Calls for papers

Guest editorsFélix do Carmo, Dorothy Kenny and Mary Nurminen OverviewAny contemporary investigation of advances in translation must surely take into account the riseof machine translation (MT), acknowledging improvements in its quality and the many worthycauses it can serve (Nurminen and Koponen 2020). But irenic engagement with the technologydoes not have to be uncritical, and alongside a growing number of empirical investigations oftranslation workflows that use MT, translation studies scholars have also begun to interrogate itsethical basis (Kenny, Moorkens and do Carmo 2020). Some such studies (e.g. do Carmo 2020)touch upon the very definition of translation, its relationship to post-editing, and the materialconsequences for professional translators of industry’s sometimes self-serving construal of theseactivities. But there are still only rare explorations of how we in translation studies, by embracingMT, are changing our own understanding of translation. And studies that reflect on how, byintegrating MT into translation studies, we may be reconfiguring our field of inquiry, are evenrarer. Against this backdrop, this special issue aims to (re-)examine the field of translation studies and itsobject of inquiry, in a context in which translation could be conceived of as taking many forms,including forms that culminate in readers accessing raw machine outputs. We also wish togenerate debate on the effects of the full integration of MT, and related activities such as postediting, into translation studies as a multidiscipline, and to invite reflection on whetherincorporating MT represents an advance for the discipline or an impoverishment (if we think MTconstitutes a reduction of translation to automatable transfer). Ultimately, we seek to pose aquestion that goes to the heart of the discipline: could MT be the straw that breaks translationstudies’ back, under the weight of the ongoing import of knowledge from outside, or could MT bea golden opportunity for translation studies to reveal the value of the knowledge it has alreadyconstructed and continues to construct on its object of study? Deadline for abstracts: 30 November 2022 For more information, click here

Conference theme: Capturing conceptual complexity with updated theories and enriched corpus designsIn the about thirty-year-long tradition of corpus-based translation/interpreting and contrastive studies, the field has gone through many stages ranging from the initial infatuation with corpus linguistics methodology, through getting stuck at its favourite ‘teddy-bear’ operationalizations (De Stutter & Lefer 2020), to the situation in which the methodological development may be even outpacing or displacing theoretical development (Kotze, Halverson, De Sutter 2022, TT2 roundtable description). It is clear that the field today needs to align ‘fundamental conceptual and theoretical reflection’ (Kotze, Halverson, De Sutter 2022, TT2 roundtable description) with empirical designs reaching far beyond the first approaches designed originally to investigate texts and translations carried out in pen and paper era.In this context, we would like to view the UCCTS 2023 conference as an opportunity for translation/interpreting and contrastive studies scholars to actively engage in discussions on these urgent issues, whose resolution would help the two sister disciplines to move forward. Deadline for abstract: 30 Jan 2023 For more information, click here

Assistant Professor of Spanish Translation and Interpretation with a solid foundation in language pedagogy and the theory, practice and teaching of Translation and Interpreting Studies. This is a nine-month, tenure-track appointment to begin August 16, 2023.Responsibilities include:           Teach five undergraduate and graduate courses per year Work collaboratively with colleagues to re-envision and expand our current translation program in the department Engage in research and publication Mentor and advise students Assist the department in outreach and recruitment Provide service to the department, university, and profession Deadline for applications: 28 November 2022 For more information, click here

The theme of the conference is Corpus Linguistics in the Digital Era: Genres, Registers and Domains. Most studies based on or derived from corpora, implicitly or explicitly, deal with the notion of genre, and other concepts such as those of register and domain. In Corpus Linguistics, the importance of these concepts has been repeatedly highlighted in studies by Douglas Biber and other linguists working in the field of Corpus Linguistics. This is the reason why the theme selected for the conference is Corpus Linguistics in the digital era, with especial reference to the analysis of genres, registers and domains. The conference will also cater for other themes such as the analysis of genres, registers and domains in Applied Linguistics and statistical analyses. These themes will be dealt with in different round tables taken place during the academic event. Deadline for submissions: 31 December 2022 For more information, click here

