This Special Collection of The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship will focus on the global circulation of comics in digital forms, from webcomics to subscription services from traditional comics publishers. The Collection’s emphasis will be on the international, multi-lingual, multi-format, diverse nature of “comics”.

Comics have circulated in their original language and in translation since the inception of print: as a physical object, comics (including strips in newspapers) can travel across international borders with their readers, or they can be translated for publication in new locales. Recent technologies have made digital distribution possible, theoretically allowing for global access to comics published online anywhere in the world as well as the possibility of distributing translated versions within a proprietary system.

Translation is central to the global circulation of comics and comics as an art form are often experienced in translation (Evans 2017).  While there is a growing body of work on the translation and circulation of comics (Zanettin 2008, Altenberg and Owen 2015, Mälzer 2015, Reyns-Chikuma and Tarif 2016; see overview in Zanettin 2020), little has yet addressed the new world of digital distribution and how this is affecting translation practices. Work on the digital distribution of comics (e.g. Priego 2010, Steirer 2014, Crucifix et al. 2017-19, Augureau et al. 2018) has tended not to address this at a global scale or to investigate how comics are distributed across languages.

Translation can be both official and unofficial: scanlation -- the fan translation (Evans 2020) of comics -- is a vibrant practice that has found a home online, but it is unclear how the shift towards digital publishing by legacy publishers such as Marvel and DC has changed the environment for the practice. Nor is it clear how extensively platforms such as Comixology  have embraced translation and international distribution, as the French language site includes large quantities of untranslated, English language materials. Web comics as born digital objects may easily be distributed online, but there is less understanding of how they cross linguistic and cultural borders.

For this Special Collection, we are open for submissions that explore the intersections between the translation and distribution of comics, the latter understood in its most diverse, international sense, with a particular focus that goes beyond dominant themes that are over-represented in current scholarship. The Special Collection seeks original research articles that investigate the ways in which digital distribution has opened up, or closed down, access to comics produced globally. Are the old centres of the USA, France and Japan still central to comics production? Or has comics production been democratised and decentralised? How have different comics cultures adapted to and capitalised on digital distribution, and how are they reaching readers in other cultures (through translation)?

We are especially interested in the reception and translation of comics outside of the Anglosphere, which are typically overlooked, but also welcome work on American comics. We encourage research on the underrepresented areas of non-English language comics, LGBT+ comics, women’s comics and comics by people of colour. Contributions may use any relevant methodology to address the topic, but should follow the journal’s guidelines for submissions.

We call for submissions that are professionally written and presented, incorporating high-quality images that authors discuss directly and in detail. We will consider submissions from affiliated senior or early career scholars, practitioners and independent researchers, as long as they fit the journal’s call for papers, scope and editorial guidelines.

Deadline for first drafts: 30 June 2021

For more information, click here

The e-journal Lexis, Journal in English Lexicology, is planning to publish its 17th issue devoted to “Humor, creativity and lexical creation” in 2021. Co-editors: Lucile Bordet (University of Lyon (Jean Moulin Lyon 3) & Frédérique Brisset (University of Lille) will be happy to receive your abstracts up to 15 June 2020 at the following address:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Please clearly indicate the title of the paper and include an abstract of no more than 5,000 characters as well as a list of relevant keywords and references. All abstract and paper submissions will be anonymously peer-reviewed (double-blind peer reviewing) by an international scientific committee composed of specialists in their fields.
Papers will be written preferably in English or occasionally in French. Analyses may rely on various domains of linguistics, such as semantics, phonology, lexicography, morphology, stylistics, etc. Comparative studies involving translation are welcome too. All theoretical frameworks are welcome.

