As part of the international forum “Linguistics and Challenges of the Modern Paradigm of Public Relations: Interdisciplinary, Intercultural, and Interlanguage Interactions” organised by the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology, a meeting of the research platform “Theory and Practice of Translation: Contemporary Parameters and Prospects” was held, which was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Union of Translators of Russia. VSU held the platform in cooperation with its partners: the French Institute in Russia and the Voronezh regional office of the Union of Translators of Russia (headed by Professor Elena Alexeyeva).
Among the speakers at the plenary meeting, which was held in the White Hall of VSU, was Professor Nikolay Garbovsky, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Director of the Higher School of Translation of Moscow State University, and an iconic figure in the contemporary Russian translation studies. He gave an overview of conceptual transformations that are taking place in the area of translation activities and teaching translating in the context of digitalisation. Among other speakers were Tatiana Bodrova, a well-known European simultaneous translator and a former Director of the ESIT School for Interpreters and Translators in Paris, and Olga Ivanova, the President of the Union of Translators of Russia, who gave their speeches online.
The participants of the event discussed a wide range of issues, including translation strategies in the context of global transformations: their selection and peculiarities of their implementation; literary translation as a faithful interpretation of a literary text; cultural constants in the original and translation: the issues of lacunisation and delacunisation, nomination and renomination; application of digital technologies in the analysis of the language for translation purposes; linguistic and didactic aspects of translator professional training; discourse conflictogenity and translation. The speeches of the participants were alternated with discussions and interactive communication.
For example, the round table discussion “Matching the unmatchable. Graduate qualification papers: theory vs. practice” was dedicated to an important topic of the format of the graduate qualification papers of translation students which should balance the theoretical aspect and practice-oriented potential of the work.
Also, the translation platform included a number of interesting meetings and workshops dedicated to: technological and ergonomic aspects of remote interpreting (Andrey Kalinin, PhD, senior lecturer at Moscow State University); translation quality assessment (Elena Knyazheva, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at VSU); translation project development as part of teaching translating (Tatiana Yudina, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Saint Petersburg, and Natalia Sigaryeva, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Saint Petersburg), practice of and teaching technical translation (Israil Shalyt, technical translator, Director of the translation agency Intent, Moscow). Students and lecturers from the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology took an active part in the workshop dedicated to preparation of the interpreter for interpreting at a conference. The workshop was held by Pavel Palazhenko, Head of the press office of the Gorbachev Foundation.
