Mona Baker
Encyclopedia
Mona Baker is an Egypt
ian professor of translation studies
and Director of the Centre for Translation and International Studies at the University of Manchester
in England
.
, 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
She is the founder of St. Jerome Publishing where she is editorial director. She also founded the international magazine The Translator.
Since 2009 she has been an honorary member of IAPTI
. In the framework of this association she delivered a speech on "Ethics in the Translation/Interpreting Curriculum"
She is also co-Vice president of the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies.
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.
. She received much criticism and created great controversy when she removed two Israel
i 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.
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."
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."
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."
, a Harvard University
scholar and the president of the Modern Language Association of America, who called the firings "repellent", "dangerous" and "morally bankrupt". 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.
Judith Butler
suggested that Baker had "engaged established anti-semitic stereotypes." 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)."
and the Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign
). 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."
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."
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian professor of translation studies
Translation studies
Translation studies is an interdiscipline containing elements of social science and the humanities, dealing with the systematic study of the theory, the description and the application of translation, interpreting or both these activities....
and Director of the Centre for Translation and International Studies at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Career
She studied at the American University in CairoAmerican University in Cairo
The American University in Cairo is an independent, non-profit, apolitical, secular institution of higher learning located in Cairo, Egypt...
, where she got a BA in English and Comparative Literature. Afterwards she studied in applied linguistics
Applied linguistics
Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems...
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
Translation studies
Translation studies is an interdiscipline containing elements of social science and the humanities, dealing with the systematic study of the theory, the description and the application of translation, interpreting or both these activities....
She is the founder of St. Jerome Publishing where she is editorial director. She also founded the international magazine The Translator.
Since 2009 she has been an honorary member of IAPTI
IAPTI
The International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters , an NPO, is a translators and interpreters association.-Organization:Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it was established on 30 September, 2009, Saint Jerome's day...
. In the framework of this association she delivered a speech on "Ethics in the Translation/Interpreting Curriculum"
She is also co-Vice president of the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies.
As a researcher, she is mainly interested in translation and conflict, the role of ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
in research and training in Translation Studies
Translation studies
Translation studies is an interdiscipline containing elements of social science and the humanities, dealing with the systematic study of the theory, the description and the application of translation, interpreting or both these activities....
, the application of narrative theory to translation and interpretation, activist communities in translation and corpus
Text corpus
In linguistics, a corpus or text corpus is a large and structured set of texts...
-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.Controversy over dismissal of academics
Baker was a signatory of the 2002 open letter to boycott Israeli institutionsAcademic boycotts of Israel
Proposals for an academic boycott of Israel have been inspired by the historic academic boycotts of South Africa which were an attempt to pressure South Africa to end its policies of Apartheid....
. She received much criticism and created great controversy when she removed two Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i academics, Dr. Miriam Shlesinger of Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
and Professor Gideon Toury of Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
, Israel, from the editorial boards of her journals Translator and Translation Studies Abstracts, based on their affiliation to Israeli institutions.
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."
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.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."
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."
Criticism
Baker's actions were sharply criticized by Professor Stephen GreenblattStephen Greenblatt
Stephen Jay Greenblatt is a literary critic, theorist and scholar.Greenblatt is regarded by many as one of the founders of New Historicism, a set of critical practices that he often refers to as "cultural poetics"; his works have been influential since the early 1980s when he introduced the term...
, a Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
scholar and the president of the Modern Language Association of America, who called the firings "repellent", "dangerous" and "morally bankrupt". British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
also criticized Baker's actions, and stated that he will "do anything necessary" to stop the academic boycott of Israeli scholars.
Judith Butler
Judith Butler
Judith Butler is an American post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. She is a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley.Butler received her Ph.D...
suggested that Baker had "engaged established anti-semitic stereotypes." 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)."
Support
Baker received support from a number of sources, including the Muslim Association of BritainMuslim Association of Britain
The Muslim Association of Britain is an Islamic organisation in the United Kingdom established in 1997.-Anti-war activities:Along with Stop the War Coalition and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, it has co-sponsored various demonstrations against the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq...
and the Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Baker's Response
Baker wrote a detailed response to her critics (a brief summary of which was published in the London Review of BooksLondon Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
). 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
Ilan Pappé
Ilan Pappé is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, and political activist...
. 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."
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, 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."
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).