Manga/Comics and Translation Symposium at Baruch College (April 6th, 2017)

Manga/Comics and Translation Symposium

This symposium invites scholars, translators, and professionals to discuss various processes and challenges of translating Japanese-language comics (manga) into English. It will illuminate the relatively invisible “work” of manga/comics translators, including their skills and challenges. In addition, the symposium will also highlight the specific nature of comics/manga medium. Unlike translation of text-based literary works, the translation of comics (manga) involved its media specific elements, including comics publishing conventions, reading orders, its formal nature (i.e. the image-word hybrid form), etc.

 

*The photos above are the covers of the manga titles translated by the invited guest lecturers/translators.

The invited guest lecturers/translators are:
– Dr. Mari Morimoto (DVM), a NYC-based translator of Japanese comics
– Dr. Ryan Holmberg, an art historian/translator (Duke University)
– Professor George Touris, an instructor (CUNY)
– Dr. Shige (CJ) Suzuki, Baruch College (Baruch College, CUNY)

Date: April 6th, 2017
Time: 12:40 to 2:05 pm (club hours)
Place: VC7-150 (Vertical Campus 7th floor #150)

The Vertical Campus is the “B” building of the map on the following website. Enter from the door located at the corner of East 24th and Lexington Avenue.
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/map.html

Please go to the following page and complete the registration. *Due to the limited availability of the seats, all attendees must register.
https://goo.gl/forms/dRIH9FdqelYrBqNg2

The event is open to all. Individuals who are not affiliated with Baruch College needs to present your ID to the security officer at the entrance.

Main Guest Speakers:

(1) Dr. Mari Morimoto

Osaka-born and Manhattan-raised, Mari never strayed far from urbanity until she spent nine years at Cornell. Actually, it’s Dr. Morimoto, whose “real job” as a big city veterinarian often wars with her “moonlighting” as a freelance manga translator. She got her foot in the door with VIZ Media through luck and circumstance, and since then has expanded her resume to include panelist, panel leader, Guest of Honor personal assistant and interpreter, and Guest of Honor at several northeast conventions. She has also contributed several articles to the English edition of SHONEN JUMP. A highlight of her translating career was meeting and rubbing elbows with Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama. As a child, she had the honor of meeting the late Osamu Tezuka. Her current titles are Naruto, Inuyasha, and Dragon Eye, but she has also previously translated Dragonball, Maison Ikkoku, One Pound Gospel, Knights of the Zodiac, and the DiGi Charat anthology.

(2) Dr. Ryan Holmberg
Dr. Ryan Holmberg is a Visiting Lecturer at Duke University, and an Academic Associate of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. As a freelance art historian and critic, he is a frequent contributor to The Comics Journal, Artforum International, and Art in America. As an editor and translator of manga, he has worked with Breakdown Press, Drawn & Quarterly, Retrofit Comics, and PictureBox Inc. His edition of Tezuka Osamu’s The Mysterious Underground Men (PictureBox) won the 2014 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Asia. He is also the author of Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964–1973 (Center for Book Arts, 2010).

The symposium is organized by the Japanese program with assistance of Baruch Japan Club. It is sponsored by the Center for Global Partnership, the Globus Lecture Series and the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature, and Baruch Japan Club.