Translation and Translatability

Translation at Bard

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.

Our Location

The BTTI, located in Aspinwall 302 on the Annandale campus, provides a welcoming space for meetings, workshops, and ongoing informal conversation related to translation. For information about events and activities contact:

Susan Gillespie, BTTI Fellow
914-388-3506
[email protected]
[email protected]

Upcoming Events

2/17

Friday

Friday, February 17, 2023
Alexa Frank ’15, Assistant Editor, HarperVia / HarperCollins
Campus Center, Weis Cinema; Other 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Japanese manga is one of publishing’s biggest pandemic-era success stories. Having reached new market sales heights in 2020, the medium continues to see explosive growth and visibility. But what does that success mean in the wider landscape of translated literature, when cover credit for translators remains a hot-button issue, and translators remain underpaid and under-recognized? How can we properly savor the fruits of our labor when laboring in the present system of print capitalism? The talk will discuss making the jump from Barnes and Noble manga section stalwart to professional manga translator, editing literature in English translation, and surviving, thriving, and sometimes even crying while working in an industry where passion doesn’t pay the rent.

Alexa Frank is a translator and editor based in New York. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Fulbright Program, she has translated over 20 volumes of manga, such as Kyoko Okazaki's River’s Edge and Nazuna Saito’s Offshore Lightning (both to be released this June). She currently works an assistant editor at HarperVia, an imprint of HarperCollins, where she has edited titles such as Tomihiko Morimi’s The Tatami Galaxy (translated from Japanese by Emily Balistrieri, and longlisted for the 2023 PEN Translation Prize). She is a member of the HarperCollins Union, which has been on strike since November 10, 2022.

12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EST/GMT-5 Campus Center, Weis Cinema; Other

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.