Two-day symposium organized by Alexa Alfer and Cornelia Zwischenberger, held 6-7th July 2023 in London, UK

This symposium will be devoted to explorations of the concept of labour arising from Translab’s hallmark blending of ‘translation’ and ‘collaboration’. It posits that the concept of labour, as distinct from ‘work’ (Arendt 1958/1998; Narotzky 2018), warrants more sustained engagement on the part of both Translation Studies and the translation profession. While digital labour (Fuchs 2020), playbor (Kücklich 2005), fan labour (De Kosnik 2012), affective labour (Hardt 1999; Koskinen 2020), emotional labour (Hochschild 1993), or (im)material labour (Negri & Hardt 2004) may present themselves as particularly topical sites for such exploration, both labour and work are also important yet largely underarticulated dimensions in discussions about translation in a professional context and in debates about the distinction between professional and non-professional translation. Last but not least, we are keen to extend consideration of the labour concept to translation as such, and to interrogate its relevance to current debates about the translation concept.

While the concept of work is perhaps more readily associated with translation in professional discourses at least, translation as labour, i.e. as an activity structurally embedded in capitalist chains of surplus-value production (Zwischenberger and Alfer 2022), features far less prominently in current debates. However, foregrounding labour as a fundamental dimension of translation (and, for that matter, interpreting) allows both researchers and practitioners to investigate translation and interpreting more closely from a socioeconomic perspective. This should, in turn, help develop impactful alternatives to the prevalent ‘professionalisation’ discourses intended to raise the socio-economic status of translators, and critique the ways in which many of these discourses create idealised narratives of translation and interpreting that tend to foreground the processes of work while masking the labour involved in producing outputs whose value is, quietly or overtly, appropriated by those with a stake in the means of their production. Shining a spotlight on the surplus-value inherent in translation as the commodifiable expansion of a source text thus also uncovers the translation concept itself as the site of an unarticulated and unresolved tension between two competing and converging cultural narratives that pivot on conceptions of value as, on the one hand, inextricably bound to and, on the other, posited firmly “outside of a profit-motivated relationship” (Fayard 2021, 216).

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Deadline for submissions: 3 April 2023

Guest Editors
Lisha Xu (Beijing Jiaotong University) and David Johnston (Queen’s University Belfast)

This special edition of JoSTrans looks at the issues involved in translating plays for
performance on a contemporary stage where practitioners and audiences alike are
increasingly sensitised to the representation of race, identity, gender, and sexuality. The
Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements have, in particular, coalesced around wider
social justice movements that have further galvanised, and in many ways drawn together,
different sets of identitarian politics. At the heart of these politics, identity works in terms of
promoting the recognition of difference, both of opportunity and of participatory parity,
operating as a category of perception that acts as a heuristic springboard towards what
Linda Hamilton Krieger described over twenty-five years ago as “strategies for simplifying
the perceptual environment and acting on less-than-perfect information” (1995, 1161). For
some, this leads inevitably to the honing of critical theories of race and gender, and their
extension into the worldview of rapidly growing numbers of people. For others, we are
witnessing a maximalist politics which, in its tracing of its own history through different
sources of resistance across time and space, is increasingly impatient with any expression of
what are perceived as oppressive positions, irrespective of the timeframe in which such
positions were taken.

It is evident that we are living through a time of paradigm shift in terms of our relationships
both with each other as identity types and with the assumptions and dynamics of our past.
Whether we think of these shifts as undergirded by processes of recouping or erasure, they
enshrine attitudes and responses that have radically changed the terrain of the arts in
general, and of the representational arts in particular. Moreover, their impact on new
generations of trainee performers means that such changes in the specialised field of
theatre and performance are undoubtedly long-term.
This special issue asks what this might mean for contemporary translation for performance.
Translation for the stage is obviously a key concern here, but other modes and aspects of
preparing for and experiencing performance might also be considered – surtitling,
streaming, moving image, stand-up comedy, etc . We invite abstracts addressing either one
or more of the following questions, or picking up on any related concern:

• What are the implications for translators working with texts from different places
and, particularly, different times, where radically different conceptions of gender
and other perceived markers of identity are in operation?
• What is the relationship between translation for performance and re-historicising
practice?
• To what extent might translated plays or other dramatic forms be able – or still be
able - to offer a counter-current where mutually incompatible or contestatory
positions can be put forward simultaneously?
• What are the implications for the space in which translation takes place if we regard
the assumptions of the receiving context as hardened into critical positions?
• Is what we might think of as the more traditionally civic nature of the performance
event changing to accommodate a more critical environment, and if so what might
this mean in terms of the texts/performances we choose to translate?
• To what extent does the elimination of cultural appropriation fall to the translator?
Can such charges be obviated through solely production-based decisions, such as
blind casting etc?
• Can translations be used to challenge or confirm conceptions of what might be
thought of as the ‘politically correct’?
• Does the awareness of such political correctness on the part of the translator for
performance imply a necessary process of accommodation or can it drift into selfcensorship? Is there a readily discernible divide here?

