Genealogies of Knowledge I
Translating Political and Scientific Thought across Time and Space
7-9 December 2017
Two Calls for Panel Submissions
Call for Panel Papers: The Magic of ‘Classical’ Languages Script, Sound and Sense in the Translation of Sacred Concepts
Convenor: Hephzibah Israel University of Edinburgh
What is the nature of a ‘sacred’ language? When we examine the translation of key concepts and texts across the spectrum of the so-called ‘World Religions’ we find that much of the nature of their transfer or circulation depends on certain conceptions of languages as sign systems. A minority of key languages are ascribed both ‘classical’ and ‘sacred’ status, while the majority are mostly assigned neither. The most obvious that come to mind are Arabic, Greek, Latin and Sanskrit, which at different historical points and to different degrees have been associated both with classical literature and sacred texts. This twinning of the classical and sacred informs the ontologies of these languages, elevating them to a status far above those designated mundane languages. And yet through human history, translations have continuously been undertaken from such ‘languages of the gods’ (Pollock 2006) into the languages of mortals. How can we study the transfer of sacred concepts between linguistic sign systems that have been conceptualised and deliberately maintained as immensely disparate systems? How does such a classical-sacred ontological make-up of these languages help to construct, diminish, expand, or transform sacred concepts in translation?
This panel seeks to explore the specific links between translation, knowledge construction and modes of signalling the sacred. Contributions to the panel are invited to address translations of concepts from any religious tradition and in any historical period but must focus on translations in the Arabic, Greek, Latin and Sanskrit contexts. Papers should examine the interface between script, sound, orality and textuality in the conception and the reception of the sacred in translation: to what extent do translators rely on the ocular, the aural, the textual and oral to reconstruct key sacred concepts in new contexts? A list of sub themes below is given as a starting point to stimulate discussion on this topic but contributors are invited to explore further:
1. The relationship between ‘classical’ and ‘sacred’ in the conception of one of the four languages of the panel and its function in translation
2. Does translation between two classical languages work differently to translation between a ‘classical’ and a ‘vernacular’ in conveying the sacred?
3. Genealogies of classical usage and translations of key sacred concepts: religion, scripture, faith, conversion, worship etc.
4. Translating the ‘sounds’ of the sacred
5. The role of sacred scripts in sacralising translations
6. Translating the magic and mantra of sacred words
7. Ideas of aesthetics in the translation of sacred concepts: practices of art and practices of the sacred
8. Communities of interpreters: speakers, listeners, translators and readers
9. Challenging translations: power, authority and questioning
Submission of Paper Proposals
Abstracts of 300-500 words should be sent by 15 February 2017 to:
Dr. Hepzibah Israel, H.Israel@ed.ac.uk
Notification of acceptance will be given by 31 March 2017.
Call for Panel Papers: Lingua Francas of Knowledge
Convenor: Karen Bennett Universidade Nova, Lisbon
http://genealogiesofknowledge.net/2016/12/09/call-panel-papers-lingua-francas-knowledge/
English is today the unrivalled vehicle for the transmission of knowledge, the language in which most scholarship is published, conferences are held, reading is done and lessons taught. However, its rise to prominence is a relatively recent development in the broad sweep of human history. From the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th, English, French and German enjoyed a roughly equal status as languages of scientific publication, with others, such as Russian and Japanese, occupying niches in particular geographic areas. In the Medieval and Early Modern period, Latin was of course the lingua franca (LF) of learning, once so indispensable that it had to be mastered before any formal education could take place; and before that the prime position was held by Greek, the koiné of the Hellenistic world. Meanwhile, in the East, Arabic, Sanskrit and Chinese were also playing formidable roles in channelling learning through the centuries.
There have also been projects to develop artificial languages to serve as neutral universal vehicles of knowledge. The 17th century a priori philosophical languages of John Wilkins, George Dalgarno and Gottfried Leibniz failed to gain much traction, due to intrinsic weaknesses; but the a posteriori auxiliary languages of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Volapük, Esperanto and Ido, fared better, acquiring considerable numbers of followers in their heyday.
This panel seeks to stimulate reflection about the role played by different vehicular languages in the transmission of knowledge over the centuries, and the philosophical, political and commercial implications of a lingua franca culture (as opposed to a translation culture). Proposals are welcome from scholars working in fields such as linguistics, translation studies, history of science/philosophy, cultural history and epistemology, as well as specialists in particular languages and cultures.
