Frogs, Old Books, and Language: Breaking Language Barriers in the Academy

FRENCH 24 :  Freshman Seminars
Fall 2024
Class No: 32804
Dwinelle B3
TU
Rebecca Tarvin, Mairi-Louise McLaughlin
4:00 PM - 4:59 PM

The creation of knowledge is a universal enterprise that lies at the heart of the academy. However, there are many barriers to effectively communicating and understanding knowledge. One major hurdle is the ubiquity of English as a central language for publishing and communicating academic research. This is an issue both for aspiring scholars who learn English as a second language while mastering complex topics as well as for members of our communities who would benefit from information that is currently unavailable in their primary language. Join an interdisciplinary team of professors, one specializing in Old Books, and the other in Frogs, for an introduction to translation and multilingualism in the academy. It combines short readings and lectures with active hands on translation and multilingual communication experience. During the semester, students will each translate abstracts for three research papers into a second language or into another creative format that communicates the research to a broad audience. Students will present their translated works and their experiences creating them in a final presentation at the end of the semester. Students will leave the class with a better understanding of the relationship between language and the Academy and equipped with tools to help break down language barriers.