Thematic Panels

Tuesday, 16 June 2020 07:22

Thematic Panels

Thematic panels

The organizing Committee is pleased to announce the following list of thematic panels.

Thematic panels are groups of papers organized around a particular sub-theme. The panels are listed below and the details of the each panel can be found by clicking the links.

Panel 1: Translation in the global media ecology: New patterns of translation and distribution in the streaming age

Convenors: Jinsil Choi (Keimyung University), Jonathan Evans (University of Portsmouth) & Kyung Hye Kim (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Panel 2: New approaches to language brokering by children and young adults

Convenors: Aída Martínez-Gómez (John Jay College of Criminal Justice) & Mireia Vargas-Urpí (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Panel 3: Emotional translation ecology

Convenors: Ana María Rojo López (Universidad de Murcia), Paula Cifuentes Férez (Universidad de Murcia) & Pawel Korpal (Adam Mickiewicz University)

Panel 4: Indirect translation and sustainable development

Convenors: Hanna Pieta (University of Lisbon), James Hadley (Trinity College Dublin), Jan Buts (Trinity College Dublin) & Laura Ivaska (University of Turku)

Panel 5: Translation, gender, ecology

Convenors: Şebnem Susam-Saraeva (University of Edinburgh) & Manuela Palacios González (USC)

Panel 6: Heritage and art in translation

Convenor: Sharon Deane-Cox (University of Strathclyde)

Panel 7: Insurrectional and translational epistemologies in the global justice movement: Ecologies in time and space

Convenor: Julie Boéri (Hamad Bin Khalifa University)

Panel 9: The cultural ecology of translation and interpreting in research contexts

Convenors: Esa Penttilä, Helka Riionheimo, Juha Lång, Juho Suokas & Erja Vottonen (all University of Eastern Finland)

Panel 10: Practices in the spotlight: Theorizing and researching translation and interpreting practices

Convenor: Maeve Olohan (University of Manchester)

Panel 11: (Neural) Machine translation in multilingual ecosystems

Convenors: Olga Torres Hostench (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Juan Antonio Pérez-Ortiz (Universitat d'Alacant), Caroline Rossi (Université Grenoble-Alpes) & Pilar Sánchez-Gijón (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Panel 12: Impact of machine translation on the translational ecosystem

Convenors: Sergi Alvarez (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) & Antoni Oliver (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

Panel 13: Creative texts, technology and ecology

Convenors: Dorothy Kenny (Dublin City University), Ana Guerberof Arenas (University of Surrey), James Hadley (Trinity College Dublin), Carlos Teixeira (IOTA), Antonio Toral (University of Groningen) & Marion Winters (Heriot-Watt University)

Panel 14: Multilingualism, liminality and identity in audiovisual translation

Convenor: Charlotte Bosseaux (University of Edinburgh)

Panel 15: Perspectives in translation and digital spaces in the age of ecological awareness

Convenors: Miguel Ángel Jiménez-Crespo (Rutgers University) & Vanessa Enriquez-Raido (University of Auckland)

Panel 16: Translation, spaces and cultural ecology

Convenors: Maria Dasca (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) & Rosa Cerarols (Unversitat Pompeu Fabra)

Panel 17: The social role of language: Translation into easy and plain languages

Convenors: Silvia Hansen-Schirra (University of Mainz) & Christiane Maaß (University of Mainz)

Panel 18: Interpreting for access

Convenors: Franz Pöchhacker (University of Vienna) & Pablo Romero-Fresco (University of Vigo)

Panel 19: Ecological turn in translatology

Convenor: Rindon Kundu (Sri Sri University)

Panel 20: Translation and interpreting in conflict zones and their aftermath

Convenors: Hyongrae Kim (Auburn University) & Moira Inghilleri (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Panel 21: Interpreting (practices) in emerging technological ecosystems: Awareness, challenges and adaptation

Convenors: Sabine Braun (University of Surrey) & Elena Davitti (University of Surrey)

Panel 1: Translation in the global media ecology: New patterns of translation and distribution in the streaming age

Convenors: Jinsil Choi (Keimyung University), Jonathan Evans (University of Portsmouth) & Kyung Hye Kim (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Keywords: media, centre/periphery, dominant/dominated, streaming, fansubbing, attention ecology.

While there have been calls to ‘recenter globalization’ since the early 2000s (Iwabuchi 2002), the development of streaming media since the late 2000s has effectively disrupted older patterns of film and media distribution, leading to more access globally for what had been marginalised cultures in the global media ecology, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Nigeria. The contribution of streaming service platforms turned content creators such as Amazon, Netflix and Rakuten Viki is in the process of overturning previous understandings of the global mediasphere. Increasingly invested in international services, these companies’ practices fragment, deconstruct and reconfigure media space.

Translation is central to this, as these streaming providers offer most media content in translated versions, be it dubbed or subtitled, resulting in geographical boundaries becoming increasingly volatile and propelling cultural mobility. Not all such translations 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 ‘dominated’ cultures and as well 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. 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 being overlooked in the sheer quantity of ‘dominating’ language production. This panel aims to explore the role of translation in the streaming age, 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 popular 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 media environment
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 media

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Bionotes of panel convenors:

Jinsil Choi is Assistant Professor, Keimyung University, South Korea. Her research interests include corpus-based translation, pre-modern Korea in translation, and subtitles and film ratings in Korea. She is now working on a monograph, entitled Government Translation in South Korea: A Corpus Based Study, to be published by Routledge in 2020.

Kyung Hye Kim is Lecturer in Translation Studies at the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and an Honorary Associate Director of the Baker Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at Shanghai International Studies University, China. Her academic interests lie in corpus-based translation studies, retranslation, and critical discourse analysis.

Jonathan Evans is Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Portsmouth, UK. He is the author of The Many Voices of Lydia Davis (2016) and co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics (2018). His academic interests lie in the circulation of media and non-hegemonic ideas.

Panel 2: New approaches to language brokering by children and young adults

Convenors: Aída Martínez-Gómez (John Jay College of Criminal Justice) & Mireia Vargas-Urpí (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Keywords: child language brokering, interpreting, non-professional interpreting, policy, methodology, pedagogy, institutional constraints, individual and society

As societies worldwide become increasingly diverse, young language brokers emerge as crucial enablers of multilingual and multicultural relationships within and across communities. They routinely perform translation and interpreting tasks in a broad range of settings that enable their families and linguistic communities to participate actively in the larger society they live in, from high-stakes institutional contexts to entertainment activities. As language brokers, they become active participants, and often strong advocates, in the evolving complex relationship between national and minority/minoritized languages, both in native and migrant communities.

In the past couple of decades, researchers have shed light on “the who, what, where, and how of brokering” (Jones & Trickett 2005: 408) and discussed the variety of developmental and psychosocial effects (both positive and negative) of these activities on young brokers (Angelelli 2010, 2016; Antonini 2015, 2016; Kam 2011; Orellana 2009; Weisskirch 2013). These translation and interpreting tasks have also been identified as central to the construction of their identities as global citizens and engaged community members (Bauer 2010, Weisskirch 2005) and to the shaping of family relationships (Dorner et al. 2007, Lazarevic 2012, Valdés 2003). At the same time, these young language brokers are contributing to shaping translation and interpreting as a profession and as an academic discipline: many former and current language brokers are currently populating T&I classrooms around the world and/or choosing T&I as a career when they are adults. Therefore, examining the contributions of their previous experiences and understanding how they shape their attitudes and behaviors also becomes imperative (Napier 2017).

This panel aims to deepen our knowledge of child and/or young adult language brokering, particularly as a catalyst for empowerment and growth within minoritized communities. This panel especially welcomes empirical research that focuses on the interconnections between language brokering and larger societal and institutional forces (including T&I as a discipline and profession) and the theoretical and practical shifts that may emerge from the mutual influences that they exert over each other.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Overviews of CLB practices in underexplored areas (e.g., geopolitical, linguistic, institutional, etc.)
Sociolinguistic approaches to the study of CLB (e.g., empowerment of brokers, communities, and heritage languages)
CLB and the construction of identity
Intended and unintended consequences of CLB at individual, group and societal levels: cognitive development and adjustment, family dynamics, social cohesion, emotional impact, etc.
Impact of CLB on market structures and professionalization efforts for the interpreting community, particularly in public service settings
Connections between CLB practices, activism and advocacy
The impact of CLB on language policy, planning and implementation
Innovative methodological applications to the study of CLB (multimodality, mixed methods approaches, longitudinal studies, artwork elicitation, participatory action research, bottom-up approaches, etc.)
Pedagogical implications and applications of CLB in the interpreting classroom (both formal and informal learning settings)
Gender issues based on empirical, large-scale studies
Studies of experiences of institutionalised or guided CLB practices in school settings

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Aída Martínez-Gómez (Ph.D. in Translation and Interpreting, University of Alicante, Spain) is Associate Professor of Translation and Interpreting at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (City University of New York). Her research focuses on interpreting and language access in prison settings, non-professional interpreters and young language brokers, translation and interpreting pedagogy for heritage learners, and interpreting quality. Her work has been published in Interpreting, Perspectives, Translation and Interpreting Studies, and the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, among others.