Possible themes:
§ The rise and fall of any of the historical LFs of knowledge and their relationship with the vernaculars
§ Artificial languages: a priori philosophical languages; a posteriori auxiliary languages;
§ Mathematical and computer languages
§ The construction of scientific registers in natural languages: grammatical/lexical requirements; the role of translation; patrons and institutions
§ Issues of power and equity: struggles for dominance between rival LFs; the role of institutions and individuals in promoting and consolidating a LF; the influence of the political and economic context
§ Education in LF cultures: language policies in schools and universities; dissemination to the broader public
§ Language and epistemology: the ‘suitability’ of certain languages to particular kinds of knowledge; the universality/translatability of knowledge
§ Strategies used by non-native speakers to produce knowledge in a lingua franca culture
§ The future of English as academic lingua franca: hegemony, fragmentation, the rise of a rival LF or a return to a (computer-mediated) translation culture?
Selected References:
Gordin, M.D (2015) Scientific Babel: How Science was done before and after Global English Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Harrison, K.D. (2007) When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World’s Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Ostler, N. (2005) Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World New York and London: HarperCollins.
Osler, N. (2011) The Last Lingua Franca: The Rise and Fall of World Languages London and New York: Penguin.
Submission of Paper Proposals
Abstracts of 300-500 words should be sent by 15 February 2017 to:
Dr Karen Bennett, karen.bennett@netcabo.pt
Notification of acceptance will be given by 31 March 2017.
APTIS25 Online Conference at the UCL Centre for Translation Studies (3–4 November 2025) “Better together: how can industry and academia collaborate to empower future language professionals?” The UCL Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS) is looking forward to hosting the APTIS25 online conference. The APTIS25 conference (“Better together: how can industry and academia collaborate to empower future language professionals?”) will take place on 3–4 November 2025 via Zoom Webinar. We encourage submissions from both academic and industry speakers. Please see our Call for Contributions as well as the Types of Contributions section to know more about the contributions that APTIS25 will be welcoming. If you would like to contribute to APTIS25 by presenting a talk or a roundtable, please visit the Submit a Proposal section, where you will find the link to send your abstract. Please kindly refer to the Key Dates to know more about submission and registration deadlines. https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/aptis25ucl
APTIS25 Online Conference at the UCL Centre for Translation Studies (3–4 November 2025)“Better together: how can industry and academia collaborate to empower future language professionals?”The UCL Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS) is looking forward to hosting the APTIS25 online conference. The APTIS25 conference (“Better together: how can industry and academia collaborate to empower future language professionals?”) will take place on 3–4 November 2025 via Zoom Webinar.We encourage submissions from both academic and industry speakers. Please see our Call for Contributions as well as the Types of Contributions section to know more about the contributions that APTIS25 will be welcoming. If you would like to contribute to APTIS25 by presenting a talk or a roundtable, please visit the Submit a Proposal section, where you will find the link to send your abstract.Please kindly refer to the Key Dates to know more about submission and registration deadlines.https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/aptis25ucl
Hieronymus is the first Croatian journal dedicated exclusively to publishing research and professional articles in the field of translation studies and terminology. The journal has the following key goals: (1) to promote translation studies and terminology in Croatia and the broader region, where these two disciplines are not always recognized; and (2) to enhance local researchers’ visibility in the international translation studies community. For the Research Section of the journal, we welcome empirical studies with clear goals and well-defined methodology in any area of translation studies or terminology. In addition, papers presenting and discussing any area of professional translation or terminological practice are invited for the Professional section. Contributions by early career researchers (pre-Ph.D. or recently obtaining a Ph.D.) as well as young professionals are gladly accepted. In both sections of the journal, contributors from Croatia and the broader region are particularly welcome, in line with the journal’s mission outlined above. The preferred languages are English and Croatian. We accept submissions throughout the year, but for consideration in issue 12 (to be published in December 2025), submissions need to be sent by 30 March 2025 at the latest. Submissions will first be considered by the Editorial Team and, if they pass this initial screening, they will be forwarded for a double-blind peer review. Authors whose papers are accepted for publication must certify that their work has not been previously published. All papers are published in Open Access under the Creative Commons 4.0 open license. For information on citation style and formatting, please consult our Contributors page and Submission Guidelines. Please send your contributions to the following addresses: knikoli@ffzg.unizg.hr sveselic@ffzg.unizg.hr If you have any queries regarding this call, please do not hesitate to contact us
