The world is becoming ever more complex and the world of audiovisual translation and media accessibility no less so. With ever more ways and ever more environments (cinema, TV, video games, computers, smart phones and glasses, social media etc.) in which to take part of (and in) audiovisual material, the complexities for AVT and MA are increasing.
Not only that, but more diverse groups of inhabitants of our audiovisual world (such as the visually, aurally or cognitively impaired, language learners, the elderly etc.) are demanding and getting their just rights as audiovisual citizens.
The media itself is also getting more complex, with more forms interacting (e.g. YouTube clips on facebook, surtitling in smart phones or glasses, cinema releases reappearing on streaming sites, interactive displays at museums etc.). Media has also become democratized, with more prosumer creating, and translating, their own content.
Furthermore, AVT and MA research is becoming ever more complex, as we search for understanding, not only by descriptive, text-centred studies, but also through experimental, viewer-centred studies using ever more complex methods (such as eyetracking, EEG, skin conductivity and fMRI scans). Understanding audiovisual content and impact has never been more important in this increasingly polarized world.
The aim of the conference
This conference is about creating and mediating understanding in an increasingly complex mediascape. Understanding not only of audiovisual content, but also understanding of and between producers, consumers and prosumers, understanding for the technical and cognitive processes involved, understanding for consumers’ needs and desires, and understanding of and for working conditions, among many other perspectives. So, let’s get together to understand all these complexities!
Call for papers
The organizers welcome papers in four different formats: workshops, panels, presentations and posters.
Call for workshop proposals
The day preceding the conference will include a number of workshops with a duration of either a full or a half day. We invite proposals for high-quality workshops within the scope of the conference (see also the themes below), which will give participants hands on experience of new approaches, new technology or new techniques in the fields of AVT and MA. Workshops could include new techniques, systems and practices for practitioners, as well as new approaches and methods for researchers.
A proposal for a workshop should include a description of the topic that will be taught as well as a detailed description of the planning of the workshop and what the participants can expect.
Deadline for submitting a workshop proposal is May 30, 2018.
Call for panel proposals
The organizers are opening up spaces for a few high-quality panels within the aim and scope of the conference. We invite panel proposals which focus on one specific theme of the conference (see below) and which are organized so that discussions with the audience are encouraged. Panels should have high scientific and academic quality, and panel organizers will present a suggested theme and draft programme for the panel. If the panel is accepted, panel organizers will also pre-screen the abstracts for each participant in the panel. Panel participants will be encouraged to submit speaking points rather than a paper. Each panel will have a duration of sixty minutes.
Deadline for submitting a panel proposal is May 30, 2018.
Call for poster proposals
The conference will include a poster exhibition and time will be set aside for a poster presentation slot. We therefore hope to see many high-quality applications for posters. We consider the poster format very valuable for presenting projects, whether they be completed studies or as work-in-progress. We would like to stress the importance of the visual element of posters, and thus encourage those researchers attending with a poster to prioritize the visual benefits of the poster, thus downsizing the written presentation, in order to ensure discussion and interaction with fellow scholars. There will be an award for the best poster.
Deadline for submitting a poster proposal is September 20, 2018.
Call for paper presentation proposals
The individual oral presentation of papers is the backbone of this conference. We welcome abstracts on, or related to, all the themes listed below. We encourage speakers to speak freely when presenting, rather than reading aloud from a pre-prepared paper. Spots for presentations will be 30 minutes long, including a ten-minute session for questions. Even though the organizers are preparing many slots for presentations, we will only accept high-quality contributions, which will be judged in a double-blinded peer review process. Depending on the content and the format of the paper presented in the abstract, the organizers may suggest resubmission in a different format.
Deadline for submitting a paper presentation proposal is September 20, 2018.
