IATIS - International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies

8th International Conference

Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

10 - 13 December 2025

Upcoming Deadline: 27 November 2024 for Convenors

(Panel, Roundtable, Workshop and Artistic Initiative)

Sustainable Translation in the Age of Knowledge Extraction, Generation, and (Re)Creation

الترجمة المستدامة في عصر استخلاص المعرفة وتوليدها وإعادة إنتاجها

Following successful conferences in Seoul (2004), Cape Town (2006), Melbourne (2009), Belfast (2012), Belo Horizonte (2015), Hong Kong (2018) and Barcelona, (2021), IATIS is pleased to announce its call for panel, paper, roundtable, workshop, and artistic initiative proposals for its eighth conference to be held at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, 10 – 13 Dec 2025.

Conference Theme

Against the backdrop of far-reaching and accelerated socio-technological changes in the 21st century, sustainability has emerged as one of the most critical issues to be addressed by scholars in a wide variety of disciplines, including those in translation studies, and faced by practitioners. At the same time, the meaning of sustainability in the context of translation and intercultural communication – and arguably in other disciplines (Engebretsen et al. 2016) – remains vague and inadequately conceptualized. A more critical and disciplined engagement with the idea of sustainable translation and knowledge practices, one that takes on board recent developments in fields as varied as computer science and artificial intelligence, and intersectionality studies, has become urgent.

Demand for more, better, and faster electronics to rapidly extract, store, and manipulate (vast amounts of) data in a variety of ways creates a corresponding demand for essential metals and has thus increased pressures on ecosystems. The Global North continues to off-load emissions to the Global South, perpetuating further forms of colonial-capitalist modes of extractivism.

Translators have increasingly been encouraged to use various computer-assisted translation tools, including machine translation, but the question of how sustainable these can be, has not been given serious consideration. Translators have been placed under increased pressure by constant surveillance of mechanical systems and dehumanised algorithmic decision-making (Moorkens 2023), while at the same time suffering financially from the growing volume of translations that is ‘recycled’.

Within this context, the conference aims to provide a much-needed forum for scholars from the region and across the world, to discuss the pivotal and changing roles of translation in the construction and circulation of knowledge across languages, cultures, and epistemologies in the age of big data, big capital, and conflicting approaches to safeguarding the future of our planet. We invite scholars from all disciplines and areas of inquiry who are interested in translation in all its forms – including but not limited to oral, written, audiovisual, multimodal, inter-linguistic, inter-semiotic and inter-cultural translation, in both conventional and non-conventional contexts – to participate and engage in critical, interdisciplinary discussions that address the multifaceted challenges of sustainability and their implications for translation theory, research, teaching and practice.

Conference themes

The conference will feature panels, individual papers, roundtables, workshops, and artistic initiatives. Themes include but are not limited to the following:

• Translation and alternative discourses to sustainability – e.g., degrowth, ecosocialism, ecomodernism.
• Translation and ecofeminism.
• Eco-translation and the Anthropocene.
• The translation/non-translation of literature on alternatives to sustainability from First Nations, Indigenous Knowledges and the Global South.
• New frameworks, methodologies, and epistemologies: rethinking research agendas and field practices that engage with sustainability and/or degrowth and related agendas.
• Anti- and post-humanist thought and other philosophical engagements with translation, sustainability, and alternative approaches.
• Human-made disasters, crises, wars, and genocides: translating against mainstream discourses on sustainability.
• Translation in environmental NGOs.
• Heritage, archiving, and memory: sustainable and equitable documentation of the past and present through translation.
• New forms of production in the language industry: repositioning of key players, reconfiguration of translation labour.
• Volunteer translation, AI-assisted translation, and the sustainability of the profession, of the translation classroom and of translation studies.
• The ethics and politics of translation and intercultural studies research, education, and practice: shifting centres and peripheries of knowledge.

Language Policy

All abstracts/proposals must be submitted in English for peer-review by the Advisory Board, but speakers will be given the choice to present in English or Arabic. Interpreting from English to Arabic and from Arabic to English will be provided according to available funds.

Keynote Speakers

1. Maria Cristina Caimotto, University of Turin, Italy
2. Philippe Lacour, University of Brasilia, Brazil
3. Joss Moorkens, Dublin City University, Ireland
4. Nancy Piñeiro, State University of New York Binghamton, USA
5. Mustafa Riad, Ain Shams University, Egypt

Key Deadlines

• 27 November 2024: Deadline for potential convenors to submit panel, workshop, roundtable, or artistic initiatives. See detailed guidelines for submission here.
• 5 January 2025: Notification of acceptance to convenors.
• 10 January 2025: Announcement of the accepted proposals (panels, pre-conference workshops, roundtables and artistic initiatives) & call for papers, posters, and performances.
• 10 April 2025: Deadline for potential presenters to submit abstracts for papers in and beyond thematic panels, and posters.
• 30 June 2025: Notification of acceptance of proposals (all formats).

Registration

• 1 July 2025 Registration opens
• 30 Sept 2025 Early-bird registration closes

Link to the registration fees to be provided soon. They will follow the usual IATIS standards. See Hong Kong fees here, Belo Horizonte fee here, for instance. 

Solidarity Fund and Bursaries for Band 3 & 4 Countries

At every conference, IATIS and the Organizing Committee join their efforts to offer Three Full Bursaries and a Registration Solidarity Fund.  

The IATIS bursary covers visa, flight, accommodation, IATIS membership, registration fees, meals during the conference.  

The Solidarity Fund covers the registration fees only. 

The scheme is only for delegates who come from bands 3 and 4 countries, whose abstract has been accepted, and whose proposal attests to scientific excellence. 

A specific call will be sent out after the acceptance of all abstracts, a bursary committee is set up by the IATIS Conference Committee to process the requests and decide on the awardees.

Details of the submission guidelines are available here