Prof Lauded for Work in Translation Studies

University of Texas at Dallas Arts and Humanities Professor Rainer Schulte has been honored with the Linda Gaboriau Translation Award for his contributions to the field of translation studies.

The Gaboriau Award is given annually to an American, Canadian or Mexican translator who translates national or international contemporary authors and who has made a significant contribution to the art of translation and to literature.  It is presented by the Banff Centre, which is located in Alberta, Canada.  The honor is accompanied by a two-week residency at the Centre’s mountain retreat and a monetary prize of $2,000.

“Rainer’s enduring legacy extends beyond the now nearly two generations of students and colleagues he has helped educate and mentor,” said Susan Ouriou, director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre.  “As a professor in interdisciplinary programs, he has promoted methodologies derived from the art of translation to redirect the interpretation of literary works and nurture associative thinking and creativity through the use of translation tools and techniques.”

“How utterly fitting for Rainer Schulte to receive the first Linda Gaboriau Award,” said Dennis Kratz, dean of the School of Arts and Humanities.  “No one has made a more profound and positive contribution to translation as art, field of study and metaphor for international communication. I admire him deeply as translator, teacher, scholar, visionary and person.”

Schulte is a professor in the School of Arts and Humanities, where he holds the Katherine R. Cecil Professorship in Foreign Languages at UT Dallas and founded The Center for Translation Studies in 1980.  Most recently, Schulte authored The Geography of Translation and Interpretation: Traveling Between Languages (2002), which proposes using translation as a means of revitalizing the study of literature and the humanities.  He is the author of more than 80 critical articles; translations of poetry and fiction from German, French, Spanish and Italian; four volumes of poetry and a play.

Under Schulte’s direction, the Center for Translation Studies also became the national office of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA).  Established in 1978, ALTA promotes the presence of foreign literature in the United States and cultivates dialogue among languages, cultures and literary translators.

Gaboriau, the award’s namesake, is a Montreal theatre company consultant and literary translator.  She has worked as a freelance journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as well as the Montreal Gazette, and worked in Canadian and Quebecois theatre.  Gaboriau is the founding director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre