‘We nooses tous des bastardi elettronici che usano lingue globali’
Ours Lingages. The internet is my language mother. I speak with a voice that’s not my own, I speak in other voices, not my voice. We are all e-strangers, all nomads that use globish bastard languages. We are the alienated translated (wo)men in-between code and emotion, in-between our wish to be visible and our longing for intimacy. L’entre-deux = void. Can’t we be ‘with’ instead? (Annie Abrahams)
Digital artist and performer Annie Abrahams highlights how living in the digital world transforms not only the language(s) we speak, but also our relationship to language(s) and the relationship between languages, together with our relationships to other people. ‘Networked language practices [...] are simultaneously local and transnational’, observes at the same time Jannis Androutsopoulos (2015). The digital space makes it easier for human languages to circulate, coexist, interact, and mix in a fluid and flexible fashion - linguistic borders are not removed, but they have shifted and become more porous.
Language is never alone. Of necessity, digital texts are composed in at least two ‘languages’ and exist by means of perpetual back-and-forth processes of translation between them: a ‘so-called natural language, which is addressed to humans [...]; and computer codes, which (although readable by some humans) can be executed only by intelligent machines’ (Hayles 2006). Hayles goes on to argue that ‘in our computationally intensive culture, code is the unconscious of language’.
How can we be ‘with’ languages in their plurality, rather than just in-between them and lost in translation? Digital arts and literature have explored the potential of programmable media to play with and perform linguistic complexity and fluidity both across human languages and between human and machine languages. Everyday users are no less inventive and adventurous in their practices, as they acquire linguistic fragments from the flux, integrate them into their interactions, and create their own hybrid modes of expression.
Following up on our first symposium in March 2018, Multilingual Digital Authorship, this conference will focus on projects, works, and any form of creative digital artefacts online or offline, including anything from individual tweets, instapoems, and status updates to interactions and more complex projects, artworks that consciously experiment with linguistic cross-fertilization – or on the contrary, highlight the dangers of linguistic standardization seeking to supress hybridity. The objective is to explore the creative, cultural, and political potential of encounters amongst digital technologies, languages, and creative practices.
Confirmed invited speakers and artists:
Annie Abrahams
Jean-Pierre Balpe
John Cayley
Ottar Ormstad
Alexandra Saemmer
Rui Torres
The conference will include an evening of performances open to the general public and will be accompanied by a thematic issue of ZeTMaG.
A selection of the conference papers will be published in a journal special issue.
Three types of proposals are therefore invited:
(Please indicate in brackets in the title if the proposal is for a Paper, a Panel, or a Performance)
1. 20-minute individual conference papers or panels including three or four papers in English. Topics may include, but need not be limited to:
The coexistence or mixing of (human and/or computer) languages in digital interactions, artworks, and/or creative projectsHybrid or multiple linguistic and cultural identities in and through creative digital practicesCreative web-based communities across languages and their outputsThe shifting and melting of linguistic borders in digital space, in particular as illustrated by cultural artefactsMachine translation and its creative usesLinks between digital media, creativity, language(s), and power, including linguistic standardization and its subversion Fictional and artificial languages in and/or through digital media, including non-alphabetic ones (emoticon, emojicode, etc.) and their creative usesWhat is language anyway? What makes a language? What distinguishes languages? What kinds of 'languages' can we 'speak' in the digital space? When does a language begin to be more than one?
Submission format:
Individual papers: please submit a 200-word proposal, with author affiliation and a 100-word bio-bibliography
Panels: please submit a 100-words summary on the overarching objective of the panel, together with a 150-word abstract for each paper, with author affiliation and a 100-word bio-bibliography for each author
Please submit your proposal on EasyChair by Friday the 27th of January 2019.
2. Performances with a digital component, of 10-20 minutes in length, related to any of the above, to be presented in an event to take place on the first evening of the conference, open to the general public.
Please submit a 200-word description of the work and the equipment and space required, together with a 100-word biography of the artist(s) (if available, include link to website/previous work).