Deadline for submission of proposals: 1 June 2023

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Translation and interpreting can be seen as two special sub-types of bilingual communication. The field of bilingualism—from developmental, cognitive, and neuroscientific perspectives—is highly relevant to Translation and Interpreting Studies.

The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Interpreting and Bilingualism is the first handbook to bring together the related, yet disconnected, fields of bilingualism and translation and interpreting studies. Edited by leading scholars and authored by a wide range of established authorities from around the world, the Handbook is divided into six parts and encompasses theories and method, the development of translator and interpreter competence and cognitive, neuroscientific and social aspects.

This is the essential guide to bilingualism for advanced students and researchers of Translation and Interpreting studies and key reading on translation and interpreting for those studying and researching bilingualism.

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Based on a thematic area that examines empirical approaches in law and language studies, the present special section assembles three exemplary contributions outlining the possible dimensions of how empirical work can contribute to language and law. Some authors of these contributions explore cross-linguistic empirical work on communication between police and victims, witnesses and suspects, and the impact that linguistic and cultural differences can have; other authors utilise a corpus-based approach, which is combined with terminology studies to gain robust empirical data on terminological variation both within one language and inter-lingually; and yet other authors do experimental research, testing the claims of different theories on legal interpretation as to whether legal interpretation fundamentally differs from the ordinary understanding processes of language. These contributions thus illustrate the various ways in which all of these lines of research are able to complement existing research, open up new lines of inquiry and question or confirm existing assumptions.

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The Routledge Handbook of Public Service Interpreting provides a comprehensive overview of research in public service, or community interpreting. It offers reflections and suggestions for improving public service communication in plurilingual settings and provides tools for dealing with public service communication in a global society.

Written by leading and emerging scholars from across the world, this volume provides an editorial introduction setting the work of public service interpreting (PSI) in context and further reading suggestions. Divided into three parts, the first is dedicated to the main theoretical issues and debates which have shaped research on public service interpreting; the second discusses the characteristics of interpreting in the settings which have been most in need of public service interpreting services; the third provides reflections and suggestions on interpreter as well as provider training, with an aim to improve public service interpreting services.

This Handbook is the essential guide for all students, researchers and practitioners of PSI within interpreting and translation studies, medicine and health studies, law, social services, multilingualism and multimodality.

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Note: due to popular request, we have changed the paper deadlines to give authors more time. The new date for paper submissions is 3 March 2023. 

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.
Note that papers that have been archived in arXiv can be accepted for submission provided that they have not already been published elsewhere.

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In recent years, there has been a surge in publications addressing the political impact of translation and interpreting across a variety of locations and settings (Baker, 2016a and 2016b; Doerr, 2018; Evans and Fernández, 2018; Fernández, 2020a; Valdeón and Calafat, 2020; Tesseur, 2022, to name a few). In this context, this special issue seeks to highlight the importance of translation and interpreting for the practice of solidarity.

Although this is a powerful and frequently used concept, it is also conflicting and has generally remained undertheorised (as argued by Bayertz, 1999; Pensky, 2008; Featherstone, 2012). In this sense, this project will follow Featherstone (2012, pp. 5) in understanding solidarity as ‘a relation forged through political struggle which seeks to challenge forms of oppression’. Importantly, this also implies that solidarity is ‘transformative’, as it constructs ‘relations between places, activists, diverse social groups’, while creating ‘new ways of relating’ (ibid.). In other words, solidarity does not need to happen exclusively between groups that are similar and homogeneous; quite on the contrary, it can be innovative, developing unexpected links between previously unconnected realities.

In this light, the practice of solidarity shows strong similarities with the work of translation and interpreting, as both seek to establish new connections between individuals and groups. In fact, translation can be the decisive factor in the construction of solidarity, as it brings to the fore an issue or conflict that would normally remain unnoticed due to linguistic and cultural barriers. Despite these affinities, solidarity has been rarely used as a frame of analysis in Translation Studies (some notable exceptions being Abou Rached, 2020; Baker, 2016b, 2016c and 2020; Mortada, 2016). This seems even more striking if we consider that solidarity could play a central role in understanding a variety of issues and practices that are already relevant within the discipline, such as the activity of volunteer translators —either individually (Guo, 2008; Cheung, 2010) or as part of communities (Baker, 2006a; Boéri, 2012; Pérez-González and Susam Saraeva, 2012)— and the involvement of interpreters in the protection and well-being of migrants (Aguilar-Solano, 2015; Taronna, 2016; Fathi, 2020).

