Doha, Qatar: The Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding (SHATIU) has announced the schedule for the honouring ceremony of its 11th edition, which will take place on December 9, 2025, in Doha.
The event will celebrate translation as a bridge of understanding between nations and a key driver of cultural exchange and the sharing of global knowledge.
The ceremony is expected to welcome an elite group of distinguished intellectual, cultural, and media figures from the Arab world and beyond, along with academics, translators, and cultural experts from various countries—reflecting the award’s prominent position in the international cultural landscape.
As part of its comprehensive cultural programme, the award will host a series of morning events on the day of the ceremony. These include an open public seminar titled, “Translation and Artificial Intelligence,” featuring experts who will examine the challenges posed by AI in the translation field, particularly in relation to quality, accuracy, linguistic biases, and ethical considerations.
Speakers will also highlight the opportunities AI offers in enhancing translators’ tools, accelerating production, and expanding knowledge exchange, while preserving the cultural depth inherent in human translation.
In addition to the seminar, two closed workshops will be held under the theme, “Recommendations to Support Translation Between Arabic and Both German and Albanian.”
Led by prominent translators and specialists, the sessions will explore the obstacles facing translation between Arabic and these languages and propose practical recommendations to be submitted to governmental and non-governmental bodies. The goal is to strengthen translation flows and expand cooperation mechanisms with relevant institutions.
Entering its second decade, the award’s 11th edition represents a milestone in its continuous development.
This year, the award expanded its linguistic scope by including three widely spoken world languages—English, German, and Turkish—alongside two less widely represented languages, Albanian and Thai. This diverse selection reflects the award’s commitment to balancing global influence with support for languages that require greater visibility in translation to and from Arabic.
This edition also distinguished itself through extensive international outreach tours across regions connected to the selected languages, including major German cities and several Balkan countries such as Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia. Delegations from the award met with leading universities, translation institutes, and cultural organizations to engage directly with practitioners and better understand the realities and challenges of translation in those regions.
In a forward-looking step, the award utilised artificial intelligence tools to reach translators and cultural institutions across linguistic communities, both within and beyond the Arab world.
