#Given that you're asking for the product of approximately 4-5 years of training I think that $25 is reasonable | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

irelandseyeonmythology · 1 year ago

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Not people asking Celticists to do critical editions of texts because they asked us nicely to.

I would love to edit and translate manuscripts all day long, on top of working as a teaching assistant, my side job in the field that also pays me, preparing conference papers for presentation, which often includes translating Latin, Middle Welsh, Old Irish, Early Modern Irish, and Modern Irish myself, even when scholars before me have translated them (to ensure that the nuances are captured), adapting those papers to Powerpoints, arranging accommodations and flights for said conferences, playing Stardew Valley, organizing conferences/conference panels, working on my phd, working on projects that are actually publishable in the field, plotting the next Fomoire invasion of Ireland, as well as my various and assorted commitments to different groups and organizations that I am also doing without pay in order to bolster my CV so that there is a snowball's chance in Hell that I have a shot at employment, while even more senior scholars in the field have to struggle to justify their translation work. It reminds me of an article on the Celtic Students blog that talks about how the overwhelming amount of public outreach in the field, at the moment, is done by Grad Students, yours truly included.

In these digital spaces, students of Celtic Studies (predominantly graduate students) carry the brunt of the public's attention, and work to amend persistent pervasive errors or misunderstandings (such as 'did the Celts really fight naked in battle', 'were the Celts really matriarchal', and 'why did Saint Patrick commit a genocide against the pagans') that have found themselves deeply rooted in public consciousness. These misunderstandings appear to have been perpetuated by the rise of the internet giving the public access to wildly out of date scholarly publications, the Wikipedia articles on medieval Celtic literature being deeply inaccurate, and a small cottage industry of people producing exceptionally inaccurate self-published books (and ebooks) about 'Celtic Mythology' that dominate digital marketplaces such as Amazon and the Kobo storefront.

Despite this being important work, and entirely legitimate scholarly labor, it can be disheartening when this work is not recognized as legitimate or worthwhile by senior members of the field compared to standard scholarly activities.

#like it's a request but it's an inherently unreasonable one to ask of anyone #we KNOW there's a lot to be translated #we WANT to share it with the public #but we CAN'T #we're working on it as best as we can but we are GRAD STUDENTS #we are functionally amoebas in the field #amoebas with very uncertain futures #in a time when translation work isn't only long and tedious work #but also increasingly unfashionable #*I* wanted to do translation work for my PhD and I was basically told no #if you want me to do work that will not get me anywhere as far as my future career...pay me #per hour #Given that you're asking for the product of approximately 4-5 years of training I think that $25 is reasonable #Keeping in mind it can take me that long to translate a sentence...sometimes even a word #and of course in order to do a TRUE critical edition I'll need to see the manuscripts #which depending on if it's online or not means that you'll need to pay for my flights and accommodation in Dublin (most likely)#which if you know Dublin prices...*woo*#It's only a few thousand dollars or so #if it's that important to the public it's worth it

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