Rama Devi Women's University,Bhubaneswar

Home
Centre of Excellence for Translation and Life Writing

Centre of Excellence for Translation and Life Writing

About the Centre Vision & Mission People Activities Books Photo Gallery

About the Centre

The Centre of Excellence for Translation and Life Writing was established with an objective to engage with and explore archival sources of writings by Odia women. The Centre aims at bringing a transformation of pedagogic practices through translation, identifying different knowledge texts in English/Hindi/Odia/Sanskrit and translating them, and promoting ethnographic engagement that would result in documentation of indigenous knowledge system and narratives.

Year of Establishment – 2020

Departments: School of Languages (English, Hindi, Odia and Sanskrit)

Facilities and Research Ecosystem

The Centre has prepared an online dataset on Life Writing and Translation.
The CoE staffs have curated a library consisting of books, and research theses on Translation, and Life Writing.
The Centre has procured hardware and software components: one desktop, two laptops, printers, scanners, and a projector for smooth facilitation of research for the staffs.
We have collaborated with CIIL, Mysuru to organize a two-week online translation workshop exclusively for aspiring women translators.
Interactive programmes with scholars of international repute through webinars and workshops have been conducted successfully.
The Centre has access to Elsevier, EBSCOHOST and other such platforms for facilitating research.

Summary of Research Contributions

The Centre has identified four major areas of research work.

These themes have been elaborated according to each of its contributions and they go as such -

Engagement with and exploration of archival sources on writings by Odia women with an emphasis on textual studies translation. Under the first theme, three major archival research have been completed.

The Centre prepared and published a compilation of the bibliography of autobiographies written in Odisha titled Life Writings in Odisha: A Bibliography of Autobiographies. This work was edited by Professor Jatindra Kumar Nayak and Professor Madhusmita Pati. ISBN-978-93-80968-28-5
The Post-doctoral Fellow and both the Research Assistants visited the State Archives, State Museum, Sikshasandhan Library, and the online portal Srujanika to compile a collection of over a thousand biographies titled Life Writings in Odisha: A Bibliography of Biographies. ISBN-978-81-957224-2-6
Monograph on Odia women autobiographers Reading Silences: Self Writings of Women in Odisha was written by the Post-doctoral Fellow of the Centre by referring to archival material available from the Centre’s repository, various libraries, and online databases. ISBN-978-81-957224-0-2

The following projects are in progress allotted to Dr. D Mohini (PDF) and Bharati Muduli (RA) staff of CoE under the same theme:

Collecting sources on Odia Travel writing
Monograph on Hindi Autobiographies
Bibliography on Hindi Autobiographies
Translation of Akinchanara Jiban Smruti from Odia to Hindi
Monograph on Print History of Odisha
Annotated Bibliography of Autobiographies in Odisha

The second theme that the Centre strives to promote is ‘bringing about the transformation of pedagogic practices’ under which the following events have been organized successfully.

A Two-week online Translation Workshop in collaboration with the National Translation Mission (CIIL, Mysuru) was conducted by the Centre from 18th May-1st June 2022 consisting of a distinguished panel of translators which was open to women students enrolled in the University free of charge. The workshop was attended by over 60 participants and provided hands-on training on translation along with lectures including machine translation, gender and translation, history of translation, linguistics and translation, etc.
The Centre conducted a two-day National Seminar on Translation: Problems and Prospects in Pandemic Literature from 8th - 9th April 2022, The departments of English, Sanskrit, Hindi, and Odia came together to host four sessions on the topic related to translation. Each session was chaired by an eminent chief speaker who presided over paper presentation sessions by the research scholars of the University, besides delivering lectures on the topic.
Commemorating the Punyatithi of Maa Ramadevi, a lecture series was organized by the Centre. Three prominent dignitaries - Sri Uma Charan Mishra, Retd. Judge, Sri Prahallad Singh a Gandhian activist, and Sri Kailash Chandra Dash, an eminent historian - were invited to speak on Rama Devi and her life.