Mireia Vargas-Urpí (Ph.D. in Translation and Intercultural Studies, UAB) is a Serra Hunter Fellow at the Department of Translation and Interpreting and East Asian Studies at UAB. Her research focuses on public service interpreting (especially in the Chinese community), sociologies of translation and interpreting and child language brokering. She is member of MIRAS and TXICC research groups and currently coordinates “Young natural interpreters: child language brokering in education, social services and healthcare settings” (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities) and co-coordinates with Marta Arumí the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership “Empowering Young Language Brokers for Inclusion in Diversity”.

Panel 3: Emotional translation ecology

Convenors: Ana María Rojo López (Universidad de Murcia), Paula Cifuentes Férez (Universidad de Murcia) & Pawel Korpal (Adam Mickiewicz University)

Keywords: emotions, affective factors, translation ecology, interpreting ecology

This panel aims to bring together empirical and theoretical contributions addressing how emotions matter in the interaction between translators/interpreters and their physical environment. Whether this interaction is explored from a cultural, social, technological or ethical perspective, emotions are a leading influencer in all the practices defining translation as a global phenomenon.

In the last decades, emotions have found their pride of place in research on cognition as the relevance of emotion for human functioning has been acknowledged. Emotions are considered to interact with perception, thought, and action (Brosh et al. 2013; Damasio, 1994; Izard, 2009), being regarded as a fundamental principle of human behaviour that help us to adapt to the environment.

In line with research in neuroscience and psychology, during these last few years, Cognitive Translation Studies scholars have made greater efforts to define the role of emotions (as well as other closely related psycho-affective factors) in the translation and interpreting process (see Korpal, 2016 or Rojo, 2016). As stated in Rojo (2017), the impact of emotions has been tested on four central aspects of translation and interpreting: the emotionality of source and target texts, different processing styles, translation and interpreting quality, and translation reception. As far as the first aspect is concerned, the emotionality of the source text has not been convincingly demonstrated to influence the emotional load of the target text. In contrast, research on different processing styles has shown that emotions of different valence have a differential impact on the translation process, with positive emotions fostering creativity and negative ones enhancing meaning accuracy (e.g., Lehr, 2017; Rojo & Ramos, 2016). Regarding translation and interpreting quality, studies on the effects of stress and anxiety have shown that more errors are generally made under those conditions, pointing to other affective and personality factors that also come into play. Research on reception has suggested that although the emotionality of the text might not determine translators’ behaviour, it seems to play a significant role in the response elicited in the target audience (Rojo, 2017).

Despite the existing research on emotions and translation/interpreting, much work remains to be done so as to get a clearer and wider picture of the interplay between emotions and translation/interpreting. Among the questions that call for further research are: the role of emotions of opposite valence, the interplay between emotions and the type of text, the influence of individual differences, how the working environment affects translators and interpreters, etc.

The panel will focus on the socio-political, ethical, theoretical and methodological questions raised by the topic of emotional translation ecology. Topics of interest include:

Theoretical models and epistemological issues
Ethical issues of emotion research
Neuroscientific and/or psychological aspects
The role of affective factors in cognitive processes
Emotions in the workplace
The impact of ST on the translator’s emotions
The interplay between emotions and directionality
Emotions in translation reception
Interactions between human and non-human organisms

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Ana María Rojo López is Professor of Translation at the University of Murcia (Spain), where she is currently Deputy Director of the International Doctoral School at the University of Murcia. Her current research interests focus mainly on the study of the translation process, with special emphasis on the role of emotions, creativity and other personality and individual differences. Her interests also lie within audience reception analysis and the contributions of cognitive linguistics to translation studies. An external associate of the MC2 Lab, she currently coordinates a research project on emotions and translation based on the study of the translation and interpreting process through cortisol analysis, heart rate variability measurement, eye-tracking, facial recognition and reaction time analysis.

Panel 4: Indirect translation and sustainable development

Convenors: Hanna Pieta (University of Lisbon), James Hadley (Trinity College Dublin), Jan Buts (Trinity College Dublin) & Laura Ivaska (University of Turku)

Keywords: indirect translation, low-diffusion languages, low-resource languages, sustainable development goals

In an increasingly global society, people are often expected to translate from already translated texts or with further translation in mind. This is especially the case in contexts where multiple low-diffusion and/or low-resource languages are used . Such translating for and from translation, here called “indirect translation” and understood to include both oral and written texts (Assis Rosa, Pieta, and Maia 2019), has traditionally been perceived as a work-around to be avoided.

For quite some time now, research has focused on negative effects associated with this practice, particularly on mistakes that are added as one moves away from the ultimate source text (Pas 2013). Others have noted the disturbing economic implications of English as a dominant pivot language worldwide (de Swaan 2020), and the damaging consequences associated with taking translation work away from people who are already marginalized because of the language they use (Brodie 2012).

However, more recent studies have shifted the focus from these negatives, to the benefits associated with indirect translation, suggesting its potential to work as a tool for the social, economic and political development of countries and peoples (Schäffner, Tcaciuc, and Tesseur 2014); an empowering device that allows people from the margins to access relevant information (Van Rooyen 2018); a life-saving measure in crisis situations (Federici and O'Brien 2020); a productive way of maximining linguistic diversity in educational outlets (Torres-Simón, Pieta, Maia and Xavier, forthcoming); or a catalyst for feminist solidarity across borders (Castro and Ergun 2017).

The aim of this panel is to cast light on indirect translation and its role in the context of social, economic, political, technological or linguistic sustainable development. More specifically, we invite papers analyzing practices and products of indirect translation in relation to at least one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

We welcome proposals focusing on any type of indirect translation. Successful proposals will outline specifically which of the SDGs they address and how. For a full list and more details about the SDG, please see this page: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals.

Proposal should be made in the form of a 300-word abstract, directly addressing one or more of the SDGs, accompanied by a brief bionote.

The guest-editors have secured a slot for a post-panel special issue of Translation Spaces (https://benjamins.com/catalog/ts), to be out in 2023. It will result from a separate call, open to all, regardless of their participation in the panel.

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Hanna Pięta is a postdoctoral teaching and research fellow at the University of Lisbon (Portugal). She is head of Research Group on Reception and Translation Studies (at the University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies), co-coordinator of the international network of indirect translation researchers (IndirecTrans) and associate editor of Scopus-indexed Anglo Saxonica journal. She is now writing a textbook on how to translate well via a third language (Routledge 2022, with Rita Bueno Maia and Ester Torres-Simón) and is co-editing a special issue of *Target* on what indirect translation can do for Translation Studies (2022, with Laura Ivaska and Yves Gambier).

Panel 5: Translation, gender, ecology

Convenors: Şebnem Susam-Saraeva (University of Edinburgh) & Manuela Palacios González (USC)

Keywords: translation, gender, ecology, ecocriticism

The panel aims at refining our conception of the possible relationships between gender, translation and ecology. Environmental Humanities emphasised the need to analyse our relationship to nature from stances that go beyond the scientific or technocratic ones, and to explore the historical, political, ethical, linguistic and artistic dimensions of such relationship. Cronin has convincingly claimed the central role of translation in a new paradigm shift in academia that will have the protection of the environment as its main axis (2018). Feminist Translation has shown that the gender variable cannot be left out of debates about the circulation of ideas. A panel focusing on these three key areas, therefore, would yield fruitful discussion.

