English Translation and Interpreting - Academic Activities

On Wednesday, May 22nd, at 15:00, there will be a  Department of Philosophy Panel at the Eflatun Adam Conference Hall where Prof. Dr. Richard Parncutt will present his talk titled "Modeling Climate Mortality: Implications For Human Security and Climate Litigation". A short summary of the talk is provided below. The event will also be available online. We will be pleased to welcome your participation.Event: Modeling Climate Mortality: Implications For Human Security and Climate LitigationDate and Time of the Event: 22.05.2024, 15.00Place of the Event: Eflatun AdamSpeaker of the Event: Prof. Dr. Richard ParncuttOnline Participation Link and Meeting ID: https://uskudar-edu-tr.zoom.us/j/4788899664?omn=99839940995Meeting ID : 478 889 9664Abstract-Modeling Climate Mortality.pdf

On Wednesday, March 20, at 13.30 at Socrates Hall, Specialist. Psk. Ceyda Şişman will be the speaker at the faculty event titled "Seminar on Addiction and Combating Addiction". We will be pleased to welcome your participation in the event.Topic of the Event: Seminar on Addiction and Combating AddictionSpeakers of the Event: Uzm. Psk. Ceyda ŞişmanDate and Time of the Event: 20.03.2024, 13.30-14.30Location of the Event: Socrates HallThe seminar will be held in Turkish.Our event is part of the University Culture course.

On Wednesday, March 13th, at 15.00 in Socrates Hall, the Philosophy Department will hold an event titled "Recent Debates in Philosophy of Science" with the participation of Assoc. Prof. Marzena Fornal from Lodzki University. We will be pleased to welcome your participation.Our event is part of the University Culture course.The seminar will be held in English.Topic of the Event: "Recent Debates in Philosophy of Science"Speakers of the Event: Assoc. Prof. Marzena FornalDate and Time of the Event: 13.03.2024, 15.00-16.00Location of the Event: Socrates Hall

On Wednesday, December 27, at 11:00 am, Prof. Dr. Hasan Ünal and Ambassador Mehmet Suat Akgün will be the speakers of the event "Turkish Foreign Policy and Diplomacy in the 100th Year of the Republic" organized by the Department of Political Science and International Relations (Eng.) and moderated by Prof. Dr. Havva Kök Arslan. We will be pleased to welcome your participation in the event.Event Topic: Turkish Foreign Policy and Diplomacy in the 100th Anniversary of the RepublicSpeakers of the Event: Prof. Dr. Hasan Ünal and Ambassador Mehmet Suat AkgünModerator: Prof. Dr. Havva Kök ArslanDate and Time of the Event: 27.12.2023, 11.00-12.00Location of the Event: OnlineEtkinliğin Linki: https://uskudar-edu-tr.zoom.us/j/6347335711?omn=96503008028 Our event is part of the University Culture course.The seminar will be held in Turkish.

On Friday, November 17, at 11:00 am, the first of the Sociology Department Seminars will be held under the title of "Economy and Society". In this context, the documentary Requiem for the American Dream, which will be moderated by Prof. Dr. Barış Erdoğan, will be screened at the Eflatun Adam Conference Hall, South Campus E Block. We will be pleased to welcome your participation in the event.The seminar will be held in Turkish.Subject of the Event: Documentary: Requiem for the American DreamModerator of the Event: Prof. Dr. Barış ErdoğanDate and Time of the Event: 17.11.2023, 11.00-13.00Place of the Event: Eflatun Adam Konferans Salonu

“Poets Translating Poets: Turkish Poetry in Translation”Panel and bilingual poetry readingJeffrey Kahrs (Poet-translator)Mete Özel (Poet-translator)Convenor: Başak ErgilVenue: South Campus, İbni Sina Hall, B block, Room 111Date: 27.10.2023, 10.30-12.30The event will be held in English and will be counted towards the University Culture course. All international students and academic staff are welcome.

