We are inviting chapter proposals for a volume entitled The Human Translator in the 2020s, to be edited by Gary Massey, David Katan and Elsa Huertas Barros. The advance of machine translation (MT) into the routine cognitive work hitherto done by translators creates an increasing demand for
post-editing and related technology-led skills, but it is also opening spaces for adaptive experts able to identify, deliver and advise on the added value of human translation and language service provision beyond the scope of automation. Driven by evolving digital resources and socio-ethical demands, the roles and responsibilities associated with the new and emerging profiles in the language industry are rapidly and comprehensively transcending the traditional bounds of core activities and competences prototypically associated with translation and interpreting. This volume will bring together a selection of research-based and practice-oriented perspectives on the subject, shedding light on the new and evolving roles, responsibilities and competences of the human translator in the 2020s.
A preliminary proposal for the volume has been reviewed internally and conditionally accepted for publication in the IATIS Yearbook series (Routledge) in 2022. The book will comprise eight to ten chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion. Each main chapter will contain approx. 6,000 words, including references. Chapter proposals will be reviewed by the editors. All chapters submitted at their invitation will be subject to a double-blind peer review.
Background
Digital transformation and demographic change are profoundly affecting the way our societies and economies function, confronting the translation profession with challenges, but also with opportunities. Accelerating technological developments, especially artificial intelligence, are reshaping the way translators work, changing processes, tasking and demand structures in the language industry. The advance of machine translation (MT) into the routine cognitive work hitherto done by human translators has been creating an increasing demand for MT post-editing and related technology-led skills, but it is also opening spaces for adaptive experts (Holyoak, 1991)1 able to identify, deliver and advise on the added value of human translation and language service provision beyond the scope of automation. Moreover, demographic developments and socio-ethical requirements to provide inclusive, user-centred access to information and services are extending the mediatory roles and responsibilities expected of human translators, supported by assistive technologies, in a growing variety of contexts.
A review of current job positions in the language industry demonstrates the proliferation of job titles and responsibilities (Bond, 2018)2. Powered by evolving digital resources and socio-ethical demands, the roles and responsibilities associated with these new and emerging profiles are rapidly and comprehensively transcending the traditional bounds of core activities and competences associated with translation and interpreting, the two key prototypes of language mediation. The diversity of activities, roles and responsibilities is also reflected in two handbooks published this year, the Bloomsbury Companion to Language Industry Studies (Angelone, Ehrensberger-Dow, and Massey 2020)3 and the Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology (O’Hagan 2020)4. Localization, transcreation, multimodal and audiovisual translation, user-centred translation, accessible barrier-free communication, revision, pre-editing, post-editing, terminological services, linguistic intercultural mediation, public service translation, language and communication consultancy are just some of the areas in which the professional group (still) called translators and interpreters work. As translation and related language mediation professions diversify, they are also increasingly converging with professions such as organisational, technical and accessible communication, yielding new interprofessional forms and fields of work oriented towards strategic trust- and reputation-building, user experience and social inclusion. Yet, research on translators’ status and self-concept indicates that
1 Holyoak, K. J. (1991) Symbolic connectionism: Toward third-generation theories of expertise. In K. A. Ericsson & J. Smith (Eds.) Toward a General Theory of Expertise: Prospects and Limits, 301-335. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2 Bond, E. (2018) The Stunning Variety of Job Titles in the Language Industry. Slator News. Available online: undefined [accessed 20 April 2020]. 3 Angelone, E., Ehrensberger-Dow, M., and Massey, G. (Eds.) (2020) The Bloomsbury Companion to Language Industry Studies. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
4 O‘Hagan, M. (Ed.) (2020) The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology. London: Routledge.
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they may be underequipped to embrace the changes, suggesting that competence profiles, role awareness and the education that shapes them should better accommodate the added value of adaptive human translation expertise to serve the broadening needs of a transitioning industry.
Target audience
The volume is intended to combine perspectives from research and practice, and should therefore appeal to actors from both spheres. Addressing an international readership, its primary audience consists of international translation studies scholars, intermediate to advance students of language mediation, and language mediator educators and their institutions, all of whom/which are identifiably affected by the increasingly rapid and widespread shifts taking place in the language industry in general, and the translation profession in particular. The secondary audience comprises professional practitioners and language managers working across the transitioning global language industry.
Proposals
Chapter proposals are invited on relevant research, practice, theory and/or pedagogy related, but not limited, to
- Modes and forms of value-added human translation (e.g. inclusive/accessible and/or multilingual text design and production, transcreation, co-creation, intercultural mediation) - (Re-)Positioning the human translator in complex sociotechnical environments and/or at the interface with assistive technologies
- Evolving translator roles and responsibilities
- New translator competences, profiles and/or their development
- New approaches to human translation in translator education
- New practices, workflows and/or (quality) processes centred on human translation - Value-adding interprofessional convergence and interfaces (e.g. with organisational communication, strategic communication, corporate communications, usability, technical communication, inclusive/accessible communication)
Deadline for submission of proposals: 31 October 2020
For more information, click here
The international conference Translation Beyond Human Languages and Cultures in Times of Ecological Crises welcomes abstract submissions for the event taking place on 12–13 November 2026 at Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul, Türkiye. Researchers are invited to submit their proposals to beyondhumanconf@gmail.com. SUBMISSIONSEach paper presentation will be allotted 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion.Submissions for individual presentations should include:- An abstract of no more than 300 words,- A short bionote including name, affiliation, and email address,- Up to five keywords indicating the subject, methodology, and theoretical framework(s).Submissions are open until 01 April 2026.WORKING LANGUAGESAll proposals must be submitted in French or English for peer review by the Scientific Committee. Interpreting between French and English may be offered depending on available resources. Questions and discussions during the conference may take place in both languages.KEYNOTE SPEAKERSMichael Cronin (Trinity College, Dublin) Kobus Marais (University of the Free State, Bloemfontein) Şebnem Susam-Saraeva (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh)CONFERENCE FEESConference fees will be split into two categories: € 120 regular fee € 90 reduced fee for postgraduate studentsDetails regarding the conference will be shared in due course via the following link: https://avesis.yildiz.edu.tr/researchteamsite/biodemocraticpractices
The Department of Translation, Terminology and Interpreting Studies of the University of Malta, the Graduate Institute of Interpreting and Translation of Shanghai International Studies University and the Department of Theory of Translation and Comparative Linguistics of the National University of Uzbekistan are organizing an international conference in ‘Indirect Translation: A Two-Arched Bridge Between Cultures’ in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on 15-17 April 2026. For further information see the call for papers at https://www.um.edu.mt/media/um/docs/faculties/arts/translation/CallforPapersTashkent2026_FinalUM.pdf
Association of Programmes in Translation and Interpreting UK and IrelandWe are delighted to announce that the 2026 APTIS conference will take place in Wales for the first time, being jointly hosted by Cardiff University and Swansea University. The conference will take place from 15-17 April 2026 in Cardiff, with an optional ‘cultural’ day in Swansea on Saturday 18 April. We welcome abstract submissions for traditional papers, book launches, workshops, and students’ flash talks. Please note that the deadline for proposal is 15th December 2025. For more information and to submit an abstract proposal, please go to our website: https://www.aptis-translation-interpreting.com/aptis-2026
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
