Miriam Mara, associate professor of English, and Andrew Mara, associate professor of English, recently were invited to present their research at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya.
During the visit, they met with groups and with individuals to discuss research and possible future collaborations between Kenyatta University and NDSU, and they presented the seminar “Globalism, Transnationalism and Translation Problems.” They shared research applying Arjun Appadurai’s globalism theory in health care and hospitality settings, and bridged it to some of the unique challenges of African translators. They discussed the special pressures and misunderstandings that globalism can bring in translating technical documents for complex local cultures.
In addition to presenting the seminar, they have established possible future collaboration between Kenyatta University’s Master of Arts translation program and NDSU’s upper-division writing programs. There also has been discussion of a possible faculty exchange in future years. The seminar extends outreach that NDSU’s department of English is actively pursuing with universities in France, Italy and Denmark.