Please submit your proposal on EasyChair by Friday the 27th of January 2019.
3. Digital artworks to be published in a thematic issue in the experimental digital art magazine ZeTMaG onLanguage(s)-Space(s), to be launched at the conference. The magazine can accept text, photo, audio, audiovisual formats. (Other formats might be possible, please contact the editors at zetmaglab@gmail.com with any queries.)
Please send a brief description of the proposed work directly to zetmaglab@gmail.com. The submission of final works will be required by 31st May 2019.
This conference will be the second and last academic event of a two-year project funded by the ‘Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies’ AHRC Open World Research Initiative (www.meits.org) and is part of a series of a series of four conferences on Digital Authorship run in partnership with the University of Paris 8. The event benefits from additional support from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and partnership with the Electronic Literature Organization (https://eliterature.org/).
Postgraduate students and early career scholars are particularly encouraged to submit proposals. Up to three small bursaries for postgraduate speakers will be available to contribute to travel and accommodation costs.
With any queries, please contact the organizer, Erika Fülöp at e.fulop@lancaster.ac.uk.
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
Call for Papers:Journal: Special Issue of Translation and Interpreting Studies (John Benjamins).The journal is inviting submissions for extended abstracts for a special issue of Translation and Interpreting Studies (John Benjamins) on the topic of 'Knowledge Construction in Multilingual Research: Research Ethics Meets Translation Theory' Editors: Robert Gibb, Nadja Grbić, and Rafael Schögler.Submissions of extended abstracts (300-500 words) can be sent to the guest editors until 15 September 2026.More details: https://static.uni-graz.at/fileadmin/gewi-institute/Translationswissenschaft/Bilder/2026/Special-issue_TiS_2029_gibb_grbic_schoegler.pdf
Call for Papers: Journal: BRIDGE: TRENDS AND TRADITIONS IN TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIESThemes: Audiovisual Translation at the Crossroads: Special Issue: Bridging Media Accessibility, AI, and EFL Education. Special Issue, Vol. 7(2), 2026.Editor: Angela SileoCovered Topics:AVT and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the technological dimension;AVT and Media Accessibility (MA), the social dimension; andAVT in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) education, the didactic dimension.Deadline for submission: 23 November 2026More details: https://www.bridge.ff.ukf.sk/index.php/bridge/callforpapers
International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies9th International ConferenceUniversity of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o WaitahaChristchurch, New Zealand7-10 December Interculturality and Hospitality in Times of Crisis Conference Theme Language, hospitality, and crisis are, and always have been, historically and globally intertwined concepts. The notion of hospitality is deeply rooted in complex and long-standing histories of encounters; of conflict and persecution; but also of travel and adventure. The specular relationship between alterity and subjectivity is at its core, and so too is the very fabric of sociability. The closest Te Reo Māori equivalent to hospitality, manaakitanga, echoes this dynamic, as it implies the collective nurturing of relationships in which the mana (dignity, prestige, and spiritual power) of all those involved is upheld and elevated. From these histories and terms, we are confronted with the (unwritten) rules, obligations, and laws related to hospitality which encapsulate examples on a micro- and macrostructural level: from welcoming guests into a nation—as immigrants or refugees—to providing shelter and support in the community in times of crisis, right down to individual acts of kindness and aid, such as welcoming a friend, family-member or stranger into one’s home. However, not all guests and hosts are created equal, and hospitality is not always synonymous with kindness and welcoming. The (de)colonial perspectives evident from Latin America to Oceania and beyond, where indigenous peoples were constructed as ‘unwelcome guests’ in their own land, offer fruitful examples of how historically, as well as in contemporary contexts, hospitality has often functioned as a lens through which asymmetrical power relations can be understood. Several linguists and philosophers have scrutinized the ambivalence inherent to hospitality, elucidating its semantic and pragmatic conceptions, as well as its etymological misunderstandings and polysemy. Paola Zaccaria summarizes