Students from the Master of Arts Program in English-Thai Translation at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University, as well as other TU students interested in translation may be interested to know about an opportunity for translating books or articles into Thai language.
As part of the Global Philosophy of Religion Project, sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation and the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, a wide range of activities are being organized, including competitions for research project grants, translation grants, language support grants for non-native English-speaking scholars and travel bursaries for PhD students and junior academics; publication seminars taught by editors of leading journals and international conferences to facilitate cross-religion debates on philosophical themes; open-access publications on the project themes; and public lectures, podcasts and video interviews.
The Thammasat University Library collection includes many books and articles about the philosophy of religion.
The TU Library research databases also make available a wide range of articles on the subject.
The webpage for translation grants of the Global Philosophy of Religion Project offers the following information:
Translation grants
We offer grants to support translators of books and papers addressing our project themes.
As part of the Global Philosophy of Religion Project, we will offer grants to scholars who will translate books or papers in the philosophy of religion from English to a non-English language, or vice versa. Priority will be given to reputable philosophy of religion books or papers addressing one or more of our three project themes, which can be read widely by students and researchers.
We award the fixed amount of £10,000 each to translate a book and the fixed amount of £1000 each to translate a paper. We expect that the awarded translations will be published by leading publishers and the awarded grants will be used mainly for labour, subsidy, rights and permissions and all other costs associated with the publication of the translated works.
Applicants are required to submit the following items written in English as a single PDF file by the 31st March 2021 (GMT):
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Completed application form
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2-page CV(s) of the applicant(s) (i.e., the translator(s))
Please email your completed applications to
global-philosophy@contacts.bham.ac.uk with the following subject heading: “Translation Grant [YOUR NAME]”.
The eligibility criteria are as follows:
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The book or paper to be translated addresses one or more of our three project themes ((i) the existence and nature of deities; (ii) death and immortality; (iii) evil and suffering in the world) and it is written by a philosopher of religion(s) other than the translator(s) themselves.
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The complete translated manuscript of a paper must be submitted to us by the 15th January 2022 (GMT) and the complete translated manuscript of a book must be submitted to us by the 15th December 2022 (GMT) without delay.
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The right to translate must be at least provisionally confirmed with the original publisher before applying for the grant.
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We particularly welcome translators who wish to (i) publish English translations of philosophical work related to regions and religious traditions that are underrepresented in the largely Anglo-American field of the philosophy of religion or (ii) publish non-English translations of reputable work related to any religious traditions in philosophy of religion originally published in English.
The selection committee will assess each application according to the following selection criteria:
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The quality of the proposal
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The relevance of the nominated book or paper to one or more of our three project themes
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The applicant’s track record of publication or translation commensurate with career stage
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The expected impact the proposed project will make on the globalization of the philosophy of religion
The Global Philosophy of Religion Project aims to make progress on central issues in the philosophy of religion by incorporating diverse religious perspectives. Therefore, translations of works that are primarily historical or exegetical, or works that focus on promoting mere tolerance across religions, will not be funded.
The outcome of applications will be notified by the 30th of June 2021.
If you have any questions about the application process contact our Project Manager, Kally Bhartti (K.Bhartti@bham.ac.uk
Note that the equivalent sums in Thai currency for translating a book is 427,399.68 Thai baht and for translating an article, 42,739.97 Thai baht.
Most Thai translators will find it more productive to translate texts from other languages into Thai, making them available for Thai readers.
To choose potential texts for translation into Thai, it will help to look at the general themes that the foundation is addressing, for example about death and immortality:
Many major world religions concern death and the possibility of our existence beyond death. We will address philosophical issues concerning death and immortality by discussing whether there is a coherent model of immortality, whether belief in the afterlife requires supernaturalism, whether such a belief has implications for the metaphysics of the human person, and whether such a belief can be justified through empirical evidence or philosophical arguments.
The specific research questions related to this theme that we ask include, but are not limited to, the following:
Reincarnation is a central tenet of many Eastern religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Belief in reincarnation is underpinned by the doctrine of karma, the causal law specifying how individuals’ prior actions determine their states and characters. This doctrine is initially attractive, as it appears to explain the amount and distribution of good and evil in the world. It also however raises many metaphysical and moral questions. How can karma achieve retributive justice if reincarnated people do not remember what they did in their past lives? What is the origin of the karmic process and how is it maintained? That is, who or what initiates and sustains the process? How can karma avoid the infinite regress of good and evil? Why is death necessary for the operation of karma?
These are not the only subjects of interest, but they offer guidelines to the kind of material that might be useful to have available to Thai readers.
TU students in philosophy who may know other students in the TU Bachelor of Arts Program in Philosophy may discuss what readings would be most helpful to make available in Thailand.
Looking at books on the shelves of the TU Library can also provide ideas about what might be most urgent to translate into Thai language.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)