- Mona Baker
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Dr. Mona Baker
Mona Baker is an Egyptian professor of translation studies and Director of the Centre for Translation and International Studies at the University of Manchester in England.[1]
Contents
Career
She studied at the American University in Cairo, where she got a BA in English and Comparative Literature. Afterwards she studied in applied linguistics at the University of Birmingham, obtaining an MA. In 1995 she moved to UMIST where she became a professor in 1997. Nowadays she holds the Chair in Translation Studies[2]
She is the founder of St. Jerome Publishing where she is editorial director. She also founded the international magazine The Translator.[3]
Since 2009 she has been an honorary member of IAPTI.[4] In the framework of this association she delivered a speech on "Ethics in the Translation/Interpreting Curriculum" [5] She is also co-Vice president of the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies.[6]
As a researcher, she is mainly interested in translation and conflict, the role of ethics in research and training in Translation Studies, the application of narrative theory to translation and interpretation, activist communities in translation and corpus-based translation studies; she has published extensively in these areas. She has also been active as an editor of reference works.
Mona Baker and the Middle East conflict
Mona Baker provides commentary on the Middle East conflict, and research in translation and intercultural studies. Her website also has sections on the boycott of Israeli academic institutions, Israel and Palestinian universities, general opinions on the Middle East and calls for boycott of Israeli products and services.
Contoversy over dismissal of academics
Baker was a signatory of the 2002 open letter to boycott Israeli institutions. She received much criticism and created great controversy when she removed two Israeli academics, Dr. Miriam Shlesinger of Bar-Ilan University and Professor Gideon Toury of Tel Aviv University, Israel, from the editorial boards of her journals Translator and Translation Studies Abstracts, based on their affiliation to Israeli institutions.[7][8]
Baker stated that the interpretation of the boycott was her own and she did not necessarily expect other signatories in a similar position to adopt the same course of action. Prof Baker, an Egyptian, said she was bemused by the row over two "tiny" journals. A spokeswoman for the university stated that: "This is nothing to do with Umist. The boycott documentation clearly states Mona Baker signs it as an individual."[9]
Response from Professors
In an email sent to Professor Toury on June 8, 2002, Baker asked him to resign and warned him that she would "unappoint you" if he refused. Baker justified her action by stating that "I do not wish to continue an official association with any Israeli under the present circumstances," although she also stated that her decision was "political, not personal" and that she still regarded Professor Toury and Professor Shelsinger as friends.[9]
Professor Toury subsequently responded that "I would appreciate it if the announcement made it clear that 'he' (that is, I) was appointed as a scholar and unappointed as an Israeli." Toury also stated that "I am certainly worried, not because of the boycott itself but because it may get bigger and bigger so that people will not be invited to conferences or lectures, or periodicals will be judged not on merit, but the identity of the place where the author lives."[9]
Dr Shlesinger responded that: "I don't think [Israeli prime minister] Ariel Sharon is going to withdraw from the West Bank because Israeli academics are being boycotted. The idea is to boycott me as an Israeli, but I don't think it achieves anything."[9]
Criticism
Baker's actions were sharply criticized by Professor Stephen Greenblatt, a Harvard University scholar and the president of the Modern Language Association of America, who called the firings "repellent", "dangerous" and "morally bankrupt".[10] British Prime Minister Tony Blair also criticized Baker's actions, and stated that he will "do anything necessary" to stop the academic boycott of Israeli scholars.[11]
Judith Butler suggested that Baker had "engaged established anti-semitic stereotypes."[12] According to Prof. Jon Pike, "Mona Baker's policy is, in effect, anti-semitic: she doesn't want to have contact with any individuals who are affiliated with Israeli institutions, and those people will largely be Jews. And we know, of course, that Mona Baker thinks these actions are "appropriate" (and, when criticised, complains bitterly about the Jewish press)."[13]
Support
Baker received support from a number of sources, including the Muslim Association of Britain and the Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign [14]
Baker's Response
Baker wrote a detailed response to her critics (a brief summary of which was published in the London Review of Books). Baker wrote that "the Jewish press in Britain is shamelessly and exclusively pro-Israel" and cited support for her position from Israeli Professor Ilan Pappe. She also cited a letter to the editor supporting her from Seymour Alexander, who identified himself as a British Jew, and Lawrence Davidson, an American Jew who co-authored "In Defence of the Academic Boycott" with her. She also criticized "the intense and highly distorting smear campaign led mostly by the Jewish press in the UK against me."[15]
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Baker stated that she was the victim of "a large intimidation machine out there" that attempts to silence criticism of Israel and that "the Americans are the worst offenders". When asked about the dismissals, she responded to her critics by stating, "I’m damned if I’m going to be intimidated. This is my interpretation of the boycott statement that I’ve signed and I’ve tried to make that clear but it doesn’t seem to be getting through. I am not actually boycotting Israelis, I am boycotting Israeli institutions". In the same interview, Baker sharply criticized Israeli policies, stating that: "Israel has gone beyond just war crimes. It is horrific what is going on there. Many of us would like to talk about it as some kind of Holocaust which the world will eventually wake up to, much too late, of course, as they did with the last one."[9][16]
Works
- Editor of Critical Concepts: Translation Studies (London and New York: Routledge, 2009).
- Editor of Critical Readings in Translation Studies (London and New York: Routledge, 2009).
- Editor, together with Gabriela Saldanha, of Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (London and New York: Routledge, 2008).
- In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation (first edition, 1992, Routledge; upcoming revised and extended edition, 2010).
References
- ^ Professor Mona Baker, Webpage at the University of Manchester Institute of Technology (UMIST)
- ^ Prof. Mona Baker (University of Manchester)
- ^ CV of Mona Baker at IAPTI
- ^ Mona Baker, honorary member of IAPTI
- ^ Meeting with Mona Baker (in Spanish)
- ^ Mona Baker at IATIS
- ^ Israeli boycott divides academics The Guardian, Monday 8 July 2002
- ^ Baker London Conference
- ^ a b c d e Israeli boycott divides academics by Suzanne Goldenberg and Will Woodward, The Guardian, July 8, 2002. (retrieved on December 7, 2009).
- ^ Professor's anti-Israeli tirade revives sacked academics row by David Harrison, The Daily Telegraph, September 29, 2002 (retrieved on November 1, 2009).
- ^ Blair vows to end dons' boycott of Israeli scholars by Francis Elliott and Catherine Milner, The Daily Telegraph, November 17, 2002. (retrieved on November 1, 2009).
- ^ Precarious Life, Judith Butler pp. 124-125 Verso 2004
- ^ NATFHE: Chuck out 198C! - Jon Pike [1] and Wrong in principle, wrong in practice [2]
- ^ Urgent: Support Mona Baker at UMIST!, Forwarded by Manchester PSC in solidarity with The Muslim Association of Britain, July 11, 2002.
- ^ Crying Wolf: Anti-semitism, the Jewish Press in Britain, and Academic Boycotts by Mona Baker, Monabaker.com.
- ^ David Tell "Boycotting the Juden", The Weekly Standard, July 11, 2002. (retrieved on November 1, 2009)
External links
Categories:- Academics of the University of Manchester
- British translators
- Egyptian translators
- Living people
- Translation scholars
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