The commonalities between gender-based and environmental concerns and struggles have been relatively well-documented. There is, however, a dearth of research on how the relevant ideas spread across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The panel will aim at encouraging research into this area by focusing on two strands: the connections between translation studies, ecocriticism and ecofeminism; and, the tracing of the spread of ideas in relation to gender and environmentalism/ecology through translation.

The range of themes to be explored in this panel may include:

What is the place of feminist translation in environmental humanities and in the struggle for environmental justice?
Is it possible to identify commonalities in the processes of marginalization of women, nature and translation? Do these seemingly different types of marginalization have underlying causes that may be inter-linked?
What can ecofeminism contribute to translation studies, and vice versa?
What has been the role of translation in the circulation of ecofeminist ideas? Through which media do these ideas spread?
How can we recover, explore and promote translation with an ecofeminist focus?
What are the relevant translation policies? E.g., how open are institutions to promoting translations with an ecofeminist focus?
Who are the translators more likely to get involved in translations focusing on environment? What are their various identities, intersectionally, from a feminist angle?
What are the commonalities between ecotranslation and postcolonial debates? Similarly, how may transnational feminism and ecotranslation address each other?
Can we detect significant differences in the way various genres on ecology (nature writing, literary writing, journalistic writing, etc.) are affected by translation and gender?
How do works that link patriarchy, capitalism and climate crisis fare in translation across the world?
What types of audiences are targeted by translations with an ecofeminist focus? Are they environmentalists and/or feminists and/or activists?
How are news items regarding key female environmentalists (e.g. Ocasio-Cortez, Thunberg or Klein) translated? How might their public image become refracted through translation?
What is the role of translation in the current spread of ecologically-oriented plant-based diets and how does this spread relate to gendered identities?

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Şebnem Susam-Saraeva is a Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. Her research interests have included gender and translation, retranslations, translation of literary and cultural theories, research methodology in translation studies, internationalization of the discipline, translation and popular music, and translation and maternal & infant health. She is the author of Translation and Popular Music. Transcultural Intimacy in Turkish-Greek Relations (2015) and Theories on the Move. Translation’s Role in the Travels of Literary Theories (2006), and guest-editor of Translation and Music (2008) and Non-Professionals Translating and Interpreting. Participatory and Engaged Perspectives (2012, with Luis Pérez-González).

Panel 6: Heritage and art in translation

Convenor: Sharon Deane-Cox (University of Strathclyde)

Keywords: translation, interpretation, heritage, art, engagement, meaning-making, multimodality

This panel will foreground the role of translation in the mediated interactions that take place between humans and the cultural heritage environment, a setting that comprises both tangible and intangible, yet always politicised, representations of the past in the present. Within the heritage industry, ‘interpretation’ refers to the ways in which information is transferred to visitors in order to educate and engage. But, despite a shared interest in questions of meaning-making, multimodality, and communication across time and different target groups, dialogue between Heritage Studies and Translation Studies has been surprisingly limited. The panel sets out to gain a fuller understanding of these interdisciplinary points of contact through its exploration of translation as it pertains to the processes and outcomes of heritage promotion, education, reception, consumption, conservation and sustainability.

In so doing, the panel will build on the ‘Museum Translation: Encounters across Space and Time’ panel at IATIS 2018 in Hong Kong by strengthening the growing momentum around research into the connections forged between museum visitor, object, image, sound and space, while also opening up new insights into translation as a shaper of other entities in the wider cultural heritage environment. Art translation has been highlighted as a particular area ripe for further enquiry, but we would encourage and welcome papers that explore any facet of translation, including audio description and interpreting, as it functions in a diverse range of cultural heritage sites, from built sites such as castles and industrial mills to natural sites of e.g. geological, spiritual significance, as well as less material sites, including oral traditions and rituals.

Confirmed speakers are Dr Robert Neather and Prof. Dr. Monika Krein-Kühle (Technische Hochschule Köln). It is anticipated that their respective contributions on visitor response to museum translation and on seeing art through the translator’s eye will serve as innovative starting points for more sustained and productive discussions of heritage translation from theoretical, empirical, exploratory and/or practical perspectives.

In terms of structure, the two speakers will each headline one panel session; the panel organiser will attempt to establish clear lines-of-sight between these contributions and other panel papers in order to best leverage the opportunity for focused dialogue.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Accessibility, Augmented & Virtual Reality
Authenticity, Best practice
Built heritage, heritage interpretation, heritage landscapes, authorized heritage discourse
Conservation, Constraints & creativity, Crafts
Difficult pasts, Ethnography, Marketing
Memory & remembrance, Museums & monuments
Non-professional heritage translation, Objects
Oral heritage, Rituals, Semiotics of heritage, Space and place
Sustainability, Tourist gaze, Transcultural heritage, Visitor experience

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Sharon Deane-Cox is a lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Strathclyde. She is author of a monograph on Retranslation (Bloomsbury, 2014) and her more recent work focuses on Holocaust memory, including the translation of testimonies and museum audio guides. She currently holds a Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Network award on ‘Translating Scotland’s Heritage’, while a Carnegie Research Incentive Grant (2018-19) allowed her to explore the role of translation and interpreting during the Belsen relief effort. She is currently co-editing The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Memory (forthcoming, 2020) and is Associate Editor of Translation Studies. "Robert Neather (Hong Kong Baptist University): 'Visitor Experience and the Role of Translation: The Case of Memorial Museums'.

Panel 7: Insurrectional and translational epistemologies in the global justice movement: Ecologies in time and space

Convenor: Julie Boéri (Hamad Bin Khalifa University)

Keywords: global justice movement, translation, interpreting, insurrection, epistemologies

The term translation has undergone multiple semantic extensions across the humanities and social sciences since the 1990s, revealing a growing concern for understanding the complex dynamics of socio-political, cultural and technological change that shape the globalized yet diverse societies of today. In the study of contemporary activism in particular, translation has become a prism through which we think and practice diversity, inclusion and justice in a world torn apart by greed, violence and destruction. In this sense, a translational focus on contemporary activism can shed light onto the making of insurrectional knowledge capable of empowering humanity to recover and develop the commons. It can help us preserving and nurturing ecologies, in the etymological sense of recovering and reinventing (logos) our natural, political and cultural environments (eco).

Contemporary activism is a particularly promising area for exploring the interplay between dominant and insurrectional forms of knowledge production in and through translation, in and across territories, in and across different disciplines. This panel seeks to explore such epistemologies in the making in the context of the global justice movement, with a particular focus on how time and space mediate social actors’ experience of social transformation. Of particular interest here are the temporary configurations of communities of actors in transient activist spaces and the role played by language and political translation in articulating the perspectives of different social actors, tied to particular histories and geographies, within the global counterhegemonic drive.

This panel welcomes proposals connected to any of the following or compatible issues, with a particular focus on the role of translation (in its narrow and broad senses):

The interplay between insurrectional and mainstream epistemologies, in relation to concepts such as expertise, progress, efficiency and experimentation
Insurrectional initiatives to reconfigure professions, disciplines, theories and research methodologies
Histories and geographies of resistance: the time and space of translation
Transnational diffusion, the uncertainties of cultural appropriation, and the risks of co-optation and instrumentalization
Insurrectional epistemologies and the porous frontier between grassroots and mainstream
Social and digital spaces: the tension between concrete and virtual space/time and its impact on emerging epistemologies
Activist communities in virtual space: what kind of insurrectional epistemologies emerge through transient, biodegradable networks?
Prefigurative translation: modes, critiques and alternative strategies.

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Bionote of panel convenor:

Julie Boéri lectures at the Translation and Interpreting Studies Department of Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar. Her work focuses on social change and innovation in digital and non-digital environments, with a particular interest in narrative convergence and divergence among actors and communities. Her ethnographic studies of interactions, practices and artefacts in social organizations and media spaces seek to account for the dynamics of dominance and resistance at play in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic communicative encounters. "Insurrectional translation: positionality and organization in the global justice movement.

Panel 9: The cultural ecology of translation and interpreting in research contexts

Convenors: Esa Penttilä, Helka Riionheimo, Juha Lång, Juho Suokas & Erja Vottonen (all University of Eastern Finland)

Keywords: research translation, knowledge ecology, non-professional translation

Academic research is by default multilingual. Researchers rely on sources in different languages when they plan their research, conduct it and report on it. They collect data in different linguistic environments, may analyze it in other languages and write their reports in yet other languages. The communities they work with are often international and communicate in various languages. All this requires translation and interpreting. In this context, we use the general term research translation to refer to the phenomenon that covers all written and oral forms of multilingual communication involved in the research process from the planning stage to the final reporting of its results.