The theme of the conference is Corpus Linguistics in the Digital Era: Genres, registers and domains. Most studies based on or derived from corpora, implicitly or explicitly, deal with the notion of genre, and other concepts such as those of register and domain. In Corpus Linguistics, the importance of these concepts has been repeatedly highlighted in studies by Douglas Biber and other linguists working in the field of Corpus Linguistics. This is the reason why the theme selected for the conference is Corpus Linguistics in the digital era, with especial reference to the analysis of genres, registers and domains. The conference will also cater for other themes such as the analysis of genres, registers and domains in Applied Linguistics and statistical analyses. These themes will be dealt with in different round tables taken place during the academic event. For more information, click here Deadline for applications: 31 December 2022

Translang: Moving beyond languages TRANSLANG is a journal of Translation and Languages founded in 2002 at the University of Oran. The published works in the journal were more directed to German with a clear orientation towards translation, under the direction of Djamel Eddine Lachachi.  From 2010 onwards, TRANSLANG becomes multidisciplinary and more languages are present: English, Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian and the work is balanced between translation and languages. In 2015, the management was taken over by Ghania Ouahmiche and TRANSLANG is edited by the University of Oran 2. The editor-in-chief worked on its indexing through new orientations, with a greater emphasis on translation studies. In 2020, Translang is indexed, its staff is characterised by the international dimension which gives the journal more credibility. In 2022, Translang is updated and specialised in translation studies, as part of the High Quality Research (HQR) framework. The themes addressed today are particularly related to the reflection on translation as a process, especially the translation of specialised texts (technical, literary, artistic), on the interpreting process (simultaneous, consecutive, community), on the cognitive aspects of translation, history of translation, didactics and pedagogy, translatology, and terminology, etc. For more information, click here Deadline for abstracts: 23 October 2022

Since the “sociological turn”, the object of study in literary translation research has expanded beyond the textual to examine literary translators and their labour within the contexts that they work. By applying sociological frameworks such as the Bourdieusian sociology of cultural production, scholars have demonstrated the fruitfulness of examining the roles played by translators in the movement of literary texts between languages and cultures and their positions within the fields of power that govern these processes (Sapiro, 2008; 2016). In doing so, sociological investigations into the agency, habitus and role of literary translators have echoed calls within the discipline more broadly to refocus our attention on the figure of the translator within translation studies (e.g. Simeoni, 1998; Sela-Sheffy 2005, 2008; Hu, 2004), which have since developed into the subfield of “translator studies” (Chesterman, 2009) and more recently, “literary translator studies” (Kaindl et al., 2021). However, despite the focus of sociological and translator studies on the agency and habitus of translators in literary translation processes, little has been done to connect this work to broader sociological understandings of publishing practices, a field of research where translation and translators also remain largely invisible — particularly in digital contexts. For instance, in Simone Murray’s Bourdieusian charting of The Digital Literary Sphere (2018), she gives only limited reference to the cultural capital required to initiate translation processes, whilst John Thompson provides a limited overview of the powerful global position enjoyed by English-language texts in comparison to translations into English (2010, 13) and the sale of foreign language rights by Anglophone literary agents (61-69) with no reference made to translators themselves. As such, this special issue seeks to bridge this gap between sociological approaches in translation studies and other fields such as publishing studies and book history, whilst continuing steps towards understanding the relationships between humans and digital contexts seen in the work of scholars such as Cronin (2012) and Desjardins et al. (2020). To achieve this aim, suggested topics include, but are not limited to:  interdisciplinary and methodological considerations on the multifaceted social roles played by literary translators in digital contexts, e.g. developing Bourdieusian approaches for digital contexts the human dimension of literary translators working in digital contexts, e.g. their professional status, emotions, (mental) health, identities, image-building, networks, and communities  literary translators’ negotiations and interactions with the publishing world, e.g. how digital contexts impact the publishing industry and literary translators’ agency in the production, circulation, and reception of translated products literary translators’ interactions with technologies, digital tools and social media for their self-development and self-positioning, e.g. how the digital space facilitates their translation tasks, amplifies their agency, and makes their role more visible to the public ethical issues, dilemmas or crisis concerning the relationship between literary translators and technological advancements, between humans and technology Prospective authors should submit abstracts for their proposed papers (400-500 words, excluding references) to literarytranslatorspecialissue@gmail.com by 31 October 2022.   Timeline: Deadline for abstracts (400-500 words, excl. references):  31 October 2022 Notification on abstracts: 30 November 2022 Submission of full papers: 15 April 2023 Notification of outcome of peer review: 15 July 2023 Revised versions: 31 October 2023 Final decision: 15 November 2023 Final manuscripts: 1 December 2023 Publication: Spring 2024    References: Chesterman, A. 2009. The Name and Nature of Translator Studies. Hermes – Journal of Language and Communication in Business. 42, pp.13-22. Cronin, M. 2012. Translation in the digital age. London and New York: Routledge. Desjardins, R., Larsonneur, C. and Lacour, P. eds. 2021. When Translation Goes Digital: Case Studies and Critical Reflections. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Hu, G. 2004. Translator-Centredness. Perspectives 12 (2), pp.106-117.  Kaindl, K., Waltraud Kolb, and Daniela Schlager. eds. 2021. Literary Translator Studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Murray, S. 2018. The digital literary sphere: reading, writing, and selling books in the Internet era. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Sapiro, G. 2008. Translation and the Field of Publishing: A Commentary on Pierre Bourdieu’s “A Conservative Revolution in Publishing”. Translation Studies. 1(2), pp.154-166. Sapiro, G. 2016. How Do Literary Works Cross Borders (or Not)? A Sociological Approach to World Literature. Journal of World Literature. 1(1), pp.81-96. Sela-Sheffy, R. 2005. How to be a (recognized) translator: Rethinking habitus, norms, and the field of translation. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies. 17(1), pp. 1-26. Sela-Sheffy, R. 2008. The Translators’ Personae: Marketing Translatorial Images as Pursuit of Capital. Meta. 52(3), pp. 609-622. Simeoni, D. 1998. The Pivotal Status of the Translator’s Habitus. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies. 10(1), pp. 1-39. Thompson, J. B. 2010. Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Polity Press. 

