Calls for papers

Special Thematic Section for Translation, Cognition and & Behaviour (Issue 4:2 2021): Consolidating experimental research in audiovisual translation, guest edited by Stephen Doherty. Deadline for proposals: 30 November 2020 For more information, click here

We are inviting chapter proposals for a volume entitled The Human Translator in the 2020s, to be  edited by Gary Massey, David Katan and Elsa Huertas Barros. The advance of machine translation  (MT) into the routine cognitive work hitherto done by translators creates an increasing demand for   post-editing and related technology-led skills, but it is also opening spaces for adaptive experts able to  identify, deliver and advise on the added value of human translation and language service provision  beyond the scope of automation. Driven by evolving digital resources and socio-ethical demands, the  roles and responsibilities associated with the new and emerging profiles in the language industry are  rapidly and comprehensively transcending the traditional bounds of core activities and competences  prototypically associated with translation and interpreting. This volume will bring together a selection  of research-based and practice-oriented perspectives on the subject, shedding light on the new and  evolving roles, responsibilities and competences of the human translator in the 2020s.  A preliminary proposal for the volume has been reviewed internally and conditionally accepted  for publication in the IATIS Yearbook series (Routledge) in 2022. The book will comprise eight to ten  chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion. Each main chapter will contain approx. 6,000 words,  including references. Chapter proposals will be reviewed by the editors. All chapters submitted at their invitation will be subject to a double-blind peer review.  Background  Digital transformation and demographic change are profoundly affecting the way our societies and  economies function, confronting the translation profession with challenges, but also with  opportunities. Accelerating technological developments, especially artificial intelligence, are  reshaping the way translators work, changing processes, tasking and demand structures in the  language industry. The advance of machine translation (MT) into the routine cognitive work hitherto  done by human translators has been creating an increasing demand for MT post-editing and related  technology-led skills, but it is also opening spaces for adaptive experts (Holyoak, 1991)1 able to  identify, deliver and advise on the added value of human translation and language service provision  beyond the scope of automation. Moreover, demographic developments and socio-ethical  requirements to provide inclusive, user-centred access to information and services are extending the  mediatory roles and responsibilities expected of human translators, supported by assistive  technologies, in a growing variety of contexts.   A review of current job positions in the language industry demonstrates the proliferation of job  titles and responsibilities (Bond, 2018)2. Powered by evolving digital resources and socio-ethical  demands, the roles and responsibilities associated with these new and emerging profiles are rapidly  and comprehensively transcending the traditional bounds of core activities and competences  associated with translation and interpreting, the two key prototypes of language mediation. The  diversity of activities, roles and responsibilities is also reflected in two handbooks published this year,  the Bloomsbury Companion to Language Industry Studies (Angelone, Ehrensberger-Dow, and Massey  2020)3 and the Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology (O’Hagan 2020)4. Localization,  transcreation, multimodal and audiovisual translation, user-centred translation, accessible barrier-free  communication, revision, pre-editing, post-editing, terminological services, linguistic intercultural  mediation, public service translation, language and communication consultancy are just some of the  areas in which the professional group (still) called translators and interpreters work. As translation and  related language mediation professions diversify, they are also increasingly converging with  professions such as organisational, technical and accessible communication, yielding new  interprofessional forms and fields of work oriented towards strategic trust- and reputation-building,  user experience and social inclusion. Yet, research on translators’ status and self-concept indicates that    1 Holyoak, K. J. (1991) Symbolic connectionism: Toward third-generation theories of expertise. In K. A.  Ericsson & J. Smith (Eds.) Toward a General Theory of Expertise: Prospects and Limits, 301-335. Cambridge,  UK: Cambridge University Press.  2 Bond, E. (2018) The Stunning Variety of Job Titles in the Language Industry. Slator News. Available online: undefined [accessed 20 April 2020]. 3 Angelone, E., Ehrensberger-Dow, M., and Massey, G. (Eds.) (2020) The Bloomsbury Companion to Language  Industry Studies. London: Bloomsbury Academic.  4 O‘Hagan, M. (Ed.) (2020) The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology. London: Routledge. 1  they may be underequipped to embrace the changes, suggesting that competence profiles, role  awareness and the education that shapes them should better accommodate the added value of adaptive  human translation expertise to serve the broadening needs of a transitioning industry.  