Rachel O’Donnell
M/W 12:30-1:45
4 credits
Why take this course?
- Explore translation as a creative and cultural practice, not just a matter of finding the right words. Investigate how translation can reshape voices and perspectives across languages and media.
- Put your skills to work in real-world contexts, from literary and audiovisual translation to medical, legal, activist, and community settings.
Key skills you’ll gain
- Critical and creative approaches to communicating across languages, cultures, and communities.
- Analyze how translation choices shape meaning, voice, audience, power.
- Adapt language for different genres, audiences, platforms, and real-world contexts.
- Create and critique your own translations across textual and multimodal forms.
Full course description
This course approaches translation not merely as the transference of words from one language to another, but as a richly layered artistic, social, and political act. What does it mean to translate—not just a text, but a worldview or a voice? What opportunities and difficulties shape the work of professional translators? And to what extent does the translator emerge as a creative force, as an author, an interpreter, or a community builder? Through case studies spanning textual, audiovisual, and multimodal forms, we will investigate translations both familiar and unexpected: the rendering of an advertisement or museum label; the subtitling of a theatrical performance; and the high-stakes work of interpretation in medical, legal, or activist settings. Students will experiment with their own translations, engage with readings that challenge ideas of authorship, and collaborate with community partners. The culminating project invites students to extend their insights into real-world contexts and make language a site of transformation.