On 14 May, translation Conference for students and early career researchers TELL ME MORE 2024, which took place at Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty, brought together a large number of speakers from the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Piotrków Academy in Poland, Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty and Faculty of Philology, and the University of Ioannina in Greece. The audience of listeners was also international: in addition to the Lithuanian students who came to VU Kaunas Faculty, young researchers from Portugal, France and Poland participated remotely.
First held in 2013, the TELL ME (the name is a Lithuanian acronym that translates as Between the Lines: Media Space of Linguistics, Literary Studies) conference has brought together scholars from all over the world throughout the years, and in 2021, its organisers have taken up the challenge of hosting an interdisciplinary conference on the topic of multidisciplinary translation, the MultiMeDialecTranslation8. TELL ME MORE, which returned last year after a pause, attracted the interest of Lithuanian students as well: students and young scholars from all levels of study gathered to share their research results and discuss the importance of translation and its problems. The conference was organised by a large team of Audiovisual Translation undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as PhD students in the field of Philology whose initiative was not diminished this year either.
The Conference was opened by the Dean of Vilnius University Kaunas, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Giedrius Romeika, the Director of the Institute of Languages, Literature and Translation Studies Prof. Dr. Danguolė Satkauskaitė, and the lecturer of the Audiovisual Translation study programme, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jurgita Astrauskienė, who also gave a welcome speech and wished the participants a fulfilling and enriching conference. This year's Conference featured 10 presentations on the topics of translation challenges and solutions, interdisciplinary research in translation, artificial intelligence and the future of translation, as well as cinematographic adaptation of literary works. The audience listened attentively to the presentations and actively engaged in the discussions and deliberations. Like last year, voting was held to choose the best conference presentation. This year, two presentations received such a nomination: “Aesopian Language and Translation: The case of Marcelijus Martinaitis’s The Ballads of Kukutis” by Viktoras Bražas and “Beautiful flesh and blood women” or just beautiful: women's representation in French and Lithuanian subtitles of “Sex and the City” by Gabrielė Pocevičiūtė.
“It was my first scientific conference, so there was a lot of nervousness. It was really hard to decide what to include in my presentation and how to engage the audience. The Best Presentation nomination was proof that I was on the right track, and now that I know that my research has been of interest to others, I am even more motivated to continue my research on Aesop's language and its translation after my undergraduate studies. Thank you to the organisers for such a great event and warm welcoming. I hope that we will cooperate in the future as well,” a fourth-year student at Vilnius University, Faculty of Philology, shares his impressions. TELL ME MORE 2024 was also the first conference to the first year Master's student of Audiovisual Translation at VU Kaunas Faculty Gabrielė Pocevičiūtė: “This is the first time I have attended a conference, both as a co-organiser and as a speaker. The presentation was prepared in a rhythm of travelling, events and disturbed sleep, but this did not prevent it from winning the Best Presentation nomination. I am very proud of myself for that, and I take it as a proof and a reminder that I can overcome anything if I want to. I am very grateful to be a part of the community of VU Kaunas Faculty, and I am happy to have its active and continuous support,” says the student.
It is pleasing to see that the interest of students and young scholars in translation topics continues to grow, and that participation in the Conference is increasing. We believe that this year's participants and audience were inspired to explore the field of translation, made new contacts and experienced good emotions. Moments of the event and summaries of the presentations can be found on the VU KnF subpage created especially for this Conference.
Information from the conference organisers