SHERMAN, TEXAS – The fifth annual Austin College Undergraduate Conference in the Humanities and Social Sciences, “Transformation and Translation,” will be held on campus April 25-26.The conference regularly includes 30 to 40 student presenters from across the country as well as faculty speakers and other experts on the topic. Plenary sessions, all held in Wright Campus Center, Room 231, are free and open to the public.
“The conference is largely run and organized by students,” said Julie Hempel, assistant professor of Spanish and co-director of this year’s conference along with Alex Garganigo, Austin College assistant professor of English. Hempel has been involved with the organization of the conference since its beginning in 2005. “Our main goals are to provide an opportunity for undergraduates to build professional relationships, prepare for graduate studies, and share some of their best work.”
Students will share their research presentations in four panel presentations throughout the two-day conference. Austin College senior Szende Szabo of Argentina is chair of the student committee for the conference. The call for papers included abstracts from undergraduates in any field, on any topic related to the idea of translating and transforming, as from thought to word, from word to image, from one language to another, from one genre/medium to another (e.g., literature to film), from script to performance, from earth to heaven, from one religion to another, from male to female (and vice versa), from values to action, from data to policy, from one economic/business paradigm to another (e.g., going green), from one political party or system to another, or from theory to practice.
Plenary speakers include Carmen Perez Romero, translator, emerita professor of English literature at Universidad de Extremadura, and author of the only full translation of Shakespeare’s sonnets into Spanish. She will present “Translating Shakespeare’s Sonnets” Friday, April 25, at 10:30 a.m.
That afternoon at 4:30 p.m. Philip Boehm, translator, playwright, and director, will present “Challenges of Translating Drama,” addressing the problems of translating plays from one language to another and from page to stage.
Bioethicist, barrister, and Penn State professor of law Jonathan Marks will present “’False Friends’ and Uncertain Enemies: The Transformation of U.S. Interrogation Policy and Law in the War on Terror” on Saturday, April 26, at 9 a.m.
The final plenary session will be offered Saturday, April 26, at 1 p.m. Tricia Sheffield, a theorist of gender and sexuality and a Lilly Visiting Professor in religious studies at Austin College, will present “Performing Jesus: A Queer Counternarrative of Embodied Transgression,” discussing the Chalcedonian Creed’s relevance to transgendered people.
Past conference topics include “Environment and the Humanities,” “Race and Nationhood,” “Gender and the Humanities,” and “Religion and Science.”
For information about the 2008 event, contact Hempel at jhempel@austincollege.edu.
Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located approximately 30 minutes north of the greater Dallas metroplex in Sherman, Texas. Founded in 1849, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original charter and name, the college is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of international education, pre-professional training, and leadership studies, Austin College is one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges that Change Lives.