this dynamic as follows: “In Latin, the guest, being a stranger, was called both hospes (whence the etymological root of hospitality) and hostis, which means “enemy.” [Émile] Benveniste argued that the notion of favorable stranger evolved into guest, while a hostile stranger was considered an enemy" (Zaccaria, 2022, p. 182). Such etymological linkage led Jacques Derrida to coin the neologism “hostipitality” (Derrida & Dufourmantelle, 2000), suggesting that welcoming the Other can lead to a host’s vulnerability, and that embedded within hospitality are the very seeds of its own potential destruction. Welcoming the guest—the Other, a frenemy, AI—can lead to the host’s sovereignty unravelling, where sovereignty can be understood in its broadest conceptual sense possible: one’s space (or home) as well as one’s identity and integrity. This intersubjective blending is even more apparent when we take into consideration that Derrida writes in French where the term hôte can denote, depending on the context, either guest or host. Interpretations and translations of hospitality continue today: whether it be as a pragmatic form or an abstract, philosophical construct, the concept will (and arguably should) never be laid to rest. While the very notion of hospitality, the givenness of its communal veracity is obviously enabling, we do not need to look too far in our current climate to witness how conceptually, at least, it has been called into crisis. ‘Crisis,’ at its very root, indicates a turning point and a decision. Not all crises are therefore inherently bad or negative, and yet the term is rarely shrouded in positivity. In a post-truth era; as we explore the use and limits of AI; as we further communicate through the semiotics of emojis; as teeter-tottering governments modify language policies, and as institutional settings regulate and enact the boundaries in which we work and live, we must ask: is language—and are languages—in crisis? And can the same be said of hospitality? Translation, Interpreting, and interculturality are at the very heart of both hospitality and crisis, as the latter inevitably creates contexts of language contact due to globalization, as well as chosen and forced migration. With this conference topic, there are two potential thematic avenues for presenters to explore in relation to Translation, Interpreting, as well as Intercultural Studies: one more aligned with the multifaceted notion and voices of ‘hospitality’ and the other with ‘crisis.’ This conference therefore calls on scholars, educators, and practitioners to reflect and present on these disciplines and their interaction with these themes as they play out in their professional, creative, and scholarly reflections and important work. Possible subthemes to explore include: · T&I and the guest-host dynamic· Violence in/and T&I· Language(s) in crisis· Hospitality and crisis· Regional and minority languages· Data Sovereignty and indigenous languages· AI and/in crisis – trust, machine translation, and language access in crisis situations· T&I in hospitality & tourism· T&I in regional conflicts· T&I in natural disasters· Hospitality and ethics in relation to volunteer translation, AI-assisted translation, and the sustainability of the profession· The translation/non-translation of literature as examples of hostipitality· Rethinking T&I and sovereignty through Indigenous Knowledges· The ethics and politics of translation and intercultural studies research, education, and practice: a turning point?· (Feminist) ethics of care· Disability Studies and the Politics of language(s) in translation and interpretation – who gets to speak?· Lost languages – linguistic preservation, hospitality, and ethics· Resisting the status quo – rethinking dissemination of translations as a question of the commonsLanguage Policy· All abstracts/proposals for individual papers (20 minutes each) and panels must be submitted in English or Te Reo Māori for peer-review by the Advisory Board, and all papers will be presented in English or Te Reo Māori. Interpreting will be provided contingent on available funds.· Workshop proposals must be submitted in English or Te Reo Māori for peer-review by the Scientific Committee; however, presentations during workshops in languages other than English or Te Reo Māori are welcome. A minimum of two presenters is required for workshops. Interpreting will be provided contingent on available funds.Key Deadlines· 5 November 2026: Deadline for potential convenors to submit panel, workshop, roundtable or artistic initiatives· 20 December 2026: Announcement of the accepted proposals (panels, workshops, roundtables and artistic initiatives) & call for papers and performances.· 20 March 2027: Individual abstract submission to accepted panels and general sessions· 5 June 2027: Notification of acceptance of proposals (all formats).