Guest Editors

Dr Hannah Silvester
University College Cork

Dr Tiina Tuominen
YLE

 In the past two decades, we have seen a huge growth in research on audiovisual translation and accessibility. However, the findings of these research projects are often published in academic journals and books that are not always easily accessible to practitioners, or are not designed to address the practical implications of the research. With this special issue, we would like to offer an opportunity for practitioners to benefit from the flourishing research in the field, and for researchers to make their cutting edge AVT and accessibility research available and accessible to practitioners. The open-access Journal of Audiovisual Translation presents the perfect forum for this exchange.

As Jorge Díaz-Cintas (2020: 216) has pointed out, “Striking a happy balance between [the industry and academia] is of paramount importance to safeguard the well-being of the discipline and the profession.” Indeed, Díaz-Cintas (2020: 216-217) mentions that a great deal of AVT research is informed by the industry, but there has been less activity in the opposite direction. We propose to address that shortcoming in this special issue. We invite audiovisual translation and accessibility researchers to highlight the practical significance of their work by publishing pieces that seek to answer crucial questions related to the work of audiovisual translation and accessibility professionals. We envision this special issue to demonstrate how research is useful to practitioners, how it can improve working practices and stakeholders’ experiences in the industry, and what the academic community can do to better communicate their discoveries to the professional audience. Our goal is to facilitate a dialogue between researchers and practitioners that will enrich the industry and academia alike. Through this dialogue, we hope that further avenues for collaboration and community-building can be explored.

Authors should consider AVT and accessibility practitioners as their primary audience when writing their article. This will be an academic, peer-reviewed publication, but we would like the texts to be accessible to non-academics and applicable to their professional experience. We welcome contributions from all areas of AVT and accessibility studies, including, but not limited to, interlingual translation (subtitling, dubbing, surtitling, interpreting, voice over, video game localisation) and media accessibility (SDH, audio description, respeaking).

The range of potentially relevant themes is broad, and could include, for example:

• the reception and use/usability of audiovisual translations and access services.;
• translation and production processes;
• the potential value of other disciplines (e.g. media studies, psychology, sociology, ethnography) in AVT and accessibility;
• AVT and accessibility policy;
• technological tools, including machine translation;
• AVT and accessibility professionals’ workflow, working contexts and conditions;
• analyses of different textual, cultural, linguistic and communicative aspects of audiovisual translations and access services;
• collaborative practices;
• studies of norms and guidelines;
• quality in AVT and accessibility.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 16 November 2020

For more information, click here

“Language is (not) a barrier”: Towards effective translation policies and practices for official communication with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Melbourne

This joint PhD project will be based at The University of Melbourne with a minimum 12 month stay at KU Leuven

Metropolises like Brussels or Melbourne are sites of unprecedented cultural and linguistic diversity. This creates pressing challenges for multilingual official communication with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, as seen in the Covid-19 pandemic. Addressing those challenges will require change in translation policies and practices, with close attention to their real-world effects.

Project description
The doctoral project that is to be carried out with the University of Melbourne as the host institution will analyze the policies, practices and effects of official translations carried out for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Melbourne.

It will ascertain the provision of translation in public services in terms of numbers of translations, types of translations, target languages and types of administrations involved. It will identify the levels at which translation policies, both overt and covert, are formulated and enacted, how translations reach the various language communities, and the role of volunteer translation practices from NGOs and grassroots citizens’ initiatives in public services, particularly with respect to the reworking, re-narration and interpreting of information.

The candidate will select one or two language communities for detailed analysis of the reception processes, with particular attention to instances of trust and distrust in official behavior-change communication. The nature and topic of the communication will correspond to the issues of importance at the time of the study.

The research should lead to an evaluation of the way translation policies are formulated and enacted, with an assessment of their success in achieving trust relationships and influencing changes in behavior. At each stage of the research, comparison will be made with the same policies and practices in the city of Brussels, with one year of the research being carried out at KU Leuven.

For more information, click here

Translation and interpreting have played and will continue to play important roles in various aspects of UK-China relations and people-to-people exchanges. In addition to the translation and interpreting activities in various forms linking bilateral relations and bridging peoples’ hearts and minds, the English/Chinese stream has been established and developed in dozens of translation and interpreting programmes in the UK and in over two hundred T&I programmes in China.

Against this background the UK-China Symposium on Translation Studies is designed to be a biannual event co-organised by a UK university and a China university in order to promote exchanges among T&I scholars from both countries and to explore various aspects of Translation Studies with a focus on English/Chinese translation & interpreting and their education.

The 1st UK-China Symposium on Translation Studies will be held on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Centre for Translation Studies in the University of Leeds. We welcome submission of abstracts on the following themes. Quality submissions might be considered for special issues to
be proposed for international journals.

