Confirmed Keynote Speakers

Ciaran Carson, Ireland

Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast in 1948, where he is Professor of Poetry at Queen’s University. He is the author of nine collections of poems, including Belfast Confetti, First Language, and Breaking News. His prose works include Last Night’s Fun, a book about Irish traditional music; The Star Factory, a memoir of Belfast; Fishing for Amber: A Long Story; and a novel, Shamrock Tea, which was long-listed for the 2001 Booker Prize. His translation of Dante’s Inferno won the 2002 Oxford Weidenfeld Translation prize, and his translation of Brian Merriman’s Cúirt an Mhéan Oíche (The Midnight Court) appeared in 2005. Click here for more information on Ciaran Carson.

Jose Mario C. Francisco, The Philippines

Dr. Jose Mario C. Francisco, S.J. is Professor of Philosophical and Systematic Theology at the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, in the Philippines. His research and teaching are focused on the interaction between the science, culture and theology, especially in Asian contexts. Theological themes like “original sin” or “divine action in the world” are discussed in relation to their historical contexts and to their reception in different linguistic and cultural contexts, and literary works and cultural practices like 17th century sermons of Spanish missionaries or Tagalog-Spanish dictionaries are analyzed in terms of their religious worldview and ethos. Fundamental to his work in these two areas is the paradigm drawn from contemporary translation theory—that Christianity is translated as it moves from one context to another. His recent publications include 'Mapping Religious and Social Spaces in Traditional and Charismatic Christianities in the Philippines' (in Festschrift in honor of Fr. John N. Schimacher, S.J.) and 'Speaking in Many Tongues: Translation and Transcendence in Early Filipino Christianity,' in Philosophy, Religions, and Transcendence. Click here for more information on Jose Mario C. Francisco.

Hilary Footitt, UK

Hilary Footitt is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Modern Languages and European Studies at the University of Reading, UK, and has written widely on Franco-British relations during the Liberation (War and Liberation in France: Living with the Liberators, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), and on women and politics (Women, Europe and the New Languages of Politics, Continuum, 2002). She is Principal Investigator for the AHRC Project, Languages at War: policies and practices of language contacts in conflict, led by the University of Reading, with the University of Southampton, and the Imperial War Museum, London, and is currently writing two books about languages in war and conflict. She is joint editor of the Palgrave Macmillan series ‘Languages at War’. Click here for more information on Hilary Footitt.

Moira Inghilleri, UK

Moira Inghilleri is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Intercultural Studies, University College London. She is co-editor of The Translator: Studies in Intercultural Communication. Her new book, Interpreting Justice: Ethics, Politics and Language, published by Routledge, will be available in October 2011. She is currently working on a book, Sociological Approaches to Translation and Interpreting, to be published in the St. Jerome Publishing Translation Theories Explored series, edited by Theo Hermans. Click here for more information on Moira Inghilleri.

Rytis Martikonis, European Commission, Directorate-General for Translation

Rytis Martikonis is the Director-General for Translation in the European Commission. Previously director of European Integration Department (1999-2001), then Secretary of State (2001-2004) in Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was also Deputy Head of Lithuania‘s delegation for the EU accession negotiations (2001-2003). After the accession, he was the Ambassador in the Political and Security Committee of the Permanent Representation of Lithuania to the European Union, and finally Permanent Representative of Lithuania to the EU (2005-2010). He has occupied the post of Director-General for Translation since 2011.