'Finding a balance between required skills and available resources in non-professional interpreting and translation'
In linguistically diverse communities both locally and globally, cultural and linguistic mediation practices are more prevalent than first impressions lead us to believe. The maintenance of linguistic rights in multilingual and multicultural societies would require, among other things, regular availability of the services of translators and interpreters. However, this is often not the case, so that non-professional or poorly trained language mediators often come to the rescue and play an indispensable role in facilitating communication across linguistic or cultural divides in many different contexts, including education, social services, health care, business management and legal settings. These ad hoc language mediators often are the metaphorical bridge builders who facilitate constructive co-existence.
The need for these ad hoc language practitioners has recently been acknowledged where large numbers of migrants are moving from war, prosecution, poverty and other kinds of destitution into safer spaces. Within the African context, the divide between the first and second economy is also relevant, where in the second, i.e. informal economy, non-professional interpreters and translators are the norm in public spaces. It has become increasingly clear that such circumstances are likely to prevail for some time yet.
The critical role of non-professional interpreters and translators needs proper recognition, also within the domain of interpreting and translation studies. This is a dynamic research field currently being explored and pushing the boundaries of what we know about informal multilingual communicative practices. The designation “non-professional” in itself is rather blurred in that it is often used as equivalent to “ad hoc”, “unpaid”, “volunteer”, “informal”, “limitedly trained” in translation or interpreting.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
Defining and mapping the field of non-professional interpreting and translation
Ad hoc interpreting and translation in everyday life
Language brokering by family members (oral, written or sign language)
Non-professional sign language interpreting
Recruiting and/or training non-professional interpreters and translators
Certification and para-professionalism
Interdisciplinary approaches to research non-professional interpreting and translation
Community translation and interpreting
Non-professional translation and interpreting in crisis situations
Temporary interpreters and translators in conflict situations
Interpreting in prisons and between prisoners
Religious interpreters and translators
Deadline for submissions: May 28 2017
For full details on the event, please visit http://conferences.sun.ac.za/index.php/NPIT4/npit4/index
Call for papers:Event: Who Appears After Translation? Authors, Artists, and Transcultural Personas — ACLA 2027American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting 2027University of Houston, May 20–23, 2027Organizers: Maya Boutaghou and Song Huang, University of VirginiaPossible topics include, but are not limited to:literary translationself-translationmultilingual writingtranslated authors and authorial personastranslators as mediators of cultural identityperformance circulationadaptationvisual translationartistic and celebrity personasdigital mediadiasporic and postcolonial translationmultilingual subjectivityuntranslatabilitytranscultural mediationtranslation and cultural memorytranslation across literary, visual, and embodied mediaSubmissionPaper proposals must be submitted through the ACLA 2027 online portal.Deadline: September 22, 2026More info: https://www.acla.org/seminar/7a421fda-c5ce-4e42-b382-0d05b579746b
Call for Papers:Event: History and Translation Network Conference 2027 Time : September 20-23, 2027Place: Ghent University, BelgiumPossible topics include:translator branding and authorial visibilitygendered and postcolonial invisibilityarchival recovery of neglected translators and mediatorstranslation and mechanisms of canonisationthe historical circulation of texts in manuscript, print, and digital culturesthe materiality of texts, media ecosystems, and publishing networkscensorship, patronage, cultural diplomacy, and cultural policytranslation as labour, profession, and economic practicereaders, reception, and communities of interpretationtranslation and media(tion)the shifting boundaries between human and non-human mediationsocial, intellectual, institutional, and communication networksdigital humanities approaches, network analysis, corpus studies, and archival methodologiesPaper submission deadline: 1 February 2027More info: https://htn2027.ugent.be/en
Call for Papers:International Conference: Translating Sacred Texts: Dimensions, Challenges, and Contemporary Perspectives Date: December 03, 2026Format: In-PersonVenue: Faculty of Arabic Language, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, MoroccoSubmission Guidelines• Abstract: 250–300 words, accompanied by a short biographical note. • Keywords: 4–6 keywords. • Conference Language: English. • Submission Email: sacredtexttranslation@gmail.com• Submission Deadline: September 1, 2026. Read more: https://sites.google.com/uca.ac.ma/sacredtextconference/accueil
Call for Papers Journal: Translation Spaces 18 (1) 2029Theme: Translating the city, curating the museum: city museums as translation zonesGuest editors: Anneleen Spiessens (Ghent University) and Luc van Doorslaer (University of Tartu/KU Leuven)Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:· conceptual convergences between city translation and museum translation· methodological approaches for studying translation in urban or museum contexts· the position of city museums within the broader translational framework of multilayered urban memoryscapes· the role of translation in unlocking multilingual collections· the symbolic and political dimension of language policies in city museums· the role of translation in diversifying museum audiences and fostering sustainable communities· the interplay of interlingual, intralingual, intersemiotic and intrasemiotic translation in exhibition contextsSubmissionAbstracts of up to 300 words should be submitted by 15 September to the guest editors by email (anneleen.spiessens@ugent.be and luc.vandoorslaer@ut.ee).Key dates:15 September 2026: abstract (300 words) and bionote (100 words) submissionIn the course of 2028: online first publication of individual articlesSpring 2029: print publicationMore information: https://benjamins.com/series/ts/call-for-papers-ts.2029.pdf
Call for AbstractConference: the 19th International Postgraduate Conference in Translation and Interpreting (IPCITI)Venue: Dublin City UniversityDate: 3-4 December 2026Theme: Across Academia and Industry: (In)Visibility and Interdisciplinarity in Translation and InterpretingTopics include:Interdisciplinary engagement with translation and interpreting studies (e.g. Comparative Literature, Linguistics, Cultural Studies, Sociology and Anthropology)Interdisciplinarity and knowledge exchange in translation and interpreting studies (e.g. Communication Studies, Information Science, Higher Education Studies)Visibility and invisibility of translation and interpreting research (e.g. Sociology of Knowledge, Media Studies)Translation and interpreting across academia, institutions and industry (e.g. International Relations, Public Policy)Translation and interpreting technologies and digital practices (Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Natural Language Processing (NLP))Translator and interpreter training and pedagogy (e.g. Curriculum Design, Cognitive Psychology, Applied Linguistics)Community and public service interpreting (e.g. Medical Humanities, Social Work)Specialised translation (e.g. terminology, literary translation, audiovisual translation, localisation)Professional identities, ethics, and labour conditions (e.g. Professional Ethics, Labour Economics, Human Resource Management)Translation, migration, multilingualism, human rights, and social justice (e.g. Human Rights Law, Migration Studies, Political Philosophy)Critical approaches to translation studies (e.g. Decolonisation of Translation and Interpreting Studies, Postcolonial Theory, Gender Studies, Critical Discourse Analysis, Deconstruction)Innovative, creative and interdisciplinary research methodologies in translation and interpreting studies (e.g. Digital Humanities, Corpus Linguistics, Ethnography, Mixed Methods Research)Translation and interpreting in crisis and conflict settings (e.g. Peace and Conflict Studies, Disaster Management, Risk and Crisis Communication)Deadline for abstract submission: 31 August 2026More details: https://www.dcu.ie/ctts/ipciti-2026