Target audience  The volume is intended to combine perspectives from research and practice, and should therefore  appeal to actors from both spheres. Addressing an international readership, its primary audience  consists of international translation studies scholars, intermediate to advance students of language  mediation, and language mediator educators and their institutions, all of whom/which are identifiably  affected by the increasingly rapid and widespread shifts taking place in the language industry in  general, and the translation profession in particular. The secondary audience comprises professional  practitioners and language managers working across the transitioning global language industry.   Proposals  Chapter proposals are invited on relevant research, practice, theory and/or pedagogy related, but not  limited, to  - Modes and forms of value-added human translation (e.g. inclusive/accessible and/or  multilingual text design and production, transcreation, co-creation, intercultural mediation) - (Re-)Positioning the human translator in complex sociotechnical environments and/or at the  interface with assistive technologies  - Evolving translator roles and responsibilities  - New translator competences, profiles and/or their development  - New approaches to human translation in translator education  - New practices, workflows and/or (quality) processes centred on human translation  - Value-adding interprofessional convergence and interfaces (e.g. with organisational  communication, strategic communication, corporate communications, usability, technical  communication, inclusive/accessible communication)  Deadline for submission of proposals: 31 October 2020 For more information, click here

Guest Editors: Jinsil CHOI, Jonathan EVANS and Kyung Hye KIM    This special issue will investigate the role of translation in the rapidly changing and developing environment of global media streaming. While there have been calls to ‘recenter globalization’ since the early 2000s (e.g. Iwabuchi 2002), since the late 2000s the development of streaming media has effectively disrupted older linear flow patterns of film and media distribution and consumption. There is now globally more access in translation to what had been marginalised cultures in the global media ecology, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Nigeria. In turn, these so-called marginalised cultures in the global media ecology, which had been previously largely dominated by Hollywood, now enjoy wider access in translation to media cultures which had been much less explored or ignored in their home cultures: Korean audiences having a greater access to Danish, German, and Spanish media, for instance. Streaming service platforms turned content creators such as Amazon, Netflix and Rakuten Viki are in the process of overturning previous understandings of the global mediasphere and accelerating the dynamics of the media landscape, enabling contraflow of media content and de/recentering understandings of global media production. Increasingly invested in international services, streaming companies’ practices fragment, deconstruct and reconfigure media space.Video streaming sites such as Youtube, where original content is also distributed, contribute to this refashioning of media distribution and reception and further complicate the relationship between translator, content provider and creator.  Yet the process is not limited to disruptive new companies: established multinational media and technology companies such as Disney and Apple have recently launched new streaming services, suggesting that the field is in a constant process of reconfiguration as different agents emerge, rise to power or struggle to hold market share. The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic has yet to be fully understood, but streaming has been a significant part of people’s media consumption during lockdown, and is expected to precipitate pronounced reconfiguration of the contemporary global media ecosystem. While there is a growing body of work on streaming from media studies (Dixon 2013; Smith and Telang 2016; Johnson 2018; Lobato 2019; Pallister 2019), there has been considerably less research on the relationship between translation and streaming (with the exceptions of Dwyer 2017; Pedersen 2018).Translation is central to these recent disruptions of the media field, as streaming providers offer most media content in translated versions, be it dubbed or subtitled, propelling the cultural mobility of media content across national and linguistic borders. Netflix, for example, functions as a particularly disruptive force by offering an ever wider range of genres and non-English language series tailored to specific groups of people around the world (Barker and Wiatrowski 2017), to the extent that it supported more than 20 languages by 2017 and approached “an inflection point where English won’t be the primary viewing experience on Netflix” (Netflix 2017). Not all translations on streaming platforms are official, and there continue to be thriving fan translation cultures on streaming platforms such as Youtube and Viki which offer access to media between what Casanova (1999) calls ‘dominated’ cultures, as well as between ‘dominating’ and ‘dominated’ cultures. This increasing fluidity is having a significant effect on Anglosphere understandings of world media, which had previously seen ‘foreign’ film and TV as elite, highbrow productions but now, especially through streaming platforms and fansubbing, more popular media such as Korean soap operas or Chinese teenage TV dramas are becoming widely available. As such, Eurocentric notions of popular media (Shohat and Stam 1994) need rethinking to take into account the increasing circulation of media products from around the world and the shifting balances of soft power (Nye 2004) related to the streaming of media content. How, for instance, does access to Chinese soap operas in translation affect the image of China in the world and its soft power? How does streaming invert and alter previous hierarchies? At the same