Themes:

• Translation and interpreting studies in China and UK: Unity and diversity
• Chinese discourse on translation and interpreting
• Studies on T&I master and doctoral education in China and UK
• Studies on language-pair specificity in English/Chinese translation and interpreting
• Digital humanities in translation and interpreting studies
• Corpus studies in translation and interpreting studies
• Cross-frontier translation and interpreting studies

Deadline for submissions: 15 June 2021

For more information, click here

Kobus Marais, Reine Meylaerts and Maud Gonne are organisng a conference on ‘The Complexity of Social-Cultural Emergence: Biosemiotics, Semiotics and Translation Studies’, to be celebrated on 26-28 August 2021 at the KU Leuven.

The call for papers can be found here

Deadline for abstracts: 1 December 2020

BNU-HKBU United International College (UIC) is located in Zhuhai, one of the most environmental-friendly cities in China, with Hong Kong to the east and Macao to the south. UIC, jointly founded by Beijing Normal University (BNU) and Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), is the first full-scale collaboration between academic institutions from mainland China and Hong Kong. As a liberal arts college, UIC aims to produce graduates with an international perspective, fluent in both English and Chinese, with knowledge and experience of China, Hong Kong and the world at large. UIC offers undergraduate courses with English as the medium of instruction from four academic Divisions: Business & Management, Humanities & Social Sciences, Science & Technology and Culture & Creativity. UIC established the Graduate School in 2017 and started to offer Postgraduate Programmes, including Taught Master's Programmes in addition to Research Postgraduate Programmes that lead to MPhil or PhD degrees.  

UIC now invites candidates for this position which is expected to be filled in February/September 2021: 

Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor in Applied Translation Studies (Ref: DHSS201002)  

Candidates with expertise in one or more of the following areas: Translation Technology, Computer-aided Translation, Putonghua-English Interpreting, Chinese-English Practical Translation and Translation Theory. 

Job Requirement  

Candidates should have a PhD degree or a Master degree with extensive working experience in a related discipline. The successful candidate is expected to be committed to excellence in undergraduate or postgraduate teaching and research. Preference will be given to candidates who can undertake independent research leading to outstanding outcomes, including publications in high quality international-refereed journals. Candidates who have teaching and industrial experience in Interpreting are to be favorably considered, so are those who are knowledgeable in Computer-Assisted Translation and proficient in relevant software application.   

Appointment Terms 

Appointment to this position will initially be made on a fixed-term contract of two years. Commencing salaries will be commensurate with qualifications and relevant experience. Fringe benefits include housing allowance (applicable to Assistant Professor and above), leave and medical insurance. Continuation of appointment beyond the initial term will be subject to mutual agreement. 

Application Procedures 

* Please complete the job application form and upload the requested documents online: https://hrapp.uic.edu.cn/recruit/job/vacancy/JobDetail/69 . 
 
*If you failed to submit your application online, please send your application by emailing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Applications should include a curriculum vitae and a completed "Job Application Form" which can be downloaded from http://web.uic.edu.cn/en/hr/job-opportunities/application-procedure. Please indicate the position being applied for, including the field of expertise, level and reference number. 

The College reserves the right not to fill this position, or to extend the search until suitable candidates are identified or to make an appointment by invitation. 

Deadline for applications: 16 December 2020

For more information, click here 

About University of Electronic Science and Technology of China 

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) is a national key university directly under the Ministry of Education of China. UESTC was included as one of the first universities into "Project 211" in 1997, and then the nation's “Project 985” in 2001. In 2017, UESTC was included in Category A of the “World-class University” project. After more than sixty years of development, UESTC now has evolved into a key multidisciplinary university covering all-around programs in electronic disciplines with electronic science and technology as its nucleus, engineering as its major field and a harmonious integration of science, engineering, management, liberal arts and medical science. 

School of Foreign Languages 

Based on the Teaching and Research Office for Foreign Languages founded in 1956, School of Foreign Languages (SFL) was established in 2001. SFL offers a first level master’s degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and a master’s degree in Interpreting and Translation. Under the first level of Foreign Languages and Literature, areas of study include: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Cognitive Neurolinguistics, Translation, Foreign Literature (including English, French, Japanese and Russian), Comparative Literature and Intercultural Studies, Country and Regional Studies, and other research areas. In addition, we also offer a Master program for a professional degree, i.e., Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI). There are now 107 faculty members and more than 700 students with a 10% annual growth rate.  

Qualifications and Requirements 

Basic requirements: Have good morals and ethics, and abide by academic ethics. Ideally more than two –year teaching and research full-time working experience, able to meet the job requirements. ALL nationalities are eligible. 

Qualifications 

• Possess a PHD degree granted by prestigious overseas universities 
• He/She has rich teaching and research experience and good academic development potential 
• Be able to work full time in China.  

Preferential Policies and Treatments 

• Annual salary: on a case-by-case negotiation round 
• Settling-in and housing subsidies and reasonable start-up funds will be provided according to different positions. 

