Intensive Year-end Interpreting Events

The department's interpreting track has been quite busy lately. Three meetings took place in the last week of the academic year: two events on May 10 and 17, 2023 organized by Assoc. Prof. Jonathan M. Ross as part of a seminar series titled "A Voice of Hope: Interpreting at the Kahramanmaraş Earthquake" and a mock conference held for senior students of the undergraduate program in conference interpreting. 

Prof. Alev Bulut from Istanbul University and Dr. Rana Kahraman Duru from the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Foundation University were the speakers at the first event and explained the structure and functioning of the Emergency and Disaster Volunteer Interpreters (ARÇ for short in Turkish) network. Approximately 60 people participated in the hybrid meeting online or face to face. Ayşe Zeynep Özgül and Rumeysa Durmaz, who are graduating from the conference interpreting track this year, volunteered to provide simultaneous interpretation at the event.

The second event of the series took place similarly in hybrid format on May 17. Around 100 participants listened to several  interpreters who had worked under ARÇ's coordination following the earthquake. We would like to thank Aslı Takanay, Betül Sare Gökmen, Cemre Aytaç, Emirhan Kaya, Hilken Doğaç Boran, Sena Tan, Serkan Eker and Ufuk Yılmaz for sharing their experiences and advice for future reference, as well as the senior students who once again volunteered to interpret at the event.

On May 12, trainers in the interpreting program organized a mock conference on migration for the said senior students at the simultaneous interpreting lab, which is also used for the EMCI (European Masters in Conference Interpreting) Master's Program in Conference Interpreting. Attended by students from lower grades, the hybrid conference featured faculty members Ahu Latifoğlu Doğan, Bahar Çotur, Prof. Ebru Diriker, Assoc. Prof. Jonathan M. Ross, Kate Ferguson and Nedime Mercangöz taking on different roles and simulating situations that students might encounter in real life.

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the events, in particular the department assistants.