time, the massive abundance of available media around the globe is creating a scarcity of attention and affecting a new attention ecology (Citton 2017) which risks ‘dominated’ languages and cultures being overlooked in the sheer quantity of ‘dominating’ language production. How then do streaming and translation filter media for consumers? Are streaming services and video sites reinforcing, or challenging, existing inequalities of access and distribution through curation and selection of languages to translate into? What effect is this having on the dominance of ‘global’ English? Importantly, how does the curation of media content through translation and streaming promote or silence communities such as the LGBT community, the Deaf or ethnic minorities? It is not a given that access to media from many different nations will be representative of the diversity within those nations. How do notions of alterity change in globalised media?The topic of translation and streaming, then, has significant relationships not only with language and contemporary media consumption, but also soft power and global understandings of alterity. This special issue aims to explore the role of translation in the streaming epoch, especially in relation to the shifting definition of ‘peripheral/dominated’ and ‘central/dominating’ media producing cultures. We welcome contributions critically addressing translation (understood broadly) in the global media environment that has been created in relation to streaming and on demand services. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:•       Video streaming giants (e.g. Netflix, Amazon) and translation•       Transnational and translational co-productions for international streaming•       Shifting notions of centre/dominant and periphery/dominated and ways of retheorising the position of cultures in the current media ecology•       Streaming, translation and the asymmetrical media environment•       Minoritised groups in translation and streaming media•       Translation as a form of curation of media•       Economies of attention, digital distribution and translation•       Shadow economies of media translation and their effects on global circulation•       South-South or other ‘dominated-dominated’ translation practices (i.e. that do not pass through ‘dominant’ languages) for popular mediaPlease send any queries to the special issue editors, Jinsil CHOI (diane45@kmu.ac.kr), Jonathan EVANS (jonathan.e.evans@glasgow.ac.uk) and Kyung Hye KIM (kyunghye.kim@sjtu.edu.cn). The deadline for abstracts (400-500 words) is 1 February 2021, to be submitted to the special issue editors. Submission of abstracts: 1 February 2021 For more information, click here

Just before the turn of the 21st century, Mikhail Epstein called for a return of the human into the humanities, proposing a Bakhtinian turn from the paradigms of the 20th century, which ascribed “the source of our activity to some non-human, impersonal structures speaking through us” (1999; 113), to a rehumanisation which would help us reappropriate the “alienated sources of our activity and understand them as an indispensable otherness inherent in the nature of human self-awareness” (113). The vision of such humanity-centred research would incorporate the knowledge gained from such systems of thought as psychoanalysis, semiotics and (post)structuralism, while also attempting to transgress the structural determination of action. The kind of rehumanisation translation and interpreting studies now seeks is not a return to a self-endorsing anthropocentrism, but an approach which would make the human agency in translation and interpreting visible as an active force with the potential to shape the social and natural world. The challenges of globalisation cannot be reduced to debates about the future of translation and interpreting, but this unprecedented movement of people and ideas requires an urgent response from our community, and our particular ability to connect cultures and carry over thoughts and ideas. The conference strives to bring together scholars from various fields of translation and interpreting studies to share their perspectives on the human factor in their studies. We believe that the human factor in translation technology, literary translation, audiovisual translation, technical translation, conference interpreting, community interpreting and in the education of future translators and interpreters is fundamental. That is why we are asking scholars from around the world to share their experiences. We will pay particular attention to the sociological factors of these professions and the role of “theory” in improving translators’ visibility and social standing. When talking about translators, we refer to “people with flesh-and-blood bodies. If you prick them, they bleed” (Pym, 2014, p. 161). We want to talk about translators and interpreters not as if they were “linguistic machines”, but as they are: human beings. We are also interested in the effects of non-translation, such as the lack of (mainly) community interpreters and the problems it poses for the integration of people seeking refuge. We would like to hear well-structured, data-based presentations, but also sound case and qualitative studies. Together, we will take a closer look at how the human factor (institutional or personal) affects translation and interpreting. Perspectives from which to address the conference topic may include, but are not limited to: community interpreting sociology of translation and interpreting returning names to anonymous translators (de)humanising media and audiovisual translation consumers and consumerism in media and translation context the human factor in machine translation and post-editing effects of non-translation in (trans)cultural and ecological relations literary translators between determinism and agency translation of literature as a litmus test of cultural priorities teaching translators and interpreters: between education and training agency in translation history Deadline for submissions: 30 September 2020 For more information, click here

