Abstract: Beowulf is the oldest epic poem in the English language, but it was largely unknown until 1815, when its first modern edition was published. Appearing at a moment when Romantic nationalism was spreading throughout Europe, this mysterious poem rapidly attracted considerable debate about its authorship, date of composition, and transmission history. This lecture looks at how the disciplines broadly described as ‘the Digital Humanities’ can shed new light on these old debates. In particular, it discusses the arguments presented in “Large-Scale Quantitative Profiling of the Old English Verse Tradition,” a paper published in Nature Human Behaviour that Professor Neidorf co-authored with scholars from Harvard, MIT, and other universities. This paper received mainstream media coverage in venues such as The […]

Abstract: This lecture takes a closer look at the nature of scholarly publication. Publishing is a prerequisite for success in the modern university, but there is very little discussion among humanities scholars about the characteristics of publishable scholarship. In this talk, Professor Leonard Neidorf attempts to identify the implicit criteria that editors of top international journals use when they evaluate the merit of submissions. He then identifies some respects in which the journals’ criteria are at odds with current humanities pedagogy, and he recommends some ways to bring publishing and pedagogy into greater harmony. Beyond this philosophical discussion, the talk offers practical advice for increasing one’s success in journal publishing based on Professor Neidorf’s experience with more than twenty different […]

Abstract: Audio description (AD) is a language service that helps people who are visually impaired access audio-visual products. The process of AD is cross-modal, involving the translation of visual images into verbal text. In recent years, researchers have noted that many of the skills required for interpreters and audio describers are similar, and that interpreting trainees can benefit from AD training. However, when AD training is provided in an interpreting program, it is important to identify the criteria for both AD and interpretation, and to understand the discrepancies in perceptions between trainers and students, and between sighted people and people who are visually impaired. Based on an AD training program for interpreting students at a university in Hong Kong, this […]

Abstract: The Chinese civilization of the rule of law has a long history, and the legal thoughts and knowledge refined in different historical dynasties are recorded in numerous literary masterpieces, awaiting to be explored and elucidated. The translation of Chinese legal literature, related to the re-construction of the image of rule of law in China, is of great significance with some prominent problems remaining to be clarified and pathways to be unraveled. On the basis of existing achievements in adapting Western Law & Literature Movement (1970s) to the Chinese context and the conclusions in connecting literary creation and image construction, the presenter will clarify the connotation and categorization of Chinese legal literature, discuss the merits and demerits of the translation […]

Abstract: The rendition of political speeches and political interpreting usually involves the employment of high-level pragmatic competence. In this regard, the appropriate use and rendition of contrastive markers (CMs), i.e. the linguistic indicator that may signal propositions unfavourable or contrastive to people’s presuppositions, form part of an important pragmatic strategy. Nevertheless, little empirical evidence has been provided as to how CMs are and should be rendered in political speeches and their interpreting. This study, therefore, aims to investigate and compare the employment of two frequently used CMs, however and but, in interpreted and non-interpreted policy speeches in English. Datasets in the Chinese/English Political Interpreting Corpus (CEPIC), consisting of speeches delivered by top government officials in or interpreted into English, were […]