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Going out on a limb...
Oct. 3rd, 2012 05:09 pmSo I catch a footnote during the despeckle of one of the articles I've been translating, and it mentions how the work was funded by a grant from the РГНФ. A minute with sokr.ru reveals the acronym stands for "Российский гуманитарный научный фонд."
I immediately recognize this as some kind of Russian "academic fund," stumbling on the second word, гуманитарный. There is a gut impulse to translate this as "humanitarian," because that's the first thing that pops into my mind, but I also know that the word is used to describe what colleges and universities describe as "the humanities."
The effort of a couple of additional minutes reveals an alarming number of hits for a "Russian Humanitarian Academic Fund" (including grant numbers whose formats are a lot like the one in the article I am translating), but I remain unconvinced that "humanitarian" is the right translation. I mean, just what would be the purpose of a "humanitarian academic fund"? providing relief packages to sulking undergrads? A "fund for the humanities," on the other hand, sounds like a target-rich environment for writers of grant applications.
The one thing that prevents me from charging full speed ahead with "humanities" is the material in the article, which most very definitely has to do with psychology. Psychology, if I recall my misspent university days correctly, is a social science and not a humanity.
Or is it?
Considering psychology as a humanity is probably not much of a stretch (and, as it turns out, the question is not exactly settled among Westerners, either). Throw in the fact that Russians consider chess a sport (underscoring the fact that not everyone in the world thinks the way we do), and I find myself unintimidated by university memories and am willing to believe—Mulder-like—that a humanities fund would pay for psychology research.
A Google search for
My preferred rendering—"Russian Academic Fund for the Humanities"—turns up bupkis in a Web search, but that's what I shall go with nonetheless.
I mean, someone's gotta lead the charge, right?
P.S. Of course, it also helps to eventually look in the dictionary. In this case, "human sciences" is offered as a possibility. Hmmm.
I immediately recognize this as some kind of Russian "academic fund," stumbling on the second word, гуманитарный. There is a gut impulse to translate this as "humanitarian," because that's the first thing that pops into my mind, but I also know that the word is used to describe what colleges and universities describe as "the humanities."
The effort of a couple of additional minutes reveals an alarming number of hits for a "Russian Humanitarian Academic Fund" (including grant numbers whose formats are a lot like the one in the article I am translating), but I remain unconvinced that "humanitarian" is the right translation. I mean, just what would be the purpose of a "humanitarian academic fund"? providing relief packages to sulking undergrads? A "fund for the humanities," on the other hand, sounds like a target-rich environment for writers of grant applications.
The one thing that prevents me from charging full speed ahead with "humanities" is the material in the article, which most very definitely has to do with psychology. Psychology, if I recall my misspent university days correctly, is a social science and not a humanity.
Or is it?
Considering psychology as a humanity is probably not much of a stretch (and, as it turns out, the question is not exactly settled among Westerners, either). Throw in the fact that Russians consider chess a sport (underscoring the fact that not everyone in the world thinks the way we do), and I find myself unintimidated by university memories and am willing to believe—Mulder-like—that a humanities fund would pay for psychology research.
A Google search for
Russian "academic fund" humanitiesbrought up one hit for "Russian Humanities Academic Fund," which sounds awfully inelegant, and it turned out to be the only hit of its kind for that search string.
My preferred rendering—"Russian Academic Fund for the Humanities"—turns up bupkis in a Web search, but that's what I shall go with nonetheless.
I mean, someone's gotta lead the charge, right?
P.S. Of course, it also helps to eventually look in the dictionary. In this case, "human sciences" is offered as a possibility. Hmmm.
