Calls for papers

The main aim of this hybrid Colloquium (in person and online) – which has shifted venue from edition to edition since 2016 – is to periodically offer an overview of the latest trends in the research on translation and gender around the world, with special emphasis on its cross-pollination with a number of disciplines, including but not limited to Translation Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Cultural and Media Studies, Sociology, Politics, Linguistics and Literary Criticism. Besides its overview of the growing diversity of research (both theoretical and practical) on translation and gender/sexuality/equality, the 5th edition of this Colloquium will have a thematic orientation focused on the role played by translation and interpreting as agents of resistance to and change of the dynamics between gender and power in society.   The alliance between feminism(s) and translation has fostered the development of studies centred around agency and performativity of the individual, the translator or the interpreter and their role in society. In the 21st century, both feminism(s) and translation have become privileged spaces of agency, activism and resistance, thus becoming central to the identification and analysis of the strategies of subordination used to exercise social, political and cultural power.   Starting from the work by Rebecca Ruth Gould and Kayvan Tahmasebian, The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Activism (2017), we intend to develop further the notion of the translator/interpreter as activist, namely as champion of political change, advocate of gender equality, promoter of gender diversity, voice-giver and helper of minorities, migrants and refugees, and agent of change capable of putting “into words the perspectives and experiences of oppressed and silenced peoples”. Our reflection also follows in the footsteps of Olga Castro and Emek Ergun’s research on Feminist Translation Studies. Local and Transnational Perspectives (2017) in order to widen the discussion on the interplay between feminist translation, agency and activism as academic fields of enquiry.  The Colloquium aims at making visible the important role of interpreters and translators in: 1) promoting and enabling social, political and cultural change around the world; 2) promoting equality; 3) fighting discrimination; 4) supporting gender diversity; 5) supporting human rights; 6) empowering minorities; 7) challenging authority and injustice not only across European countries but all over the world; 8) facilitating network-building activities among activists and agents of change and 8) teaching feminist translation as a pedagogical act in support of social and gender equality.  We are aware that translation is a powerful tool capable of producing social, political and cultural transformation. Thus, the Colloquium wants to open a forum of discussion and reflection on the contribution offered by practitioners, stakeholders and scholars to the study of translation as activism and agent of change.   Deadline for submissions: 15 April 2022 For more information, click here

CfP conference: 13-15 July 2022. Performative & Experiential Translation: Meaning-Making through Language, Art and Media, King’s College, London. Deadline for proposals: 21 April 2022

CfP. Special issue: Translation in and from the Middle Ages. Special issue of Translation Matters 5.2 (Autumn 2023) Deadline for submissions: 31st October 2022

Special Issue in The Translator, edited by Cornelia Zwischenberger and Leandra Sitte Several relatively new forms of translation have emerged following the advent of the participatory Web 2.0. These include solicited forms of translation such as translation crowdsourcing used by for-profit companies like Facebook or Twitter. There are also other forms of translation like machine translation or self-translation occurring on social media platforms, especially on newer representatives like Instagram or TikTok (Desjardins 2019). Translation crowdsourcing is also employed by non-profit organizations like TED or Kiva. While these companies or organizations recruit voluntary and unpaid translators, there are also several translation platforms such as Gengo or Unbabel which employ paid translation crowdsourcing at below market rates (Jiménez-Crespo 2021). Furthermore, these relatively new forms of translation also include a wide range of unsolicited and self-managed types of translation such as interlingual knowledge-sharing through Wikipedia (Jones 2017, 2019; McDonough Dolmaya 2015, 2017) or Yeeyan (Yang 2020) as well as the various types of online fan translations such as fansubbing, fandubbing, scanlations or translation hacking (Fabbretti 2019; Lee 2009; Orrego-Carmona 2019; Muñoz Sánchez 2007, 2009). Even though these more recent phenomena and the communities involved in the translation process have caught the attention of Translation Studies scholars and have been studied from multiple perspectives, two lacunae have been identified by Zwischenberger (2021). Firstly, there is no consensus as to what constitutes the most appropriate top-level concept for these translation phenomena. Several candidates are currently being used concomitantly, including online collaborative translation, voluntary translation, user-generated translation (UGT), and social online translation, to name but a few. Secondly, research into the ethical implications of these online translation practices is lacking in depth and number. Ethical issues are only rarely addressed directly in the relevant literature and if so they are addressed only in passing. The special issue will tackle these two lacunae, with the groundwork having already been laid by our one-day symposium Translation on and over the Web: Disentangling its conceptual uncertainties and ethical questions, held in November 2021. Deadline for submissions: 30 April 2022 For more information, click here

The European Association for Machine Translation (EAMT) invites everyone interested in machine translation and translation-related tools and resources ― developers, researchers, users, translation and localization professionals and managers ― to participate in this conference.Driven by the state of the art, the research community will demonstrate their cutting-edge research and results. Professional machine translation users will provide insight into successful MT implementation of machine translation (MT) in business scenarios as well as implementation scenarios involving large corporations, governments, or NGOs. Translation studies scholars and translation practitioners are also invited to share their first-hand MT experience, which will be addressed during a special track. Deadline for abstracts: 25 March 2022 For more information, click here

