New for 2026/27! We are a committee and membership dedicated to all things language, culture and, of course, translation!
Join now

Our objectives:

· Facilitate and further discussion about translation and foreign-language media.
· Foster interest and engage students in the field.
· Host lecturers, experts and professionals in translation.
· Create both a social network of Translation enthusiasts and a forum in which to network with professionals and the wider industry. 
· Preserve the craft of human translation amidst the rise of AI.

Get involved!

In the first five weeks of Term 1 (pre-Reading Week)  we are running the following events:

The Book Club
ON HOLD
Throughout Term 1 we will be reading El coronel no tiene quien le escriba/No One Writes to the Coronel by Gabriel García Márquez. You are invited to read this novella in its original Spanish, an English translation, or both! Come and discuss your thoughts at our weekly meetings and, if you’d like, even write your own translation of selected passages into English or another language you speak.

Film Screening & Pub Social
THIS FRIDAY 16th October. Time: 7pm. Location: Roberts Building 309.
We will be showing Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003). Join us afterwards for a Pub Social and to share your ideas about the film.

Bitesize Back-Translation Workshop*
Date: TBC. Time: TBC. Location: TBC.
This time:
We will be working with an approx. 250 word extract from Donald Trump’s speech to the United Nations on Tuesday 22nd September 2026.
Translations available: Arabic, French, Spanish and Russian.

*Each workshop we look at a short piece of contemporary English-language material...

*Each workshop we look at a short piece of contemporary English-language material and its translations into a variety of languages. Everyone spends the first half hour translating the text back into English from a language they comfortably read in. (This is not a test! Feel free to use dictionaries, online resources, work in a pair or team, etc.). In the second half hour we compare our back-translations and with the original English material to reveal nuances, similarities, discrepancies or general observations.

Not multilingual or not yet confident translating from another language?
We welcome all those interested to our workshops, even if you’re not actively translating. Come and share your thoughts on the variety of English back-translations. And/or, give us your ideas for English-language materials! Speeches, songs, poems, articles, Instagram captions - whatever takes your fancy!

Not seeing the language you’d like to translate from?
Each session we try to have the widest variety of quality translations possible. If your language is not available but you’d still like to attend, please do! (As we say above, all those interested are welcome). And/or, get in touch with us either in-person, via email ([email protected]) or Instagram (@ucltranslationsociety) and we will do our best to find content translated into your language in the future.

Other and ongoing events

Translators’ Group
Subject to demand.
Much like a writers’ group, the Translators’ Group will provide a space for members to share and discuss their work, receive feedback and support and learn to critique and evaluate the translations of other like-minded members. Members need not be dealing with the same source or even target language to be of help to each other. Anyone with an interest in the craft, working on a translation themselves and an open mind, will surely be a valuable interlocutor for a fellow hobbyist or aspiring professional translator.

Publications & Open Mic Nights
Ad hoc/Subject to demand.
Have a translation of your own you’d like to share? Submit it to us for publication or performance at an Open Mic Night. These will be held on a rolling basis only once we have enough submissions to do so, so don’t be shy, get translating and show us your work!

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS COMING SOON.