As part of its ongoing effort to promote translation in all its forms across campus, the Dept. of Comparative Literature presents a series of three panels on the practice of literary translation. Campus professionals who all engage with foreign literature in the United States in various capacities will highlight the ways in which, beyond the work of translators themselves, a variety of professionals deal with the material implications of promoting foreign literature in this country. This series will allow students (both undergraduate and graduate) to come in contact with people working with literature outside of academia and will thus showcase potential alternatives to an academic career. Each of the three events will consist of a roundtable discussion devoted to a specific professional field and will bring together three speakers.

This panel features Esther Allen (distinguished translator and writer who co-founded the PEN World Voices Festival in 2005 and currently teaches at Baruch College CUNY and serves on the board of the American Literary Translators Association), Laurence Marie (cultural attache at the Embassy of France in the United States and the Head of French Book Office in New York City), and Jadranka Vrsalovic-Carevic (director of the New York office of the Institut Ramon Lull, an agency responsible for the promotion of Catalan language and culture abroad).

This panel will focus on promoters, specifically foreign cultural attaches in charge of promoting specific national literatures in the US.