· 5 June 2027: Registration opens · 1 August 2027: Closing date for early registrationRegistration· 5 June 2027: Registration opens· 1 August 2027: Early-bird registration closesLink to registration: to be provided soon. Solidarity Fund and Bursaries for Band 3 & 4 CountriesMore information to be provided soon. CALL FOR PANELSPanelsPanels will serve as the cornerstone for structuring the conference programme. Panels are thematic, integrated discussions for 6 to 12 sessions on a clearly identified theme or topic within the larger theme of the conference (“Interculturality and Hospitality in Times of Crisis”). They should provide attendees with an opportunity to hear presenters engage in dialogue amongst themselves as well as with attendees about cutting-edge research, practice, theory building, and/or policy development.Important: at this stage, you do not need to have a list of speakers or abstracts. Your panel proposal will be assessed by the Scientific Committee. If accepted, your panel will then be posted on the IATIS website and turned into a thematic call for papers open for anyone to submit. Panel convenors will be in charge of reviewing all abstracts submitted to their panel. The members of the scientific committee will review panel convenors’ selection before a notification of acceptance of abstracts can be issued. Timeline for Panels· Submission of panel proposals: 5 November 2026· Announcement of accepted panel proposals: 20 December 2026· Submission to accepted panels: 20 March 2027· Acceptance notification: 1 June 2027 Link to the submission platform: to be provided soon. The following information will be required:· Details about the convenor(s): name, surname, affiliation, bionote (approx..100 words) and contact address· Details about the proposal: abstract (approx. 500 words)· Optional: Tentative list of speakers and subtopics covered, if any. Please note that even if you have a list of possible speakers, all accepted panels remain open to submissions by interested IATIS delegates See examples of IATIS panels in previous conferences:· Oman Panels 2025· Barcelona Panels 2021· Hong Kong Panels 2018 CALL FOR WORKSHOPS Pre-conference workshops run for a day or half a day on Dec 6 (or Dec 7, subject to enrolment numbers). These workshops are designed to be training sessions on a topic of interest to conference attendees, such as teaching and professional development, with a special emphasis on learning or developing new skills.Timeline for Workshops· Submission of workshop proposals: 5 November 2026· Announcement of acceptance: 20 December 2026· Workshop Registration: 5 June 2027 CALL FOR ARTISTIC INITIATIVES These initiatives will reflect the cultures of the world. Artistic initiatives come from conference delegates and can be about or across cultures. They should address the topic of the conference (“Interculturality and Hospitality in Times of Crisis”). Timeline for Artistic Initiatives · Submission of artistic initiative proposals: 5 November 2026· Announcement of acceptance: 20 December 2026 CALL FOR PAPERS These are individual presentations that form the backbone of the conference's parallel sessions. Researchers can send abstracts to be presented as papers in thematic panels (accepted panels, see above) or independent of any panel in the conference. Papers are given the same amount of time given to panel session papers, and they may be added by the conference scientific committee to an established conference panel, if relevant, and in consultation with the convenor. Timeline for Papers· Call for individual papers: 20 December 2026· Deadline for potential presenters to submit abstracts for papers in and beyond thematic panels: 20 March 2027· Announcement of accepted papers: 1 June 2026 Link to the submission platform: to be provided soon. The following information will be required:· Details about the presenter(s): name, surname, affiliation, bionote (100 words approx.) and contact address· Abstract (250 words approx.) See examples of IATIS papers in previous conferences· Oman Papers 2025· Barcelona Papers 2021· Hong Kong Papers 2018
Call for Papers:Conference: Breaking Barriers in Creative Translation (BBCT).Venue: Mons, Belgium.Date: 18-20 Nov 2026.Themes and topics: Exploring fictional worldsApplication of new technologies to creative textsTransmedia analysesStylistic analysesAssessment of creativity in translation contextsRendering of humourRetranslationEthics and professional deontologyTranslation under constraintsCreativity and didacticsCognitive issues in creative translationKey dates: Submission: 07/09/2026Notification: 09/10/2026Registration: 01/11/2026Conference: 18-20/11/2026More details: https://bbct.sciencesconf.org/?lang=en