Submission instructions
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Full details: https://www.tolk.su.se/english/media-for-all-8/call-for-papers
Guest editors:Anna Strowe (University of Manchester)Richard Mansell (University of Exeter)Helle V. Dam (Aarhus University)This special issue focuses on the normative expectations around translators, including norms around translator identity, as well as around hiring or selection processes and understandings of competence or expertise. By applying the concept of norms to the area of translators and translatorship, we hope to connect conversations about the multiple intersecting systems of values that underpin those norms, often silently, ranging from beliefs about education, language skill, and qualification, to understandings of professionalism, economics, and translation itself, while continuing to explore the dimensions and qualities of translator identity and presentation. The norms themselves are at the centre of the topic, along with the values from which they emerge and with which they engage, but as with investigation of other types of norms, they must be extrapolated from available forms of data, for example texts by and about translators, or trends in hiring or training.As scholarship in translation studies has broadened, first from linguistic approaches to cultural and sociological approaches, and then to a focus on the translator, we have increasingly come to understand that we must view translation as a socially-situated practice or set of practices, carried out by agents whose behaviour and choices are influenced by a variety of external as well as internal factors. A large part of the focus has been on using this perspective to better understand the choices that are made in translating – that is, the specific textual decisions made by translators – but interest has also grown significantly in questions that move beyond textual choices and comparative textual analysis. There are significant threads of scholarship for example on the cultural or structural aspects of non-professional translation and interpreting (e.g. Antonini et al. 2017; Pérez-González and Susam-Saraeva 2012), the relationships between translation and activism (e.g. Boéri 2024; Gould and Tahmasebian 2020; Tymoczko 2010), and the impact of emerging technologies and digital spaces on perceptions of translatorship (e.g. Zhang et al. 2024), among many others.Norms have long been a productive tool for translation studies, but existing articulations and uses have focused on the translational norms that we understand as governing micro- and macro-level translation choices. Meylaerts (2008) discusses individual translators and their identities and profiles in relation to the norms of translation and the profession, following Simeoni (1998) in connecting these to Bourdieu’s notion of habitus. However, behaviour around translator identities and characteristics, such as hiring or self-presentation, can also be examined in terms of norms. In a recent article, Strowe (2024) suggests considering translator selection as norm-driven could help us better recognize the values and decisions around translator recruitment and deconstruct assumptions around translator choice and identity.These norms are reflected in patterns in hiring trends, the translation industry, job advertisements, and translators’ websites or blogs, for example, but they also inform a variety of aspects of how translatorship is constructed. The self-image and presentation or representation of translators is informed by beliefs about what responsibilities, tasks, and capacities are involved in being a translator, areas that intersect both with culturally constructed notions of what constitutes and delimits translation itself (see Tymoczko 2007) and with what forms of social, cultural, and legal understandings we have about various agents’ forms of responsibility for texts (see Bantinaki 2020; Pym 2011).The special issue will collect both empirical studies that explore areas related to translator norms, and articles exploring either the theorization of translator norms or the methodological possibilities of this kind of work. Potential questions to explore include (but are not limited to) the following:How might we theorize norms around translator identity, self-presentation, hiring etc.?What kinds of translator norms can be identified within the LSP industry or in other contexts in which translation is done?What differences are there in translator norms across different contexts or domains, and how do these differences affect practices of translation?How can we understand projections of translator image as a form of representation of translator norm? • How are translator norms changing in the face of developments in digital technology?What kinds of research methods facilitate the exploration of translator norms?This is an open call, and the editors particularly welcome proposals from researchers whose workintersects with translator identity or self-presentation;looks at industry expectations around translators and hiring practices;seeks to describe and delimit the spaces of human agency and identity around translation amidst the growing presence of AI.Submission Abstracts of up to 300 words should be submitted by November 24 to Anna Strowe by email (anna.strowe@manchester.ac.uk). Once invited to do so by the editors, selected authors will be asked to submit an article of between 7000 and 8000 words, including references, through the journal’s online portal no later than May 30, 2026.A full schedule of dates plus the bibliography is available here: https://benjamins.com/series/ts/callforpapers.pdf
Life Writing and Translation Thursday 18 – Friday 19 June 2026 University of Geneva Abstract of no more than 250 words (bibliography excluded) in English or French are now invited and should be submitted to lifewritingtranslation@unige.ch by 16 November 2025. Notifications of acceptance will be distributed at the beginning of February 2026. Please find more information on abstracts on the Conference website: https://www.humanmovement.cam.ac.uk/events/translating-conflict-and-refuge-language-displacement-and-politics-representation
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
