Doha: In association with Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP) held the second annual two-day translation conference on April 3 and 4, titled “The Traveling Text.”

The event at CMU-Q campus addressed current and ongoing challenges facing translators, while providing practical solutions from veteran experts and linguists in the field.

“Following the success of last year’s conference, CMU-Q joins forces with Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing to bring international plenary speakers and workshop leaders to Qatar,” said Amal Mohammed Al Malki, assistant teaching professor of English at CMU-Q, who helped to develop the conference programme.

“Language is a powerful tool in bringing people together. This year we are exploring translation from and into more languages, giving us insights into new cultures. Our workshops deal with different topics in translation, providing in-depth knowledge and instant training in a friendly and interactive format.”

“Carnegie Mellon Qatar understands the importance of translation in our bilingual and multilingual students’ daily lives and the need to equip them with the academic training that helps to turn a simple daily act into a professional one,” she added.

This conference has been developed in conjunction with BQFP as part of its efforts to improve standards of Arabic language translation, as well as editing of texts both into and out of Arabic and make it more accessible.

“We have added French, Hindi and Russian as languages of expertise provided by the plenary and workshop leaders this year. As a publisher of translated works, BQFP supports this conference as an effort to provide opportunities for conversations and collaboration,” said Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, Reading and Writing Development Director of BQFP.

Integrated as part of the two-day conference, experts in the translation field conducted workshops with leading practitioners and educators to focus on various aspects of the craft in relation to translating from Arabic to English and vice versa as well as among other languages. The different workshops were led by Sameh F Hanna, lecturer in Translation Studies and Arabic at the University of Salford; Samia Mehrez, Director of Center for Translation Studies at American University in Cairo; Dr. Nabila Zouaoui, expert to the Qatar’s Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, H E Dr Hamad Al Kuwari and Dr. Afnan Fatani, associate professor of linguistics in the department of European Languages and Literature at King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia.

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