Doha: The Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding has announced that it will honor the winners of its eleventh edition on December 9, in a ceremony that will bring together a distinguished group of intellectual, cultural, and media figures from the Arab region and around the world, reflecting the prominent position the award has secured within the international cultural landscape.
In a statement issued Sunday, the Award Committee said the honoring ceremony will coincide with a comprehensive cultural program held on the morning of the event.
The program includes a specialized symposium on translation and Artificial Intelligence, featuring experts and specialists who will discuss the challenges posed by AI in the field of translation, particularly those related to quality, accuracy, linguistic biases, and ethical and professional considerations.
The symposium will also address the opportunities AI technologies offer for developing translators' tools, accelerating productivity, and expanding the scope of knowledge exchange between languages, thereby strengthening the role of humanistic translation while preserving its cultural significance.
The program will additionally include two closed workshops focusing recommendations to support translation movement between Arabic and both German and Albanian, with the participation of a select group of leading translators and experts working between Arabic and the Albanian and German languages.
Discussions will address specific challenges affecting translation flows between Arabic and the two languages, exploring practical mechanisms to reinforce these exchanges and develop effective cooperation with relevant institutions.
Marking the beginning of its second decade, the award's 11th edition represents a continuation of its steady growth, as it expands its cultural influence and updates its tools and operational frameworks in response to rapid global developments in the translation field.
In this context, the award has, for the first time, adopted three of the most widely spoken languages globally: English, German, and Turkish, alongside two less widely spoken languages: Albanian and Thai.
The step reflects the award's commitment to combining globally influential languages with local languages that require additional support to enhance their presence within the translation movement to and from Arabic.
This year also witnessed extensive outreach tours in several countries associated with the edition's languages, covering major German cities and multiple Balkan states, including Kosovo, Albania, and North Macedonia.
During these tours, the award delegations met with leading institutions, universities, and key players in the field of translation between Arabic and these languages.
These tours aimed to broaden the award's network of partners, encourage translators and institutions to engage with the award, and assess the realities and challenges of translation within these cultural and linguistic contexts.
In keeping with the changing times, the award also leveraged artificial intelligence tools to reach professionals in the translation field working with this edition's languages, both in Arab and non-Arab countries.
This contributed to expanding communication with translators, publishers, and researchers, and enhancing international engagement with the award. This resulted in a significant increase in nominations across all cycle languages, reflecting growing international confidence in the award, its mechanisms, and its scientific standards.
It is noted that the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding has established itself as the most important and largest award for translation between Arabic and languages of the world, not only in terms of its broad scope and diversity of languages, but also in its ability to influence the translation movement globally, and to form a shared cultural space based on knowledge, openness and mutual understanding.
