WFU Hosts 9th APFTIS
On March 25 and 26, 2022, Wake Forest University had the honor of hosting the 9th Asian-Pacific Forum on Translation and Intercultural Studies (APFTIS). The forum was held virtually, with over 300 participants joining in from across the globe. This year’s conference centered on Translating, Interpreting, and Language Industry in a New Era of Globalization, and was organized with the support of Guangxi University and Tsinghua University as well.
The forum commenced bright and early on Friday morning with a warm welcome from APFTIS Co-Chair and Director of Wake Forest’s ITS Program, Dr. Olgierda Furmanek. Two distinguished Interpreting and Translation scholars, Professors Anthony Pym and Dechao Li, gave the keynote speeches. Dr. Pym’s talk focused on a defense of risk management in interpreting; he analyzed examples from court, healthcare, and conference interpreting settings to show how interpreters can mitigate, transfer, or accept risks. Dr. Li’s keynote speech centered on redefining the concept of translation from Asian perspectives. He underscored the term’s rich and diverse meanings in major Asian cultures, most of which differed from the definition of translation within the Western paradigm. Dr. Luo Xuanmin, the founder of the forum and 9th APFTIS Co-Chair, also gave a working report of APFTIS on Saturday morning.
In addition to the keynote speeches, two rounds of parallel sessions were held each day. A myriad of research was shared and presented, with session topics ranging from politics to the translation of poetry. A particularly special moment was the ITS 10th Anniversary Session, which featured alumni and current students’ research in celebration of ten years of the ITS program at Wake Forest. Dr. Sally Barbour, ITS Professor Emerita, also gave a brief historical overview of the program.
Finally, the forum closed with a reflective recap of the past two days and the granting of two different awards. The ITS Rising Scholar awards went to Dr. Shuyin Zhang (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen) and Dr. Devin Gilbert (Utah Valley University). The Best Student Paper awards were presented to Ali Saeedi (Kent State University) and Lin Shen (Beijing Forgein Studies University). Recordings of the entire conference are now available to stream on Youtube and Bilibili.