Impastos of Sound: Searching for German in Prague / À la recherche de l’allemand à Prague | Dean’s lecture by Professor Sherry Simon

Through a case study of the legacy of German in Prague, the lecture will discuss language, memory, and urban space, and the consequences of linguistic nationalism in European cities. The event will be conducted in English and, partially, French. The lecture will take place on Tuesday 19 May in lecture hall A5 at 10:00 and will be moderated by Dr Krzysztof Majer.

Professor Simon will also participate in a panel discussion which will take place the previous day, on Monday 18 May 2026 at 18:00 at Biblioteka TUVIM (ul. Tuwima 46) in Łódź. The panel discussion, “Translation, The City, The Other,” will also feature other distinguished scholars and translators—Professor Jerzy Jarniewicz and Professor Kacper Bartczak (University of Łódź)—and will be moderated by Dr Agata Handley and Dr Krzysztof Majer of Text Matters. The event will be conducted in English. The panel is organized in connection with the publication of issue 15 of the journal Text Matters, titled “Language Traffic in the City: Translating Urban Space,” and will explore key questions concerning the role of translation in shaping and negotiating Otherness and its presence in urban spaces. Please see the link for details. 

The Speaker:

Sherry Simon - Distinguished Professor Emerita at Concordia University, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a member of the Académie des lettres du Québec. Born in Montreal, she has made it the inspiration for her writings on translation, cultural history, and multilingual cities. Among her publications are Cities in Translation: Intersections of Language and Memory (2012), Translating Montreal: Episodes in the Life of a Divided City (2006), and Gender in Translation: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Transmission (1996). Her books have been translated into several languages (e.g., Miasta w przekładzie, trans. Magda Heydel et al.).