The Michael Henry Heim Memorial Lecture
The Michael Henry Heim Memorial Lecture in Translation and Translation Studies is an annual lecture in memory of Michael Heim to continue his legacy. Professor Heim was a pioneer in translation studies, which is now an area of considerable significance to the field of comparative literature. He is remembered by his colleagues, students and friends as a world-class scholar, a model pedagogue and a devoted mentor, generous in his commitment to a communication and understanding across languages and cultures, giving pride of place to translation.
This event is organized annually by the UCLA Departments of Comparative Literature and Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures, with support from the UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies and the Division of Humanities.
The 2022 Heim Memorial Lecture was held on Tuesday, May 3 via Zoom Webinar. Click here for more details.
Past Lectures
- May 8, 2019
Bill Johnston, Professor of Comparative Literature, Indiana University Bloomington
“Epic Foolishness: Translating Epic Poetry for the 21st Century”
- April 9, 2018
Sigrid Weigel, Professor Emerita of German Literature and Former Director of the Centre for Literature Research in Berlin
“Self-Translation and Its Discontents; Or: The Translational Work Lost in the Theory of Bilingualism”
- April 20, 2017
Jonathan Bolton, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
“Fourteen Words: Thoughts on Translating Very Short Poems”
- November 5, 2015
Dubravka Ugresic, Novelist and Essayist
“Transnational vs. National Literature”
- November 18, 2014
Marjorie Perloff, Professor Emerita, Department of English, Stanford University
“Raising the Referential Temperature: Poundian Reverberations in Brazilian Concrete Poetics”
- April 15, 2013
Breon Mitchell, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, Indiana University Bloomington
Please visit the photo gallery to browse images from past lectures.