The conference participants will be addressed by keynote speakers followed by conference sections bringing together researchers in:  linguistics (various aspects in linguistics and translation),  terminology (with emphasis on specialized biology lexis and terminology),  language technology and  lexicography. Researchers on similar topics related to linguistic diversity, terminology, and statistics are also welcome to apply. Deadline for abstracts: 31 July 2022 For more information, click here 

Scholars from Translation Studies and other disciplines (such as Sociology or Communication Studies) are increasingly becoming more interested in the multi-faceted and thought-provoking topic of interpreting and translation provided by non-professionals of any age and background, with or without remuneration, under a variety of circumstances, and for a wide spectrum of reasons. Non-professional interpreting and translation (NPIT) are widespread enough to allow us to see translation and interpreting not only as recognized and established professions but also as a ubiquitous social practice of much-needed mediation. In this context, one might attempt to investigate NPIT not merely as an opposite, and perhaps problematic, or even renegade, pole to professional mediation, but as ‘unstated’ mediation. NPIT presents an acceptable practice, which, however, remains less visible and less appreciated not only by professionals and society in general but even by non-professional interpreters and translators themselves. Delving into the ethical aspects of NPIT would provide perhaps one of the most inclusive categories which can act as a generic framework for investigating the forms it can take and its repercussions for all ‘sides’ involved. More specifically, the NPIT6 Conference at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia will attempt to explore the ethical questions arising from the ‘unstated’ character of NPIT. In so doing, NPIT6 aims to align itself with contemporary research trends and continue the fruitful discussions of the previous NPIT conferences, from the ‘natal’ one at the University of Bologna/Forlì in 2012, through to NPIT2 in Mainz/Germersheim (2014), NPIT3 in Zurich (2016), NPIT4 in Stellenbosch (2018), and NPIT5 in Amsterdam & Utrecht (2021). In the 2023 conference, emphasis is placed on the status and conceptualization of NPIT, as well as on ethical questions regarding not only NPIT itself but also professional interpreting and translation, their role in society, and their possible impact on the very notions of mediation and professional identity. The 6th International Conference on Non-Professional Interpreting and Translation (NPIT6) Organizing Committee invites proposals for presentations on any theoretical, empirical, and/or methodological aspect of research related to the conference theme. For all proposals, the official conference language is English. Three categories of proposals will be considered: (i) individual presentations, (ii) panels, and (iii) posters. Topics may include, but are not limited to: Ethics and professional identity Mapping NPIT Ethical models of mediation Conceptualizations of ethical conduct by professional and non-professional mediators Human crises, conflict situations, and ad hoc translation and/or interpreting Adult/child language and cultural brokering / Family interpreting Non-professional vs professional community translation and interpreting settings (NGOs, asylum-seeking, health care, community and social care, courts, and police) Non-professional translation and/or interpreting within other professional contexts (teaching, journalism, business communication, etc.) Information technologies and machine translation Natural/native translation and interpreting Non-professional church/religious interpreting and/or translation Non-professional interpreting and/or translation for the media Non-professional sign language interpreting Stakeholder perspectives on non-professional interpreters and translators Training for non-professional interpreters and translators Integration of non-professional mediators into professional communities Deadline for proposals: 18 September 2022 For more information, click here

After a very successful online conference in 2021, we look forward to welcoming you back to Berlin from 7 – 9 November 2022 for the 14th edition of Languages & The Media, the International Conference and Exhibition on Language Transfer in Audiovisual Media. Languages & The Media 2022 will be held at Radisson Blu Hotel, which has been our home for the past decade. We are pleased to return to it and enjoy our traditional workshops, presentations, panels and networking with good old-fashioned face-to-face interaction with all of you. We have certainly ridden not one but multiple waves of discovery and discussion since we last met in person. The streaming revolution has continued strong and is still picking up pace, as original content is exploding, especially in languages other than English, with renewed attention paid to inclusion and diversity, as well as accessibility for all. Workflows and tools have moved entirely to the cloud, to enable more remote connections as home-working has become the new norm in the post-pandemic world, while automation is being applied at every step of the production chain. From online platforms that support better media and project management, to language technologies aimed at augmenting translators’ capabilities with more tools under their belt, to sound and VFX-type technologies used to recreate performances in any language one can imagine, new tech solutions for the media and entertainment sector keep springing up one after the other - with a strong influx of funding to boost their development.  2020 was the year that dubbing got disrupted and a host of new software applications and solutions appeared in the market, bringing this popular audiovisual translation practice closer to its cinephile cousin, subtitling. The perennial question of whether to dub or to sub was asked anew in 2021 and the answer was a resounding ‘both’, as viewers around the world got reacquainted with the art of media localization. As with other topics that make global headlines, be it a new vaccine or the quality of translation in a top grossing show, everyone has an opinion. If there was ever a time for the creative media localization experts to escape the invisibility of their profession and tell the world their story, it is now. Deadline for submissions: 14 February 2022 For more information, click here

