Annual Conference

NZSTI Conference 2013 - Tauranga, NZ

Registration Now Open

NZSTI Conference 2013

At the Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club

 28-30 June

Programme to come soon - taster below.
Plan your trip to the Bay of Plenty
Accommodation

Registration now open* - click here!

*Early Bird period until (and including) 7 June

Registration fee schedule click here

We look forward to seeing you in Tauranga.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE NEW ZEALAND SOCIETY OF TRANSLATORS & INTERPRETERS INC

Tauranga, New Zealand, 28~30 June 2013

WORDS, MEANING, INFERENCE AND INTENTION

CONFERENCE 2013 ~ A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME

Peter Tuffley

Click here for reservations for this year’s Conference

The programme is still in the process of coming together – but to whet your appetite, here is a foretaste of what you will experience in the lovely seaside city of Tauranga.

If you arrive on Friday 28 June, you will be able to enjoy a Welcome Party at “No. 1 The Strand”, relaxing with colleagues and friends over drinks and plentiful.

The conference will open on Saturday 29 June at the Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club with a keynote address from Dr Uldis Ozolins of the University of Western Sydney, where he holds an Adjunct Associate Professorship. Dr Ozolins played a leading role in the creation of AUSIT’s new Code of Ethics, which is scheduled for adoption at our AGM and will thus become the first Australasian code of ethics for translation and interpretation.

Two other excellent presenters from Australia will also feature in the programme.  Judy Saba, from the Cultural Diversity Team of the New South Wales Police, will be discussing issues in the use of interpreters in the policing context and beyond. Christian Schmidt, a freelance practitioner, will be giving a translation theory workshop

Dr Ineke Crezee will share with us insights gained from developments in the training of health interpreters. If her presentation is as informative and lively as the one she gave at last year’s AUSIT Conference, then her audience will be in for a treat.

Hyden Toonen, a translation company owner from Christchurch, has presented at a previous conference on business-related issues; but this time he will be giving a paper based on research he is doing for a PhD, in which he will be talking about the translation of foreign books in Japan during the period 1633-1868 when that country was closed to the outside world.

Claire Loftus Nelson will chair a panel discussion on the subject of "Working with Project Managers in Translation Agencies".

This session will be primarily for relatively new translators who are at an early stage of building their business. It will focus on operational details of working for translation agencies (not direct clients), based on prior input from project managers about working with translators, to enable us to take the initiative in a productive, profitable and pleasant relationship. We will also hear from a panel of experienced translators. 

Peter Low, who teaches translation at Canterbury University, has been a frequently-enjoyed presenter at past NZSTI Conferences. His paper this year, “From Bad Joke to Perfect Rendition? Ethical Questions in Literary Translation” airs some ethical questions in literary translation, as seen
through one particular controversial case. It is a notable case, a story of both blatant travesty and subtle distortion, which highlights certain assumptions that translators have sometimes made.

Another Peter (Peter Tuffley) will be giving a paper entitled: “Translating, Editing, and Conflict: Two Historical Case Studies”.

The programme will also feature another frequent contributor, Dr John Jamieson. The papers John presents are unfailingly thought-provoking as well as entertaining, and “Surpassing St Augustine?” promises to live up to this record. John writes: “In this paper I argue that along with the words we see on the page there are implied patterns of emphasis and structural links between them - and that these differ between different languages.”

The Conference Dinner will be at the “Collar & Thai” restaurant – the first time in at least twelve years that the great cuisine of Thailand has been on our Conference menu!

There are still some vacant slots in the conference programme, so if you have an idea for a paper you would like to present please contact me (ptuffley@xtra.co.nz or peter.tuffley@gmail.com).

Conference Fee Structure *Early Bird period until (and including) 7 June

CALL FOR PAPERS

Globalization continues at an accelerating pace bringing people of different cultures and languages into closer contact with each other. This intermingling of cultures and languages provides translators and interpreters with unique opportunities and challenges – just as it provides challenges not only to the global community but also to individual countries and societies. 

Like the earth’s tectonic plates, cultures can generate friction when they meet.  What are the ethical and other implications for translators and interpreters when they face situations that call on them to act not only as linguistic but also as cultural intermediaries and client educators, especially when the right word at the right time in the right place may help to reduce friction or avoid conflict?

Even where le mot juste does not have life-or-death implications, the correct rendering not only of words but also of their nuanced use, of the meaning, inferences and intentions that lie beneath the verbal surface, can be critical to the achievement of successful communication and accurate shared understanding. For translators and interpreters alike, herein lies the challenge of maintaining skills, of ensuring that one’s antennae remain as sensitive as they need to be.

The theme of this year’s NZSTI Conference is intended to create a forum for the exploration of a wide variety of topics involving translation and interpretation practice, ethics and accountability in a range of contexts embracing, for example commercial, political or other negotiations, inter-cultural relations, health and human rights, disputes and other adversarial situations. The scope of potential discussion includes technological issues such as security and confidentiality in the inreasingly sophisticated world of information technology.

The Conference Organising Committee invites presentations addressing issues such as those outined above. Presentations may be in paper or in workshop form.

Papers

Papers may comprise either a 20-minute presentation or a 35-minute presentation, followed by limited question time.

Workshops

Workshops should normally comprise a 50 minute presentation which introduces a practical activity to a small to medium size group; however, alternative formats will be considered if the proposed topic, objectives and treatment are deemed likely to be of sufficient interest and value. 

Please submit abstracts of up to 250 words - either  electronically to the Organising Committee at info@nzsti.org or alternatively a copy on disk to the Organising Committee, c/- Peter Tuffley, 114 Birdwood Avenue, Beckenham, Christchurch 8023.

The closing date for submissions has been extended until further notice.

Further details regarding conference programme, venue and accommodation will be available in due course.