Many thanks to Mary Ann Gosser for bringing this item to our attention. The Tenth Cuba-Québec Symposium on Translation, Terminology and Interpretation—organized around the theme “From Babel to Google Translate—Translation and Interpretation, a Bridge between Peoples”—will take place in Havana, Cuba, on December 6, 7 and 8, 2016. [At a loss for appropriate images, I have taken the liberty of using a painting of Domenikos (El Greco) Theotokopoulos’s “Saint Jerome as Scholar,” housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. St. Jerome is considered the patron saint of translators.]

Description: Translation is recognized as one of the oldest professions, one which, from the earliest times, has enabled different peoples to communicate, promote their cultures and convey their ideas. Despite rapid technological progress, translators and interpreters are still quite clearly essential to human development and knowledge. And even in the worst conditions, there will still be translators and interpreters willing to risk their lives to do their jobs.

Continuing our tradition, the Asociación Cubana de Traductores e Intérpretes (ACTI) and the Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec (OTTIAQ) invite you to our biannual symposium. Please join us in Havana, December 6, 7 and 8, 2016, at the Tenth Cuba-Québec Symposium on Translation, Terminology and Interpretation, for a discussion of the major challenges facing our professions:

• Training and Professional Development
• Working Conditions
• New Technologies: Boon or Threat?
• Courtroom Interpretation: A Matter of Freedom or Death
• The Web and the Translation Market
• Translation, a Source of Culture

All those who work in the language field — professionals, researchers, members of professional associations or other related occupations — and who wish to present a paper at the symposium should submit a summary of no more than 250 words to the organizing committee at the e-mail addresses indicated below by August 31, 2016. The committee will study the proposals and respond to the authors by September 30, 2016. Release of a preliminary program is planned for October. The final program will be made available a few weeks prior to the event.

If you are interested in attending the symposium, please add your name to the preregistration list to ensure you receive all future notices. New information (program, lodging, etc.) will be sent out by e-mail as it becomes available. The registration fee for the conference is 230 Canadian dollars payable by credit card (from a date to be determined) or 230 Cuban pesos payable in cash the day before the beginning of the symposium.

The reputation our symposium has earned over the years has attracted the interest of our professions’ highest authorities. This year, the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs/International Federation of Translators (FIT) will take the opportunity to hold its Executive Committee’s annual meeting in Havana, and FIT-LatAm (Regional Centre Latin America) to hold its annual general meeting. These two events will allow the symposium attendees to discuss their concerns directly with the world’s highest translation, interpreting and terminology authorities.

To ensure the broadest distribution possible, please share this invitation with your translation, terminology and interpretation colleagues, as well as professional associations. The more numerous, diverse and representative the range of participants, the richer the debate and exchange on these topics so important to us will be.

Lic. Luis Alberto González Moreno, President of ACTI (acticuba@enet.cu); Réal Paquette, certified translator, President of OTTIAQ (presidence@ottiaq.org); Anne-Marie de Vos, certified translator, member of the organizing committee (info@adevos.ca).

[Image above from http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459088.]