Book history and translation studies have significantly enhanced our understanding of print culture. Although driven respectively by bibliographic and comparativist linguistic interests, the two fields have converged into a shared perception of texts as cultural and social products controlled by interconnected networks of agents. Efforts to delve deeper into the nature of these networks and into the mobility of printed texts have led to fruitful cross-disciplinary intersections. As a result, translation scholars are becoming increasingly receptive to the relevance of textual materiality while book historians are turning to comparative approaches and the transnational side of publishing. On a general level, texts and their trajectories are more and more frequently analysed by integrating conceptual, methodological and theoretical frameworks originally developed in either book history or translation studies (see for example Heilbrom 2008; Bachleitner 2010; Freedman 2012; O’Sullivan 2012; Armstrong 2013; Littau 2016; Belle & Hosington 2017). The success of this interdisciplinary approach is leading to a growing awareness that further dialogue between studies and book history is needed to achieve more accurate representations of the transnational life of print culture. This special issue aims at exploring and further promoting intersections between the two fields with a particular focus on the multifaceted international publishing panorama that characterised the period between 1700 and 1950. Contributions are especially encouraged on thematic areas including:
- The materiality of translation
- Translations’ paratext and translation of paratext
- Translation and the transnationalisation of print culture
- Translation and the sociology of texts
- Translation and textual bibliography
- Agents involved in the production and distribution of translations and their relation on a
national and international level
- Translation of popular literature and ephemera
- Translation and book illustration
- Translation, religion and book history
- Translation and musical texts
- Terminology of the book across languages
- Translation and the transformation of reading habits and attitudes
- Research methodologies in translation studies and book history
Instructions for authors
Submission instructions
Articles will be about 7000 words in length, in English (including notes and references)
Abstracts of 500-700 words (including references) should be sent together with a short biographical note to the guest editors at translationbookhistory@gmail.com
Schedule
28 February 2018 – deadline to submit abstracts and biographical note to the guest editors
23 March 2018 – deadline for decisions on abstracts
31 August 2018 – deadline for submission of articles
23 November 2018 – submission of final version of papers
June 2019 – publication of the issue
All articles will be reviewed by two readers.
For information please contact Alice Colombo at translationbookhistory@gmail.com
For information about the journal please visit http://www.euppublishing.com/loi/ccs
Call for PapersSpecial Issue of The Translator and Interpreter Trainer (2028)Theme: (Re)Conceptualising User Agency in Audiovisual Translation Education.Editors: Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Lisi Liang, Hui Wang and Serenella Massidda. Topics may include:the (re)conceptualisation of “user agency” in the context of non-professional and/or fanbased AVT training;online users’ motivations for exerting agency in AI-powered AVT and its impact on the theory and practice of AVT training;online users’ creativity in specific domains of AVT, such as danmu subtitling, fansubbing/fandubbing, game localisation, access services, and voice synthesis technologies for media localisation and its impact on the theory and practice of AVT training;empirical studies focusing on the activation of user agency through verbal and/or nonverbal channels in online and offline AVT training, supported by robust research methods and with high potential for innovation in AVT pedagogy;the negotiation of agency between AI platform developers, users and educators in AVT training;the extent to which the exercise of user agency bridges or extends the boundaries between professional and non-professional, human and AI translation in AVT training;pedagogical, technological, and ethical implications of user agency for AVT training;the impact of AI-based AVT paradigm and user agency on the established translation training paradigm in AVTSubmission informationSubmission of proposals: 1 July 2026 (title and abstract of approx. 500 words, references included)Acceptance of submitted abstracts: 1 August 2026.Submission of full manuscripts: 1 February 2027 (up to 8,000 words, including references and notes).Acceptance of papers: October 2027Publication: Late Autumn/Winter 2028.More details: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/reconceptualising-user-agency-in-audiovisual-translation-education/
Call for Papers:Symposium: Translating Conflict: Language, Power, and the City.Location: Utrecht University — Languages in the City Series.Date: 22–23 April 2027Topics: Political and institutional translation: invisibility, neutrality, strategic mistranslation, asymmetrical communication.Conflict, post-conflict, humanitarian settings: diplomacy, peace negotiations, legal processes, ethics and positionality of translators, reconciliation.Resistance and public space: translation as activism, urban linguistic landscapes, social-media wars of meaning.Limits and exclusions: untranslatability, silencing, exclusion.Technology: AI-assisted translation in high-stakes settings.Exile and migration: translation, memory, and cultural continuity.Key dates:Submission deadline: 30/06/2026Notification: ~30/09/2026Symposium: 22–23 April 2027More details: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7451657930900361216-SP6Q?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAADAHFiwBi8jC4KbsaPPxHxBkCAx_UoukeoQ
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/