Application 

• Personal Curriculum Vitae with the list of academic achievements and representative achievements  
• A photocopy of the PHD degree certificate, and the current professional and technical position/rank certificate, and award certificate, etc. 
• Valid all the year round 

Contact Information 

Shirley SU, Tel:61831162, 

E-Mail：This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Add.: University of Electronic Science and technology, No. 2006, Xiyuan Avenue, WestHi-tech Zone, Chengdu 611731, Sichuan, China 

Application deadline: 9 December 2020

For more information, click here

Laboratorio Permanente di Media and Humour Studies presents New research in media paratexts

Catherine Johnson – University of Huddersfield “The appisation of TV:Apps, devices, platforms and discoverability”

Kathryn Batchelor – University College London “Paratexts in audiovisual translation research”

Paul Grainge – University of Nottingham “Paratexts as social media entertainment”

email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

17th NOVEMBER 202011am-1pm (Rome time)

Join us on MS Teams:https://bit.ly/3jBKnM4

Laboratorio Permanente di Media and Humour Studies presents Translation and invisibility in the media:

Susan Bassnett – University of Warwick “Considering visibility”

Federico M. Federici – University College London “Make your metaphor into a wall: Migrants, crises, and media”

Michael Cronin – Trinity College Dublin “Translation in the public square”

email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 9th NOVEMBER 2020 3-5pm (Rome time)

Join us on MS Teams:https://bit.ly/3ebXkez

Our knowledge of the Holocaust has been shaped by texts that come to the English-and French-language worlds largely through translation. The crucial work of translation is rarely acknowledged, and yet the way the collective past is experienced and remembered is dependent on this process of linguistic and cultural transfer. Translation is much more than the mechanical substitution of one language for another: it involves a process of reframing as texts move from their original contexts to new ecologies of reception. Choices of style and tone, terms for historical references — these influence the effectiveness and readability of testimony and involve historical and ethical issues.

Translation is invoked broadly as a reflection on practices of transmission across distances of history, culture and gender and linked to imperatives of contemporary Holocaust education.

The conference is presented by the Azrieli Foundation, in partnership with Concordia University.

Registration: To register, click here.

Please view the pre-conference materials below in advance of the virtual conference. The relevant pre-conference materials will also be streamed via Zoom directly before each session.

Program

9:00AM. Optional screening of pre-conference materials

10:30AM. Memory Across Languages

• Peter Davies University of Edinburgh
• Hannah Pollin-Galay Tel Aviv University
• Naomi Seidman University of Toronto
• Irene Kacandes Dartmouth College
• Sherry Simon Concordia University

11:45AM. Optional screening of pre-conference materials

1:00PM. Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah and the Mise-en-scène of Translation

• Dorota Glowacka University of King’s College
• Francine Kaufmann Bar-Ilan University
• Rémy Besson Université de Montréal
• Catherine Person Azrieli Foundation

Organization: Sherry Simon (Concordia University) and Catherine Person (Azrieli Foundation)

For more information, click here

The Graduate Program in Translation and Interpretation (GPTI) at National Taiwan University (NTU) announces one full-time faculty position.

I. General requirements: Except as otherwise specified, minimum requirements include a Ph.D. and a strong publication record in a relevant field. All full-time faculty members are required to teach courses in both the graduate and undergraduate Translation and Interpretation programs and are obliged to direct theses, mentor students, and serve on various university and program committees.

II. Openings: Track 1— Chinese-English Translation: Additional requirements:  Research expertise and teaching experience in translation  Proof of professional translation experience  A variety of specializations preferred

Track 2— Chinese-English Interpreting:

Additional requirements:

 Research expertise and teaching experience in interpreting

 A minimum of 5 years of professional practice in Chinese-English/English-Chinese interpreting

III. Salary and Rank: Commensurate with qualifications, initial salaries plus bonus range approximately from 955,530 NTD per annum for assistant professors to 1,352,227 NTD per annum for full professors with a regular teaching load (9 hours per week for assistant and associate professors, 8 for full professors). Other benefits include family health insurance, research grants and awards (on a competitive basis), and university housing (subject to availability).

IV. Application Materials: 1. A curriculum vitae (including list of publications) 2. A photocopy of Ph.D. diploma; those who have not received their Ph.D. degree at the time of application must provide a formal statement from the doctoral institution indicating that the degree will be obtained by the time of the appointment 3. Proof of past/current employment (if applicable) 4. Proof of relevant professional experience 5. Statement of research interests 6. Syllabi of courses taught 7. Official transcripts or academic reports from the highest academic institution 8. Two letters of recommendation 9. Publications (Ph.D. dissertation included) within the past 7 years

V. Application Deadline and General Information: Appointment begins on August 1, 2021. All applicants must e-mail a completed application form to Ms. Vicky Li (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and send hard copies of the application materials by December 25, 2020 to: No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei 10617, Taiwan Graduate Program in Translation and Interpretation College of Liberal Arts, National Taiwan University Short-listed candidates will be interviewed. All information provided will be treated with strict confidentiality. National Taiwan University appointments are made on a non-discriminatory basis. International applicants must comply with labor laws and meet immigration requirements. Other NTU regulations may apply. Please direct inquiries to Ms. Vicky Li (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). This announcement and other information about GPTI are also available at http://gpti.ntu.edu.tw/.