(The UNESCO Chair in Translation
and Intercultural Studies)
Azerbaijan University of Languages
(Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Dillər
Universiteti) is a public university located in
At present the University has 8 schools
altogether offering 21 undergraduate and 16 graduate programs.
Today we train translators
and interpreters in the English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Korean
languages. Later the University expanded its programs to cover Philology, International
Relations and Regional Studies.
The
a) English-Azerbaijani/Russian
b) French Azerbaijani/Russian
c) German Azerbaijani/Russian
d) Italian Azerbaijani/Russian
e) Spanish
Azerbaijani/Russian
e) Spanish
Azerbaijani/Russian
f) Korean
Azerbaijani/Russian/English
About
500 students study in the Department of Translation.
The school's curriculum is
designed to integrate courses in written and oral translation in various fields
ranging from literary to technical, economic and political translation. The
program strives to enables the students to reach the highest skills of their
translation and interpretation skills. The goal is reached by utilizing state-of-the-art
methodology of training translators and interpreters. The curriculum is
designed to cover the subjects, which meet these tasks with the consideration
of the latest market requirements.
The
School's programs are offered by the following Departments:
a) Department of the theory
and Practice of Translation
b) Department of the English
language
c) Department of the French
Language
d) Department of the German
Language
e) Department of the Spanish
and Italian Languages
f) Department of the Korean
Language
The Department has a close
relationship with the German Academic Exchange Board, UNESCO, York University
in Toronto ( Canada ), Spanish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs etc. The UNESCO Department, which is functioning under the auspices of
the School, is a real liaison between the School and UNESCO.
***
The UNESCO Chair in Translation and Intercultural
Studies was officially opened at the Azerbaijan University of Languages (AUL)
on May 5, 2000. This event was a follow-up of the 1st international
conference on Future Aspects of Translation, Interpretation and Terminology
in
·
Training – To organize public symposia and conferences as
well as intensive training or retraining sessions for professors and/or
students…;
·
Setting up an international and regional cooperation
network
to further exchanges of professors, students and literary translators…;
·
Acquisitions – to draw up a yearly plan for the
acquisitions of books and journals as well as computing hardware and software;
·
Networking and contacts with national and
international organizations;
·
Gathering statistics and
data on translation (e.g. inventory of foreign works published in
·
Building corpora – To gather in an electronic
database the full texts of Azerbaijani creative works and Azerbaijani
translations, etc.
Since its formation the Chair has
initiated or been part of a number of events, including a second international
conference on translation and cross-cultural communication (Translation and
Transnational Processes, AUL,
Among other activities of the Chair
are staging of French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince in French at R.Behbudov Theatre (Baku) on the occasion of the author’s
100th Jubilee (May 2000); preparation and publication of the
English-Azerbaijani / Azerbaijani-English Dictionary of Idioms (Many a
Little Makes a Mickle, Baku, “Tahsil”
Publishing House, 2002, 375 p. Autumn, 2001); organization of discussions on
topics related to translation studies; lectures and seminars conducted by Prof.
Annie Brisset, School of Translation and
Interpretation, University of Ottawa, Canada (May-June, 2002); setting up of a
literary circle: Study of S. Mustafa’s
translation (2003-2004 academic year); establishing an electronic version
of S. Mustafa’s Azerbaijani translation of Shakespeare’s 5 plays in Latin
script; Workshop on Intercultural Proximity in Translation by Associate
Prof. G. Bayramov, Head of the Department of English
Translation (February 27, 2004); participation in the Regional Conference of
UNESCO Chairs held in Tbilisi (March 4-5, 2004); Workshop on Challenges in Azerbaijani Literary
Translation from French by Prof. A.Zeynalli,
(April 21, 2004); Award for the best student in interpreting (April 23,
2004); Workshop on Issues in
German-Azerbaijani Phraseology: Formation and transformation by Associate
Prof. Ch. Gurbanli (November 19, 2004); preparation
and publication of a manual for students in translation (Aphorisms and Translation, 2004 – the 1st half of 2005); Workshop
on Terminology Development in the Kazakh language: International and National Terminology in Information Technology;
Translation Problems of Phonetic Terminology in Turkic Languages by Prof. Alimkhan Zhunusbek, a visiting
scholar from Kazakhistan (April 11, 2005);
participation in the round table discussion organized by the Writers’ Union of
Azerbaijan and dedicated to the establishment of the Coordination Board to
improve the quality of literary translation and to coordinate all efforts in
this field (May 4, 2005); also the workshops on CAT Tools and Curriculum
Development conducted by Prof. Marie-Christine Aubin,
a visiting scholar from York University (Canada) in the frames of the UNESCO’s
Participation Program (May, 2006); publication of the manual Newspaper in
Translation developed by the members of the Students’ Translation Club and
edited by James A. Solan, US State Department Senior
English Language Fellow (2005-2006); organization of the students’ and
professors’ meeting with the experienced local interpreters at Translation
Faculty (May 3, 2007); Associate Prof. F. Abdullayeva’s
study trip to Ottawa University in the Frames of the Project on Strengthening the Capacity of the UNESCO
Chair in Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication at the
official invitation of Prof. Annie Brisset, President of the International Association for
Translation and Intercultural Studies (August 26-September 21, 2007).
Locally, the Chair maintains contacts
with
-
The UNESCO National Commission in
-
the UNESCO Centre for Human Rights, Democracy and Peace Problems at the
-
the Terminology Department at the
Nasimi Linguistics Institute,
-
Khazar, the journal of the
Centre for Literary Translation and Relations;
-
“Dunya adabiyyati dergisi” – the
World Literature Magazine at
Azerbaijan Writers’
-
the Translation Centre at
-
the Scientific Research Laboratory on
Translation Issues at
-
KVALOY NETTVERK Translation and Consulting Services.
The Chair has already established
relations with Canada, Ottawa University in particular, many thanks to Prof. A.
Brisset who has had an enormous role also in the
foundation of the UNESCO Chair at Azerbaijan University of Languages, the
institution which is interested in the international experience in training
specialists in translation and interpreting. The cooperation already
established between the two Universities is expected to help the AUL to adapt
the training of translators, interpreters and terminologists to the new
technological and professional specifications and to the priorities defined within
the framework of language and cultural policy in
Chairholders
between 2000-2001 – first,
Professor Gorkhmaz Guliyev,
then Associate Professor Natiq Yusifov
since September 19, 2001 –
Associate Professor Fiala Abdullayeva
(e-mail address: fiala_abdullayeva@yahoo.com)