In some fields, such as medical and health sciences or ethnography, the role of research translation is at least acknowledged, but in many others, it remains largely unnoticed (see e.g. Overing 1987; Bundgaard & Brøgger 2018). It is often done by researchers themselves ‒ rather than professional translators and interpreters ‒ as part of their everyday activities. It takes various forms that do not resemble traditional translation and can therefore be difficult to recognize. In many ways, research translation resembles non-professional interpreting and translation ‒ or transcreation and transediting (Antonini & Bucaria 2015; Pedersen 2014; Stetting 1989).

However, whenever something is translated, it affects the way the phenomena involved are viewed ‒ independent of whether we recognize it or not. This is why research translation deserves to be brought to the fore more pronouncedly than has been so far, and it is the translation scholars who can contribute to this discussion with their expertise. In this panel, we aim to discuss the cultural ecology of research translation and the ways in which translation and interpreting in research contexts affects the interpretation and dissemination of knowledge. We invite papers that deal with the theoretical and practical aspects of research translation from a more general perspective or in the form of case studies concentrating on more specific aspects. The themes to be discussed may include but are not limited to the following:

What is the knowledge ecology of research translation?
What are the actual contexts in which research translation is done?
Who participates in research translation and how?
How is translation and/or interpreting recognized and organized in the research process?
What is the role of professional and non-professional translation and interpreting in research translation?
What are the theoretical and practical consequences of translation in the research process?
How can translation studies contribute to the phenomenon of research translation?

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Esa Penttilä is university lecturer in English language and translation but is currently working as professor of translation studies (fixed-term). His research interests include non-professional translation, cognitive translation studies and metaphors in thought and language.

Helka Riionheimo is professor of Finnish, currently working as professor of Karelian (fixed-term), at the University of Eastern Finland. She has published various articles with translation scholars and led the Kiännä! project, which organized translator training for the endangered language of Karelian.

Juha Lång is university teacher and doctoral student of English language and translation. In his doctoral dissertation, he concentrates on the reception of subtitles using various experimental methods.

Juho Suokas works as junior researcher of English language and translation and is finalizing his doctoral dissertation on user-centered translation. His research interests include the translation process, usability of texts, and the internal and external properties of translations.

Erja Vottonen works as junior researcher of Russian language and translation at the University of Eastern Finland. Her doctoral dissertation deals with encounters of theory and practice in translator training.

Panel 10: Practices in the spotlight: Theorizing and researching translation and interpreting practices

Convenor: Maeve Olohan (University of Manchester)

Keywords: translation practice; interpreting practice; practice theory; materials; technology; social change

Practice theory, as elaborated by Schatzki (1996; 2002), Reckwitz (2002) and Shove et al. (2012), among others, conceives of the social world as a plenum of interconnected practices, and places practices at the centre of analysis. By accounting for how practices are constituted, how they relate to other practices, and how they change through time and space, practice-theoretical approaches offer an alternative to both individualist and systems-oriented explanations of social phenomena. Despite differences in conceptualization and terminology, practice-theoretical approaches are keenly interested in the role of materials and know-how in the constitution or mediation of practices, and often seek to explain how practices emerge, endure and evolve. As demonstrated by Olohan (2020), practice theory thus provides a productive framework for a dynamic and materially aware understanding of translation practice and for examining new configurations of the practice.

This panel brings together contributions on translation, interpreting and related practices with a practice theory orientation. Following Nicolini and Monteiro (2017), Olohan suggests that practice-theoretical research on translation or interpreting may pursue one or more of the following approaches:

A situational approach provides insights into the accomplishment of a practice, by studying the performance and reproduction of the practice at a specific site. These studies may use ethnographic methods to produce detailed narratives of how practices unfold, how they are materially and discursively constituted or mediated, what know-how they require, how they are organised normatively, etc.
A genealogical approach focuses on the life or trajectory of a practice and its elements. This research, often informed by historical sources and methods, provides explanation of how a practice emerges and is shaped, how it evolves or disappears. The innovation of practices is also of interest here, as are questions related to the recruitment and retention of participants to a practice.
A configurational approach examines how practices and their elements are connected or interdependent, thus building an understanding of the wider texture of which practices are a part. Relevant interconnections with translation or interpreting practices are numerous and may include authoring, editing and publishing practices as well as practices of consuming or using translations and interpreting. Also of interest are commercial practices by which translation and interpreting businesses are organized and conducted; practices that design and commercialize tools for translation and interpreting; practices of training and educating practitioners, etc.
A dialectal approach tackles the effects that are produced by specific configurations of practices. Ongoing changes in practices can range from having minimal consequence to introducing “significant differences into the world” (Schatzki 2019, 82). Among other aspects, this research may address the empowerment or disempowerment of translators, interpreters and others through reconfigurations of practices that are, in turn, linked to changing business models or technologies.

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Bionote of panel convenor:

Maeve Olohan is Co-Director of the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester. She studies the elements and dynamics of translation practice, past and present, with a significant focus on the material and embodied aspects of translation, as well as the wider interconnections between translation and other practices. She is author of Translation and Practice Theory (2020), Scientific and Technical Translation (2016) and Introducing Corpora in Translation Studies (2004), and co-editor of a special issue of The Translator (2011) on the translation of science.

Panel 11: (Neural) Machine translation in multilingual ecosystems

Keywords: multilingual ecosystems, machine translation, neural machine translation, translation quality, deep learning, translation technologies, learning, ethics, ecological thinking

Neural machine translation is promoted as a technology that will not only change the ecosystem of professional translation but will also have profound impacts on fields such as education. The technical opacity of contemporary approaches, however, and the legal, environmental and other ethical issues they raise, mean that the wholesale adoption of neural machine translation in various branches of the economy or across society is fraught with difficulty. Against a background of industry hype and often self-serving disruption talk, those involved in both language and translation education are seeking informed, critical and sustainable ways to meet the challenges posed by the increasing use of the technology. Convinced that ecological thinking will be important in such endeavours, the panel organisers wish to invite ecologically-aware contributions whose aim is to exchange knowledge, expertise and resources related to machine translation as an influential factor in the translation ecosystem.

Proposed papers may address, for example:

Neural machine translation in multilingual ecosystems
Neural machine translation in the evolving relationship between global, national and minoritized languages in a multilingual world
Ethical, social, political, environmental aspects of neural machine translation: beyond the technical approach
Custom neural machine translation: ecological succession and adaptation in specialised translation ecosystems
Neural machine translation quality: developing new processes and interactions
Making deep learning and neural machine translation accessible for non-technical audiences, in particular for language teachers and learners as multilingual citizens and trainee and professional translators
Teaching materials that address both the technical foundations of machine learning—and especially deep learning—as used in machine translation, and the ethical, societal and professional implications of this approach
Sourcing data sets (and protocols for developing data sets) that teachers and learners can use in training their own machine translation systems
Development of engaging activities that allow language learners and translators to co-construct knowledge about neural machine translation
Neural machine translation platforms that non-technical learners can use to gain insight into the internal workings of neural machine translation systems.

Papers are expected to present cutting-edge research, best practices, theory building, or policy development that can inspire dialogue amongst participants.

Panel convenors are members of the Erasmus+ strategic partnership ‘MultiTraiNMT - Machine Translation training for multilingual citizens’. MultiTraiNMT aims to provide partners with the resources required to adapt to an evolving translation ecosystem. To this end, it will create, evaluate and disseminate open access materials designed to enhance teaching and learning about (neural) machine translation among translation scholars, professional translators, trainee translators, language teachers and language learners.

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Olga Torres-Hostench is a senior lecturer in translation at the Department of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain, where she teaches translation and localization. Since 2003, she has been a member of the Tradumática research group, which focuses on translation and technologies. Her research focuses on technologies, specialized translation, machine translation and post-editing. She has participated and/or coordinated in European funded projects (Levis, ClipFlair, EGPS, MultiTrainMT) and coordinated Spanish funded research projects related to translation technologies and machine translation (LAWIon, ProjecTA and ProjecTA-U).

