Broadly defined, translation is a mode of critical thought, a means of communication, an art form with a rich history, a transnational sociopolitical phenomenon, and a practice undertaken at the horizon of the impossible. The Bard Translation and Translatability Initiative (BTTI) brings together scholars, practitioners, and students to explore translation and its discontents. Translation at Bard is read in both the narrower interlinguistic sense of moving meaning between two languages, as well as through an interrogation of the broad hermeneutic conditions at stake in questions of translatability. This interdisciplinary approach aims to elicit new collaborative insights, develop curricular initiatives, and stimulate experimentation and debate across the Bard network and the community at large.
Our Mission
The goal of the BTTI is to facilitate the recognition of translation as a supralinguistic experience that permeates and shapes modern-day language and thinking. Our aim is to implement translation in a variety of cross-disciplinary approaches to teaching as a mode of reflection that emphasizes interactions between different fields of knowledge.
Photo by China Jorrin '86
What We Do
The BTTI encourages curricular initiatives that promote translation, particularly from a multicultural or multidisciplinary perspective, and aims to bring together scholars, teachers, writers, and artists from the United States and other countries. The BTTI also works with Bard faculty members to elicit new interdisciplinary insights, develop new curricula, strengthen communication, and stimulate experimentation among the College’s four divisions and across its network of international liberal arts and graduate studies programs.
Contact
For information about events and activities contact:
Thursday, May 7, 2026 Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Sui Generis is a publication of the Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures program whose goal is to provide students with an outlet to produce original creative work in a foreign language or translate the work of other authors. Please join its Editorial Board to celebrate the publication of the 2026 issue with a multilingual reading by contributors. Light refreshments will be served outside of RKC 103 starting at 5 with a reading soon to follow.
5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4 Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
5/08
Friday
Friday, May 8, 2026 RKC & Weis9:00 am – 5:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 The Annual Translation Symposium at Bard brings together students and faculty for a series of in-depth, lively discussions of the art and craft of translation and the problem of translatability. Published authors and editors as well as emerging translators speak on panels and come together for a roundtable event to explore translation as a supra-linguistic experience that permeates and shapes modern-day language and thinking.
See a schedule below.
Schedule of Events 8.45 – 9.00 Meet and Greet in RKC
9.00-10.30 Student panels RKC 101, 102, 103 Alex Leonard Carlie Thompson Clarise Reichley Fiona O’Halloran Juniper Balbus-Holmquist Kiara A. Peña Luca Raufer Maya Davydova Noah Weiss Sam Miller Zoe Gibson
Theory in Translation Round Table Elsa Ralske Shae Camardo Star Pred Quinn Moody
10.30-10.45 Coffee break
10.45-12.30 Faculty workshop I: Teaching translation across the curriculum Weis Cinema Moderator: Jen Zoble – Bard (Translation Studies) Rufus Müller – Bard (Music) Anne Chen – Bard (Art History) Grace deMeurisse – Bard (Psychology) Perrine Chambon – Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (Language and Culture Pedagogy) Neil Blackadder – Knox College (Emeritus, Theatre) erica kaufman – Bard (Language & Thinking) Sean Colonna – Bard (Language & Thinking)
12.30-1.30 Lunch Kline
1.30-2.30 Keynote address: Daniel Mendelsohn, Introduction by Wyatt Mason Weis Cinema “What’s the Greek Word for ‘Picnic’? Adventures in Translating the Odyssey”
2.30-2.45 Coffee break
2.45-4.15 Faculty workshop II: Translation as decolonization Weis Cinema Moderator: Gabriella Lindsay – Bard (French Studies) Alys Moody – Bard (Literature) Preetha Mani – Rutgers (South Asian Studies) Jeremy Tiang – novelist, translator, playwright
4.15-4.30 Break
4.30-5.30 Wrap-up Discussion with guest speakers, faculty, and students Weis Cinema Moderators: Thomas Wild and Éric Trudel
9:00 am – 5:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 RKC & Weis
Sui Generis
Sui Generis was first published in 1997 as an initiative of the Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures faculty at Bard. It has been published once every spring since and has grown to include new languages that entered our curriculum, such as Arabic and Japanese. The primary goal of this publication is to encourage students to produce original creative work in a foreign language, or to translate the work of other authors. Sui Generis also offers language students new opportunities to work closely with our faculty and Foreign Language Exchange Tutors.