The highlight of the spring term in translation and interpreting studies is the traditional KäTu Symposium on Translation and Interpreting Studies. Its 23rd iteration was held at the University of Eastern Finland’s Joensuu Campus on April 17–18 with the theme “Conflict and Harmony”. Tampere researchers had a very strong representation again this year. In this blog, Moviko staff members Sari Hokkanen, Frederike Schierl, Satu Valkiainen and Anu Viljanmaa talk about their participation. In addition to them, there were quite a few of us giving a presentation or leading a workshop: Riku Haapaniemi, Annamari Korhonen, Mira Kainulainen and Mattia Thibault.
The symposium organisers had defined the theme as follows: “The theme allows for broad discussion on the internal conflicts and seeking harmony within the translation and interpreting field, as well as its relationship with society. The theme encompasses the differences of opinion of the various parties in the field, paradigm conflicts, the conflict between human and technology, future prospects of the field, and translation and interpreting in conflict situations.” And indeed, the programme contained different takes on the theme, and there was certainly something interesting for everybody attending.
Pluralist Satu Valkiainen acted as one of the reviewers of abstracts submitted to the symposium and as the chair of one of the sections.
Researchers from Tampere made a significant contribution. Sari Hokkanen’s section presentation “Inter-epistemic translation in a decolonizing framework: The case of translating the novel Myötäjäiset (‘Dowry’)” examined an on-going translation and research project. Hokkanen has translated into English a Finnish novel written by Siru Aura who did fieldwork in India for her doctoral research in anthropology and later wrote a novel based on her experiences and the stories told by her informants. Hokkanen’s research examines how the many ways of knowing or epistemic domains in the literary translation project may be conceptualized in a decolonizing framework.
On Saturday, Anu Viljanmaa and independent researcher Gun-Viol Vik presented their pilot study on simultaneous easy language interpretation (ELI) in the Finnish context. The pilot had been carried out in February and March 2026. It portrays a first endeavor to investigate possibilities of the use of ELI to increase linguistic accessibility in the Finnish society.
Anu Viljanmaa took the stage again when talking about different tasks and roles that interpreters fulfil in client encounters in social work contexts. Based on interviews with social workers, the study highlighted how interpreters’ role and tasks are often much more complex than ‘just’ conveying messages between languages and cultures, even though many social workers are aware of the neutral and impartial role described to interpreters in their Codes of professional ethics. Despite this, in certain situations social workers may deliberately use the interpreter’s physical presence to support or to secure their own goals in the client meeting, for example.
Frederike Schierl presented an overall picture of her recently finished PhD project (in Finnish) on the reception of machine-translated and human-translated subtitles. Despite the work now being finished, the discussion after the presentation revealed some potential for follow-up studies in the future.
In addition to interesting plenary and section presentations, KäTu also featured workshops. Satu Valkiainen was one of the organizers of Workshop 1, which was called “Expertise in the Translation and Interpretation in a Changing Environment and Traditional Educational Content: toward Conflict or Harmony?” The other two organizers were Minna Ruokonen (University of Eastern Finland) and Päivi Kuusi (University of Helsinki). The participants of the workshop came up with ideas for developing education, which were then saved in the Database for Teaching Methods in Translation and Interpreting. Satu’s own presentation in the final section discussed also the problem of curriculum development and students’ views on the factors that slow down their graduating based on a survey for Moviko’s students.
The next KäTu Symposium will convene again in 2027 at the University of Turku.