Call for Contributions: " Translation as a means of resistance, resilience and activism, the case of Palestine and the broader Arab region” Activism and Translation are at the core of recent research. For example, Shwaikh (2020) published a chapter on Gaza Strip highlighting the importance of speaking a different language in a war-zone country and emphasising the power of witness and of translating the voices of the oppressed. Mona Baker pioneered the movement of translators’ activism in the Arabic-speaking region through her seminal publications (2006a, 2006b, 2010, 2016a, 2016b, 2018, 2020). Other scholars followed in her wake such as, inter alia, Doerr (2018), Evans and Fernández (2018) Fernández (2020a), Valdeón and Calafat (2020), and Tesseur (2022). Similarly, other scholars highlighted the social and political weight translation can exert on shaping and reshaping the worldviews in an activist spirit such as in the works of Juli Boéri (2010, 2019, 2020). Hence, the expression the ‘activist turn’ of translation studies was coined, driving scholarly interest to an understudied, yet monumental, area of research (Wolf, 2012). Indeed, activist translators and interpreters amplify oppressed voices and make them audible for all stakeholders through language and translation (Baker, 2013). Translators, with their voice-giving ability, are vested with the power of influencing political and social change by introducing new knowledge and ideologies through their translations. This translator’s visibility, manifested via the deliberate inclusion of personal worldviews and politics in translations, can breed change at any societal level, challenge dominant narratives and mobilise translation receptors (Tymoczko, 2010). In the global era of Web 2.0/Translation 2.0 and the rise of social media, translation has shifted into a more social activity bringing about new community or crowdsourcing-based concepts into the realm of translation such as online translation, concurrent translation, collaborative translation, volunteer translation, fansubbing and fandubbing, and many other forms of amateur and professional web-based translation (O'Hagan, 2009; O'brien, 2011a; O'Hagan, 2011; Brabham, 2013; Jiménez-Crespo, 2017; Krimat, 2021, to name a few). By the same token, web 2.0 technologies have revolutionised activist translation through amplifying voices and facilitating real-time online collaboration that are enabled via the easy and hard-to-monitor content access, creation and dissemination. The Arab Spring is a prime example where the impact of language and translation, magnified by Web 2.0 and its social mobilisation, had a significant contribution to ideation and shaping the Arab Spring’s narratives (Baker, 2016; Morgner & Aldreabi, 2020). This has also brought about a qualitative change in the Arabic language itself as a result of globalization, creating and framing, therefore, the concept of “e-Arabic.” (Daoudi, 2011a; Daoudi, 2011b; Daoudi & Federici, 2011; Daoudi, 2017). With the semantic web or Web 3.0 gaining momentum with the ubiquity of AI technologies, activism, in its broader sense, is very likely to reach a new dimension with AI generative capabilities. Activist translation will be no exception though this area remains scholarly uncharted and holds considerable prospects and novel research pathways. Against this rich background, we are pleased to announce a call for contributions to an upcoming edited volume on the theme of “Translation as a means of resistance, resilience and activism, the case of Palestine and the broader Arab region.” This book aims to delve, synchronically or diachronically, into the multifaceted role of translation, including volunteer translation, in empowering activist movements, fostering resilience, and resisting oppression in the Arab region while focusing on Palestinian struggle for justice and survival. Scope and Themes This volume seeks to explore how translation acts as a versatile tool for resistance and resilience, enabling the dissemination of narratives, fighting propaganda, fostering intercultural understanding, counteracting dehumanization and demonization campaigns such as in the case of Palestinians, and challenging dominant biased discourses. We invite scholars, translators, activists, and practitioners to submit proposals on topics including, but not limited to: Feminist translation in the midst of resistance: the role of feminist translation in highlighting the suffering of Arab women in wars and commending the efforts and endeavours pertaining to political activism concerned with defending women and upholding their legitimate rights, especially Palestinian women who are suffering the atrocities of war. The role of translation in acting as witness to atrocities, shaping resistance and supporting resilience: examining how translation has been used to amplify oppressed voices and support resistance movements. Case studies of translation projects that have supported activism related to the Arab region: specific examples of successful translation initiatives that have furthered Palestinian, and broader Arab, causes. Volunteer translation and its impact on activism and community engagement: analysing the contributions of volunteer translators in activist movements and their impact on local and global communities. Translation strategies for conveying local oppressed voices and narratives to global audiences: effective methods and strategies for translating the texts of the oppressed to reach a wider audience. Ethical considerations and challenges in translating politically