Amal Al Malki, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Science, speaking at the opening ceremony of the Translation Conference at QNCC, yesterday.
The 8th International Translation Conference under the theme “21st Century Demands: Translators and Interpreters Towards Human and Social Responsibilities kicked off yesterday at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC).
The annual event on translation and interpreting scholars and practitioners in the Middle East is organised by Translation and Interpreting Institute (TII). TII is part of College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).
The two-day conference is hosting over 150 participants from Qatar and abroad who attended the opening session with the Ambassadors of Belgium, Spain, and Syria along with the Cultural Attaché to the Embassy of Bahrain besides industry experts, academics and media personalities.
Also in attendance was the President of Pre-University Education at Qatar Foundation, Buthaina Al Nuaimi. HBKU leadership in attendance included the President of HBKU, Dr Ahmad Hasnah, and the Provost of HBKU, Dr Khaled Ben Letaief.
Some 23 topics highlighting the most critical challenges of the profession were discussed during the first day of the conference in parallel workshops where prominent international scholars, industry commentators, and media personalities presented papers.
After the opening speech by Amal Al Malki, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Science, a general session took place where Khaled Almaeena, Editor-in-Chief of Arab News, the largest English newspaper in the Middle East, and a renowned Saudi television news anchor and talk show host, delivered presentation on “Translation, politics and the News”.
Anna Gil Bardaji, lecturer of Arabic language and translation from Arabic to Spanish and Catalan at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain discussed “Public service interpreting as factor of social change”, and Pablo Rmero Fresco, Professor in Translation and Film-making at the University of Roehampton, gave a presentation on “The social impact of audiovisual translation, past, present and future".
“Ethics and social responsibility in practice, for a profession that often deals with sensitive domains such as law, politics, healthcare, socio-economics, and activism, is a very challenging task”, said Dr Al Malki, in her opening remarks.
