DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN, MIDDLE EASTERN AND SOUTH …



DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN, MIDDLE EASTERN AND SOUTH ASIAN

LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

PROPOSAL FOR:

AN UNDERGRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN TRANSLATION

DESCRIPTION

The Department of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures (AMESALL) intends to offer an undergraduate Certificate in Translation with a focus on Arabic, Hindi, Persian and Swahili. The primary emphasis of the program is on translation into English. The certificate would provide students with sufficient grounding in translation theory and practice to prepare them for professional translation work in a variety of fields: literary; film sub-titling; legal service (translation of statutes and other judicial codes etc), medical service (translation of medical records, patient histories etc). It would also serve as an entry credential for work in a variety of government organizations and non-governmental organizations. The certificate would be an important incentive for the study of some of the languages offered in AMESALL to the advanced level. By targeting professionals in various fields of work – legal, medical, security, business etc – the program is also expected to be a source of revenue for Rutgers University.

NEED

New Jersey has one of the fastest growing populations of people of Middle Eastern and South Asian and African origin in the USA. Many members of these communities continue to be intimately connected with the languages, cultures and regions of origin even in the pursuit of their professional and social lives in the USA. Their presence and enduring traditions have opened up several new possibilities in international business, contract law, public service, entertainment industry, and international relations, which require translation services on a regular or ad hoc basis.

The tragic events of 9/11 have also led to a dramatic rise in the demand for linguistically proficient specialists in translation. Since then translation has become deeply implicated in matters of global diplomacy. Translation has moved to the fore as an issue of major political and cultural significance with every renewed call for information sharing by institutions charged with protecting national security, mutual understanding across cultural and religious divides, and multilateral cooperation. The four languages included in this certificate program are all classified as “critical languages” for security purposes.

OTHER PROGRAMS

The only college in New Jersey that has an undergraduate certificate in translation is Montclair State University. Like virtually all translation certificates in US colleges, however, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, the Montclair program is based exclusively on “European” language, in this case Spanish. Yet one of the American spaces of rising need for professional translators is precisely the one occupied by people of “Afrasian” linguistic background, involving precisely the languages offered under AMESALL. Just as Rutgers has been a pioneer in giving departmental status to less commonly taught languages of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, it would now be a pioneer in having a translation program for languages of these three regions of the world – the Middle East and South Asia.

Of course, Rutgers World Language Institute (WLI) has recently introduced the Rutgers Translation and Interpretation (RTI) program. This program has been a subject of a meeting between AMESALL faculty and the RTI director and faculty, at which it was concluded that AMESALL’s proposed translation certificate and the RTI program would not be in conflict with each other because: (1) The only overlapping language between the two programs is Arabic; RTI does not include Hindi, Persian and Swahili; (2) RTI courses are offered only during the Winter and Summer Sessions, while AMESALL’s certificate is designed for the regular academic year; (3) RTI courses are module-oriented, focusing on discrete translation zones – e.g. legal translation, computer-assisted translation, medical translation etc. In addition to sensitizing learners to critical linguistic and theoretical frames, AMESALL’s proposed certificate has a more integrated approach that enhances the learners’ skills in identifying textual genres and registers and their characteristics and translatability across languages and cultures. In the final analysis, the two programs are bound to complement each other.

THE PROGRAM

The Certificate Program in African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures consists of 18 credits, completed with a grade of B or better in each course. The requirements of the program are:

Two language courses beyond the intermediate level in Arabic/Hindi/Persian/Swahili, or the equivalent in test-out credits

013: 304 Introduction to Translation Studies (Newly proposed)

013: 303 Language in Society (Existing course)

013: 403 Translation Practicum I in Arabic/Hindi/Persian/Swahili (Newly Proposed)

013: 404 Translation Practicum II in Arabic/Hindi/Persian/Swahili (Newly proposed)

Credits earned in any of the above courses can also be used to fulfill the requirements of the Major or the Minor in AMESALL.

In order to cater to non-traditional and non-Rutgers students, all courses for the Certificate in Translation will be offered in the evenings and weekends.

INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF

AMESALL is very fortunate to have a cluster of faculty, who are already at Rutgers or will be joining Rutgers next academic year, that is trained in translation and/or has a well-established record of translated publications. These include:

Samah Selim (PhD, Columbia): A translation theorist, a researcher in translation studies and an internationally-acclaimed, award-winning translator. Language: Arabic

Paul Sprachman (PhD, Chicago): A translation theorist and a distinguished translator of Persian literature. For several years now Dr. Sprachman has taught courses in the theory and practice of Persian translated at Rutgers designed to prepare students to translate legal, medical, and other documents from Persian to English. Languages: Persian and Urdu

Alamin Mazrui, (PhD, Stanford): A socio-linguist who has been conducting research on (post)colonial translation in sub-Saharan Africa, and on the dynamics of interpretation/translation in the courtroom. Alamin is part of a Kenyan team to establish a certification program for court interpreters in Kenya. Language: Swahili

Preetha Mani, (PhD, Berkeley): A specialist of translation studies in the South Asian context with a focus on gender. Languages: Hindi and Tamil

Nida Sajid (PhD, Toronto): A translation theorist with a strong grounding in the practice of translation arising from her training in Applied and Comparative Linguistics. Languages: Hindi/Urdu and Bengali

RESOURCES NEEDED

Instructional Needs

The department has sufficient resources to teach all the courses for the proposed certificate for all the languages. The only exception is the Practicum I and Practicum II courses for Arabic, for which additional funding for a part-time lecturer (for one course per semester) would be required in the short run. In the meantime, the department is exploring the possibility of applying for a Mellon grant to cover the cost of the Arabic ptl.

Non-Instructional Needs

The department will cover from its operational budget all costs related to the purchase of on-line legal, medical and other specialized bilingual reference works, as well as machine translation software.

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