Cognitive approaches to studying interpreting have been one of the main streams of research in Interpreting Studies since the 1970s. Recently, as new perspectives continue to form and new methodologies continue to be adopted and as a result of increasing inter-disciplinary cross-pollination, the field of Interpreting Studies has seen a resurgence of cognition-related research, not only in spoken language interpreting, but also in signed language interpreting. Riding on this exciting new wave and continuing our tradition of having a targeted theme, we aspire to use this platform to bring together top and promising scholars in both spoken language interpreting and signed language interpreting to Hong Kong. We welcome oral presentations and posters on both basic and applied research that fit the sub-themes of the conference or that are related to the conference theme in a broader sense. Sub-themes: bimodal and unimodal bilingualism and their implications in interpreting studies modality (bimodal or unimodal) effects in interpreting cognitive processes and constructs in different modalities and modes of interpreting neurological substrates of interpreting attention and memory in interpreting cognitive workload in different modes of interpreting cognitive considerations in machine-aided interpreting cognitive abilities as interpreting aptitude cognition-informed training of interpreters skill acquisition and attrition in interpreters interpreter's cognition throughout the life span Deadline for submissions: 15 November For more information, click here

The 10th International Conference of the Iberian Association for Translation and Interpreting Studies (AIETI), which is being hosted by the University of Minho’s School of Arts and Humanities (ILCH) and Center for Humanistic Studies (CEHUM), will take place on 17, 18 and 19 June, 2021 in Braga at the University of Minho’s Gualtar campus. This is the first time that the biennial AIETI conference is to be held in Portugal. It is, therefore, a unique opportunity to promote and enrich transdisciplinary dialogue and research practice in Translation and Interpreting Studies not only in the Iberian Peninsula but also more widely in the Lusophone space. In accordance with the 3rd article of the AIETI’s Statutes, the aim of this conference is to encourage thinking, study, research, teaching and scientific exchange around the different areas of translation and interpreting, as well as promoting awareness of its socio-cultural value and impact. Under the broad organising themes of journeys and crossings, as well as hospitality and dialogue, the conference aims to inspire discussion around the dynamics of language, culture and knowledge transmission in the context of globalization through the circulation of texts and ideas in translation. The organising committee welcomes all academics, researchers, professionals and students on this journey through texts and languages. To reclaim a Camonian dictum, you are invited to re-cross “waters previously navigated,” to map and write new cartographies for a “bright wide world.” Both individual paper proposals and panel proposals will be considered. Conference papers may address but need not be limited to the following topics: History of Translation Theory of Translation Didactics of Translation Interpreting Sociology of Translation Translation Process Studies Applied Linguistics and Translation Activism, Immigration and Conflict Tools and technology Literary Translation Specialized Translation Audiovisual Translation and Multimodality in Translation and Interpreting Studies Deadline for submissions: 30 November 2020 For more information, click here

The research group Socio-Cognitive Translation Studies: Processes and Networks (socotrans) at the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Vienna is delighted to announce an International Conference on Field Research on Translation and Interpreting: Practices, Processes, Networks (FIRE-TI) to be held in Vienna from 18 to 20 February 2021. The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers who study translation and interpreting (T&I) practices, processes or networks in situ using a variety of different (inter)disciplinary approaches, e. g. from sociological, cognitive, anthropological or ergonomic perspectives. The primary objective thereby is to create a common reflection space for T&I field and workplace research where experts can share insights into the diversity and complexity of translation and interpreting practices. In doing so, the conference also seeks to bring to the fore those particular aspects that are hard to reconstruct through product analyses or in a laboratory setting. Extended deadline for submissions: 13 September 2020 For more information, click here