Dorothy Kenny is Full Professor and Chair of Translation Studies at Dublin City University, Ireland. She is a founding member of the University’s Centre for Translation and Textual Studies. Her recent publications include the edited volume Human Issues in Translation Technology (2017, Routledge) and contributions on machine translation and translator training in The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Philosophy (2018) and The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology (2020). She is Co-General Editor of Translation Spaces and in 2020 co-edited a special issue of the journal on Fair Machine Translation. She served on the Executive Council of IATIS from 2004 to 2015.

Juan Antonio Pérez-Ortiz is an associate professor in computer science and researcher at Universitat d’Alacant, Spain, director of the Transducens research group, and co-founder of Prompsit Language Engineering. He has worked on machine translation (rule-based, statistical and neural) and computer-aided translation for almost 20 years. He received his Ph.D. in computer science in 2002 with a thesis on recurrent neural models for sequence processing that used, among others, distributional representations for natural language processing tasks and LSTM cells.

Caroline Rossi is Full professor in the Applied Languages department of UFR-LE at the University of Grenoble Alps (UGA), where she teaches translation in the BA and Master's degree in Specialized Multilingual Translation (TSM). She is co-director of the GREMUTS team at ILCEA4 and head of the Translation Terminology and Technologies team. She is also an elected member of the Research Committee for her university's Academic Council. Her current research interests include the uses and perceptions of machine translation, both within and outside the classroom, and the evauation of machine translation for different users and purposes.

Pilar Sánchez-Gijón is a senior lecturer in translation technologies at the Department of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain, where she teaches subjects related to CAT tools, corpus linguistics, machine translation and terminology. Since1999, she has been a member of the Tradumática research group, which focuses on translation and technologies. Her research focuses on translation technologies, localization and post-editing. She has coordinated scholar networks such as POST-IT and TETRATEC, and research projects on machine translation (ProjecTA-U, TRACE and MultiTrainMT).

Panel 12: Impact of machine translation on the translational ecosystem

Convenors: Sergi Alvarez (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Antoni Oliver (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) & Pilar Sánchez-Gijón (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Keywords: machine translation, post-editing, translational ecosystem, neural machine-translation

Translators find themselves under increasing pressure. Technological developments such as computer-assisted translation and machine translation have led to important changes in contemporary translation, which have required translators to deal with new challenges and overcome technological barriers. Furthermore, this technologisation is also paired with an increased focus on productivity and pressure on cost intensified since the 2008 global economic crisis (Moorkens, 2017). In recent years, the improvements in neural modelling (Bahdanau, 2015) have multiplied the presence of neural machine translation (NMT) in many translation scenarios. Post-editing of machine translation (PEMT), for example, is now a very common practice in the translation industry because it increases productivity and reduces costs (Guerberof, 2009). There have even been recent claims of human-machine parity for certain language combinations (Hassan, 2018), although some voices warn about the excessive hype surrounding NMT (Kenny, 2018; Castilho, 2017).

As in any other ecosystem, the translational ecosystem presents a dynamic balance of its elements (Hu, 2020). The changes introduced by machine translation will obviously lead other factors to change accordingly, which will produce changes in the whole ecosystem.

However, translators can intervene or control to some extent the scope of these changes.

We are interested in bringing together research from academic and industry settings that describes how translators are adapting in practice to this new scenario.

The goal is understanding how machine translation affects all the components of the translational ecosystem: the translation education ecosystem, the translation market ecosystem, the translation management ecosystem and the ecosystem of translation itself (Hu, 2020). Contributors might present work on:

Use of machine translation in novel scenarios
Industry or institutional applications of machine translation
Translators’ perception and adaptation to machine translation
Evaluation of novel machine translation systems

Or any other topic related to machine translation such as training programmes, or non-professional use of machine translation.

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Sergi Alvarez is currently an Adjunct Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, where he teaches subjects related to translation technologies and localization. He holds a MA in Translation Studies from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and he is finishing his PhD at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in machine translation quality and how it affects the post-editing effort in translation workflows. He has worked as a translator for more than 15 years, specialized in technical translation and localization.

Antoni Oliver holds a PhD in Linguistics and a degree in Slavic Language and Literature from the University of Barcelona, as well as a degree in Telecommunications from La Salle University School of Telecommunications Engineering. He is an Associate Professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC). He directs the Translation and Technologies Master programme and lectures in the Arts and Humanities Department, where he coordinates subjects related to language technologies. His main field of research is natural language processing, specifically focusing on issues linked to machine translation, assisted translation tools and the automatic acquisition of language resources.

Pilar Sánchez Gijón is a senior lecturer in the Department of Translation and Interpreting at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. In 2003, she obtained her PhD in Translation Theory. Since then, her research interest has been focused on translation and technologies: corpus linguistics, terminology and communication and information technologies. She has also carried out research on the tools and procedures involved in the translation process: CAT, machine translation, post-edition, project management and quality control. In recent years, she has been involved in several research projects related to these research areas. She is the author of diverse articles and book chapters which focus on such areas of study. She is currently director of the Revista Tradumàtica, focused on translation and technologies and coordinator of the Tradumàtica Master’s Degree on Translation Technologies.

Panel 13: Creative texts, technology and ecology

Keywords: creative texts, translation technology, machine translation, digital platforms, translation ecosystems

The use of technology in the translation of creative texts has become the focus of much recent research. Scholars have shown, for example, how corpus processing tools, translation memory interfaces and data visualization tools can support literary translators in their work. Machine translation systems have been specially adapted to assist with the translation of novels (e.g. Toral and Way 2018), and even poetry is being translated automatically (Van De Cruys 2020). Researchers are beginning to explore the consequences of such deployments for creative texts and creative translators, asking questions such as: Will machines be able to cope with the basic mechanisms of storytelling? What effects might the use of machine translation have on the plurivocality of texts in general, and on the translator’s voice in particular? How will readers respond to machine-translated narratives? (See, i.a., Guerberof Arenas and Toral 2019; Kenny and Winters forthcoming; Taivalkoski-Shilov 2019a, 2019b.)

But despite the obvious dynamism of the field, there has been little research so far into the possible long-term consequences of the use of the technologies in question on the translation eco-system. Will the increasing use of technology push creative translators into smaller niches than they currently occupy? Do they risk extinction? Or can technology be used to enhance the creativity of creative translators? Will it in fact be a factor in ensuring their survival? Can current developments be understood in terms of ecological succession? To what extent do existing resources (and especially training data) dictate the future uptake of these technologies? Could machine translation turn out to be a boon for low-resource languages or for language combinations in markets that are not currently targeted by powerful publishers? Can translation technology ultimately make a contribution to the maintenance of linguistic diversity? Can it be used to promote previously poorly served language combinations or authors? To what extent could additional deployment of cloud technologies for creative translation constitute yet another burden on the natural environment? What kind of political reaction, if any, can we expect to the increased use of machines in areas previously thought to be the preserve of humans? What evidence do we have to support any of these views?

Our panel will address these and related questions as applied to the use of translation and related technologies in the translation of creative texts. We understand creative texts, following Hadley et al. (forthcoming) as texts that ‘pivot broadly on the human creativity employed in their production’ and ‘rely heavily on aesthetics for their existence’. Such creative texts include, but are not limited to: works of fiction and non-fiction; performative works, such as songs, speeches, films, TV shows, and computer games; and promotional texts, such as commercials, advertisements, and propaganda.

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Dorothy Kenny is Full Professor and Chair of Translation Studies at Dublin City University, Ireland, and a founding member of the University’s Centre for Translation and Textual Studies. Her recent publications include the edited volume Human Issues in Translation Technology (2017, Routledge) and contributions on machine translation and translator training in The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Philosophy (2018) and The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology (2020). She is Co-General Editor of Translation Spaces and in 2020 co-edited a special issue of the journal on Fair Machine Translation. She served on the Executive Council of IATIS from 2004 to 2015.

Panel 14: Multilingualism, liminality and identity in audiovisual translation

Convenor: Charlotte Bosseaux (University of Edinburgh)

Keywords: multilingualism, liminality, identity, audiovisual translation

Many scholars have emphasised that multilingualism is used in polyglot films to mirror authentic language use. Moreover, multilingualism in original audiovisual products has various functions including character configuration (Delabastita & Grutman 2005: 18). Multilingualism can thus be used to construct characters, give information about their identity and show how this identity is negotiated through language use. However, many studies (e.g. O’Sullivan 2011, de Bonis 2013) have shown that linguistic diversity is very often homogenised in translation.

