2025 International Translation Day
AI Challenges and Translating from the Fringe:
Forging a Future We Can Trust
hosted by MLCS (Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies) and ATIA
University of Alberta, Old Arts Building & Convocation Hall,
Room 232 - Student Lounge
Monday, September 29th, 2025
9:00 a.m. Welcome & Land Acknowledgment by Dr. Victoria Ruetalo, Chair of MLCS and event co-organizers: Kea Adachi, Marina Allemano, Leilei Chen, Odile Cisneros, Ann De Leon, Stefano Muneroni, and Sathya Rao
9:05-10:00 a.m. Keynote Address 1: Pierrette Requier (Franco-Canadienne poet & translator): “Translating from the Fringe”
10:00-10:15 a.m. Coffee break 1
10.15-11:30 a.m. Online panel 1: AI, Technology & Literary Translation (Moderator: Dr. Geoffrey Rockwell, Philosophy and Digital Humanities,Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Amii Fellow, U of A)
Dr. Damien Hansen (Université Libre de Bruxelles): Automation or Collaboration: the Two Paths of AI and Machine Translation
Dr. Paola Ruffo (Ghent University): From Craft to Code: Literary Translators Meet AI
Katia Grubisic (Writer, Editor, Translator): Meaning and Meandering: What is lost in AI Translation
11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Lunch break
1:00-2:15 p.m. Panel 2: Inverse/Reverse Translation (Moderator: Marina Allemano)
Leilei Chen (EFS): Reverse Translation as a Political Act
Anindita Mukherjee (EFS): Exophony on a Voyage: Testing the Boundaries of Inverse and Direct Translation
Mila Bongco-Philipzig (Manila/Edmonton): Translation in a Globalized, Migratory World
2:15-2:30 p.m. Coffee break 2
2:30-3:30 p.m. Keynote Address 2: Dr. Roula Salam (ATIA): Navigating a Changing Landscape: AI and the Ethics of Translation
3.45-5.00 p.m. Bilingual Readings (Moderator: Ann De Leon)
Literary translation readings by:
Piet Defraeye & Melanie Dreyer-Lude (Drama)
Stefano Muneroni (MLCS/Drama)
Christopher Lupke (East Asian Studies)
Luciana Erregue (Laberinto Press)
Hegyi Pál (Wirth Institute)
Patrizia Bettella (MLCS)
Zhuohao Li (Drama)
Odile Cisneros (MLCS)
Medgine Mathurin (City of Edmonton’s 11th Poet Laureate).
Online graduate panel: Wednesday, Oct 1, 2025
10 AM - 12 PM
Zoom link: https://ualberta-ca.zoom.us/j/99043333236?pwd=LKjwhUx1XOayQ0xa9v1QFDnzFZhN2p.1
Moderator: Dr. Odile Cisneros
Kai Lin (MLCS): “Not on Our Screens”: Audiovisual Translation and Censorship of Anglophone Queer Films in Post-Soviet Russia (1992–2022)
Meiling Xiao (MLCS): Misreading for Order: Close Reading Zhang Zao's Translation of Wallace Stevens
Houssem Ben Lazreg (MLCS): General Haftar vs. Government of National Accord in Libya: The Representation(s) of Conflict in Global News