Department of Foreign Languages
Department of Foreign Languages
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Peter Krawutschke receives Alexander Gode Medal
Dr. Peter Krawutschke, Professor of German, was recently awarded the Alexander Gode Medal, the most prestigious award of the 10,000-member American Translators Association.
The presentation ceremony took place during the ATA’s 49th Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida in November. ATA president Jiri Stejskal noted that Professor Krawutschke has “single-handedly done an enormous amount of good for the translation and interpreting professions, as well as for the daily lives of our members and other translators and interpreters throughout the U.S.,” in addition to serving as ATA president from 1995-1997 and currently as treasurer of the organization.
Among Dr. Krawutschke’s accomplishments as named by the president of the ATA are the following:
He worked with the U.S. government to have the Bureau of Labor Statistics recognize translators and interpreters as professionals, rather than as clerical workers, their previous categorization. This has greatly impacted recognition of the education and skill required for the field, as well as the earning power of translators and interpreters. Professor Krawutschke’s work with the U.S. Census led to translators and interpreters being added as professions for the U.S. Census. They were therefore counted in numbers and in educational and financial terms as part of the census and are now listed on Schedule C for tax purposes.
Dr. Krawutschke founded AFTI, the American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation, in 1997, and is its current president. AFTI supports and disseminates research and encourages education in the area of translation and interpretation, and it archives documents related to those fields.He served as president of FIT, the International Federation of Translators, organizing FIT’s 18th World Congress in Shanghai in August, the largest in the history of the association.
[Information from article in the ATA Chronicle, p. 12, January 2009: statement by ATA president Jiri Stejskal.]