The third theme that the Centre aims to work towards is the identification of different knowledge texts in English/Hindi/Odia/Sanskrit and their translation:

Maa Ramadevi’s autobiography Jeevan Pathe was translated into Hindi as Kshitij Ke Us Paar by Dr. Sanghamitra Bhanja of the Department of Odia with assistance from Ms. Bharati Muduli, the Research Assistant CoE. ISBN-978-81957224-1-9
Mera Utkal Pravas was translated into Mora Utkala Prabaas by Dr. Snehalata Das. Department of Hindi. ISBN-978-81-957224-3-3
The faculty of the English department Dr. Sabahat Tabriz along with the CoE Research Assistant Ms Sarbani Sarbashree Mohanty translated Beena Dei’s autobiography Akinchanara Jeevansmruti into Reminiscences of a Nobody. ISBN-978-81-957224-4-0
Sanghamitra Bhanja compiled and edited a critical work on Maa Rama Devi titled Binsa Shatabdira Alokabartika: Maa Ramadevi. ISBN-978-81-957224-5-7

The following are work in progress under the final theme:

Translating an excerpt from Kuntala Kumari Jibana Charita, a biography written by Chakradhara Mohapatra.

Finally, the Centre plans to engage with ethnographic texts which will help us prepare indigenous knowledge systems and narratives.

The following are works in progress under the ethnographic engagements:

Translating the tribal activist Sumani Jhodia’s oral narrative Mui Sumani Kahuchhe into English as Sumani Speaks by Zeba Sadia.
Translation of Kathalahari folk narratives published in 1901.
Collection of oral narratives of indigenous women working under Mission Shakti.

Vision

To emerge as a destination for advanced interdisciplinary research on life writing in its various forms in India.

Mission

Promote intercultural dialogue among people at regional and national level
Demonstrate skills in oral & written communication sufficient to publish and present work in translation studies
Document lives through oral testimonies
Amplify voices of the marginalized

People

Prof. Jatindra Kumar Nayak	Mentor	nayakjatin@gmail.com
Prof. Madhusmita Pati	Coordinator	madhusmitapati@rdwu.ac.in
Dr. Snehalata Das	Administrative and Finance I/C, CoE	snehalatadas@rdwu.ac.in
Dr. D. Mohini	PDF	dmohini50@gmail.com
Miss Zeba Sadia	Research Assistant	zebasadia66@gmail.com
Miss Bharati Muduli	Research Assistant	bharati77881212@gmail.com
Mr. Mir Aspak Alli	Office Assistant	mirassissali786@gmail.com

Reviewer Committee Members:

Prof. Himanshu Sekhar Mohapatra	English	7377777708
Prof. Jaganath Das	English	7978220796
Prof. Smarapriya Mishra	Hindi	9437270533
Dr. Balaram Mishra	Hindi	9937391099
Prof. Ramesh Chandra Mallick	Odia	9438251224
Dr. Basanta Kumar Panda	Odia	993738701

Working committee Members:

Prof. Aparajita Chowdhury	Vice Chancellor	vicechancellor@rdwu.ac.in
Prof. Chandi Charan Rath	CPGC	chandicharanrath@rdwu.ac.in
Prof. Chandrashree Lenka	IDP Coordinator	chandrashreelenka@rdwu.ac.in
Prof. Madhusmita Pati	Coordinator, CoE	madhusmitapati@rdwu.ac.in
Dr. Snehalata Das	Administrative and Finance I/C, CoE	snehalatadas@rdwu.ac.in
Prof. Jatindra Kumar Nayak	Mentor, Coe	nayakjatin@gmail.com

Advisory Committee Members

Prof. Sanjay Kumar Satpathy	Vice-Chancellor, Kalahandi University	vc@kalahandiuniversity.ac.in
Prof. Prof. Prasan Kumar Swain	Vice-Chancellor, Utkal University of Culture	prasanakswain@gmail.com
Prof. Jatindra Kumar Nayak	(Rtd) Mentor	nayakjatin@gmail.com
Prof. Smarapriya Mishra	(Rtd) Hindi	smarapriyamishra57@gmail.com

Core Committee Members-

Prof. Madhusmita Pati	Coordinator
Dr. Snehalata Das	Administrative and Finance I/C, CoE
Prof. Pranati Kumari Sahoo	Member (Sanskrit dept.)
Dr. Manisha Mishra	Member (English dept.)
Dr. Sabahat Tabriz	Member (English dept.)
Dr. Itishri Sarangi	Member (English dept.)
Dr. Bimla Patra	Member (Hindi dept.)
Dr. Sanghamitra Bhanja	Member (Odia dept.)

