Douglas Robinson (academic)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Douglas Robinson (born September 30, 1954) is an American academic scholar, translator, and fiction-writer who is best known for his work in translation studies,[1] but has published widely on various aspects of human communication and social interaction (American literature, literary theory, linguistic theory, gender theory, writing theory, rhetorical theory). He has translated several Finnish novels, plays, and monographs into English,[2] and his own novel was written in English but first published in Finnish translation.[3]
Robinson is currently Professor of Translating and Interpreting at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Emeritus Professor of Translation, Interpreting, and Intercultural Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Robinson was born in Lafayette, Indiana, to Don and Berta Robinson; his younger brother is automobile designer Michael Robinson. He lived in the Whittier/La Habra Heights, California area until he was 13; in the summer of 1968 his parents moved the family to the Pacific Northwest, where he attended Tahoma Senior High School in Maple Valley, Washington. He spent his freshman year of college at Linfield College and his sophomore year at The Evergreen State College. An exchange year with YFU (1971–1972) in Finland led to his spending a total of 14 years there, completing his undergraduate degree and two postgraduate degrees and serving six years (1975–1981) as a lecturer in English at the University of Jyväskylä, then six more years as Assistant/Associate Professor of English (1983–1987) and English-Finnish Translation Theory and Practice (1987–1989) at the University of Tampere.[4] In between, Robinson returned to the Pacific Northwest, earning his PhD from the University of Washington in 1983, with a dissertation entitled American Apocalypses directed by Leroy Searle.
In 1989 Robinson accepted a job as assistant professor of English at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, where he worked for the next 21 years, the last three as Director of First-Year Writing.[5] During that time he also spent one semester (spring 1999) as acting director of the MFA Program in Translation at the University of Iowa, one semester (1999–2000) as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Vic, Catalonia, and one year (2005–2006) as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer at Voronezh State University, Russia.[6]
In 2010 Robinson was appointed Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of English and Head of the English Department at Lingnan University,[7] and in 2012 as Chair Professor of English and Dean of Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University.[8] He stepped down from the Deanship at the end of his first three-year term, August 31, 2015, but continued as Chair Professor of English until August 31, 2020, when he became Professor of Translating and Interpreting at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Emeritus Professor of Translation, Interpreting, and Intercultural Studies at HKBU.
