Guest editors:
Anna Marzà & Joaquim Dolz
Societies nowadays are multilingual, that is, composed of groups speaking different languages. From a social point of view, multilingualism is conceived as the set of language practices and varieties, with diverse economic and symbolic status, that coexist in a social and cultural context. Population movements, especially internal and international migration and tourism have amplified the coexistence of languages within the same territory. Hence multilingualism can be considered as a universal phenomenon that develops in various ways according to the situations, the status and the representations about the languages that coexist, and the language policies of the countries and institutions. In this context, the terms bilingual or plurilingual are used to describe individuals who know and practice more than one language, as well as educational systems that aim at the simultaneous development of several languages or a holistic treatment of the languages present in schools (Coste, Moore & Zarate [1997] 2009; Béacco & Byram 2007).
The distribution of linguistic resources both from a social point of view and in educational systems is not always fair (Leglisse 2017). This is manifested most notably in the so-called Global South, decolonized countries where people's epistemic rights are racially devalued (Mignolo 2009). Glottophobia and discrimination are more general phenomena and are present in various situations of linguistic minorisation around the world (Blanchet 2005; 2016; Monzó-Nebot & Jiménez-Salcedo 2017) and prompt an ethical and legal reflection on linguistic uses, in particular on their application in the educational field. It is for this purpose that we propose a thematic issue that revolves simultaneously around the following three areas:
Language rights and especially the rights of linguistic minorities have become an object of study (de Varennes 1996; Henrard 2000; Patrick & Freeland 2004; May (2001) 2012). Likewise, they have received attention from international institutions (Ramón i Mimó 1997), as in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (Council of Europe 1992). The report presented by the UN special rapporteur on minority issues (Izsák-Ndiaye 2012) mentions nine concerns regarding the rights of linguistic minorities, three of which seem particularly relevant for this thematic issue: first, the recognition of minority languages and linguistic rights; second, the use of languages in public life; and finally, the position that languages occupy in education.
Educational systems. Faced with the challenge of unequal multilingualism, countries respond with language policies that can be very varied within the educational field. This special issue focuses on the proposals for linguistic organization within educational systems in different contexts. Comparative analyses on the application of the linguistic rights of minorities related to the specific sociolinguistic contexts are particularly relevant. Comparison allows different solutions to emerge as linked to particular situations, revealing the necessary adaptations to the phenomenon of minorisation and their relevance and effectiveness to specific contexts. We are specifically interested in bringing together research that analyses the impacts of the implementation of educational policies catering for the linguistic rights of minorities (Milian i Massana 1992; Kontra et al. 1999; Flors-Mas & Manterola 2021).
Practical experiences promoting minority languages in education present great diversity (Rispail 2017): immersion programs (Artigal 1997; Björklund, Mård-Miettinen & Savijärvi 2017), the incorporation of minority and heritage languages in the classrooms (Maynard, Armand & Brissaud 2020; Sales, Marzà i Ibàñez & Torralba 2023; Prasad & Bettney Heidt 2023), intercomprehension (Bonvino 2015; Carrasco Perea & de Carlo 2019), or mother tongue-based multilingual education (Tupas 2015), among others. Nowadays there is a didactic engineering trend towards the integrated treatment of languages focusing on minority languages, either present in the territories or brought by migration (Perregaux et al. 2003; Pascual 2006; Dolz & Idiazabal 2013; García Azkoaga & Idiazabal 2015; Candelier 2016). The analysis of educational experiences considers the particular teaching strategies, the type of interactions between languages and the dilemmas that occur in educational practices (de Pietro 2004; 2021). Didactic devices can delve into language attitudes and the learning of these languages to limit their minorisation or even to avoid their assimilation or disappearance (Cummins 2000; Candelier 2003; 2008).
Based on the three thematic areas described above, the following questions may guide the preparation of contributions for this special issue:
Deadline for abstracts: 15 May 2024
For more information, click here.
