Knowledge translation on a global scale (Asia-Europe-the Americas, 16th - 20th centuries)

Workshop organized by Ana Carolina Hosne (Paris IAS / National University of San Martín) et Antonella Romano (Centre Alexandre Koyré, EHESS)

Presentation

The aim of this workshop is to contribute to the discussion about the complex and multi-faceted interactions engendered in the translation of knowledge between cultures across space and time, as well as the aspects inevitably involved in the process of both its transmission and reception. The contributions address the translation of concepts, also examining the lexical changes initiated by the influx of new or foreign knowledge, and that of practices, i.e. concrete examples to be found in the process of translating knowledge, which in turn entails its interpretation and adaptation.

This workshop seeks to analyze the different dimensions and aspects of knowledge translation: linguistic/epistemic, as a historical process, as mutations and transformations of words, actions and practices, also exploring the motives of agents involved in knowledge translation processes, among others. Moreover, knowledge translation involves circulation processes, which lead us to pose the following questions: Why, how and where does knowledge circulate? In turn, this implies the compelling task of looking into different scales, global and local. In terms of materialization of knowledge translation, when does it take place? Is it preceded by different itineraries of knowledge circulation, collection and elaboration? Conceiving translation as transformation involves tracing the origins of new forms of knowledge and construction of meaning from a cross-cultural perspective. Last but not least, appropriation is also part of all these processes, when translation could involve appropriation by the receiver, but not necessarily.

Program

January, 12^th

14:00 - 14:45 
Welcome and introduction

Session 1: Misunderstandings and incongruities: the thorny issues of knowledge translation
Chair: Laura León Llerena (Northwestern University, USA)

14:45 - 15:30 
“Traductions, métissages, doubles malentendus ou co-mensurations dans les missions jésuites du Paraguay” 
Capucine Boidin (IHEAL/Paris 3)

15:30 - 16:15
“Lexical Analogies and Conceptual Incongruities: the Persian Translation of Ayurvedic theory in Early-Modern South Asia”
Fabrizio Speziale (Paris 3)

16:15 - 16:30  Coffee Break

Session 2: Translating science and the natural world
Chair: Antonella Romano (CAK/EHESS)

16:30 - 17:15
"De Madrid à Paracuaria en passant par Mexico et vice versa : le naturalisme salutaire de Juan Eusebio Nieremberg traduit en guarani dans les missions jésuites du Paraguay"
Thomas Brignon (ENS de Lyon)

17:15 - 18:00
“Translating Geographical Knowledge in Sixteenth-Century France”
Oury Goldman (CRH-EHESS)

18:00 - 19:00
Roundtable discussion

January, 13^th

Session 3: Translation in between texts and material culture
Chair: Ana Carolina Hosne (IEA de Paris/UNSAM)

9:00 - 9:45
“Chinese painting mnemonics: Translating practical knowledge”
Monica Klaising Chen (University of Leiden)

9:45 - 10:30
“Translating stones: dealing with Indigenous material culture in colonial Peru”
Laura León Llerena (Northwestern University, USA)

10:30 - 11:15
“One China or small textual communities: the evidence from excavated and received texts”
Michael Nylan (IEA Paris/UC Berkeley)

11:15 - 11:30  Coffee Break

Session 4: What lies behind knowledge translation: Transmission, reception and mediation
Chair: Antonella Romano (CAK/EHESS)

11:30 - 12:15
“The transmission of Western political culture and history at the Mughal court, ca. 1600”
Corinne Lefèvre (CEIAS-EHESS/CNRS)

12:15 - 13:00
“Reception and Mediation of Foreign Works on China in Spain, 1850-1950”
Xavier Ortelles-Nicolau (University of Barcelona)

13:00 - 14:30  Lunch Break

14:30 - 15:15
Roundtable discussion