Guest editor: Aurelia Klimkiewicz Translation is traditionally represented as a spatial movement between two locations—typically from abroad to home—and presupposes the direct transfer of meaning from one language to another. However, current translation practices are not necessarily limited to movement across space; they can also acquire a more dynamic role that shapes the space itself, both locally and globally, from face-to-face contact to networks of human and non-human actors. This is the idea behind the concept of space as a social construct. Since this concept was introduced by Henri Lefebvre in his 1974 article La production de l’espace, important societal changes have further complexified the perception and experience of space: new technologies and means of production, globalization, free market, mass migration, multiethnic societies, and even increases in leisure travel. Contrary to the nation-state logic that advocates some degree of acculturation or assimilation of the foreign, current translation practices participate in much more complex and dynamic re/configurations of space, including densification (immigration, the multilingualization of cities, tourism), extension (the rise of global markets and institutions), contraction (exile, emigration/immigration) and fragmentation (the formation of diasporas and heterogeneous audiences). This shift from the national to the transnational brings attention to the multiplicity of micro and macro contexts, professional settings, and even alternative patterns of collaboration located in “a ‘liminal space’ between the world of activism and the service economy” (Baker, 23), in which translation may play a vital role. This issue of Tusaaji invites contributions on the developments in the practice of translation—emerging and/or alternative trajectories, patterns and paths—that challenge the notion of translation as “the Invisible Hand in the market of communication” (Cronin, 29). Questions relevant to these issues include: How do new translation initiatives take place? How do alternative translation projects or actions impact the profession and the translator’s self-regulation and self-perception? How do translators adapt to new professional environments and reflect on their own role and profession? In what circumstances may translators challenge the status quo? What strategies help translators deal with chaos, unpredictability, improvisation and failure? Are translators aware of the impact that their work may have on society and others? What are the new channels of knowledge production emerging from current translation contexts? Is the empowerment of translators in today’s world relevant or not? Authors are not required to limit themselves to the above list of questions. We welcome papers on all topics discussing theoretical, professional and practical issues, such as: Translation and close vs distant reading Translation and global publishing houses Professional vs non-professional digital literary reception (discussion forums, etc.) Translators and nomadism Translation and tourism advertising  Collaborative forms of translation (professional and amateur) Translation and labour-management relations Volumes and speed of translation and their management  Translation and activism Norms of translation in micro and macro contexts  Factors that accelerate or delay translation production, distribution and/or reception Private translation initiatives Models of tracking, mapping and monitoring the translation activity Translators’ blogs, forums of discussion, etc.  We invite papers in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, or any other language of the Americas that deal with this issue’s theme. Given Tusaaji’s hemispheric focus, papers discussing the experience of translation in the Americas from this perspective are welcome; however, this issue is not restricted geographically so submissions about all languages and regions will be considered. In addition to scholarly articles, we also invite submissions of visual art and of translations in any genre, and from/into any of the languages of the journal. Deadline: September 30, 2020.  Submissions can be sent to the guest editor, Aurelia Klimkiewicz, at aklimkiewicz@glendon.yorku.ca with a copy to tusaaji@yorku.ca _______________________ Baker, Mona (2013). “Translation as an Alternative Space for Political Action.” Social Movement Studies, 12:1, 23-47. Cronin, Michael (2017). “Translation and Post-National Identity in the Digital Age.” In Ivana Hostová (ed.) Identity and Translation Trouble, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.19-33. For more information, click here

Special Issue Editors Enza De Francisci, University of Glasgow Cristina Marinetti, Cardiff University This special issue seeks to begin a discussion about the particular contexts, material conditions, and individuals that have enabled authors, texts, and performance traditions to travel through translation. Covering theatre, opera and song from a range of different languages and time periods, we aim to shed light on the contexts and networks of agents – actors, singers, singing/acting masters, censors, directors, critics, writers and translators – who have intervened in the circulation of translated texts in a range of performance cultures. While cross-cultural encounters and transnational exchanges have characterized theatre history from its inception, little attention has been paid to the agents mediating those encounters and to the multiple forms of translation they engendered. Engaging with the growing academic interest in theatre translation, this special issue aims to advance research by bringing this area into dialogue with broader discussions around world literature and the sociology of translation. Abstracts are invited for articles exploring the translation of plays, opera and song in different time periods and performance cultures. Contributions are invited on any of the following topics (but other issues and questions are also very welcome): Exploring the labour of the theatre translator and its relationship to its objects, environment and collaborators; Celebrity capital and the rewriting of theatre texts: actors, directors, singing/acting masters as agents of translation; Direct and indirect censorship: the role of censors and institutional gatekeepers on the selection, rewriting and circulation of foreign drama and song; Uncovering theatre translation networks around the world, shedding light on how they have contributed to the process of theatre making across time; The economics of drama translation: copyright, performance rights, and their impact on the translator’s visibility/invisibility; Theatre archives as an alternative source of knowledge for translation researchSpecial Issue Editor(s) Deadline for abstracts: 21 December 2020 For more information, click here  

