The University of Cordoba (Spain) and KU Leuven (Belgium) are proud to announce the First International e-conference with the title: Translation in Society and for Society. Investigating Sociological and Cultural Aspects in Literary and Specialised Domains.
Following the remarkable success of the e-Conference CNERU for young researchers (Cordoba, 4-5 April 2017), this virtual conference aims to create a shared space for reflection on topics related to sociological aspects concerning translation theory and practice. The conference will be held in English using Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, a real-time video conferencing tool that lets you add files, share applications, and use a virtual whiteboard to interact. Collaborate with Blackboard opens right in your browser, so you don’t have to install any software to join the conference.
Aim and Scope
The “Sociological Turn” in Translation Studies is a phenomenon that has interested the discipline since the 1990s (Snell-Hornby 2006; Wolf and Fukari 2007; Wolf 2010; Angelelli 2014). The success of the first ATISA conference “The Sociological Turn in Translation and Interpreting Studies” (2010) opened up new avenues of research, shifting the focus from textual aspects of translation to a broader analysis of social factors that have an impact on the translator and translations as social products. According to Wolf (2010), the Sociology of Translation has interested research in the field of “T&I training institutions, working conditions, professional institutions and their social role, questions of ethics in translation, (auto)biographies of translators and interpreters, larger accounts such as translation on the global market, sociopolitical aspects of translation, translation and its role in activism, etc.”. The scholar distinguishes three kinds of translation sociology:
· The sociology of the agents of translation – focusing on translation activity from the point of view of institutional and individual agents;· The sociology of the translation process – focusing on the social environment and constraints (such as censorship) affecting the production of all types of translation, such as multimodal translation in which different codes coexist in new and changing textual formats;· The sociology of translation as a cultural product – focusing on reception, promotion and literary criticism across time and space.
Drawing on the new ways in which these three developments are outlining translation research and practice, this conference aims to shed light on the productive and multi-faceted cross-fertilisation of Translation Studies and Sociology.
References
Angelelli, Claudia. 2014. The Sociological Turn in Translation and Interpreting Studies. Edited by Claudia Angelelli. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Snell-Hornby, Mary. 2006. The Turns of Translation Studies: New Paradigms or Shifting Viewpoints? Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Wolf, Michaela. 2010. “Sociology of Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Studies - Volume 1, edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, 337–43. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Wolf, Michaela., and Alexandra. Fukari. 2007. Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
We invite papers related but not limited to the following topics:
· Translation and interdisciplinarity: the sociological approach
· Legal and sworn translation with the new migration flows
· Gender issues in translation
· Sociological aspects related to multimodal translation
· The role of multimedial translation in a mass-media society
· The reception and promotion of translation
· Imagology and translation
· Translation for the cultural industry
· Ethical challenges for translators in the 21st century
· The status of the translation profession
· Industrial translation vs. professional translation
· Pros and cons of machine translation and its impact on the market
· Translation and power relations
· Translation of minorized languages and cultures
Submissions are invited for 20-minute presentations. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words (excluding references). Please submit your abstract including the title of the paper, author name, affiliation and e-mail address to:
lr1romum@uco.es; transieco@uco.es
Do not forget to fill in the following form in order to submit your abstract (Abstract_Form)
Selected papers will be published in an edited volume following a peer-review process.
Key dates
• Abstract submission deadline: 31 March 2018
• Notification of acceptance: 15 May 2018
• Registration open: 15 May 2018
• Early-bird registration available until: 31 August 2018
Conference fees
Early registration fee (before 31 August 2018): €20
Fee after 31 August 2018: €30
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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/