Ideology, Culture, and Translation (Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature)

Steering Committee:
Scott S. Elliott, Chair
George Aichele
Steven Berneking
Roland Boer
Jason Coker
Raj Nadella
Christina Petterson
Phil Towner

Description

Culture, Ideology, and Translation will explore the multiple intersections where Bible translation influences and is influenced by such critical issues as ideology and culture. For this consultation, Bible translation includes the entire history and processes of translating the Bible, both theoretical and practical, as well as specific instances of Bible translation, both ancient and modern. Ideology refers to any collection of doctrine, belief, or myth that guides individual and corporate actions and behaviors. Culture refers broadly to the sum total of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, and behavior of a particular society. Ideology and culture affect both the process of Bible translation and its reception into a culture.

2006 Program

At the upcoming 2006 Annual Meeting, the Ideology, Culture, and Translation consultation will continue its focus on the ethics of translation by featuring a review symposium of Sandra Bermann and Michael Wood, eds., Nation, Language, and the Ethics of Translation (Princeton University Press, 2005). The essays that make up this important volume consider some of the ways in which boundaries of various sorts have been blurred by technology and globalization, and explore translation as one particular site where these issues and the implications for thinking about language, identity, and ethics intersect. The consultation is selecting participants for this panel by invitation only.

2007 Program

The 2007 program for the Ideology, Culture, and Translation consultation featured five presentations:

• Professor Anthony Pym, "Who Translates? On Formation of a Professional Interculture on Sixteenth-Century Missionary Mexico"
• Bill Mitchell, "The Bible in the History of Peru"
• Steven M. Voth, "Bible Translation and Masculinity in Latin America"
• Christina Petterson, "Configuring the Language to Convert the People: The Greenlandic Bible Translations"
• Jason Coker, "Postmodern Contextual Translation: A Proposal/Question"
  

2008 Program

The consultation has been renewed as a Group for a six-year term. Groups pursue long-range, collaborative research projects that require active participation. They are focused more broadly than Seminars, more narrowly than Sections. Interested parties are invited to submit paper proposals for the 2008 Annual Meeting in Boston via the SBL website. Critical engagements with the translation, translation practices, or translation history of any texts relevant to the study of Bible and Christianity (ancient and modern) are welcome.