2nd Helsinki Initiative Webinar on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication, Dec 1, 2023, 3pm (CET) | helsinki-initiative.org

Helsinki Initiative organizes a webinar series on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication with speakers representing different expert communities and strands of work. This event includes three presentations ranging from language policies to the role of national language journals and translations in science. The event is free and open for everyone to participate without registration. A recording will be made available after the event. 

Date & time: 1 December 2023 15:00-16:30 CET

Zoom-link: https://tsv-fi.zoom.us/j/82347877173?pwd=gMmrAnbYpZa74tNR1lD13Qh5TGYM38.1 

Programme

• Michael D. Gordin: The Inevitably of Translation in Scientific Communication

Science for millennia in Europe and Asia has been strongly shaped by frequent and repeated translations of scientific texts among multiple vehicular languages. As multiple vernacular languages started to displace Latin in European scientific communication in the seventeenth century, and then recede in the face of English and Russian — and eventually just English as the overwhelmingly dominant tongue — in the twentieth, the activity of translation has receded into the background but has remained no less constant. Despite some of the claims for DeepL and AI (English-)text generation, the activity of translation in scientific communication is unlikely to diminish in importance in the twenty-first century, although its modes and visibility will surely shift.

• Lucía Céspedes: Implicit and explicit linguistic policies for scholarly communications in Latin America

Drawing inspiration from categories developed by the current known as Latin American Thought on Science, Technology and Development, this presentation seeks to analyze whether explicit linguistic policies for scholarly communications exist in Latin America. In such case, are they aligned with researchers’ linguistic ideologies and representations, and do they foster or hinder the region’s intrinsic multilingualism?

• Vincent Larivière: The importance of French language journals for Canadian research

Many Canadian scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities are distinguished by use of French language. This presentation discusses, based on a new study co-authored with Simon van Bellen, the relevance of national French-language journals for Canadian researchers, their role in the dissemination of knowledge on national themes, as well as the viability and sustainability of these journals.

The event is hosted by Emanuel Kulczycki and Janne Pölönen.

For further information email helsinki-initiative@tsv.fi.