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Accomplished historian awarded the McGill Associates Prize in Translation

Published: 27 June 2017

Mastering documentation is one of the pathways to translation excellence. Mastering it in more than one language is an added value. Such is the case for Cheryl Smeall, who is the 2017 recipient of the McGill Associates Prize in Translation (French-English). Dr. Smeall received this distinction at the spring graduation ceremony when she was awarded a Certificate in Translation in the French to English option.

Dr. Smeall is a four-time McGill graduate. She completed an Honours B.A. in History in 2003. Subsequently, she earned an M. A.  in 2004, then a Ph. D. in History in 2011. Having received fellowships and awards for her academic work from both McGill and Stanford Universities, excellence has been her calling card. As an historian, she has also cultivated her knowledge of a number of languages in addition to her mastery of both English and French. In fact, she also counts Italian and German among her working languages.

Her work experience as a researcher at l’Université de Montréal and the Stanford Humanities Center, prepared her for her new supervisory role at the McGill University Library, which she has called home since 2016.  In addition to her work at McGill, Dr. Smeall has also worked on a multilingual documentation project at the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI) and, in her free time, as a volunteer translator for the Refuge pour chats in Verdun.

The author of a number of scholarly publications, she has also participated in the work of several research groups including the Modern Language Association of America, the American Society for Eighteen Century Studies and Stanford’s Digital Humanities Program.

“The breadth of Dr. Smeall’s knowledge, her multilingualism, and her ease with translation make her a valuable asset for McGill’s scholarly community.” said James Archibald, Director of McGill’s Translation and Written Communication unit.

McGill’s undergraduate certificate in translation meets the needs of aspiring translators interested in serving the extremely varied translation needs of the community.

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