CULTUS 10 : Multilingualism, Lingua Franca or What? (2nd call)
Call for Abstracts: 20 December, 2016
Call for papers: 1 April, 2017
Submission info at: www.cultusjournal.com
Cultus 10 will begin with a conversation with renowned linguist, comparative literature and translation theorist Professor Susan Bassnett. The issue will focus on multilingual situations, and how the language issue is resolved. How tenable is the solution and what are the consequences? This brings politics and power into the question, as well as the short and long term costs of the choices made.
Indeed, as we send out this call for papers, so we begin to take in the consequences of Britain’s decision to leave the EU. Almost immediately the following headline appeared, “English could be banned as an official language of the EU (Daily Telegraph, 28/06/2016). This Cultus issue, then, focusses on the realities concerning use of language(s) to communicate, wherever it be: in the institutions, the workplace, the university (with a strong focus outside of the UK on internationalization of its teaching) or the social services.
One solution, discussed in previous Cultus issues is the use of machine translation and interpretation to reduce costs. It was noted, for example, that the Australian Department of Health has started to use Google Translate to convey health information in a range of languages "an un-nuanced and unsophisticated view of human communication that devalues not only the work of professional interpreters and translators, but also the texts being communicated and the audience receiving them” (Liddicoat and Hale, 2015). What evidence is there that this is not only true but will actually increase costs?
With regard to language service provision for immigrants, other cost-cutting measures are fraught with similarly worrying consequences, such as the UK’s disastrous outsourcing of interpreter resources in the UK and the Dutch government’s decision to review, if not end, funding of healthcare interpreting in the Netherlands. What language rights should or do non-native speakers have, and what are the consequences?
We welcome papers that address issues related to the following themes with a focus on translation:
- Multilingualism power and empowerment
- Politics and power in language
- Use of a lingua franca in professional encounters
- Professional practice, discourse and the new media
- The role of machine translation in professional practice
Contributions must be sent to: submission@cultusjournal.com
Cultus: The journal of intercultural of communication and mediation:
double-blind review, MLA/IATIS/TSB indexed ; “A” quality rated by ANVUR
EDITORS: David Katan (University of Salento, Italy) Cinzia Spinzi (University of Palermo, Italy)
Call for PapersEvent: the 16th International Symposium on Bilingualism.Place and date: University of Saskatchewan, Canada, June 14-18, 2027. Thems and topics:Bi-multilingual speech and communicationCognitive, neuro- and psycholinguisticsChild and adolescent bi-multilingual developmentAdult bi-multilingual developmentEducation and pedagogy HJHeritage, immigrant, regional and other minority languagesIndigenous languagesTranslation and InterpretingSociolinguistics and Sociology of languageSpeech-language pathology; Health CommunicationAbstract submission deadline: 1 October 2026. More details: https://conferences.usask.ca/isb16/
Call for Abstracts This is a call for an edited volume on 'Translators at Work in Periodicals: Agency, Mediation, and Cultural Power'. Edited by Ivana Hostová and Eva SpišiakováSuggested topics:• periodicals as infrastructures of literary, cultural, and intellectual mediation• translators, editors, reviewers, and other mediators shaping periodical cultures• translators’ multiple roles, including editing, curating, annotating, and framing• distributed, relational, or contested agency in periodical cultures• translator agency, editorial strategy, and activism• translation in peripheral, semi-peripheral, or politically unstable ecologies• periodicals as spaces of cultural resistance, ideological struggle, or symbolic negotiation• paratextual framing, editorial positioning, and the politics of selection• material and medial conditions of translation, including format, layout, page space, seriality, and multimodality• circulation of minoritized, marginalized, or non-canonical literatures• periodicals and the transfer of theory, philosophy, science, or political ideas• translation in periodicals and the making of national, regional, or transnational cultures• microhistorical or biographical studies of translators and editors• actor-network, social-network, bibliographic, or database-driven approaches• methodological reflections on blending close reading with large-scale or digitally assisted analysisDeadline for abstracts: 31 December 2026Deadline for full chapters: 31 July 2028Expected publication: 2029Full info: https://ktr.ff.ukf.sk/en/research/call-for-abstracts-translators-at-work-in-periodicals-agency-mediation-and-cultural-power/
Call for Papers:Conference: Global North and Global South Perspectives on Literature, Linguistics, and Translation.Organised by the Research Centre for Irish Studies (RCIS).Date: 7-8 June 2026. Main themes: Literature;Irish Studies;Linguistics;Translation, Power and Knowledge Circulation. Submission deadline: 30 April 2026More info: https://old.bue.edu.eg/global-north-and-global-south-perspectives-on-literature-linguistics-and-translation-conference-7-8-june-2026/
Call for papers:Journal: Translation in Society.Special issue on 'Translation, Social Media, and the Creator Economy' (2028)Guest editors: Renée Desjardins & Émilie Gobeil-Roberge.Main themes: Translation strategies and practices among creators, influencers, and social media usersTranslation tools used by creators and influencers to expand their multilingual reachTranslation as a form of online compliance or resistanceTranslation and online misinformation, disinformation, and propagandaTranslation, social platforms, and societyTerminology related to the social internet and the creator economySocial platform translation and language policiesMultilingual influencers and creatorsMultilingual online activismMultilingual fandomsMultilingual and translation trends on social platformsDeadline for abstract submissions: July 1, 2026Full info: https://www.benjamins.com/series/tris/callforpapers.pdf
Call for PapersThis is a call to submit papers to the non-thematic issue of JosTrans, 48, to be published in July 2027. The journal welcomes submissions on:Theoretical, methodological and practical issues in specialised translation,Subject field translation/interpreting, i.e. medical, legal, financial, technical, localisation, etc.Media accessibility and audiovisual translationTranslation technologies, translation and AI (with human factors),Aspects of training and teaching specialised translation/interpreting.Submission deadline: June 30, 2026. More details: https://www.jostrans.org/about/cfp48
