COMETS GIVING DAYS 2025

 Who we are

The Center for Translation Studies was founded in 1978 to foster literary translation, promote communication between languages and cultures, introduce international writers to an English-speaking audience, and to underline the importance of translation studies in literature and language programs in the universities. In addition, one of our primary functions is to teach graduate and undergraduate the skills translators use to closely engage with texts in order to translate them. 

What we're fundraising for

The Center is currently seeking funding to host a symposium on Literary Translation in the Digital Age. Our plan is to bring experts in this realm together for a one- to two-day symposium, with the idea that papers delivered at the symposium might generate a special issue of Translation Review dedicated to the topic. 

 Thanks to our generous donors, our fundraising efforts during last year’s Comets Giving Days allowed us to achieve our goals of producing a special issue of Translation Review—TR 119—on Ukrainian literature in translation as well as to debut a multimodal translation of Paul Celan’s poem “Todesfugue,” which illustrates the various ways a linguistic text can be interpreted and translated into other art forms.

Our impact

Our value to the campus is the opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to learn the art and craft of translation, which allows them to translate literary texts from both an older version of English or foreign languages into English and across genres, greatly increasing the understanding of other times, cultures, and genre conventions. The Center also connects with students across campus and the larger Dallas community through the events we host each year. Recently for example, we brought students from campus into the Center for International Book Giveaways during which we have given away approximately eight hundred books so far.