Taking the AHRC-funded Experiential Translation Network (www.experientialtranslation.net)as a departure point in its focus on intersemiotic translation (Campbell and Vidal 2019), thisedited volume aims to explore the nature of translation in contemporary society and askswhat role experiential translation can play in addressing the ‘untranslatable residue thatreveals unbridgeable cultural differences’ (Kramsch and Zhu 2020:10). Where culturaltranslation aims to ‘make untranslatable experiences translatable across culturalboundaries’ (ibid:9), experiential translation aims to make experiences translatable acrossthe linguistic and sensory boundaries and media that together serve to generate, maintainor challenge cultural hegemonies. In a conflicted world we ask how experiential translationcan contribute to growing calls to employ ‘different strategies … to resist traditionalperceptions of translation and the translator’ (Bhanot and Tiang 2022:11). Whetherfavouring opacity or porosity, the translator’s subject position in relation to the ‘original’ istransformed by the role of experimentation, creativity and play where, as Lee (2022)explains in his book Translation as Experimentation: ‘Instead of discarding … idiosyncrasiesand epiphanies as irrelevant to the work of translation, a ludic perspective embraces themand actively considers how they can be co-opted to add value to the original work inunexpected ways’ (Lee 2022: 46). At the same time the notion of (‘original’) text as worldcomprising not just words but all modalities of communication including the human beingsthat produce them and the natural and technological environment within which humansoperate explodes the outward turn in translation studies (Vidal Claramonte 2022) toencompass translation as a transdisciplinary, pluriversal phenomenon. Experientialtranslation embraces the visibility of the translator and eschews semiotic erasures imposedby the norms and expectations of source and target cultures. As such it aims to undoacquired knowledge and give voice not only to the sensory and affective, but to endownature with the status of ‘text’ (Taivalkoski-Shilov and Poncharal 2020). Experientialtranslation views translation as a holistic, co-creative process of discovery and renewal in adynamic ecological context where Western anthropocentric discourse is displaced by apluriverse of local and global, analogue and digital, (dis)embodied voices.The Experiential Transaltion Network (ETN) Conference and Exhibition (2022) broughttogether artists, curators, scholars and educators to experiment, produce works andinterrogate the notion and implications of Performative and Experiential Translation:Meaning-Making through Language, Art and Media. Presentations and exhibits exploredmodes of meaning-making, community engagement and intercultural communicationthrough multimodal translation including video, dance, painting, print-making, immersiveinstallations, sound art, film and photography.Following an expression of interest from a major academic publisher for an edited volumeas part of a series on new perspectives in translation, the present cfp seeks to build on thefindings and questions that arose from this event.   For more information, click here Deadline for proposals: 1 Nov 2022