Within this context, our panel will focus on multilingualism as a liminal space. In his work dedicated to rituals and rites of passages, Victor Turner defines a liminal space as ‘a realm of pure possibility whence novel configurations of ideas and relations may arise’ (1967: 97); a space where ‘new meanings [...] can be introduced’ (1981: 161). Consequently, the liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness and indeterminacy, as one’s sense of identity to some extent dissolves, bringing about disorientation Liminality is a period of transition, during which our normal limits with regard to thought, self-understanding and behaviour are relaxed, paving the way for something new.

Drawing from Turner, our panel will consider how multilingualism in audiovisual products can be seen as a ‘liminal space’, particularly in films or television series, for instance, in which identities are being negotiated and constructed through linguistic diversity. It is argued that in this context, the translation of multilingualism becomes an all the more important issue because if a film is translated into a monolingual text, it will actually limit or constrict possibilities for new meanings to be introduced in the target culture.

Our papers will discuss how multilingualism and its translation can be seen as a liminal, in-between space in which the transition of meaning occurs, as well as a rite of passage for meaning to exist fully. We invite papers dealing with multilingualism and liminality in the context of screen translation – from subtitling and dubbing to voice-over, re-speaking and audiodescription. Themes to be discussed include: - Linguistic diversity in translation

Multilingualism and the promotion of diversity
Characterisation and multilingualism
Audiovisual translation in multilingual societies
Politics of linguistic identities in translation
Multilingualism and nationalism in translation
The representation of the Other in translated products

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Bionote of panel convenor:

Charlotte Bosseaux is a Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She has worked on literary translation and point of view, and is the author of How does it Feel: Point of View in Translation (Rodopi, 2007). Current research interests include voice, performance and characterisation in audiovisual material. She has authored a monograph on this topic; Dubbing, Film and Performance: Uncanny Encounters (Peter Lang 2015). Other publications include work on Marilyn Monroe (2012 and 2012a), Julianne Moore (2019), and on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2008 and 2014). She is currently writing on documentaries dealing with Gender-Based Violence investigating how the voices of women are translated in this context (forthcoming, 2020). Other publications include work on music in translation (2011, forthcoming 2021) and crime fiction in translation (2018).

Panel 15: Perspectives in translation and digital spaces in the age of ecological awareness

Convenors: Miguel Ángel Jiménez-Crespo (Rutgers University) & Vanessa Enriquez-Raido (University of Auckland)

Keywords: digital spaces, localization, crowdsourcing, machine translation, limitations, digital connoisseurship

The shift from a world of printed texts to digital ones led to significant changes in translation practices worldwide. This “changing landscape in translation” is conceptualized as a stage of unlimited exponential growth through the ever-increasing incorporation of technologies, processes, mediascapes, and (non)human agents in an interconnected digital space. This expansion in the extent and scope of translation has come through novel types of digital modalities, practices, and digital genres, as well as through the reshaping of translation brought by technological convergence. Cloud-–based translation technologies, integrations of MT technologies (with or without humans in the loop), crowdsourcing or crowdsubtitling have all been conceptualized as valuable means to meet this ever-growing demand for translation and to bridge the limited potential of professional practices. At the same time, there has been a call for ecological awareness amidst this explosive growth in terms of “digital connoseurship”, where “not all that can be translated would be translated. Mindful of the environmental impact of data expansion and storage, decisions would have to be made as to what would generate significant added value” with its translation, moving away from “the age of maximization and extractivism” (Cronin 2017: 107).

This panel attempts to explore current approaches to translation and digital spaces that question whether or how the “paradigm of expansion” can be re-examined, challenged or re-directed in the light ecological awareness and the existing body of knowledge of Translation Studies. Among others, issues of interest to question this “paradigm of expansion” in a critical time of ecological awareness include, but are not limited to:

Digital translation/localization and the paradigm of unlimited expansion. Tensions between increasing access to digital genres (websites, videogames, software, apps, AVT) and linguistic, cultural, political, ideological or economic barriers. Issues such as loss (Jiménez-Crespo 2012), asymmetries or limitations in localization and other digital modalities and practices.
Translation production and documentation in digital spaces (Enriquez Raido 2014): tensions between increasing digital resources and the convergence in a limited number or sources. How can translators help with the “most effective or beneficial form of the use of the resources for a translation project” (Cronin 2017: 107).
Explorations of the limits of crowdsourcing, fansubbing and volunteer translation in digital spaces (Jiménez-Crespo 2017). Empirical or theoretical studies that focus on potential limitations, rather than expansion, in terms of procedural aspects, engagement, motivation, censorship, reception, etc.
Ethical limitations to the use of MT (Kenny 2011) or non-professional practices in time-sensitive political, social and humanitarian causes: tweets, digital news, social media updates, calls for activism.
Studies that examine issues related to the “media history of translation” (Littau 2016) to conceptualize or frame possible limitations to expansion. How changes to translation in digital spaces can be studied in “its relations to the mediascapes of the past, present, and virtual future” (Littau 2016: 923).

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Miguel Ángel Jiménez-Crespo holds a PhD in Translation and Interpreting Studies from the University of Granada, Spain. He is a Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Rutgers University, and he directs the Masters program and the undergraduate certificate in Spanish – English Translation and Interpreting. He is the author of Crowdsourcing and Online Collaborative Translations: Expanding the Limits of Translation Studies published by John Benjamins in 2017, as well as Translation and Web Localization published by Routledge in 20013. He has been the editor of the John Benjamins journal JIAL- The Journal of Localization and Internationalization.

Panel 16: Translation, spaces and cultural ecology

Convenors: Maria Dasca (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) & Rosa Cerarols (Unversitat Pompeu Fabra)

Keywords: sense of place, globalization, translation, green humanities, environment, situated knowledge, intersectionality

How has ecology influenced interlinguistic and intralinguistic relationships? What answers and debates has it provoked in the field of translation? What are the points of contact between translation practice and ecological culture? The aim of this panel is to discuss possible answers to these questions by focusing on the relationship between ecology and space. As Cronin points out in ""Eco-translation"" , analyzing translation or language contact according to the idea of political ecology involves assuming the relational nature of all human activity. Translations depend on the places and communities to which they are addressed and for this reason should be understood as situated cultural practices, governed by a particular political ecology. Translation is possible not only thanks to existing cultural diversity but also to phenomena associated with globalization such as interconnectivity and information flows. We can also interpret it as a sign of vulnerability (when it is made invisible) and as a result of the recognition of a problematic diversity (when a situation of untranslatability occurs).

To deal with the climate emergency, new epistemological paradigms have emerged such as the environmental humanities or green humanities where intellectual exercise, text creation and the notion of literature are framed in the analysis of the different worldviews of the ecological culture, contextualized geographically. In the interrelationships of the global-local, new terminology is created that is put into circulation at the same time as concepts rooted in indigenous thought are taken or adapted to be reformulated in the framework of sustainable contemporary thought, with shared dynamics but constituted within the framework of spatial diversity. Chains of transmission appear on different scales such as the formulation of an institutional language linked to large institutions, such as the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), which coexists with the continuity of daily practices that complement and enrich the discursive creation of landscapes for sustainability. In this panel, we will accept proposals (in English, Spanish and Catalan) that deal, from the point of view of ecology, with the relationship between translation and/or language contact with space. The proposals should focus on the analysis of: 1) specific experiences of translation and/or language contact, 2) fictions focused on the topic of translation, multilingualism and/or linguistic ecology, 3) the transfer of knowledge situated in the world system (analyzing discursive practices associated with well-being, global warming, sustainability or indigenous thinking, among others).

The areas which will be considered in the panel include the following:

Language contact and space (exile, travel literature, migration)
Translating minoritized languages in a globalized context
Translating multilingual fictions
Translating dialects
Invisibility in translation
Planetary well-being and situated knowledge
Discourses of global warming in place
Practices and literatures of the Anthropocene
Translating ecofeminism and indigenous thought
Global dynamics and local communities
Spreading and situating the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)
Text as space for eco-thinking
Landscapes of sustainability and its discourses
Translating Planet Earth experiences of pandemic and confinement
Translating feminism and climate emergency
Translating green humanities and ecological worldviews

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Maria Dasca holds a PhD thesis in Catalan Philology from the University of Barcelona (2008), where she has worked as a teacher and researcher (2001-2006). She has taught language, literature, culture and translation classes at the Université Paris-Sorbonne (2007-2010), Brown University (2011-2012), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (2012-2015) and Harvard University (2015-2019). She was a Beatriu de Pinós-A postdoctoral researcher at the Université Paris-Sorbonne (2009-2011), and Beatriu de Pinós-B/Marie Curie Actions postdoctoral researcher at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (2012-2014). Her research interests include contemporary literature, translation studies and space studies.

