Biography

Dr. Marilyn Sephocle pursued her undergraduate and graduate studies at New York University where she obtained a B.A. in languages, a M.A. and a Ph.D. in German.  Recipient of the Ottendorfer and the Margaret Suchard scholarships, Dr. Sephocle pursued graduate studies at the University of Frankfurt, Germany.  Upon her return from Germany, she served as a Public Information Assistant for the United Nations in New York, performing her duties in seven languages.  A polyglot who speaks nine languages, Dr. Sephocle created in 1999 with her colleagues, Dr. Carol Beane and Dr. Antonio Rodriguez, a certificate program in interpretation.  The program, taught by five instructors and housed at the time at the Howard University School of Continuing Education, offered a Simultaneous Interpretation certificate in the following eight languages: Arabic, French, German,  Haitian Creole, Italian, Korean and Portuguese, Russian.  Currently Dr. Sephocle and Ms. Krystal Jenkins offer two levels of Simultaneous Interpretation in French, German and Spanish.  Having served for two decades as an interpreter for the World Bank and other international institutions, Dr. Sephocle is an advocate for languages in general and for Simultaneous Interpretation in particular.  As such she has written white papers for the Pentagon on the use of interpretation and has crafted with her colleagues the paradigms and criteria for interpretation in the US government through the ILR (Inter-agency Language Roundtable).  In 2017 she obtained the best paper award in the field of languages from the L3 Conference in Singapore.

Dr. Sephocle created in 1995 the Women Ambassadors Foundation and the Women Ambassadors Conference.  The Annual Conference brings together diplomats, experts, students and faculty.  Its role is to highlight the importance of languages in diplomacy; to celebrate the work of women in diplomacy and related fields; to provide role models to students and inform them about major issues in international affairs.  She also created in 1991 the African-American and Afro-European Transatlantic Forum bringing together Afro-descendent members of Congress and other leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to examine issues of common interest to their respective constituencies.

Her areas of research include, among others: Interpretation and Translation; the history of Afro-Germans; Anton Wilhelm Amo, an Afro-German Philosopher of the 18th Century; Machbuba;  Afro-Germans in contemporary Germany; Germany confronting its colonial past; the Berlin Conference; Germany and Reparations for Namibia; Europe, America and Reparations; Right Wing Extremism in Germany and in the United States; Links between German Colonialism and Nazism; Links between European Colonialism and Nazism; Women and Diplomacy; Languages and Diplomacy.

Dr. Sephocle's publications are written in French, English and German.  See CV for a partial list of publications.