TRANSLATING LINGUISTIC MINORITIES
WITHIN AND BETWEEN THE ANGLOPHONE AND FRANCOPHONE SPHERES
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3
28-29 May 2020
translation studies, sociolinguistics, cultural studies
Conference outline
In a world with borders already jostled by the conflicts and displacements of the 20th century, the end of the colonial era and the protest movements of the 1960s and 70s ultimately weakened the certainties of an ageing Europe. The dominant intellectual discourse, forced to recognise the voice of young people and of minorities, of the forgotten and the displaced, finds itself needing to adapt to new transformations. In this context, the rise of disciplines such as postcolonial and decolonial studies, gender studies, and sociolinguistics over the past decades pays testament to a veritable effort to shift the centre, while contributing to the validation of new voices and intellectual perspectives.
The creation and ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by twenty-five countries in 1992, as well as the organisation of an increasing number of conferences related to minority languages and cultures, are proof of the development of academic and institutional interest, relative as it may be, in minority languages. Such initiatives demonstrate the changing dynamics outlined above and have helped to increase the visibility of minority groups and the challenges they face (discrimination, linguistic insecurity, economic opportunities, access to world cultures etc. [Macaulay 1997, Cronin 1995]).
Grappling with the emergence of these questions is a tall order for translators of fiction and non-fiction, confronted with the multifaceted realities that have come to replace a once monolingual and eurocentric understanding of standard languages [Macaulay 1997]. Minority and regional languages; accents, dialects, and sociolects; youth or queer language; languages of immigration, of previously colonised countries, or of diaspora communities: these all fall into the broad category of linguistic minorities 1. which have begun today to redefine borders between languages and to question the translator’s agency.
The act of translating diversity, hybridity, and linguistic variation hence raises a number of ethical and political issues insofar as translating the Other involves a three-fold reassessment of (1) power relations within and between languages, (2) the reception of alterity, and (3) the position of the reader-translator. Since the “cultural turn” of the 1990s [see Bassnett & Lefevere 1990], contemporary Translation Studies has armed itself with ideas advanced in cultural studies and sociolinguistics in an effort to offer answers to these questions and to rethink alterity in translation in light of the sociology of the globalised literary market.
Focusing on the dynamics specific to the translation of linguistic minorities within and between the anglophone and francophone spheres across the five continents, this conference endeavours to instigate a more encompassing investigation, the antithesis of what Michael Cronin refers to as homogenising and essentialist views of Europe2. Through a dialogue with the margins of two European cultural powerhouses, we hope to invite a questioning of the hierarchies inherent in both linguistic areas while laying the foundation for further multilingual studies.
Declared the International Year of Indigenous Languages by the United Nations, 2019 is a particularly appropriate time to be calling for such reflections.
1 Definition of the notion of minority by Francisco Capotorti for the United Nations : « A group numerically inferior to the rest of the population of a State, in a non-dominant position, whose members – being nationals of the State – possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from those of the rest of the population and show, if only implicitly, a sense of solidarity, directed towards preserving their culture, tradition, religion or language » [Capotorti 1979 : 96 § 568]
2 « The signal failure to account for the linguistic and translational complexity of Europe in part stems from the tendency by post-colonial critics to reduce Europe to two languages, English and French, and to two countries, England and France. Thus, the critique of imperialism becomes itself imperialist » [Cronin 1995]
Lines of inquiry
This two-day conference will include a number of thematic panels, workshops, and roundtables which seek to shed light on the representation of linguistic minorities in francophone and anglophone contexts through the prism of translation. In this vein, we invite proposals that study the way in which linguistic minorities are presented in literary and audiovisual texts, as well as in the media, reflecting on issues including, but not limited to:
While the subject beckons a fundamentally pluridisciplinary approach to the issues broached, with the participation of specialists from other disciplines (linguistics, sociolinguistics, dialect studies, literary studies, media studies, anglophone studies, francophone studies etc.) highly encouraged, the papers presented should concern themselves primarily with the question of translation. We also welcome concrete case studies and contributions from professionals (translators, editors, journalists etc.). This conference will deal exclusively with the anglophone and francophone spheres, with the aim of establishing a more multilingual perspective in a future event.
Submission guidelines
Proposals for papers or round tables (in English or French) should be uploaded to the conference website before January 3, 2020.
For individual papers (20 minutes + 10 minutes of discussion), please send an abstract of approximately 300 words, accompanied by five keywords and a biographical note of approximately 150 words.
For round table discussions (30 minutes + 30 minutes discussion), please send a proposal of 300-500 words and a list of topics to be addressed in the discussion, accompanied by five keywords and a biographical note of approximately 150 words for each participant (3-4 speakers).
MA and PhD students working on topics related to the conference themes are also encouraged to present their research in poster form. Please submit a brief summary and title of the project, indicating your status and year of enrolment (e.g. 1st-year Masters, 2nd-year PhD).
Submissions will receive a response at the beginning of February.
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