Panel 17: The social role of language: Translation into easy and plain languages

Convenors: Silvia Hansen-Schirra (University of Mainz) & Christiane Maaß (University of Mainz)

Keywords: easy Language, plain language, accessible communication

The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities has paved the way for inclusion – also communicative inclusion – in the signatory countries. The number of signatories is currently at 163, including the countries of the European Union. The demands of the UN CRPD are implemented with the help of national regulations and action plans. Depending on the respective country, Easy and/or Plain Languages have become an important means of inclusion for people with cognitive restrictions and learning disabilities.

Easy Language (EL) is a language variety with reduced linguistic complexity and enhanced comprehensibility applied in the scope of accessible communication. Existing sets of rules suggest how language can be formulated in order to improve readability and comprehensibility (e.g. Inclusion Europe). We use the term “Easy Language” as an umbrella term for all variants of this language variety, i.e. easy-to-read, the multimodal channel with easy-to-read-and-understand or even oral communication. EL plays a significant role in creating communicative participation in an inclusive society. One of its functions is to make content accessible, and to simultaneously ensure participation for people with communication impairments. However, the simplicity and uniformity of EL texts have a stigmatizing effect on their users. Here, Plain Language (PL), which is situated on a continuum between EL and standard language, offers less stigmatizing linguistic structures and layout options.

There are, however, several research gaps: It is not clear whether the existing sets of rules can be applied without losing functional adequacy of the reformulations or whether they can be applied to multimodal settings at all. Furthermore, it is not clear whether approaches from cognitive science help measuring processing costs or whether computational techniques can be applied to facilitate or even automatize the production process of easy language texts. Finally, standards for measuring textual quality have to be discussed, especially when taking the target groups’ demands into account.

With the proposed workshop, we want to bring together researchers, practitioners, and ideally users dealing with Easy and Plain Languages in all sorts of languages, text types, situational contexts and language modes. One goal is to bootstrap a new, multidisciplinary community around this topic and to stimulate exchange and cooperation. Cross-fertilization is not only desirable, but almost mandatory in order to tackle future tasks and endeavors. The contributions may draw from a wide variety of objectives and methods, especially interdisciplinary approaches are addressed. Contributions may deal with but are not limited to the following topics: - Empirical validation of EL and PL rules

Contrastive analyses of EL and PL texts worldwide
Intralingual translation strategies into EL and PL
EL and PL in multimodal settings
Easy Language interpreting
Computational automation and Artificial Intelligence for translation workflows
Cognitive processing of EL and PL
Quality of EL and PL texts

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Silvia Hansen-Schirra is Professor for English Linguistics and Translation Studies at the Faculty of Translation Studies in Germersheim, director of the Translation & Cognition (TRA&CO;) Center and Head of the Research Group “Simply complex – Easy Language".

Panel 18: Interpreting for access

Convenors: Franz Pöchhacker (University of Vienna) & Pablo Romero-Fresco (University of Vigo)

Keywords: interpreting, accessibility, media translation, technology

The aim of this thematic panel is to provide a framework for linking a number of existing and emerging research strands from the perspectives of translation and accessibility studies. All of these efforts are intended to contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which translational practices, increasingly mediated through digital technologies, shape the relationship between individuals and society and its institutions. Broadly speaking, contributions to this panel will address the mutual relationships between audiovisual translation, media interpreting, and accessibility services. All of these processes and their products are closely bound up with new technologies as well as specific groups of people in a novel type of cultural ecology. In addition to such well-established practices as live subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing and TV news interpreting, this panel will feature novel applications of real-time (‘live’) translational skills in conjunction with language processing software. These may include, but are not limited to, speech-to-text interpreting at live events, interlingual live subtitling, interpreting into easy-to-understand language, and live audio description. On the premise that the many new developments in this field are stretching established conceptual boundaries, presenters will reflect on the theoretical implications of new modes of practice when these are construed as forms of translation, interpreting or accessibility services. Such critical inquiry may thus range widely, from conceptual and (inter)disciplinary to practical and pedagogical issues. Other contributions may focus on the methodological implications and requirements of studying such new forms of practice, from questions of design, engineering and usability to human factors in the cognitive and socio-professional domains and to measures of reception, quality and user satisfaction.

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Franz Pöchhacker is Professor of Interpreting Studies in the Center for Translation Studies at the University of Vienna. Trained as a conference interpreter in Vienna and Monterey (A: German, B: English, C: Spanish), he worked as a freelance conference and media interpreter for some 30 years. He has done research on simultaneous conference interpreting as well as media interpreting and community-based interpreting in healthcare and asylum settings, and published on general issues of interpreting studies as a discipline. He has lectured widely and is the author of the textbook Introducing Interpreting Studies (2004/2016), editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Interpreting Studies (2015), and co-editor of the journal Interpreting.

Panel 19: Ecological turn in translatology

Convenor: Rindon Kundu (Sri Sri University)

Keywords: Darwinian evolution, biological, eco-environment, natural selection, survival, organic, ecological, translatology

While formulating the definition of Life in the planetary systems, a committee assembled by NASA in 1994, suggested, following Carl Sagan’s idea, that life is, “a self-sustaining chemical system capable of growth, replication and Darwinian evolution”. According to this definition, living species go through metabolism or chemical transformations in an environment filled with the right ingredients i.e., water, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulphur. As stated by Oparin-Haldane theory and later ratified by Miller-Urey experiment if the fundamental inorganic molecules present on early earth are given the right conditions they can start interacting with each other and form organic molecules and thereafter evolves into an organism. Now, in accordance with the Darwinian paradigm, an organism sustains and evolves with the changing environment due to its natural selection and Darwin’s principle of the 'survival of the fittest' is heavily based on biological evolution and adaptation of the organism through 'natural selection'. Keeping in mind this biological conceptualisation of ‘natural selection’, ‘evolution’, and ‘survival’, can we then attempt to form an ecological model of the process of translation? Does the translator attempt to carry out both “adaptive selection” and “selective adaptation” in terms of adapting his/her body into the target socio-lingual and politico-cultural environment as well as selecting the text for the translational eco-environment?

If we consider author, language, culture, theme, genre, authorial intention and other textual elements as organic and inorganic molecules which by interacting with each other can form an organic text living and sustaining in its own environment, can we then consider translation of it as an evolution and adaptation in Darwinian sense where a transformed species will evolve in a completely new environment mutating with new sets of elements i.e., translator, target language, target culture, translatorial purpose?

Further, borrowing John Bowlby's idea of “Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation”, can we argue that often times conditions present in the target environment allow a species or text to adapt into it for which that species/text is naturally selected for? And can we extend “Encoding/Decoding” (Nida, 1964; Hall, 1973) beyond the linguistic realm of transferring message to the field of genetics as transformation of genetic information resulting in mutation. How should we maintain an eco-balance between two diverge ecosystems while performing the translational act? Or does the act of translation inevitably imbibe imbalance due to distinct unequal geographies bound up with asymmetrical power relations between their respective nation-states?

Finally, the panel will try to formulate the ecological turn in translatology which may chart new territories in translation studies.

Participants will be invited to present papers along the following lines (not exclusive):

Darwinian ‘adaptation’ and its relation to translation studies
Methodologies of textual transplantation
Exploring botanic metaphor in translation
Role of translation in the development of human eco-civilization
Translation as organic growth
Interrelationships in-between ‘textual ecologies’, ‘translator-community ecologies’, and ‘translational environment ecologies’
Applications of Eco-Translatology as an alternative model to translation theory
Conceptualizing Eco-turn in Translation Studies

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Bionote of panel convenor:

Rindon Kundu is presently working as an Assistant Professor of English at Sri Sri University, India. He is acting as the Treasurer of Comparative Literature Association of India (CLAI) as well as has been nominated by Prof. Gengshen Hu as the South Asian Regional Director of International Association Eco-Translation Research (IAETR). He has been awarded several international grants like IATIS 2018 Hong Kong Bursary holder by International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies; Full Grant by the British Academy to participate in the African Translation and Interpreting Studies Writing Workshop at South Africa in 2019 and Young Researcher Travel Grant 2019 by European Society for Translation Studies. He has recently been selected for the Volkswagen Stiftung 2020 Grant.

