CTIS Research Seminar: Simultaneous Conference Interpreting: A Short History of Nearly Everything
| Dates: | 28 November 2013 |
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| Times: | 14:00 - 15:20 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
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| Who is it for: | Current University students, General public, University staff |
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| Speaker: | Kilian Seeber |
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Simultaneous interpreting first saw the light of day in the early 1920s when E. Filene and A. Gordon-Finlay, using early telephone technology, developed the first so-called telephonic interpreting equipment. Over a half a century later simultaneous interpreting has all but replaced consecutive interpreting in international conferences.
In spite of that, simultaneous interpreting as a profession is still shrouded in mystery, and the task itself appears to have lost little of its original potential to astonish. More than that, it is still the object of misconceptions and surrounded by popular views and dogmata. The importance of bilingualism, the issue of directionality, the relevance of language-specific factors and the role of visual input and physical presence are only some of the unresolved and hotly debated issues in the simultaneous interpreting world today.
In my presentation I will take a closer look at simultaneous interpreting, when and how it was introduced, and how and why it has become firmly established as the main interpreting mode at multilingual conferences. Since simultaneous interpreting was made possible by the integration of both technical and human factors, I will provide an overview of both the technical and human requirements for the successful performance of the task. In order to do so, I will try to bring together some of the principal findings from the field of interpreting research with the most relevant results from the field of psycholinguistics.
Speaker
Kilian Seeber
Role: Assistant Professor
Organisation: University of Geneva
Biography: Kilian Seeber holds a BA in Translation and Interpreting and an MA in Conference Interpreting from the University of Vienna and a graduate degree and PhD in interpreting research from the University of Geneva. After his post-doctoral research in psycholinguistics at the University of York, he returned to the University of Geneva, where he was appointed Assistant Professor at the Multilingual Interpreting Department at the Faculté de traduction et d'interprétation (FTI). Since 2011 he is responsible for LaborInt, the FTI’s Laboratory for Research in Interpreting. Kilian’s main research interest has been in cognitive aspects of language processing, particularly in anticipation and working memory. He has authored and co-authored several journal articles and presented his research at various scientific conferences. Kilian is a practicing conference interpreter and a member of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC).
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