The event was the third IATIS-supported workshop to be held in Kazakhstan. The workshop was presided over by the prominent professor and scholar Dr. Juliane House from Hamburg University in Germany. The event was officially opened by the Dean of the Education and Humanities Faculty and IATIS-Kazakhstan coordinator Professor Azamat Akbarov, Dean of the International Relations Faculty of Kazakh National University Professor Sagyngaliy Aidarbayev, Chair of the IATIS Executive Council Professor Sue-Ann Harding (via video message), Head of Philology Dr.Leila Mirzoyeva and event coordinator Ms. Dariga Baktygereyeva.
Professor Juliane House is a senior member of the German Science Foundation’s Research Centre on Multilingualism at the University of Hamburg, where she has directed several projects on translation and interpreting. Her research interests include translation theory and practice, contrastive pragmatics, discourse analysis, politeness theory, English as lingua franca, intercultural communication, and global business communication. She is also a former IATIS president and is currently the Chair of Linguistics Programs and Director of the PhD in Applied Linguistics: Discourse in English Language Teaching, Testing or Translation/Interpreting Program at Hellenic American University.
Professor Juliane House delivered seminars on “Translation Quality Assessment: Past and Present”, “Translation as a cognitive process”, “English as a global lingua franca” and “Translation as recontextualzation”. Following Professor House’s lectures, guest lecturers from Kazakh National University, DAAD and professional translators presented on a variety of topics in the field of translation, ranging from features of the translation of medical texts, challenges for the adaptation of foreigners in the Kazakh educational landscape to the modern translator’s realities and prospects. The lineup of guest lecturers included the Head of the Diplomatic Translation of the Kazakh National University Dr. Almash Seydikenova, DAAD expert Dr. Thorsten Kaesler and President of the “Translators Union” Mr. Auel Yerzhan.
As a token of appreciation, Professor Azamat Akbarov awarded a certificate to all presenters and a selection of traditional Kazakh souvenirs to Professor Juliane House. We now look forward to the 4th IATIS international workshop, which is scheduled to take place in March 2019.