Guest editors: Jeffrey Killman and Christopher D. Mellinger, University of North Carolina at Charlotte The ubiquity of technology and its often-touted benefits are sources of potential friction in legal and regulatory environments where translation and interpreting activities are carried out. Concerns have surrounded its ability to influence, constrain, or alter the implementation and quality of T&I work, thereby resulting in somewhat slower adoption rates in the field. Yet despite technological advances, this trepidation may persist, given the ever-expanding range of technologies at the disposal of legal parties and translators and interpreters who enable plurilingual encounters. Additionally, socioeconomic and policy factors complicate what is currently possible, with increasing attention paid to not only which tools are used, but how, when, and why. It is now more important than ever to investigate the impact that these technologies have in legal translation and interpreting contexts across a range of variables, including productivity and quality metrics, ergonomic and physiological measures, as well as other indicators related to language access and rights, language policy, technology adoption and use, and more. Here, we broadly consider technologies that not only have been developed specifically to aid translation and interpreting professionals (such as machine translation, translator workbenches, glossary/terminology management tools, remote interpreting platforms) but also tools that have been adapted for use in these specific contexts (such as video conferencing or telephonic technologies, tablet computers, document and data repositories, audio equipment, corpora). The performance of the technologies can and should also be the subject of investigation, to understand how they are used by legal translators and interpreters, how they might be improved, or how their implementation might differ depending on contextual variables of their use. These performance indicators are of particular importance with respect to less-resourced and minority languages, since these languages are often counted among those within the long-tail of localization and have been secondary to development efforts, while simultaneously representing an area of increasing need to facilitate language access. Conversely, more still needs to be known about how the use of technologies in legal contexts affects the communicative environment in which they are employed, including the influence on how and to what extent various parties interact and where and when multilingual communication is possible with certain technologies. Even the means by which technologies are evaluated within legal and regulatory areas require critical reflection and study, not only in relation to majoritarian languages, but also when working with less-resourced languages and their intersection with language policy and planning. This special issue seeks to bring together a broad range of studies related to the use of technologies in legal translation and interpreting domains. Such a topic has received limited treatment to date and is relevant in a wide variety of legal domains such as legal institutions, law enforcement, corrections, private law practice, immigration, asylum, or quasi-legal settings that occur in any sector that interacts with the law, such as social services or education. For this special issue of Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, we welcome contributions from a variety of perspectives and disciplines, including but not limited to, translation and interpreting studies, applied linguistics, information and communication technologies, legal studies, and technology studies. The issue comprises both theoretical and data-driven empirical work, or a combination thereof. While by no means exhaustive, the list of topics below would be of particular interest: Impact of technologies on legal translation/interpreting quality for both majority and minority languages·Influence of technologies on legal communication in multilingual contexts· Legal and regulatory frameworks that influence the use of technologies in legal T&I contexts, including language policy and language planning· Use and development of technologies for dfferent language pairs, including less-resourced languages· T&I technologies developed specifically for legal contexts· Big data and legal T&I technologies· Legal, economic, or ergonomic factors that influence technology adoption and use· Role of technology in affordance or impediments to language access and rights· Intersection of technology, language planning and policy, particularly as it relates to the documentation and development of less-resource languages in legal contexts· Standards development and implementation for technologies in legal environments· Legal T&I pedagogy and its intersection with technology· Technologies and transcription/translation practices· Historical development of technologies in unique legal T&I contexts Deadline for abstracts: 1 January 2021 For more information, click here

