Please join Ohio State's Workshop on Integrating Machine Translation for the workshop's keynote address on Friday, February 7, 2025, which will be open to the public in-person and streamed live.
Register here (in person or online)
Schedule:
5 PM: Meet and greet reception
6 PM Keynote address
Abstract: Artificial intelligence has rapidly evolved in the language industry in recent years, with large language models and machine translation challenging many in the language industry to critically re-assess how these technologies are used in translation and interpreting (T&I). In some cases, these tools can be leveraged to support the provision of language services and language access, while in others, researchers and professionals have resisted this technological incursion given an increasing number of ethical and professional issues raised by their uncritical incorporation into T&I workflows. The impact of these tools is undoubtedly far reaching, with many questions surrounding whether the benefits of these tools outweigh the drawbacks. This talk outlines some of these challenges and opportunities while also querying the role that universities and educational institutions might play in the preparation of future T&I professionals to engage with and employ these emerging technologies. The talk poses questions on how these technologies can be used responsibly and interrogates what types of guardrails may be needed to ensure their appropriate and ethical use.
Speaker Biography: Christopher D. Mellinger is Associate Professor in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Translation at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Mellinger holds a Ph.D. in Translation Studies from Kent State University, as well as certificates in Spanish-English interpreting and Spanish Translation/Localization Management from Wake Forest University. He is the editor of The Routledge Handbook of Interpreting and Cognition, co-author of Quantitative Research Methods in Translation and Interpreting Studies, and co-editor of Translating Texts: An Introductory Coursebook on Translation and Text Formation. He currently serves on the management committee of the international TREC research network and as the co-editor of the journal Translation and Interpreting Studies.
Co-sponsored by:
The Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies
Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures
Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Linguistics
Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Center for Languages, Literatures and Cultures
The University Libraries
College of Arts and Sciences Office of Career Success