Panel 20: Translation and interpreting in conflict zones and their aftermath

Convenors: Hyongrae Kim (Auburn University) & Moira Inghilleri (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Keywords: war zones, detention centers, refugee camps, ethics, positionality

Throughout history translation and interpreting have played a central role in war and its aftermath. Conflicts that begin as civil wars or regional conflicts can grow into ongoing multinational hostilities that create multiple generations of refugees. In these situations, translators and interpreters often perform duties for which they are not trained or that go beyond the limits of their training. In war zones, in addition to closing the linguistic and cultural gaps between armed forces and civilian populaces, they are often expected to aid in the collection of intelligence from the enemy, facilitate communication within national military groups composed of troops who speak different languages, and mediate communication between coalition partners from different national backgrounds. Conflict zones also create consequences for the civilian populations living inside them, forcing them to flee from the unspeakable violence and intolerable living conditions that surround them. For individuals and families seeking temporary or permanent refuge from wars, gang violence and the conditions these create, their final destination is increasingly a detention camp or a refugee camp where they are often held indefinitely before either being deported or removed to a temporary or permanent residence, most often not of their choosing. Translators and interpreters play multiple roles in these contexts as well, operating under conditions where differences in language and cultural practices amongst the refugee populations, together with the existing trauma of many of the inhabitants, create additional challenges.

War zones and detention centers are unique sites for the application of theories developed within the discipline of translation and interpreting studies in settings where the communicational and hierarchical norms of translation and interpreting activity are in constant flux. Translators and interpreters are often required to actively intervene in the construction of meaning and assertively participate in shaping the social conditions in which they are embedded, overstepping the boundaries of what is considered their traditional role. A unique characteristic of language brokers in conflict situations is the expectation that they not only enable communication but also act as confidantes or aids, and sometimes, informers and negotiators. As a conflict progresses from preparation to engagement to peace negotiations, the communicational purposes and the power dynamics can shift the positionality of translators and interpreters and alter what it means for them to operate as linguistic mediators. This can result in both personal and professional ethical dilemmas as they work under the strenuous conditions of war.

This panel aims to bring together research on war and its aftermath. It seeks to connect the violence of war zones with the real and symbolic violence in evidence in the refugee camps and detention centers they create where the traumatic effects of war are perpetuated. We encourage contributions that examine how the practices of translation and interpreting are shaped by the particular social environments in which they occur and how translators and interpreters contribute to the shaping of those environments.

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Moira Inghilleri is Professor and Director of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Translation and Migration (2017) and Interpreting Justice: Ethics, Politics and Language (2012). She was co-editor of The Translator from 2011-2014 and review editor from 2006-2011. She served as co-editor for the Routledge series New Perspectives in Translation and Interpreting Studies from 2013-2018 and guest-edited two issues of The Translator: Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translating and Interpreting (2005) and Translation and Violent Conflict (2010, with Sue-Ann Harding). She has published in numerous journals and edited volumes. In 2017 she was appointed to the Fulbright Specialist Roster in the field of translation and migration studies (2017-20).

Hyongrae Kim is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures at Auburn University, USA. Kim has worked in the private, public and freelance sectors as a professional translator and interpreter in South Korea and the United States. His main research focuses on the sociology of translation, translators and interpreters during the Korean War, and North Korean literary translation.

Panel 21: Interpreting (practices) in emerging technological ecosystems: Awareness, challenges and adaptation

Convenors: Sabine Braun (University of Surrey) & Elena Davitti (University of Surrey)

Keywords: interpreting, hybrid modalities, technology, workflow, adaptation

In line with the conference theme, which emphasises the key role of physical and social environments in the way translation and interpreting evolve, this panel aims to examine the multidimensional impact of increasingly technological environments on interpreting and related, hybrid modalities of spoken-language transfer. While technology has played a part in interpreting since the 1920s, when it paved the way for simultaneous interpreting, the more recent past has seen technology uses evolve and diversify at a much faster pace than the pre-millennium decades. The impact of this diversification on the interpreters , their clients and the entire interpreting ecosystem is potentially more transformational than the technological innovations of the previous decades.

Technological integration is leading to increasingly (semi-)automated workflows, opening up new configurations and redefining the role of human input in such processes, but also spawning its own challenges. For example, communication technologies have the potential to increase the sustainability of the interpreting profession, while novel hybrid practices make multilingual content accessible for different user groups in a variety of settings (e.g. media, healthcare, justice). At the same time, market pressures and crisis situations such as the Covid-19 outbreak have led interpreters to accept working with technologies where the speed of their adoption has side-stepped safeguards introduced through training and regulation.

Research shows that technology uses in interpreting entail difficulties for those who deliver the service, including increased fatigue, sometimes a decline in output quality and/or a deterioration of the communicative dynamics, and an inevitable change in working conditions. Reliable knowledge about emerging workflows and about the means of mitigating challenges and supporting adaptation is not yet available. Equally important, research on human and automated solutions remains largely separate, whilst the move towards increasingly (semi-)automatic workflows demands a holistic research perspective.

Against this backdrop, the overarching aim of this panel is to explore uses of technology that do not compromise critical issues such as service quality, wellbeing of all involved and sustainability of the interpreter profession. To this end, the panel welcomes contributions that address different dimensions of current and emerging technological practices in interpreting and related, hybrid modalities of multilingual spoken-language settings.

List of suggested topics that prospective contributors might address:

What are the main drivers and motivations for using technology in interpreting and related settings?
How do interpreters interact with, and adapt to, emerging technological ecosystems and how is this changing professional practice and output?
As a case in point, which aspects of service quality emerge as relevant in technology-enhanced modalities of interpreter-mediated communication?
How does the use of technology impact on broader questions such as the interpreters’ role and agency, their self-and other-perception, and their wellbeing?
What are the key prerequisites for achieving sustainable and socially responsible technology uses in relation to interpreting?
Which methods are best suited to develop a comprehensive understanding of technology uses and impacts in interpreting, and how do methodological choices shape this understanding?

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Bionote of panel convenors:

Sabine Braun is Professor of Translation Studies and Director of the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Surrey (UK), an ‘Expanding Excellence in England’ funded research centre focussing on human-machine interaction in translation and interpreting. Her research focuses on socio-technological modalities and practices of interpreting and audiovisual translation. She has led several multi-national research projects on video-mediated distance interpreting and interpreting in virtual-reality environments AVIDICUS 1-3, IVY; EVIVA), and has contributed her expertise in distance interpreting to many projects on public service interpreting (e.g. QUALITAS, Understanding Justice, SHIFT In Orality). She is also currently a partner in the H2020 project MeMAD, which combines machine learning/AI and human input to create semi-automatic descriptions of audiovisual content.

Last modified on Wednesday, 24 March 2021 08:06

Thematic Panels

Thematic panels

Panel 1: Translation in the global media ecology: New patterns of translation and distribution in the streaming age

Panel 2: New approaches to language brokering by children and young adults

Panel 3: Emotional translation ecology

Panel 4: Indirect translation and sustainable development

Panel 5: Translation, gender, ecology

Panel 6: Heritage and art in translation

Panel 7: Insurrectional and translational epistemologies in the global justice movement: Ecologies in time and space

Panel 9: The cultural ecology of translation and interpreting in research contexts

Panel 10: Practices in the spotlight: Theorizing and researching translation and interpreting practices

Panel 11: (Neural) Machine translation in multilingual ecosystems

Panel 12: Impact of machine translation on the translational ecosystem

Panel 13: Creative texts, technology and ecology

Panel 14: Multilingualism, liminality and identity in audiovisual translation

Panel 15: Perspectives in translation and digital spaces in the age of ecological awareness

Panel 16: Translation, spaces and cultural ecology

Panel 17: The social role of language: Translation into easy and plain languages

Panel 18: Interpreting for access

Panel 19: Ecological turn in translatology

Panel 20: Translation and interpreting in conflict zones and their aftermath

Panel 21: Interpreting (practices) in emerging technological ecosystems: Awareness, challenges and adaptation

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