THE 3RD ID-TS GRADUATE EVENT FOR DOCTORAL STUDENTS   (Hi)stories of Translation and Translators: Past, Present and Future Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies Boğaziçi University, Istanbul  (The conference will be held online via Zoom Video Conferencing) 12-13 NOVEMBER 2020   CALL FOR PAPERS   Anthony Pym has suggested that translation history has three main arteries: “translation archeology” (discourses on the questions of who translated what, how, where, when, for whom and with what effect?); “historical criticism” (discourses assessing the ways translations help or hinder progress); and “explanation” (tackling the question “why?”) (1998, 5-6). Pym’s conception of translation history undoubtedly opens up a systematic method of dealing with extensive and detailed data from either a macro- or micro-historical perspective. The invaluable findings of traditional macro-historical studies have certainly triggered new approaches, such as the focus on agents of translation and the examination of extratextual sources that help us (re)construct the history of translation and translators. There is no doubt that the past two decades have marked a substantial shift of focus in the field of Translation Studies from the translated text to the actors involved in the translation process, leading to the birth of the new branch of (what Andrew Chesterman calls) “Translator Studies” (2009). In line with this shift of focus, historical research investigating the role and position of translational and cultural agents has gained increasing attention. As a result, the method of micro-history has become instrumental in uncovering the voices of these agents in social and cultural history, thereby enriching the literature on translation history, which previously tended to concentrate on macro dimensions of translation. The micro-historical approach has motivated researchers to examine primary sources such as personal papers, manuscripts, post-hoc accounts and interviews. By looking into these previously neglected archival documents, researchers aim to shed light on “the translator’s decision-making process” (Munday, 2013), on “the collaboration in the production of translations” (Paloposki, 2017) and on “the place of literary translators and their social situatedness and agency” (Constanza Guzmán, 2013). In doing so, they have initiated new discussions, which promise to broaden the horizons of Translation Studies as a discipline. Lieven D’hulst and Yves Gambier argue that “histories of translation knowledge may be written about all periods, all areas and all domains of translational communication” (2018, 10). In that spirit, we, as Ph.D. candidates in the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies, Boğaziçi University, plan to organize a conference that takes a look at the past, present and future of macro- and micro-histories of translation. In collaboration with the ID-TS, we invite doctoral students to present their research at this graduate event, which will be held online due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The book of abstracts will be published on the conference website (www.transint.boun.edu.tr/id-ts-2020) following abstract acceptance notification. We also hope to include the papers presented in a special journal issue dedicated to the event. Topics to be addressed in the conference include, but are not limited to, the following: Translation and history Macro-/Micro-history & translation Archival research in the digital age Retranslation Translation sociology Translator & Interpreter Studies Interpreting Studies & history Gender and translation Interdisciplinarity in TS Ethical aspects of historical research in TS   Submission of Abstracts Participants are invited to submit proposals for 15-minute presentations. Abstracts of maximum 300 words should be submitted by the deadline indicated below, including the participant’s name, affiliation and contact information. For the submission of abstracts and all general enquiries, please contact: idts.gradevent2020@boun.edu.tr   IMPORTANT DATES Closing date for abstract submissions: 09.10.2020 Abstract acceptance notification: 23.10.2020 Deadline for presenter confirmations: 30.10.2020 Registration period: 24.10.2020 – 11.11.2020   Organizing Committee Deniz Malaymar, Ph.D. Candidate & Research Assistant, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul Erdem Hürer, Ph.D. Student & Research Assistant, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul Nesrin Conker, Ph.D. Candidate & Research Assistant, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul N. Zeynep Kürük-Erçetin, Ph.D. Candidate & Research Assistant, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul   References Chesterman, A. (2009). The name and nature of translator studies. Journal of language and communication studies. 42. 13-22. D’hulst, L. & Yves Gambier. (2018) A History of Modern Translation Knowledge: Sources, concepts, effects. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Guzmán, M. C. (2013). Translation North and South: Composing the Translator’s Archive. TTR, 26 (2). 171–191. Available at <https://doi.org/10.7202/1037136ar> [consulted July 1, 2020]. Munday, J. (2013). The role of archival and manuscript research in the investigation of translator decision-making. Target, 25(1). 125-139. Paloposki, O. (2017). “In Search of an Ordinary Translator: Translator Histories, Working Practices and Translator-Publisher Relations in the light of Archival Documents.” The Translator, 23, 1. 31-48. Pym, A. (1998). Method in Translation History. Manchester, UK: St. Jerome.   Further Readings D’hulst, L. (2015) The Figure of the translator revisited: A theoretical overview and a case study. Convergences francophones. 2(2). 1-11. Milton, J. & Paul Bandia. (2009). Introduction: Agents of translation and Translation Studies. Agents of Translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s Publishing. Rundle, C. (2012) Translation as an approach to history. Translation Studies. 5(2). 232-240. Wakabayashi, J. (2012). Japanese translation historiography: Origins, strengths, weaknesses and lessons. Translation Studies. 5(2), 172-188.