Research group “Translation and Language Studies” (Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology) is pleased to invite you to participate in the international conference on linguistics, discourse, media, communication, translation, cultural literacy and impact on society “Intermediality in Communication: Translation, Media, Discourse” held in Kaunas, Lithuania. You are invited to present your projects and experiences in the formats of oral or poster presentations on the topics below. Abstracts may not be longer than 2500 characters including spaces. The minimum number of characters for an abstract to be reviewed is 1500 including spaces. The presentations will last 30 minutes including 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. Topics The scope of the conference “Intermediality in Communication: Translation, Media, Discourse” includes the following topics: Challenges in Translation/Interpreting: Methodologies, Tools, Practices Intersemiotic Translation and Cultural Literacy Language and Social Media New Media Language Discourse, Communities, Gender, Impact on Society Imagology Studies Deadline for abstracts: 3 October 2022 For more information, click here

Call for proposals for thematic issues for review by the journal’s editorial board Guest editors may submit proposals for thematic issues to the journal’s editorial board. To do so, please send your proposal to Dr Isabelle Robert, using the journal’s general e-mail address (lans.tts@gmail.com). To be considered, proposals must include the following five elements: guest editors’ names and affiliations; guest editors’ track records in the suggested research domain(s) (e.g., proof of achievements, credentials, expertise); a title and a brief presentation of the proposed topic (500–1000 words), consisting of a general description of the theme, followed by more specific research topics; a working reference list in APA format (7th edition) and a motivation (max. 500 words) explaining why the proposed topic is innovative, relevant for Translation Studies and feasible considering the scope of an annual publication. Proposal reviews for thematic issues The editorial board will draw up a shortlist of proposals by initially examining proposals based on their originality, international thematic relevance, innovativeness and (non)redundancy with former thematic issues. For an overview of former issues, please consult the following URLs: https://lans-tts.uantwerpen.be/index.php/LANS-TTS/issue/archive https://lans-tts.uantwerpen.be/index.php/LANS-TTS/announcement Proposals for thematic issues are discussed at the annual meeting of the editorial board, which generally takes place in November. The editorial board will take one of the following three decisions: accept the proposal without modifications; accept the proposal with suggestions for modifications (‘conditional acceptance’) and reject the proposal. Deadline for proposals: 25 October 2022 For more information, click here

The theme of the conference is Diversity Now. The United Nations General Assembly has declared the period between 2022 and 2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages to draw attention to the critical status of many Indigenous languages across the world and to encourage action for their preservation, revitalisation, and promotion. ISB14 especially encourages submissions of work involving lesser-studied bilingual communities and interdisciplinary work examining bilingualism across cultures, societies, and the life-span. ISB14 invites submissions in all areas of research on bilingualism and multilingualism, including but not limited to: linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, applied linguistics, neuropsychology, language acquisition, clinical linguistics, language and education, and multilingual societies. Keynote speakers include:  Christos Pliatsikas (Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism, School of Psychological and Clinical Language Science, University of Reading) Ingrid Piller (Centre for Workforce Futures, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University) Kevin Kien Hoa Chung (Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong) Kilian Seeber (Faculty of Translation and Interpreting, University of Geneva) Leher Singh (Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore) Ofelia Garcia (Urban Education and Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures, City University of New York) Sharynne McLeod (School of Education, Charles Sturt University) We invite abstracts for two categories of submissions: individual papers and posters. Individual papers are formal presentations on original research or pedagogy-focused topics by one or more authors, lasting a maximum of 20 minutes with 5 additional minutes for discussion. Posters on original research or pedagogy will be displayed in sessions that offer the opportunity for individualised, informal discussion with others in the field. Posters are especially effective for presenting work-in-progress, fieldwork, and results of empirical research for which data can be presented visually. Posters will be available throughout an entire day of the conference with presenters in attendance for a 90-minute poster session. Abstract submission is now open and will end on 30 November 2022. For more information, click here  

