A symposium, “Ukraine in Translation,” will explore writing and translation and cultural production and preservation in the context of Ukraine on Oct. 18 from 1-6 p.m. in the A.D. White House.
During a roundtable discussion, Oksana Maksymchuk, a Ukrainian-American poet and scholar, and Ainsley Morse and Sabrina Jaszi, both scholars and literary translators, will discuss the movement between literary practices and languages and how translation relates to political transition and rupture. They will also consider, as Ukraine continues to defend itself from Russian invasion, how war, colonization and decolonization transform culture and our ways of reading and listening.
“Russia’s full-scale invasion turned the whole world’s eyes to Ukraine and brought an unprecedented wave of translations of Ukrainian literature. English speakers can finally sample the rich variety of Ukraine’s literary movements and traditions, and there is a new urgency to Ukrainian culture of the past, present and future both inside and outside the country,” said Sophie Pinkham, professor of the practice in the Department of Comparative Literature, who organized the event. “This makes it the ideal time for a deeper exploration of Ukraine in translation.”
Pinkham said she hopes the event will also serve as a multidisciplinary meeting point for those who already study Ukraine and those who are curious about approaching Ukrainian culture for the first time.
The roundtable will be followed by poet, playwright, and translator Sasha Dugdale’s reading of her translations from the work of acclaimed playwright Natalya Vorozhbit and a poetry reading by Maksymchuk. The program will conclude with a concert of Ukrainian folksongs by the acapella trio Zozulka, with a brief introduction to Ukraine’s musical traditions by Maria Sonevytsky, a member of Zozulka and a professor of anthropology and music at Bard College. A reception will follow.
Organized by the Department of Comparative Literature and co-sponsored by the Society for the Humanities and the Institute for European Studies (IES), the event is free and open to all; RSVP on the Cornell event site.
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