For more information, click here

Edited by: James Hadley, Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov, Carlos S. C. Teixeira, and Antonio Toral

Many of the translation tools in use today were initially designed to cater for technical, repetitive texts. This is still their main niche 25 years after the first versions of these tools appeared. Computer-aided translation (CAT) and Machine translation (MT) were long regarded as unsuitable for the translation of creative texts, claimed to be the last bastion of human translation. Creative-text translation in this context refers to the translation of texts from one language to another where the texts themselves pivot broadly on the human creativity employed in their production. They rely heavily on aesthetics for their existence, more than texts that aim to bring about an outcome directly, as in the case of technical texts. Such creative texts include, but are not limited to:

fictional works, such as novels, short stories, poems, plays, and comics;

non-fictional texts, such as philosophical works, didactic books, and self-help books;

performative works, such as songs, speeches, films, TV shows, and computer games; and

promotional texts, such as commercials, advertisements, and propaganda. The end of the second decade of the twenty-first century appears pivotal to a shift in machine-assisted literary translation. MT has experienced a sea change over the last five years, thanks to the adoption of methods based on deep neural networks, to the point that there are now even claims of some MT systems reaching parity with human translators. In turn, human translators,including translators of creative texts, have benefited from advances in technology, through which internet search engines and online dictionaries and encyclopedias have made information mining significantly easier than in previous decades and centuries. While many translators of creative texts continue to shun translation technology or assume it is not relevant to them, others already make heavy use of CAT tools. These positive consequences of the technologization of translation in general are paving the way for a spread and development of technologies to support the translation of creative texts in particular. This book will embody the state of the art of translation technologies in the field of creative-text translation. At the same time, it will reflect on literary translators’ attitudes towards translation technology, and ethical aspects, as well as recent trends and technical developments in the field.

The book invites chapters of no more than 8,000 words (all inclusive) addressing key questions,that include, but are not limited to:

To what extent are translators of creative texts already making use of technology intheir work?

What are the specific issues pertaining to literature and other types of creative textsthat prove difficult for MT systems today?

What challenges do translators face when using technology for translating creativetexts?

What are the attitudes of translators to the use of technology in the translation ofcreative texts?

How do readers respond to literary works translated using machines?

Apart from MT, what other kinds of computer-based tools could be used by literarytranslators?

What are the ecological and ethical implications of increasing literary translators’

reliance on technology in their work?

How should copyright issues be taken into account in the use of MT in literarytranslation?

In the first instance, abstracts are sought from parties interested in contributing to the book.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 1 June 2020

For more information, click here

Translation, interpreting and specialised communication offer great potential for interdependence and innovation. Theories, methodologies, current research questions, pedagogy as well as the practice of interpreting, translation and specialised communication illustrate how the boundaries between these disciplines can be overcome. This, in turn, affords innovative perspectives on new phenomena, new technologies and new ways of teaching the necessary skills and competences.

The Editors:

Barbara Ahrens, Morven Beaton-Thome, Monika Krein-Kühle, Ralph Krüger, Lisa Link and Ursula Wienen are actively involved in teaching and research at the Institute of Translation and Multilingual Communication at TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany.

For more information, click here

The IMLR is delighted to announce a new area on our website: Online Resources. We are pleased to able to continue promoting and facilitating research whilst our physical building remains closed.

We have a number of online events lined up, with more to follow:

12-19 May          Playing with Prose: Online Theatre Workshop

https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/events/event/22507

18 May               Samuel Beckett et la Guerre d’Algérie

https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/events/event/22498

3 June                 Digital Modern Languages

https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/events/event/22490

16-17 June         Disrupting Digital Monolingualism

https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/events/event/22492

The intention is to record these events and make them available online. Also in our Podcasts section are taster sessions for events which have had to be postponed, such as the session on ‘Decolonising Modern Languages – a preview, and recordings of virtual events such as A Virtual Encounter between Andrea Grill and Tess Lewis.

