The material and spiritual culture of pre-modern Mediterranean civilisations. 2800-DTSPIRIT

The aim of the proposed class is to provide participants with an environment for the development of skills in the use of French as a communication tool in research work. The class is aimed at students interested in the material culture and spiritual past of Mediterranean civilisations in the pre-modern period, essentially up to the end of the 15th century CE.
The purpose of language in research work is, among other things, to collect, process and communicate data, to build hypotheses and to discuss them. Through language, we can read and understand, write and speak. Despite the passage of time, French remains a popular tool for communication in disciplines dealing with the human past: archaeology, history, art and cultural history. Knowledge of French, especially at a professional level, opens up new opportunities for academic work and makes it easier to benefit from the teaching or research offer of French-speaking institutions.
The class, in the form of a translation workshop, will be based on the joint work of the tutor and the participants. The work will be based on scientific texts, available in the form of articles, book chapters, conference speeches, popular science texts or texts published on the web. The form of the work will be an attempt at translation and a discussion on the understanding of the text and the professional vocabulary used. We will be interested in the reliability of translations made by translators and by popular text translators, the specificity of French scientific vocabulary in selected fields. There will be exercises in understanding scientific French-language speeches (conference papers), as well as a meeting with French-speaking researchers to practice understanding French vocabulary and accent.