Im Mittelpunkt dieser Tagung soll die zumindest partielle Darstellung einer oder mehrerer Translationskulturen (Prunč 2008) der DDR stehen, um so bisherige Erkenntnisse zu Translation in der DDR abstrahieren und zusammenfassen zu können. Dabei soll der Fokus vermehrt auf dem Fachübersetzen liegen, um einen möglichst vollständigen Blick auf eine Translationskultur zu erhalten, der in der bisherigen Forschung vor allem auf das literarische Feld gerichtet war.
Beiträge können sich beispielsweise der Translationspolitik der DDR als Staat sowie einzelner Organisationen innerhalb der DDR widmen und dabei untersuchen, inwieweit die politische Lage während des Bestehens der DDR zu einem veränderten Translationsaufkommen führte; die Motive hinter den zu beobachtenden Translationspolitiken sind ebenso entscheidend wie die Auswirkungen auf eine Translationskultur. Daran anknüpfend ergibt sich die Frage nach Beziehungen der DDR zu anderen Ländern oder Institutionen, die durch Translation entstanden und aufrechterhalten wurden. Hierbei sind nicht nur bilaterale Beziehungen etwa zur BRD gemeint, sondern ebenso institutionelle Netzwerke wie die Einbettung in (inter)nationale Berufsverbände und Organisationen. Dabei soll die tatsächliche Translationspraxis nicht außer Acht gelassen werden, die einen großen Teil einer Translationskultur bildet und ebenso als Teil diverser Netzwerke verstanden werden kann.
Wir laden Sie herzlich ein, Beiträge zu diesen oder verwandten Fragestellungen einzureichen:
• Translationspolitik der DDR und/oder Institutionen in der DDR: Was wurde übersetzt? Wer waren die daran beteiligten Personen? Welche Motive standen hinter den Translationspolitiken? Welche Auswirkungen hatten sie auf die Institutionen selbst sowie die Berufspraxis? Inwiefern waren sie von der politischen Lage beeinflusst?
• Translatorische Beziehungen und Netzwerke der DDR und/oder Institutionen in der DDR: Welche translatorischen Beziehungen bestanden zu anderen Staaten und/oder Institutionen national wie international? Wodurch entstanden diese Beziehungen? Welche Rolle nahmen die Beziehungen und Netzwerke ein?
• Translationspraxis: Wie waren die Arbeitsbedingungen von Übersetzer*innen und Dolmetscher*innen und wodurch wurden diese beeinflusst? Welche Rolle spielten Berufsverbände für die Berufspraxis?
Eine stückweise Aufarbeitung einer Translationskultur beinhaltet selbstverständlich die Einbeziehung von Fallbeispielen, vor allem in dem Sinne, dass Fallbeispiele als Ausgangspunkt für weiterführende Fragestellungen sowie schlussendlich zu einer Abstraktion von Erkenntnissen dienen sollen, um allgemeinere Aussagen über eine Translationskultur treffen zu können.
Wir bitten um Einreichung von Abstracts bis zum 15. Juli 2023 unter hanna.blum@uni-graz.at. Abstracts sollten eine Länge von maximal 300 Wörtern haben und können auf Deutsch oder Englisch verfasst sein. Für Vortragende fallen keine Tagungsgebühren an. Die Tagung findet vor Ort statt. Änderungen sind vorbehalten.
The conference will focus on the representation of one or more translation cultures (Prunč 2008) of the GDR, with the aim of summarizing previous research and gaining a comprehensive understanding of translation in the GDR. The focus will be primarily on specialized translation, which has been overlooked in previous studies that have primarily focused on the literary field, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of translation in the GDR.
Contributions are welcome on topics such as the translation policy of the GDR as a state as well as of individual organizations in the GDR, examining the extent to which the political situation during the GDR’s existence led to an increase in translation activities; the motives behind the translation policies to be observed are just as crucial as the effects on a translation culture. Following on from this is the question of relations between the GDR and other countries or institutions that were established and maintained through translation. This does not only include bilateral relations with the FRG, for example, but also institutional networks such as the involvement in (inter)national professional associations and organizations. Furthermore, we encourage an examination of the actual practice of translation, as it forms a significant part of translational culture and can be understood within diverse networks.
We invite you to submit contributions on these topics or related issues:
• Translation policy of the GDR and/or institutions in the GDR: What was translated? Who were the individuals involved in the translation process? What were the motives behind the translation policies? What effects did these policies have on the institutions and professional practice? To what extent were they influenced by the political situation?
• Translational relations and networks of the GDR and/or institutions in the GDR: What translational relations existed with other states and/or institutions on a national and international level? How did these relationships develop? What roles did these relations and networks play?
• Translation practice: What were the working conditions of translators and interpreters and how were they influenced? What role did professional organizations play in shaping professional practices?
Investigating translation cultures always also includes insights derived from case studies, especially in the sense that they serve as a starting point for further questions and ultimately contribute to the abstraction of findings, enabling researchers to make more general statements about the respective translation culture.
Please send your abstracts of no more than 300 words to hanna.blum@uni-graz.at by 15 July 2023. The abstracts can be written in English or German. There is no conference fee for presenters. The conference will be held on site. Please note that the details are subject to change without notice.
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