Call for PapersSpecial Issue of The Translator and Interpreter Trainer (2028)Theme: (Re)Conceptualising User Agency in Audiovisual Translation Education.Editors: Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Lisi Liang, Hui Wang and Serenella Massidda. Topics may include:the (re)conceptualisation of “user agency” in the context of non-professional and/or fanbased AVT training;online users’ motivations for exerting agency in AI-powered AVT and its impact on the theory and practice of AVT training;online users’ creativity in specific domains of AVT, such as danmu subtitling, fansubbing/fandubbing, game localisation, access services, and voice synthesis technologies for media localisation and its impact on the theory and practice of AVT training;empirical studies focusing on the activation of user agency through verbal and/or nonverbal channels in online and offline AVT training, supported by robust research methods and with high potential for innovation in AVT pedagogy;the negotiation of agency between AI platform developers, users and educators in AVT training;the extent to which the exercise of user agency bridges or extends the boundaries between professional and non-professional, human and AI translation in AVT training;pedagogical, technological, and ethical implications of user agency for AVT training;the impact of AI-based AVT paradigm and user agency on the established translation training paradigm in AVTSubmission informationSubmission of proposals: 1 July 2026 (title and abstract of approx. 500 words, references included)Acceptance of submitted abstracts: 1 August 2026.Submission of full manuscripts: 1 February 2027 (up to 8,000 words, including references and notes).Acceptance of papers: October 2027Publication: Late Autumn/Winter 2028.More details: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/reconceptualising-user-agency-in-audiovisual-translation-education/
Call for Papers:Symposium: Translating Conflict: Language, Power, and the City.Location: Utrecht University — Languages in the City Series.Date: 22–23 April 2027Topics: Political and institutional translation: invisibility, neutrality, strategic mistranslation, asymmetrical communication.Conflict, post-conflict, humanitarian settings: diplomacy, peace negotiations, legal processes, ethics and positionality of translators, reconciliation.Resistance and public space: translation as activism, urban linguistic landscapes, social-media wars of meaning.Limits and exclusions: untranslatability, silencing, exclusion.Technology: AI-assisted translation in high-stakes settings.Exile and migration: translation, memory, and cultural continuity.Key dates:Submission deadline: 30/06/2026Notification: ~30/09/2026Symposium: 22–23 April 2027More details: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7451657930900361216-SP6Q?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAADAHFiwBi8jC4KbsaPPxHxBkCAx_UoukeoQ
Call for PapersEvent: the 16th International Symposium on Bilingualism.Place and date: University of Saskatchewan, Canada, June 14-18, 2027. Thems and topics:Bi-multilingual speech and communicationCognitive, neuro- and psycholinguisticsChild and adolescent bi-multilingual developmentAdult bi-multilingual developmentEducation and pedagogy HJHeritage, immigrant, regional and other minority languagesIndigenous languagesTranslation and InterpretingSociolinguistics and Sociology of languageSpeech-language pathology; Health CommunicationAbstract submission deadline: 1 October 2026. More details: https://conferences.usask.ca/isb16/
Call for Abstracts This is a call for an edited volume on 'Translators at Work in Periodicals: Agency, Mediation, and Cultural Power'. Edited by Ivana Hostová and Eva SpišiakováSuggested topics:• periodicals as infrastructures of literary, cultural, and intellectual mediation• translators, editors, reviewers, and other mediators shaping periodical cultures• translators’ multiple roles, including editing, curating, annotating, and framing• distributed, relational, or contested agency in periodical cultures• translator agency, editorial strategy, and activism• translation in peripheral, semi-peripheral, or politically unstable ecologies• periodicals as spaces of cultural resistance, ideological struggle, or symbolic negotiation• paratextual framing, editorial positioning, and the politics of selection• material and medial conditions of translation, including format, layout, page space, seriality, and multimodality• circulation of minoritized, marginalized, or non-canonical literatures• periodicals and the transfer of theory, philosophy, science, or political ideas• translation in periodicals and the making of national, regional, or transnational cultures• microhistorical or biographical studies of translators and editors• actor-network, social-network, bibliographic, or database-driven approaches• methodological reflections on blending close reading with large-scale or digitally assisted analysisDeadline for abstracts: 31 December 2026Deadline for full chapters: 31 July 2028Expected publication: 2029Full info: https://ktr.ff.ukf.sk/en/research/call-for-abstracts-translators-at-work-in-periodicals-agency-mediation-and-cultural-power/
Call for Papers:Conference: Global North and Global South Perspectives on Literature, Linguistics, and Translation.Organised by the Research Centre for Irish Studies (RCIS).Date: 7-8 June 2026. Main themes: Literature;Irish Studies;Linguistics;Translation, Power and Knowledge Circulation. Submission deadline: 30 April 2026More info: https://old.bue.edu.eg/global-north-and-global-south-perspectives-on-literature-linguistics-and-translation-conference-7-8-june-2026/
