‘Thinking Through Translation’

The Global Studies Seminar welcomes Hosna Sheikholeslami, assistant professor of anthropology and sociology at Denison, presenting “Thinking Through Translation: Translators and the Formation of Publics in Contemporary Iran.”

This talk examines how translators of social science and philosophy in Iran (human sciences) are invested in producing publics by closely examining debates around the role, status, and stakes of translation in relation to the production of knowledge in Iran. It identifies three distinct translation ideologies at play in Iran, which encompasses translators’ textual selections, method of translation, and broader sociopolitical aims. This schematic sheds light on the ways that translators are invested in producing and promoting different forms of reading publics, and calls into questions theories of the public sphere that hinge on the social efficacy of texts.