TRANSLATOLOGIA is seeking original, previously unpublished papers to be included in the second issue of 2020. Contributors may want to focus on any creative industry in their discussion of the concepts of universal accessibility and translation issues. UNESCO has defined the sector of the cultural and creative industries (CCI) as the field whose principal purpose is the production or reproduction, promotion and dissemination of goods, services and activities of “a cultural, artistic or heritage-related nature” (DCMS 2002; UNESCO 2017). Born in the UK, these industries rely on creativity, intellectual property and human skills and talent and span a variety of activities in at least 11 sectors: “advertising, books, gaming, architecture, music, movies, newspapers and magazines, performing arts, visual arts, radio, TV and design” (Interreg Europe 2017). Their vibrancy reflects in the growth of cities’ cultural activities, creative economy and acting environments, while, at the same time, being the engine of digital economies. CCI tend to encourage citizens’ participation and to boost cities’ attractiveness and urban development. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from a range of academic fields (e.g. translation studies, museum studies, tourism studies, media studies), and on methodological models based on multimodality, systemic functional linguistics, and audiovisual translation, this special issue seeks to open up a collaborative and supportive space for the understanding of how and to what extent translation as an instrument of accessibility for all can mobilise and control cultural, cognitive, linguistic and political experiences. Studies on universal accessibility as an essential tool for facilitating access to knowledge have shed light on different strategies for the promotion of inclusion through translation within the CCI context (Jiménez Hurtado et al. 2012; Jiménez Hurtado & Soler Gallego 2015). Research on the quality of accessible products as well as on the classification of access services addressed to persons with sensory impairments has been conducted over the years (Díaz Cintas et al. 2007; Díaz Cintas et al. 2010; Di Giovanni & Gambier 2018; Romero Fresco 2019). Yet, there is still a need to explore the role of translation as a device which breaks social, ethnic and linguistic barriers, and to debate the concept of accessibility as a human right for all users (Greco 2016). From these perspectives, accessibility rests on the principle of universality and is based on the removal of cultural and social differences. Against this backdrop, translation and accessibility, in tandem with new technological solutions, have rapidly gained ground in the creative industries as fundamental conduits for the transmission of information and knowledge for all. The symbiosis between the cultural creative industries and access services has been made possible thanks to audiovisual translation, which happens to be one of the fastest growing areas contributing to the dissemination of “acceptable”, “adaptable” and “available” cultural and artistic contents, both via mass media communication (i.e. broadcasting, cinema, publishing, streaming, etc.) and within public cultural contexts (i.e. museums, theatres, festivals, street art, etc.). While proposing reflections on wider theoretical and methodological perspectives, this special issue fosters a discourse which not only advances new models of experimentation, analysis and application within the CCI sector, but which also touches on the seductiveness of multimodal productions. The ultimate aim is to evaluate the extent to which translation, as a form of accessibility that deals with phenomena of an intralingual, interlingual and intersemiotic nature, interrelates with CCI. How can translation, as an instrument of accessibility for all, contribute to the spread of knowledge addressed to audiences with sensory impairments (i.e. the blind and partially sighted people, and the deaf and hard of hearing people), but also to a wider public made of adults, children, men and women, who may be interested in the transmission of cultural contents through the support of specific technological triggers? Deadline for submissions: 20 September 2020 For more information, click here