A new PhD research group with a thematic focus on the Politics of Translation is being established at the Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at Germersheim. It sets out to develop a framework for projects working on a variety of translation and interpreting phenomena, in different modes, genres, periods and languages. The framework seeks to relate these projects to a common conceptual basis and thereby to create synergies and further develop the methodological tools. This talk will briefly introduce the project and then concentrate on the concepts of cultural technique and performance to see if and how they could not only serve the projects aims but also contribute to debates on the de-ontologization of translation and interpreting.

Dilek Dizdar is Professor of Intercultural German Studies and Translation Studies and

Deputy Director of the Center for Intercultural Studies, University of Mainz, Germany. She holds a BA in Translation and Interpreting, an MA in General Linguistics (Boğaziçi), and a PhD in Translation Studies (Heidelberg). Her research interests include the politics of translation and of its institutions, deconstruction, migration, multilingualism and translation, translation (studies) and the humanities.