ATISA X: Translation, Interpreting and movement(s). Biennial Conference of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association University of California, Santa Barbara / April 24-26, 2020

Keynote Speakers: Moira Inghilleri (UMass - Amherst) and Douglas Robinson (Hong Kong Baptist University)

The idea of movement is embedded in the very word translation. Acts of translation and interpreting involve ontological, physical, exegetical and epistemological movements that define both process and product. Translators and interpreters are themselves bodies in movement, travelling across languages and cultures and physically enacting the translation and interpreting process. And so, as we move further into the cyber era, what effect might this have on the translator’s body and the movement of translated texts? At the same time, the physical movement of peoples – in 2017 there were more displaced persons (refugees, asylum seekers and the internally displaced persons) than ever in history (UNHCR, 2018) – has produced a sharp increase in demand for translation and interpreting services. How is our understanding of the role and ethics of translation and interpreting affected by the conditions behind this unprecedented movement of peoples: migration, war and conflict, along with the rise of autocratic regimes and illiberal democracies? Also relevant here is the role and nature of translation and interpreting in various political and social movements. Moreover, the field of Translation and Interpreting Studies itself has been full of movements – shifts in perspectives, theories, space and place, and power. A field whose flux has often been presented as unproblematically linear and diachronic is now being challenged within more heterogeneous, transnational and rhizomatic paradigms. In addition, translation and interpreting, once banished from the language learning classroom, have been repositioning themselves as potentially effective language learning activities and as a way to teach learners about the nature of language.

Call for papers deadline: 1 November 2019

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