sensitive texts: navigating the ethical dilemmas and challenges faced by translators working with politically charged materials. The impact of translation on international solidarity with just causes, particularly, the Palestinian cause: exploring how translation fosters international support and solidarity with just struggles such as the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom. Historical perspectives on translation, resistance, and resilience in the Palestinian context: Historical analysis of translation efforts in the context of Palestinian resistance. The intersection of translation, media, and activism in the narratives of struggle: examining how translation intersects with media and activism to shape the narratives of struggle. Challenges faced by volunteer translators in conflict zones: discussing the unique challenges and risks volunteer translators encounter when working in politically sensitive and conflict-ridden areas. Translation as a form of cultural resistance and preservation for the oppressed: exploring how translation helps preserve oppressed culture and resist cultural erasure. Crowdsourced and volunteer translation networks and their role in social and political activism: detailed studies on the structure, functioning, and impact of volunteer translation networks dedicated to activism under different forms such audio-visual translation and fandubbing. The use of translation in the digital age to mobilize support for just causes: examining the role of digital platforms and social media in translating and spreading oppressed facts and repressed narratives. Web 2.0 and activist translation: exploring the use of Web 2.0 technologies such as social media, blogs, wikis, and collaborative platforms in activist translation efforts. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine translation in activism: exploring the current and/or prospective role and impact of AI-driven translation tools in activism, including both benefits and challenges. The working languages are Arabic, French and English. Submission Guidelines We welcome contributions from various disciplines, including Translation Studies, Cultural Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science, Media Studies, and related fields. Both theoretical and empirical studies are encouraged. Submissions should be original and not previously published. Proposal Submission Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words outlining the scope and main arguments of your proposed chapter, along with a brief bio (100-150 words) to n.krimat@univ-boumerdes.dz By the 30th /09/24. Timeline Abstract Submission Deadline: 30th /09/24 Notification of Acceptance: 30th /10/24 Full Chapter Submission: 30th /04/25 Expected Publication Date: 31st /12/25 Contact Information For any queries or further information, please contact the editors at [email address]. We look forward to receiving your proposals and to the opportunity to collaboratively explore the powerful intersection of translation, resistance, resilience, activism, and volunteerism in the context of Palestine and the broader Arab region. Sincerely, Co-editors Dr. Anissa Daoudi University of Birmingham, UK a.daoudi@bham.ac.uk Dr. Noureddine Krimat University of Boumerdes, Algeria n.krimat@univ-boumerdes.dz
Contributions are welcome on topics such as the translation policy of the GDR as a state as well as of individual organizations in the GDR, examining the extent to which the political situation during the GDR’s existence led to an increase in translation activities; the motives behind the translation policies to be observed are just as crucial as the effects on a translation culture. Following on from this is the question of relations between the GDR and other countries or institutions that were established and maintained through translation. This does not only include bilateral relations with the FRG, for example, but also institutional networks such as the involvement in (inter)national professional associations and organizations. Furthermore, we encourage an examination of the actual practice of translation, as it forms a significant part of translational culture and can be understood within diverse networks.We invite you to submit contributions on these topics or related issues:Translation policy of the GDR and/or institutions in the GDR: What was translated? Who were the individuals involved in the translation process? What were the motives behind the translation policies? What effects did these policies have on the institutions and professional practice? To what extent were they influenced by the political situation?Translational relations and networks of the GDR and/or institutions in the GDR: What translational relations existed with other states and/or institutions on a national and international level? How did these relationships develop? What roles did these relations and networks play?Translation practice: What were the working conditions of translators and interpreters and how were they influenced? What role did professional organizations play in shaping professional practices?Investigating translation cultures always also includes insights derived from case studies, especially in the sense that they serve as a starting point for further questions and ultimately contribute to the abstraction of findings, enabling researchers to make more general statements about the respective translation culture.Please send your abstracts of no more than 300 words to hanna.blum@uni-graz.at by 31 July. The abstracts can be written in English or German. There is no conference fee for presenters. The conference will be held on site. Please note that the details are subject to change without notice.