Our Students Discussed Neurolink and Artificial IntelligenceThe first-year students at English Translation and Interpreting Department held a panel discussion titled "Artificial Intelligence and the Neurolink Project: Futuristic and Transhumanistic Perspectives" on 16 June 2022 at 14:30 in the Socrates Hall in the South Campus.The panel was moderated by students Ergin Kömürcü and Filiz Kar. The panel was followed by some academicians with interest.In the event, which was also followed online, many interesting current issues were discussed. In addition to the Neurolink project, which is a quite controversial topic nowadays, the positive and negative aspects of artificial intelligence were considered as well. Speakers had an informative discussion on topics such as transhumanism, life on Mars, the use of artificial intelligence in warfare, privacy violations, robotic brains, reinforced learning, and Elon Musk's predictions for the near future. They informed the listeners about what might happen in the future in the light of the available data and they expressed their views on possible questions and problems.At the end of the event, certificates of participation were presented to the moderator students by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Feride Zeynep Güder.

Conversations with Translators II: An Interview with Mert Akcanbaş on the Importance of Culture in TranslationThe second Spring event of English Translation and Interpreting Department was held with the participation of Ph.D. Mert Akcanbaş, faculty member of the Department of Psychology, director of AİLEMER (Family Practice and Research Center) and ÜSEM (Üsküdar University Continuing Education Application and Research Center) and an experienced translator. The event was held on 08.06.2022 at 12:00pm with online participation.The event which was moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Feride Zeynep Güder from the Department of English Translation and Interpreting received considerable attention. The Head of the Department Ph.D. Nafi Yalçın, Prof. İbrahim Özdemir (the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences), department students and academicians participated the event.Akcanbaş, who translated Prof. Yaşar Nuri Öztürk's translation of The Qur'an into English, shared the valuable dialogues they had with Öztürk during this period and how the translation process started. Akcanbaş mentioned that this work was a voluntary service for him and he received many questions from the participants.The translator, who completed his education at Louisiana State University, underlined the importance of the period he lived in the USA and his command of the details of the source language in terms of comprehending the culture, and stated his belief that the translator should be a mirror to the author. Akcanbaş stated that this process brings along thinking like the author, and had a discussion on the importance of being bilingual and having a good command of the culture with the lecturers of the department."I only translated the texts that I liked and those that were of interest to me."Akcanbaş argued that as both an academician and a translator, it is important for him to first evaluate the book as a good reader, and stated that he reads without thinking about the target language in this process and that the translation process comes after reading the text.The interview continued with evaluations of the books such as Crescent and Iron Cross, Geronimo, His Own Story: The Autobiography of a Great Patriot Warrior , A Game of Thrones Puzzle Quest , The Rothschild Dynasty and The Affairs of Others , and their translations. The event ended with the question and answer session which the students and the lecturers of the department attended.

Üsküdar University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of English Translation and Interpreting held its first spring event with the participation of Merve Yalçın Pelit, an experienced translator on literary translation. The event was held on 12.05.2022 at 12:00 pm in the Socrates Hall of the Faculty with physical and online participation.Assoc. Prof. Dr. Feride Zeynep Güder from the Department of English Translation and Interpreting,  moderated the meeting. Assist.Prof Dr. Nafi Yalçın, the Head of the Department, Prof. Dr. İbrahim Özdemir, the Dean of the Faculty, the students of the department and a number of academicians participated the event. The interview was a guiding conversation, especially for young translators who have not started their professional life yet.Merve Yalçın Pelit, an English teacher and a Ph.D. student, stated that it is very important for a translator to love his/her job and to take up a position and practice in the translation field at an early age. She also underlined the problems that can be encountered in this process as a translator explaining the publishing, copyright and translation processes in detail. Pelit also underlined the problems that could be encountered in the process besides evaluating some of her translations such as Forrest Read's Pound/Joyce Letters of Ezra Pound to James Joyce, James Huneker's Egoists; A Book Of Supermen, Gombrich's  Shadows, Lewis Caroll's Alice in the Wonderland and Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Little Boy, and talked about the practical difficulties and challenges of translation and her own methods of dealing with them."The translator should have a good command of the culture of the text and the author."She stated that being a good researcher is one of the requirements of the profession and that sometimes context and words can create challenging details, adding that it is essential for the translator to have knowledge about the period and the author's life and not to lose the sense of wonder.The role of the translator as a writer was also discussed in the conversation, which continued with references to authors such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Lewis Carroll.The students found the conversation very useful and the event ended with the question and answer session with Merve Yalçın Pelit.

