Translation: A Translation Studies Journal is the collaborative and interdisciplinary project of UCSB graduate students, advised by faculty, which is now in the process of producing its third volume. Following the Spring 2004 symposium, “Literary Translation: Revisiting the Text in the Humanities” and as a way to continue the discussion of translation theory and practice that it sparked, graduate students from a range of language departments initiated the Translation Studies Research Focus Group, sponsored by the IHC and co-convened by Suzanne Jill Levine (Spanish and Portuguese) and Yunte Huang (English). In the midst of various speaker series, translation workshops and discussions that the group organized, graduate students Karen Bishop, Ricardo Catón, Annette Levine, and Stacey Van Dahm began the production of Translation’s first volume. Chief among the journal’s objectives from the beginning was to provide a publication in which scholarly and creative aspects of translation could meet. Publishing both original works of literary translation and scholarly articles on translation theory, the journal materialized the multifaceted nature of translation, such as the dialogue between theory and practice, between author and translator, and language and culture as such.

The second volume of Translation, printed in Fall 2007 and co-edited by Ilana Luna, Summer Star, and Stacey Van Dahm, continued to pursue this joining of the creative and scholarly by asking contributors to preface each translation with a reflection on the unique challenge of translating that particular that work, as well as their own approach to translation. The contributors to Volume 2 ranged from graduate students, to professors, to independent scholars and writers from over the world – bringing together not only a diversity of languages and literary cultures, but a variety of translating styles and objectives.

As Translation continues to develop, its editorial and advisory boards changing and growing with each volume, the journal has also expanded its readership. Journal subscriptions from various programs in Translation Studies, university libraries and individual translators have confirmed the unique function of the journal within the field of translation. Graduate students and advisors alike are eager to begin the process of producing Volume 3: strengthening its interdisciplinary relations at UCSB and encouraging a stronger relationship with those students who will participate in the new Translation Studies Emphasis.

The editors for this upcoming volume, Anne-Claire Cain, Ilana Dahn, Katie Kelp-Stebbins, and Summer Star will issue the call for submissions in October 2008.

Below are descriptions of the three editors for Volume 2 of Translation, Ilana Dahn, Summer Star and Stacey Van Dahm, who invite all to visit the journal’s website.

Ilana Dann Luna is a PhD candidate in the Spanish and Portuguese department. Her dissertation focuses on contemporary feminist narrative, theater and film in Mexico and her translation interests also revolve around Mexican literature. She has been active in the UCSB translating community, participating in the research focus group on translation, and co-editing the second volume of Translation: A Translation Studies Journal in which her translation of Ignacio Ruíz Pérez’s (PhD, UCSB 2005) poetry and her photography were also featured. She considers translation to be the most fundamental (and invisible) element of all humanistic studies, and is proud to make the art of translation a more visible and lauded endeavor. She is currently on the editorial board for the third volume of the journal.

Summer Star is a graduate student in the English Department at UCSB and acted as poetry editor for Volume 2 of Translation. Having a primary research interest in poetry, and being an active poet and translator herself, Summer found the editing process a unique opportunity to think carefully about the aesthetic relationship between languages: how words, images and sounds are negotiated by the demands of poetry itself. Dialogues with contributors over matters as large as rhythm and rhyme and as small as a comma not only guaranteed the thoroughness of the editorial work of Translation, but enacted the kind of the kind of relationship between detail and design, that is the work of poets and scholars alike. Summer will begin her dissertation work in Fall 2008 on aesthetic experience and forms of subjectivity in mid-Victorian literature.

As a graduate student in Comparative Literature, Stacey Van Dahm was an editor for both volume 1 (2005) and volume 2 (2007) of Translation. She was involved with all aspects of the editing process, including soliciting submissions, raising funds, formatting and design, as well as editing selected essays, short stories, and poems. The quality of both its advisory and editorial boards are a testament to the journal’s quality as a new journal of translation. Volume 2 of the journal expands its scope to include pieces from translators all over the world. Having completed her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 2007, Stacey will be working as an Assistant Professor of Literature and Writing at Philadelphia University beginning in the Fall of 2008. As such, Stacey now serves on the advisory board in keeping with the journal’s mission of offering graduate students vital experience in the publishing process as editors. As a member of the advisory board, Stacey helps to ensure consistency in the journal’s mission and quality going forward.