overview
The Graduate Certificate in Critical Translation provides training to Rutgers graduate students in a) the history, theory, and practice of literary translation and its contemporary racial, political, and aesthetic significance around the globe; b) prepares students who study the significant role played by translation in literary history and the many uses of translation in critical practice; and c) trains students in translation activism, language justice, or how translation may be leveraged as an important part of community engagement. This tripartite platform offers our graduate students a solid, but varied, training in Translation Studies as a critical lens in literary and cultural studies, a millennia-old art form, and a fulcrum and tool for urgent new forms of engagement with communities in and beyond the academy.
The implementation of the certificate in Spring 2024 exemplifies Rutgers’ commitment to supporting innovation in doctoral study in the Humanities; offers doctoral student training in interdisciplinary, multilingual, and public-facing work; and prepares our students to participate in national and international conversations about the ways in which translation—a multifaceted, intermedial, and complex practical, theoretical, and ethical concern—actively shapes our larger human community. The work our graduate students complete in the certificate will become an important part of their research and teaching profiles on the academic job market as well as an integral component of their training and expertise on the non-academic job market.
requirements
The certificate offers two tracks that each require students complete three courses (9 credits) in Translation Studies.
TRACK A requires that students take three courses, one of which must be the certificate’s core course, “Theory and Practice of Literary Translation.” The remaining two courses will be selected from a list of approved graduate seminars from across the Humanities that deal with translation in practice or subject matter (list of courses in handbook).
TRACK B requires that students take three courses, one of which must be the certificate’s core course, “Theory and Practice of Literary Translation.” The remaining two courses will be one selected from a list of approved graduate seminars from across the Humanities that deal with translation in practice or subject matter. The second will be a practicum, which may take the shape of completing a longer critical literary translation; a longer work of translation scholarship; or an internship in community engagement, translation activism or social/language justice.
Both the required coursework and the practicum ask that students spend significant time reading, researching, and producing original translation scholarship and original critical translations. Students are afforded the flexibility in deciding if their interests are geared more toward producing theoretical work on translation; training as practitioners in literary translation; or honing their skills as translation activists that serve a wider non-academic community. Our esteemed participating faculty train and evaluate our students in all three possibilities.
