| What's in This Issue | The fall of 2024 was an especially exciting one for the CTGL community and our extended University of Iowa network! Our own CTGL Associate Project Director received national recognition for excellence in her field, an Iowa Visiting Assistant Professor in Translation (and translation program alum) received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and two alumnae of the MFA in Literary Translation won translation awards at the recent American Literary Translators Association Conference in October.
In addition, several CTGL staff hosted translation-focused workshops in Iowa City for local high school students, countless CTGL friends descended upon Milwaukee for the ALTA Conference, and the Classroom Tools gallery in our virtual library launched on our website! Keep reading for more details on what we've been up to and what we have planned in the coming months. | | | CTGL Community Recent Honors | | | | CTGL Associate Project Director Receives National Honor We want to extend another heartfelt congratulations to CTGL Associate Project Director, Pamela Wesely, who just received the Anthony Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education from the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers.
This award recognizes a world language educator who has demonstrated excellence in the preparation and continuing education of teachers for the profession.
In addition to her role with the CTGL, Dr. Wesely is the University of Iowa College of Education associate dean for faculty and graduate education, as well as a multilingual education professor.
We’re thrilled to celebrate her recognition and are grateful for the continued excellence she brings to the CTGL specifically and the university broadly.
To read more about Dr. Wesely and this tremendous award, see the College of Education’s complete award announcement. | | | NEA and ALTA Award Winners We're thrilled to share that Visiting Assistant Professor in Translation and Creative Writing at the University of Iowa, Thomas Mira y Lopez, was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant to support his translation from Brazilian Portuguese of The Factory Behind the Hill: Selected Stories by José J. Veiga, largely considered to be Brazil's foremost practitioner of magical realism. Learn more about Tommy and his exciting project at the NEA website. In addition, MFA in Literary Translation alumna Caroline Froh also received an NEA grant to support her translations of a trilogy of novels by Yenish author Mariella Mehr from German.
We’re also pleased to share that MFALT alumnae Jennifer Shyue and Jamie Richards won the 2024 ALTA First Translation Prize and National Translation Award in Prose, respectively. Shyue was recognized for her translation from Spanish of The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu, written by Augusto Higa Oshiro, while Richards won for her translation from Italian of Marosia Castaldi’s formally innovative work, The Hunger of Women. | | | | Last summer, the CTGL gave four travel grants to University of Iowa students to support travel costs associated with students’ translation-related projects. One of the recipients, Mónica Quintero Restrepo, a graduate student in the MFA in Spanish Creative Writing, traveled to Medellín, Colombia to conduct writing workshops and interviews with women affected by the False Positives tragedy, a scandal involving the killing of civilians by military personnel between 2002 and 2008. Here’s Mónica on her experience:
“I believe this tragedy should be translated and shared. This grant was essential for deepening my understanding of this tragedy and has helped me in my writing. It’s not the same to read about it as it is to talk directly to the people who have experienced it. It’s not the same to write about it alone as it is to write with those people who have lived it . . . it’s impossible not to be moved.”
Read Mónica’s full recap on the CTGL website. | | | Advocacy for Translation Pedagogy Do you want support bringing translation pedagogy to your campus?
For the past two years, CTGL Director Aron Aji and his colleagues have visited university and college campuses to promote the integration of translation in the undergraduate curriculum, helping faculty develop courses, tracks, minors, or even majors. These one- or two-day events include presentations and meetings with faculty colleagues and administrators to bolster interest in translation both as practice and as pedagogy; to identify faculty development opportunities specific to each campus; and to imagine feasible pathways to widen the footprint of translation in humanities and world languages curricula and elsewhere.
If you are interested in inviting us to help you bring translation to the classrooms on your campus, feel free to contact Aron directly at aron-aji@uiowa.edu. | | | | Upcoming Summit on Translation Program Outcomes On Saturday, February 22, the CTGL will be hosting a three-hour virtual gathering to discuss the paths and potential of translation programs in higher education.
The goal of the Summit will be to identify a set of program outcomes we can recommend as guidance for academic institutions that wish to develop translation programs—tracks, minors, majors—at the undergraduate level. At our Summit, we will strive to identify ten or more program outcomes, divided between “recommended” and “desirable.”
If you are interested in attending the virtual Summit, please email ctgl-connect@uiowa.edu no later than Friday, February 21, so we can make the necessary materials available to you and share the Zoom invitation. | | | This spring, the CTGL is hosting Mark Hauber, Program Director for Poetry Inside Out (PIO) housed at the Center for the Art of Translation, for a week of introduction to and engagement with the Poetry Inside Out method and philosophy.
Poetry Inside Out is a collaborative, cross-cultural language arts curriculum that celebrates classroom diversity, builds literacy skills, improves critical thinking, and unlocks creativity by teaching students to translate great poetry from around the world. Poetry Inside Out embraces—and relies upon—the cultural and linguistic diversity found in today’s classrooms, schools, and communities. As a world literature program, it treats great poets as teachers and their work as models.
We're so excited to have Mark join us from March 7-14, 2025, to share the pedagogical power of translation with University of Iowa students, staff, and the Iowa City public!
Stay tuned to our social media channels and website for details on Mark's upcoming visit.
| | We’re thrilled to share the Classroom Tools gallery of our Virtual Library is now active! While the Translation Pedagogy Research gallery contains theoretical texts and resources for framing and approaching translation pedagogy in the classroom, the Classroom Tools gallery features practical and applicable materials on translation that can be adapted to fit the needs of your students and goals of your class.
The galleries in our Virtual Library are always evolving and growing to provide more diverse offerings of content across K-12 and higher education. Here’s a preview of the kind of material you can access:
CTGL Director, Aron Aji, shares a foundational assignment from his undergraduate course Translation and Global Society. The project necessitates collaboration among students to identify a group of residents in their community from diverse ethnic or language backgrounds and design a proposal to serve or connect with them, while utilizing translation. Find the assignment here.
Do you have pedagogical materials that foreground translation or translational skills and research? Share them with us!
Email us at ctgl-connect@uiowa.edu; we’d love to discuss what methods and materials work in your pedagogy practice and think through how we can best share them with the broader CTGL network. | | | In fall 2024, the University of Iowa College of Education, in collaboration with the CTGL, organized a series of impactful workshops aimed at empowering multilingual students.
This initiative consisted of two on-site visits to West Liberty High School and a daylong workshop at the Iowa Lindquist Center that involved three different high schools from the Iowa City Community School District.
The workshops focused on helping students recognize and utilize their home languages as valuable assets through various translation tasks. Dr. Belén Hernando-Llorens emphasized the multifaceted nature of language and its reflection of diverse identities, highlighting bilingualism and Spanglish as a legitimate blend of Spanish and English.
Learn more about the workshops in this report from Sora Kim on our website. If you're interested in working together with the CTGL to bring translation-related workshops to your K-12 classroom, email us and let's begin the conversation! | | | | CTGL and Friends Take ALTA47 In October 2024, CTGL staff and countless friends connected in Milwaukee, WI, for the annual American Literary Translators Association Conference. Over four days, the translation community came together for panels, conversations, and fun events all centering around the theme of "Voices in Translation." We had a fantastic time reconnecting with old friends and colleagues and meeting new collaborators and inspiring thinkers.
We can't wait to see you all in Tucson for ALTA48 this November!
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- Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation launched a new website in fall 2024. You can read the latest issue, Spirit, there. The call for translation and art submissions for the spring issue, Climate, is open until March 10, 2025.
- The spring Translator-in-Residence for the MFA in Literary Translation will be International Booker Prize-winning translator Jessica Cohen! We can't for the spring workshop to begin, so we can learn and work alongside such a talented writer.
- The MFA in Literary Translation program is inviting applications for the Translator-in-Residence for spring 2026. This position includes a stipend and allowances for housing and travel. Learn more about the opportunity here. Applications will be accepted until March 10, 2025. Some of the previous translators-in-residence include Jeremy Tiang, Jennifer Croft, Daniel Hahn, and Deborah Smith.
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