Activities

Collaboration with National Translation Mission, Mysuru

The Centre in collaboration with National Translation Mission, CIIL, Mysore conducted a 15-day online Translation workshop from 18th May 2022 to 1st June, 2022. Sixty students from the Rama Devi Women’s University received hands-on-training on translation along with lectures including machine translation, gender and translation, history of translation, linguistics and translation,

Two-day national Seminar on Life Writing and Translation

Two-day National Seminar on Translation and Life writing was organized on 8-9 April 2022. Separate sessions were held for English, Hindi, Odia and Sanskrit and they were chaired eminent professors from the field.

Commemoration of Maa Rama Devi Lecture Series

Special Lecture Series was held on the occasion of Punyatithi of Maa Rama Devi on 22nd July 2021 and 22nd July 2022

Lecture Series on Translation and Life Writing

The Center organized a series of nine lectures which spread over nine months from Jan 2021 to Oct 2021 by eminent personalities from the field of translation and life writing. Prof Harish Trivedi, prof Debendranath Dash, Prof Bikram Das, Prof Tanuja Majumdar, Prof. Satyaketu San Prof Mahendra Kumar Mishra, Prof Basant Kumar Tripathy, Prof Avadesh Kumar, Prof Sankrit.

The Centre of Excellence showcased its work and achievements at the Odisha Research Conclave held on 14-16 November 2022 at Ravenshaw University, Cuttack.

The Centre of Excellence has the following publications: Life Writings in Odia: A Bibliography of Autobiography; Life Writings in Odia : A Bibliography of Biography; Reading Silences: Self Writings of Women in Odisha [A Monograph], Jeevan Pathe (Maa Rama Devi’s autobiography) translated into Hindi Kshitij ke us Paar, Annotated bibliography of Autobiographies [Vol 1], Publication of the talks delivered in Distinguished Lecture Series

Books

Books Published

Centre of Excellence for Translation and Life Writing

Collaboration with National Translation Mission, Mysuru

Commemoration of Maa Rama Devi Lecture Series

Commemoration of Maa Rama Devi Lecture Series

Commemoration of Maa Rama Devi Lecture Series

Commemoration of Maa Rama Devi Lecture Series

Commemoration of Maa Rama Devi Lecture Series

Commemoration of Maa Rama Devi Lecture Series

Commemoration of Maa Rama Devi Lecture Series

Commemoration of Maa Rama Devi Lecture Series

Commemoration of Maa Rama Devi Lecture Seriesg

Lecture Series on Translation and Life Writing

The Centre of Excellence showcased its work and achievements at the Odisha Research Conclave held on 14-16 November 2022 at Ravenshaw University, Cuttack.

The Centre of Excellence showcased its work and achievements at the Odisha Research Conclave held on 14-16 November 2022 at Ravenshaw University, Cuttack.

The Centre of Excellence showcased its work and achievements at the Odisha Research Conclave held on 14-16 November 2022 at Ravenshaw University, Cuttack.

Two-day national Seminar on Life Writing and Translation

Two-day national Seminar on Life Writing and Translation

Two-day national Seminar on Life Writing and Translation

Two-day national Seminar on Life Writing and Translation

Two-day national Seminar on Life Writing and Translation

Two-day national Seminar on Life Writing and Translation

Two-day national Seminar on Life Writing and Translation

Two-day national Seminar on Life Writing and Translation

Two-day national Seminar on Life Writing and Translation

Rama Devi Women's University Vidya Vihar,PO:Bhoinagar Bhubaneswar,751022,Odisha,India Phone No. : 0674-2542644 Email:registrar(at)rdwu(dot)ac(dot)in