Phase One: Reading Group

Project DaRT was established in 2016 as a reading group led by postgraduates with an interest in Translation Studies and related fields with a view to engaging collectively in translation theory. Our initial aim was ‘to create a dynamic community of translation enthusiasts by reflecting on the application of theory to both research and practice in a supportive, open space’ by collaboratively reading and annotating theory texts and discussing them in a series of podcasts open to everybody. This posts explains the details of how we made that happen.

Phase Two: Outreach Activities and Engagement

In August 2017, the core of the group decided to further its remit to develop research and engagement opportunities in collaboration with the existing research cluster in Translation and Creative Practice, while contributing to the creation of a more dynamic, open community of translation enthusiasts encompassing not only researchers and academics, but also practising translators and postgraduate students.

We obtained funding from the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies at UCC as well as CASiLaC (Centre for Advanced Studies in Languages and Cultures), which enabled us to organise a seminar series in January-April 2018 which featured guest scholars Prof Kaisa Koskinen (University of Tampere) and Prof Tom Cheesman (Swansea University), as well as professional translator Sophie Hughes.

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Furthermore, Project DaRT was responsible for the organisation and promotion of UCC’s Translation Week in April 2018, aimed at showcasing current research and opportunities for further study in language and translation related areas within the School of Languages. With support from the Department of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies, as well as staff in the field of Digital Humanities, Project DaRT hosted a number of workshops and talks opened to students, academic staff, and the wider community, on topical subjects such as corpus linguistics, audiovisual translation, videogame translation, multilingual workplace practices, and professional careers with languages.

Simultaneously, the members of the group have maintained an active involvement in the theory reading and discussion sessions, which remain at the core of the project’s postgraduate drive. By using digital communication and annotation tools, we have established a productive method of looking at language and translation related key theoretical and practical issues in a collaborative manner. While contributing to the development of our own individual research, this is also adding to our engagement objectives through the creation of a dynamic and open student-led community. With this in mind, we created this website to provide access to our reading schedule, record of events and activities, as well as podcasts, articles and interviews.

Phase Three: Collective Research on Translatorship

Our discussions and participation in the research community at the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences have helped us identify a common thread in our individual research projects and a still pressing issue for Translation Studies and researchers interested in language as a key factor in how we make sense of the world, summed up in the following research questions:

• What constitutes translatorship and the performance of translation?
• How does this shape our understanding of the role and identity of those who move between languages in translation?
• How do different ideas about translatorship impact on the demand, expectations and reception of translations?

Following these main research questions, we organised an international conference entitled Performing Translation: Translatorship in the 21st Century, which took place in University College Cork on the 21st and 22nd of June 2019. We were delighted to obtain funding from the Language Acts and Worldmaking AHRC funded project, which enabled us to engage with international researchers and scholars with the aim of exploring our research questions in depth. We are currently putting together a proposal to publish an edited volume with some of the contributions from the conference.

Along with that, we have been presenting our project both in academic and industry conferences and workshops and we have continued doing outreach and engagement activities, such as the Me, Myself and I Translated project with secondary schools, as well as the yearly UCC Translation Week, which is planned for the first week of April.

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