We Discussed Humanity’s Journey with Language and Communication 'Humanity’s Journey with Language and Communication ' was discussed in the first academic activity organized by the Department of English Translation and Interpreting. Assist.Prof.Dr. Nafi Yalçın, the head of the department, Assist.Prof.Dr. Hümeyra Genç, a lecturer from the department, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Feride Zeynep Güder, the Head of the New Media and Communication Department were the speakers. Many faculty members, students, and many other guests attended the event. The importance of language in individual, social and cultural life was emphasised in the discussion.Nafi Yalçın "All thoughts and activities of humanity are made possible through language"The Head of the English Translation and Interpreting Department, Nafi Yalçın, made evaluations on the subject, 'The structure and functions of language as a means of communication'. Yalçın stated that language, apart from its common definition, "is a sort of  codification and a common agreement system that enables ‘meaning’ to exist in the brain and makes it possible for us to think and speak"; "In the cases where there is no communication or where the communication is incompatible; arguments, wars arise and many efforts of people are wasted".  In addition, he emphasised that the infrastructure enabling the language to happen, should not be forgotten. Speech, hearing or communication cannot occur without the necessary infrastructure such as a healthy human body, vocal organs with the ability to produce sounds, an environment suitable for human life on earth, an atmosphere with a sensitive gas structure, proper pressure for inhalation, and the ability of air to transmit sounds. Language is indeed a marvellous chain of events and a miracle. Through language, bridges are built between physical and metaphysical worlds. Until the beginning of the 20th century, there were many discussions and different opinions on how language emerged. However, since these views were not based on any evidence from the early periods of mankind or related to any kind of documents about language, they could not go beyond interpretations and assumptions. For this reason, today's linguists have stopped thinking about the source of language and preferred to analyse the language itself and tried to understand how language acquisition and learning happens."Feride Zeynep Güder: "There is too much polarisation in society"Assoc. Prof. Dr. Feride Zeynep Güder, the Head of New Media and Communication Department, made statements in the context of 'effective communication between individuals and groups'. Güder; "In intercultural communication, culture affects the way and structure of human communication. We need to work on how we can reach a peaceful discourse in intercultural communication. In the country and at macro level, there is a lot of polarisation in society in the context of political communication. No one has any patience left for anyone; they listen to each other based on their ideology. At the point where the subject defines itself, the communication it establishes is also very different. In the post-modern world, we all need to communicate very fast, and unfortunately, we do not have time for human relations at such a fast pace. The most important thing that affects the success of communication is language. Language is a system we use as an indicator to perceive the world and encode objects. We should not ignore the correct coding or the limits of the language itself."Referring to the power of communication in influencing the masses, Güder stated that empathy is the most important emotional ability today for a successful communication. The sense of empathy really puts us in a place where we can communicate with all subjects and communicate between subjects." Güder, who compared the digital world to a Tsunami and talked about the fact that the resulting wipe-out is a zero point, said, "Our communication in the digital age is now very different from normal communication. Even bilateral relationships are now sometimes conducted through digital relationships. In order to recognize someone, we first look at their social identity, social traces, and digital footprints. Then something is formed in our minds about them. In a sense, this tsunami-like change and transformation sweep everything away in human relations including the past and memories, creating a brand new zero point." Hümeyra Genç "Without language, no civilisations would exist "Üsküdar University English Translation and Interpreting Department lecturer, Assist.Prof.Dr. Hümeyra Genç talked on the subject of 'the role of translation in communication between societies and cultures'. Genç; "If language is the top of the iceberg, culture is the bottom of it. Translation has gained importance today. People used to come together from different cultures for the purpose of war or trade in the past, and the need for translation was for these reasons, but nowadays, correct translation is very important in many fields in order not to transfer elements of culture correctly. Translation is seen as a simple language-to-language transfer, but it is actually a cultural transfer. You need to know for what purpose, with what ideology and culture someone else has written a translation you have made, so that you can achieve the same goal when you make the translation. In addition, if you translate correctly and you protect and preserve the language, you can explain the cultures and lives of societies better. The more bicultural translators we train as a country, the better we will be recognised by other countries and the better we can get to know other countries. Thus, our communication will be more positive."