The aim of this special issue is to reflect upon the intersection of Translation Studies (TS) and the contemporary relational theorizing of society, culture, and persons and to go beyond narrow interlingual conceptualization of translation by highlighting its procedural nature, and inherent potential in cultural and social theory. As such, relational thinking, which has deep roots in the social sciences, seeks to analyze the concept of agency/structure as a relational rather than individual, and it focuses on connections between interactants; that is, networks of relations and interdependencies, both interpersonal and impersonal, in which interactants and their joint actions are embedded (Emirbayer 1997, Crossley 2011, Donati 2011, Powell & Dépelteau, 2013; Depelteau, 2018). A relational worldview privileges relations rather than things, in this sense, the terms and units involved in any transaction derive their meaning, significance, and identity from the changing roles they play within that transaction. That is to say, interdependency and interconnectedness have repeatedly been conceptualized and visualized through the concept of network that traces relationships in the emergence or development of social or cultural phenomena. Further, the fast-developing field of network analysis, social network analysis (SNA) in particular, offers a wealth of tools for the analysis of the structure (centrality, functional role, triadic closure, community) and dynamics (information diffusion, robustness) of the networked system built on top social relationships, with revealing applications in Art, History and Cultural Studies (Schich, 2014; Park, 2015; Sigaki, 2018), and also in TS ( Buzelin and Folaron, 2007; Ashrafi, 2018; Roig-Sanz and Subirana, 2020; Risku, 2016). Mapping networks of relations allows non-reductionist contextualized analysis of the individual’s actions (micro), the relationships (meso) that are established or built, and the emergent structures (macro) in the guise of patterns of interactions. Thus, in the wake of a relational approach, we might ask, how do networks structure relationships? or, how do relationships manipulate networks for their own purposes? or, how do relationships emerge and evolve? Our point is not only that those individuals (actors) are formed within and are thus inseparable from interactions and relations, but also, in a more semiotically-informed vein, that we can identify translational mechanisms within interactions, relations and networks which help to explain and understand events in the social world. From a translational perspective, the embedded and relational character of a translation phenomenon lends itself well to theorizing relational networks of heterogeneous actors (actants). The prominent example of such an approach is the concept of Translation in Latour’s actor-network theory and relational ethnography of Desmond (2014), which involves studying fields rather than places, boundaries rather than bounded groups, processes rather than processed people, and cultural conflict rather than group culture. In this sense, translation as a boundary phenomenon can provide conceptual and methodological insights contributing to “culture as translation” (Wolf, 2014). We particularly welcome papers that draw upon a methodological and/or conceptual dialogue between the relational approach and TS. We can illustrate this most effectively by simply asking: How does Translation as a meaning-making/taking activity contribute to the emergence of the social? (See Marais’s semiotic approach, 2019). We anticipate that this exploration will open up new avenues for exploring future directions and prospects in interdisciplinary research in TS. With this ultimate goal in mind, we will welcome both theoretical and methodological reflections, as well as papers based on empirical approaches. Topics that could be addressed include, but are not limited to: Rethinking the basic sociological/translational concepts of structure, agency, habitus, or norms through the lens of relational approach in a translational context• The conceptual/methodological contributions of TS to relational sociology• The role of translational networks/interactions/relations in the emergence of cultures and/or societies• Rethinking world translation flows and the marginal and/or peripheral cultures/societies• Rethinking the relational context of (forced) migration as a translational practice• Rethinking poetics and repertoire as relational constructs• The significance of networks of relations/interactions in reinforcing /challenging or emergence of a translation policy• Methodological reflections on the relational embeddedness of a translational practice• The intersection of activist practices (feminism among them), translation, and relational epistemology Deadline for abstracts: 15 September 2022 For more information, click here