The theme of the 2022 KäTu Symposium is Translator’s Image. With this theme, we wish to shed light on different images of translators/interpreters and translation/interpreting, whether viewed by ourselves or others. What does the work of translators and interpreters look like today? What did it look like in the past? What will it look like in the future? Who defines the image of translators and interpreters, and what kinds of factors affect it? How is translation perceived from outside the profession? The theme also encompasses the relationship between translation and visual elements, from accessibility to audio-visual translation and intersemiotic transfer. The theme may be approached from various perspectives, including the following: – The professional image and visibility of translators and interpreters (in real-world contexts and in fiction; in contemporary and historical contexts) – Future visions of translation/interpreting and translator/interpreter education: inspiration, innovation, threats – In-depth perspectives on and broad overviews of translation (everyday practices; perceptions, networks, theories) – The role of images and visual elements in translation (audio-visual translation, translation of children’s literature, instruction manuals etc.; accessibility of images) – Intersemiotic translation: from visual to verbal (including audio description) or from verbal to visual – Figurative language and metaphors in and of translation. In keeping with established KäTu tradition, presentations and posters on other topics related to translation and interpreting are also welcome. Deadline for submissions: 17 January 2022 For more information, click here

Call for Abstracts Questions to be addressed include, but are not limited to, the following: How are the concepts of ‘cultural translation’ and ‘cultural transfer’ reflected in museum practices? What are conceptual differences and common grounds? Which perspectives and research methods are useful to study the various transfer processes in the contemporary museum? What types of translation and transfer (interlingual, intralingual, intersemiotic, etc.) are present in museums? How do spatial, visual and textual resources interact multimodally? How do translation practices and policies differ according to the type of museum (memorial museums, migration museums, ethnographic museums, etc.)?  What is the role of different agents and stakeholders (curators, translators, local communities, visitors)? How do the various types of translation and transfer function as instruments of power? How are (national or foreign, dominant or minor) cultures, identities and memories (re)imagined in museums? In what ways do forms of translation and transfer facilitate the interchange and cross-fertilization of cultures in the contact zone? To what extent are museum concepts culturally defined? What are the indications of globalized museum practices nowadays? How can we assess the importance of the digital space and the hybrid exhibition model for meaning-making in museums? If you wish to present a paper, please send a brief abstract (300 words) and a short bio (50 words) to museumtranslation@ut.ee by midnight on 15 December 2021. If your abstract is selected, you will receive a notification of acceptance by 20 January 2022. Language Policy: the conference language is English. Venue: University of Tartu College of Foreign Languages and Cultures (J. Liivi street 4) At the moment, the conference is planned as an on-site event. However, depending on the development of the pandemic, we will consider the possibility of making some parts available online. This conference is organized in collaboration with the Cultural Transfer Research Group of the Enlight University Network. For more information please follow the link here. 

Pivot audiovisual translation: A burning issue for research and training. Guest-edited by Hanna Pięta, Susana Valdez, Rita Menezes and Stavroula Sokoli This special issue focuses on pivot audiovisual translation (AVT), understood as the process or product of translating an audiovisual content through an intermediate language or text. AVT research and training want to keep pace with the fast-evolving market, and this makes pivot AVT a burning issue for these two areas. To address this issue, we call for contributions engaging with key questions that include, but are not limited to: − how were pivot AVT produced and received in the past; how are they produced and received today? − what were/are the reasons and causes of translating audiovisual content from translation or with further translation in mind? − what are the attitudes, beliefs and expectations of audiovisual translators who create or work from pivot texts? In which modes or settings are they more/less tolerant towards this practice? How about other stakeholders? − how exactly are pivot AVT different from direct AVT, for example in terms of their linguistic make-up or translators’ and viewers’ expectations? − are there patterns related to indirectness that are common to various AVT modes (e.g. deaf relay interpreting; videogame localization; fansubbing)? − which models of analysis can help us classify different instances of indirectness within AVT? − what specific competences and technologies are needed to efficiently translate audiovisual content from translation or with a further translation in mind? − when, where and how exactly can we train translators to produce pivot AVT of the highest quality possible? Closing date for submissions: 22 December For more information, click here

 CFP for the first issue of the open-access journal, International Journal of Chinese and English Translation & Interpreting (IJCETI) to be published in June 2022.  The International Journal of Chinese and English Translation & Interpreting (IJCETI) is the first peer-reviewed international journal devoted to the T&I research, training and practice of Chinese and English language pair. It promotes a cross-fertilization among research, training and professional practice in Chinese/English T&I studies. The journal publishes high quality articles based on merit, rigour and integrity. It adopts the open-access policy to promote accessibility and academic impact. The journal publishes two issues per annum (June and December), plus one guest-edited special issue where there is an interest. The guideline for authors can be accessed here.