Departments, Programs and Centers
Departments
World Languages and Cultures
Director: Professor Enrica Ardemagni
Associate Professor: Didier Bertrand - French
Assistant Professor: Thorsten Carstensen - German
Senior Lecturer: Clauda Grossmann - German
Assistant Professor: Ben Van Wyke - Spanish
Assistant Professor: Iker Zulaica-Hernández - Spanish
Globalization and the changing US demographics have increased demand for translation and interpreting skills in many fields, educational, medical, legal and technical.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has listed translation and interpreting among the most needed professions for the last three years.
The Department of World Languages and Cultures offers an undergraduate Certificate in Translation Studies with an emphasis in French, German, or Spanish. The certificate requires completion of 27 credit hours focusing on grammar, professional writing skills, culture, translation history and theory, nonliterary translation from English to French/German/Spanish and French/German/Spanish to English, terminology management, and knowledge of computer applications to translation. A minimum of 15 credit hours toward the certificate must be completed at IUPUI and no courses may be taken with the Pass/Fail option.
Students must complete certificate-related courses with an overall GPA of 3.0 or better before qualifying for the internship or directed study. A grade of C in more than one course will make candidates ineligible for completion of the Certificate.
Translation Competence: Upon completion of the coursework for the Certificate, students must demonstrate translation competence through one of two options: (1) Completion of an Internship in the target language, which includes a minimum of 20 pages of translated text. The student’s academic language advisor will be responsible for recommending placement and mentoring in the Internship program; or (2) Completion of an Independent translation project in the target language, which includes a minimum of 20 pages of translated text. The student’s academic language advisor will be responsible for mentoring the student through this translation project. Mentors use a set of rubrics for scoring the final translation or internship project. These rubrics may be found on the departmental homepage.