At the same time, solidarity can be also understood as a narrative (in the sense proposed by Baker, 2006b): citizens and activists who engage in the practice of solidarity frequently rely on a narrative, that is, a kind of shared story that guides their behaviour and legitimises their purposes and motivations, shaping the identities of those involved in the process and the elements that bring them together. While some narratives might be based on ‘universal’ values (e.g. justice, human rights, moral duty), others might depend on more concrete factors (i.e. supporting the same political values or belonging to the same creed). Furthermore, the mobilisation of a successful and convincing narrative is often a key factor for the expansion of a political cause (Baker, 2006b, pp. 21-22), particularly among those who are not familiar with it. Taking into account the great importance that narratives have played in recent research within Translation Studies (e.g. Boéri, 2008; Baker, 2010; Harding, 2012; Probirskaja, 2016; Jones, 2018; Fernández, 2020b) and beyond it (Engebretsen and Baker 2022), this special issue would also like to encourage the interaction between narratives and solidarity as a promising research path.  

A list of potential research topics includes, but is not limited to, the following:

-       Solidarity as a motivation for activist and volunteer translators and interpreters

-       The emergence and development of solidarity campaigns thanks to translation

-       Narratives of solidarity and translation: How is solidarity narrated? Which ‘frames of solidarity’ are constructed through translation? How are narratives of solidarity (e.g. in literature and the arts) translated?

-       Conceptual and theoretical affinities between solidarity and translation

-       Solidarity with/between migrants and the importance of translation/interpreting

-       Solidarity, identity politics (e.g. LGBT+ groups, feminism, Black Lives Matter), and translation/interpreting

-       Solidarity and translation projects for fundraising purposes

-       Solidarity, translation, and interpreting in armed conflicts.

For more information, click here

Deadline for abstracts: 1 March 2023

This book provides readers, students and teachers with a clear and concise guide to understanding the concepts of offensive and taboo language and how this type of language can be subtitled into Spanish used in Spain. It combines theoretical and practical approaches and covers technical matters, as well as those of censorship, (ideological) manipulation, translation strategies and techniques, the treatment of offensive and taboo language and how to conduct research in this field. It includes an array of examples from recent films and TV series to present the reader with real samples of subtitles broadcast on digital platforms today. In addition, each chapter includes exercises with which the reader can put theory into practice, as well as possible solutions in the form of answer keys. It will be of use not only to researchers and students, but also to future audiovisual translators seeking to acquire further knowledge in the transfer of offensive and taboo language.

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Language boundaries are not transparent; from translation to migration studies, we know that they cannot
be crossed without sacrifice and a complex negotiation of gains. Yet we routinely compare stylistic features
in different languages in fields such as comparative literature, translation, literary multilingualism and
translingualism, world and postcolonial literature, or the study of international literary movements.
Whenever a work is translated, or a writer is a user of multiple languages, or one writer is influenced by
reading another’s work in a foreign language (and sometimes, perhaps, in translation), and in several other
settings, questions of stylistic transfer become both relevant and essential.

Outside of translation studies, there has been little attempt to account for the nature, effects and limitations
of such stylistic osmosis. When do stylistic features developed in one language cross into another? What
happens when they do? To what extent do they remain the same in another linguistic context? What are the
limitations to recreating stylistic characteristics of a text in another language? How can this phenomenon be
studied systematically beyond translation studies and what existing theoretical approaches can help clarify
the processes involved? How will accounting for them affect the discipline?

This conference offers a venue to discuss cross-lingual stylistic transfer as an approach to understanding
crucial aspects of today’s globalised literary market. It will address the question of stylistic border crossings
in four sections: (1) translation, (2) influence, (3) multilingualism and (4) theoretical approaches.
We now invite papers on this theme. Papers may address (but are not limited to) such questions as:

• Case studies of attempts to recreate style across languages, or other situations of transfer of stylistic
characteristics from one language to another
• What is style and to what extent is it bound to a language?
• Do approaches to stylistic transfer developed in translation studies apply in other literary contexts,
and how?
• The (ir)relevance of cross-lingual stylistics, and of style as a concept, in today’s literary studies
• Possible transfer mechanisms and settings
• Linguistic and stylometrical approaches
• Transfer of style in and via translation
• Stylistic stereotypes as an influence on other cultures
• Bilateral transfer situations

Deadline for submissions: 31 Jan

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Presentday organisation of the world in terms of globalisation inevitably involves the condition of
mutual co-implication among all inhabitants over the planet (attested by the current pandemic and increase of
famine in Africa caused by the Ukraine war). We are now in all 8 billion. We propose here to read the signs
of total interconnection, of total interdependency: hence semiotics of globalisation. Specifically, we propose
to read these signs from the perspective of what has been tagged “semioethics”, where “ethics” is understood
in Emmanuel Levinas’s sense of the term: that is, as “intrigue”, “entanglement”: reference is to the condition
just mentioned of “mutual co-implication”, of “reciprocal involvement”. The primary concern is that life
over the entire planet, today under severe threat, be granted the possibility to continue and flourish.

This workshop welcomes proposals that focus on any of the topics outlined, whether directly or
indirectly, developing aspects and implications, thus contributing to a more comprehensive understanding
and exemplification of the issues at stake

Deadline for proposals: 6 Feb

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