Language and translation have an important function in determining the production and reception of texts that circulate in Food Studies and in the global food trade sector. They are also key to the shaping and circulation of food narratives. The objective of this special journal issue to is examine the role of language and translation in shaping perceptions of food, its production, and its consumption in the new millennium.
Food Studies has inspired researchers to explore the interlinking concepts of food culture, society, and translation, and their combined impact on human behaviour: ‘Language shapes our perception and tasting of food’ (Temmerman 2017, p.162). Language and translation enhance our understanding of the evolving practices adopted by food industries and also increase our socio-environmental awareness as consumers in the era of globalization. This is because food has a fundamental symbolic and cultural value in its consumption and preparation in different religious and cultural contexts, and also because it is a system of communication that can be used to exchange knowledge, to promote social values, and to reaffirm personal and ethnic identities.
Translation itself is a multi-dimensional phenomenon which can express messages from written texts, pictures, and sound to live multi-media presentations. Surprisingly, the important role played by language, especially by translation, seems to have largely been overlooked by the food industry despite its pivotal function in its development and in global trade (Cavanaugh et al 2014; Karrebæk et al 2018). This is evidenced by recent publications that discuss food mislabelling and inconsistent labelling that recur in different industries around the world, especially the seafood sector, and this raises serious ethical concerns about the identity, value, and safety of sustainable food (Gambarato and Medvedev 2015).
It has been suggested that researchers have so far ‘tended to neglect, ignore or overlook the conceptual connections and familiarities between food and language in different societies and cultures’ (Chiaro and Rossato 2015, p.241). Only The Translator has published a special issue on food-related translation research (2015), which emphasized the importance of tackling ‘the “grey zone” of food translation’ (Chiaro and Rossato, 2015). Although food-related terminology and translation research is still arguably in its infancy (Cronin 2014), the increasing demands and ethical and environmental challenges of the global food trade indicate that there is an urgent need to address systematically the communication issues affecting food culture and society from Translation Studies perspectives.
This special edition on food-related translation welcomes contributions from diverse theoretical backgrounds and subject areas. We encourage interdisciplinary approaches that incorporate food-related translation methods and insights on translating food culture and society and its cross-cultural communication. Contributions from all areas of food-related studies in translation are welcome, including but not limited to:
Articles should be no more than 9,000 words in length (inclusive of the abstract, tables, references and endnotes) and written in English. Style guidelines are available on the Instructions for Authors section of the journal homepage: https://bit.ly/2J8vLXN. Articles will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- Originality of conception and significance of questions asked;
- Quality of methodology and sources: we expect a description of methodology, original data, and citation of relevant food studies literature as well as disciplinary literature;
- Vigor and cogency of argument: we expect a clear argument stated at the outset and developed throughout the paper;
- Felicity of style and organization: we expect clear and grammatical writing with no use of the passive voice;
- Contributions to the field of foodways research: we expect explicit discussion of the paper’s contribution through engagement with relevant food studies literature.
Abstracts of 300 words should be sent by email to the guest editors at saihong.li@stir.ac.uk and myriam.salama-carr@manchester.ac.uk by 30 January 2021.
Schedule
30 January 2021: Deadline for submitting 300-word abstracts to the guest editors
28 February 2021: Notification of acceptance or rejection of abstracts
30 August 2021: Submission of completed articles to the guest editors
30 October 2021: Feedback on submissions by the guest editors
30 December 2021: Submission of revised papers to Food and Foodways for peer review
References:
Cavanaugh, Jillian R., Kathleen C. Riley, Alexandra Jaffe, Christine Jourdan, Martha Karrebaek, and Amy Paugh (2014) ‘What Words Bring to the Table: The Linguistic Anthropological Toolkit as Applied to the Study of Food’. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 24, 1: 84-97.
Chiaro, Delia and Linda Rossato (2015) ‘Food and translation, translation and food’. The Translator, 21, 3: 237–243.
Cronin, Michael (2014) ‘Cooking the books: Translation, food and migration’. Comparative Critical Studies, 11, 2–3: 337–354.
Gambarato, Renira Rampazo and Medvedev, Sergei Andreevitch (2015) ‘Fish Fight: Transmedia Storytelling Strategies for Food Policy Change’. International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP), Vol 6, 3: 43-59.
Karrebæk, Martha Sif, Kathleen C. Riley, and Jillian R. Cavanaugh. (2018) ‘Food and Language: Production, Consumption, and Circulation of Meaning and Value’. Annual Review of Anthropology 47: 17-32.
Temmerman, Rita (2017) ‘Terms and descriptors for food and drinks’ (‘Termini e descrittori per alimenti e bevande’, transl. Kim Grego). in I. Bajini, M. V. Calvi, G. Garzone and G. Sergio (eds) Parole per mangiare: Discorsi e culture del cibo, Milan: LED Edizioni: 159–192.
Editors:
Dr Saihong Li is a Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Stirling. Her food culture and translation research investigates an increasingly vital issue in globalized business and diplomacy, namely how food (taste) and society interrelate to each other. Her publications outline how the cultural context of language and the individual cultural background of the users of that language is as important as the actual words used. She has been involved in the steering committee in China for food label translation since 2008. The research findings of one of her articles suggest that a multimodal approach to restaurant menu translation - using intralingual (with pinyin), interlingual (English translation) and intersemiotic translation (images) - should become an accepted norm to be used in restaurants in China, the USA, and in countries that thrive on tourism and international business. Her recent food-related publications include ‘A Corpus-Based Multimodal Approach to the Translation of Restaurant Menus’ and ‘Translating Food Terminology as Cultural and Communicative Processes’.
Professor Myriam Salama-Carr is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies. She has published extensively in the field of Translation Studies and her research focuses on the history of translation, with a particular focus on the ideological aspects of the translation of science and the transmission and construction of knowledge. She is the author of La Traduction à l’époque abbasside (Didier Erudition 1990) and the editor of Translating and Interpreting Conflict (Rodopi 2007) and of a special issue of Social Semiotics on Translation and Conflict (2007). She has co-edited a special issue of Forum (2009) on Ideology and Cross-Cultural Encounters, and of The Translator (2011) on Translating Science. More recently she has guest-edited a special issue (2019) of the Translation and Interpreting Journal on the history of translation and interpreting, and is co-editor of the 2019 Palgrave Handbook of Languages and Conflict. She was the Director of the National Network for Translation (www.nationalnetworkfortranslation.ac.uk) from 2007 to 2017, and was Chair of the Training Committee on IATIS (www.iatis.org) from 2011 to 2016.
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
