cultural production in local, hemispheric, or global contexts.

If you would like to participate, please send a brief abstract outlining your background and interest to Siobhan Meï: siobhanander@umass.edu

Bibliography:

Forsdick, Charles. “Translation in the Caribbean, the Caribbean in Translation.” Small Axe, vol. 19, no. 3 (November 2015): 147-162. doi:10.1215/07990537-3341741