The Yale Translation Initiative promotes the interdisciplinary study of translation at Yale and beyond, encompassing its literary, social, political, economic, legal, technological, and medical dimensions. As human migration and globalization alter the manner and speed of language change, translation has become increasingly central to the workings of the contemporary world. We believe now is the time to capture the new energies and map out the new fields this expanded horizon offers to us. We aim to foster ties with community projects in health care and legal translation, explore the possibilities offered by machine translation, and support diversity in literary translation. Harnessing our faculty’s expertise, as well as growing student interest, for several years the Initiative has been supporting lectures (The Translation Forum); the undergraduate Journal of Literary Translation (JoLT); and working groups. Starting in 2021–2022, the Initiative will offer both graduate and undergraduate certificates in Translation Studies. Opportunities for summer funding and internships for graduate students and undergraduates can be found on the YTI website.
Founded and sustained with support from the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, the YTI is now an affiliate organization of the Whitney Humanities Center.