We welcome contributions from translators or scholars working in Translation Studies, Religious Studies, Gender Studies, Feminist Studies, Literary and Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Anthropology, and other relevant disciplines, on women translators of texts from all religions. We are interested in women’s participation in the translation of holy texts but also other types of religious writings, such as liturgical texts, exegeses, commentaries, patristic texts, lives of religious figures, and popular pious literature. Some of the issues which could make the object of discussion are:

 reasons for women to translate or retranslate a religious text;

 retracing and rediscovering the history of women’s involvement in the translation of religious texts;

 women’s experiences of translating, editing and publishing sacred texts;

 feminist influences, relations, and impact on women’s translations of religious texts;

 marketing, publication, and reception of translation by women;

 challenges that women translators of sacred texts face: censorship, power dynamics, the question of authority;

 linguistic, textual, and translation strategies employed by women translators of sacred texts, including the question of gender-inclusive and neutral language;

 comparisons between the experiences of women translating texts from different religions and working in different parts of the world and periods;

 collaborative translation experiences (female-female teams, male-female teams of translators) and what they reveal;

 the body of the translator, the body in religious translation;

 women translators of religious texts and the advent of contemporary media.

Deadline for submissions: 15 November 2020

For more information, click here

Translators, when not getting any press tend to get bad press, and the translation profession itself appears to be suffering an existential crisis (low play, status and uncertain future). However, this is not the full picture. The proposed issue intends to bring together practical applications of “translation plus”, where the translator (interpreter) is an essential collaborator working with (as much as for) the author, commissioner or any other actor in the process.

We are looking for case studies, situations, where the translator (in the widest sense of the term) is not “just the translator”, and is listened to rather than simply ‘used’. For example, Romero Fresco (2013) introduced the idea of the audiovisual translator as an integral part of “universal design” in filmmaking and translation, while Jemielity talks of his experience as the translator becoming essential to corporate marketing strategy. In both cases, the translator’s particular skills add recognized value to the process and to the product.

Deadline for abstracts: 30 May

For more information, click here

This special issue aims to present the most up-to-date research and developing trends within Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies (CTIS). The editors welcome contributions that explore cognitive theoretical models of translation/interpreting, empirically investigate cognitive aspects of translation or interpreting, or critically engage with the philosophical foundations of Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies (CTIS). Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

 translation/interpreting production or reception

 cognitive aspects of translator/interpreter behavior

 human-machine interaction/collaboration in translation/interpreting

 translation competence and/or translation expertise

 situated translation/interpreting

 cognitive aspects of translator/interpreter training

Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 May 2020

For more information, click here 

The International Conference on Cognitive Research on Translation and Interpreting (ICCRTI) started in 2014 at the Centre for Studies of Translation, Interpreting and Cognition (CSTIC), University of Macau. Since then, six conferences have been held at the University of Macau (2014-2016), Beijing Foreign Studies University (2017), Renmin University of China (2018) and Southwest University (2019). The conference has become an international forum for the presentation and discussion of up-to-date cognitive research on translation and interpreting.

The 7th International Conference on Cognitive Research on Translation and Interpreting will be held on 18-20 September 2020 at Durham University, UK. This conference will focus on Emerging Topics in Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies. Papers presented at the conference will be selected through peer review process to be published in a special issue of Translation Quarterly or a book of Springer’s New Frontiers of Translation Studies series.

Deadline for submissions: 15 June 2020

For more information, click here

We are happy to announce that the Third WITTA (World Interpreter and Translator Training Association) Congress will be held at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore on October 2-5, 2020. The working languages for the Congress are English and Chinese.

Open to all, the Congress is intended to create a common space for reflection on issues related to translation and interpreting education. 

Topics

We invite papers related but not limited to the following areas:

• T&I development in relation to bilingual development

• T&I competence in relation to bilingual competence

• Translation education and bilingual policies

• Methods, approaches, and innovations in T&I and bilingual teaching

• Curriculum development of T&I degree and training programmes

• Curriculum and teaching material development

• Translation trainer education and development

• Quality assessment of translation and bilingual education

• Technologies in T&I and bilingual education

• Continuing education in T&I and institutional support

• Simultaneous machine interpreting

• Machine translation and machine-aided translation

• Reality-integrated translation education

• Low-resource construction of language corpora

Deadline for submissions: 31 May

For more information, click here