Prof Berk-Albachten is a Professor of Translation Studies at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. Her main research focus is translation history, Turkish translation history to be specific, which focuses on different periods and issues such as modernisation, identity formation, and translation and cultural policies.
As a British Academy Fellow, she is working on a project that examines the dissemination of Turkish literature in translation in the British book market from 1945 to the mid-Seventies through an evaluation of the business correspondence between Turkish and British publishers preserved at the University of Reading’s Special Collections. By focussing on leading firms such as Allen & Unwin, Heinemann, and Jonathan Cape, she aims to identify the selection criteria, translation policies, and business considerations utilised by these firms in the assessment of Turkish works. She will also explore the documents related to the English translation of Nazım Hikmet’s poetry by Taner Baybars, published by Cape in 1967, and held in the Taner Baybars Collection, also at Reading. This study will allow Prof Berk-Albachten to combine a micro-historical perspective with an inter-firm and transnational approach.
In January 2024, together with Professor Daniela La Penna, she will also organize an international two-day hybrid symposium on the translation of peripheral literatures in the Anglosphere with a special focus on Turkish literature. More information about this symposium will be released soon.