The concept of ‘translation’ is ubiquitous in a wide range of disciplines, nowhere more so than in the Social Sciences – indeed, entire sociologies have been built on and around it (Callon 1981, 1984; Renn 2002, 2006). Similarly, the Social Sciences have always been a particularly important source of core concepts for Translation Studies, including ‘norm’, ‘role’, ‘habitus’, ‘system’, ‘profession’ and, more recently, ‘collaboration’, to name but a few. These ‘travelling concepts’ (Bal 2002) have always been of fundamental importance to Translation Studies in that they have underpinned the important shifts, or rather turns, within it. A closer look at how some of these travelling concepts are used in Translation Studies and, vice versa, how Translation Studies’ master concept ‘translation’ is used in the Social Sciences reveals that these have tended to be one-way trips. That is what this Special Issue attempts to reverse.
Concepts in the sense of Bal (2002: 11) are understood here as dynamic in themselves as well as polysemantic, often ambiguous, closely linked to certain discourses and not so much as firmly established univocal terms. Establishing univocal terms goes along with striving for terminological precision and standardization. This task is often pursued by traditional terminological approaches (Iveković Martinis et al. 2015). Concepts are not to be confused with casual words either as academic concepts always unite entire theories or approaches behind them which they represent (Bal 2002:33).
‘Translation’ is widely used in the Social Sciences. One of the most well‑known uses is certainly in Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) (Callon 1981, 1999; Latour 1993, 1994). ‘Translation’ is in fact an integral part of the lexicon and the very functioning of the theory. Broadly speaking, ‘translation’ is used there to bridge the separation between subjects and objects, and thus to overcome the dualism of sociologism and technologism. The act of translation between subjects and objects creates hybrid actors, which are the core component of networks in ANT. This theory was conceived of as a sociology of translation and/or the socio-logic of translation (Callon 1981, 1984). Though of a different kind, Renn’s (2002, 2006) sociology is similarly built on and around ‘translation’. Modern societies, fragmented as they are, depend on constant communication. Translation is essential to communication between societies’ various social and/or cultural units and therefore helps to overcome boundaries (Renn 2002, 2006). In the same sense, ‘translation’ is also used in Organization Studies in the model proposed by Carlile (2004), coming into play when a semantic boundary needs to be overcome within an organization to facilitate collaboration among various units for the sake of innovation. In yet another example from Organisation Studies, an entire translation model is developed as a way of bringing about and explaining organizational change (Czarniawska & Joerges 1996; Czarniawska & Sevón 2005). What unites these examples, with the exception of Renn (2002, 2006), is that there is not a single reference made to Translation Studies and the body of knowledge it has accumulated around ‘translation’. ‘Translation’ is a very successful travelling concept in the Social Sciences in the sense that it is widespread. However, since it is normally used as a rather loose metaphor, the concept itself frequently lacks the heuristic power it could have (Zwischenberger 2022, 2023). Translation Studies’ critical engagement with the uses of the concept of ‘translation’ in other disciplines and fields of research is a rather recent phenomenon (e.g. Baer 2020; Blumczynski 2016; Gambier & van Doorslaer 2016; Dizdar 2009; Heller 2017; Zwischenberger 2017, 2019).
Translation Studies as an ‘interdiscipline’ sui generis has itself imported massively from other disciplines, especially from the Social Sciences, but it has frequently ignored the epistemological bases of those travelling concepts. The concepts of ‘role’ and ‘collaboration’ are two cases in point. Very often in Translation Studies, ‘role’ and ‘collaboration’ either remain undefined or are simply used as concepts from everyday language. In other words, ‘role’ is equated with the ‘task’ or ‘function’ of a translator or interpreter and ‘collaboration’ is simply used as a synonym for ‘working together’. Only recently has there been a more thorough engagement with these concepts and a turn to the disciplines in which they are used as master concepts, namely to Sociology, Social Psychology and Cultural Anthropology for ‘role’ and Organisation Studies for ‘collaboration’ (Zwischenberger 2015, 2022). The same is true of a conceptual engagement with ‘profession’ and consequently also the ‘(non‑)professional’, which are very often taken for granted in the Translation Studies literature (Grbić & Kujamäki 2019). However, Translation Studies has, for example, undertaken some serious conceptual work with the concepts of ‘norm’, ‘system’ and ‘habitus’, successfully integrating them as academic concepts (Buzelin 2018)—although with quite some differences between the different subfields of the discipline.
Thus, whilst many disciplines pretty much ignore Translation Studies when it comes to ‘translation’ as a travelling concept, Translation Studies has sometimes also paid insufficient attention to the Social Sciences when adopting some of their travelling concepts. This has consequences for both Translation Studies and the Social Sciences. Travelling concepts can be vital tools for academic disciplines when properly adopted as academic concepts. Conceptual engagement lays bare the entire network within which a core concept is embedded, thus allowing a new and richer language to emerge. Ignoring the expertise that has been amassed on concepts newly adopted into a discipline hinders inter- and especially trans-disciplinarity. These travelling concepts would hardly make a round trip into the disciplines where they have an epistemological footing simply because doing so would bring no enrichment to them in their current form. This is particularly problematic for Translation Studies, a discipline that in general is less established than disciplines from the Social Sciences and beyond in terms of recognition and references being made to it outside its disciplinary borders.
This Special Issue aims to tackle this status quo. It is crucial for Translation Studies scholars to become proactive in order to strengthen their own discipline from the inside out and to become more attractive to other disciplines. One promising way of strengthening Translation Studies could be to sharpen its conceptual tools, potentially enabling analytically precise concepts to travel back to the Social Sciences and beyond, thereby inviting other disciplines to take a closer look at Translation Studies and its expertise on the concept of ‘translation’. This could then act as the basis for some inter- or even trans-disciplinarity (e.g. Bielsa 2022) in the form of round trips by the concept of ‘translation’ and concepts from the Social Sciences.
We therefore welcome conceptual-theoretical contributions that engage proactively with the uses of ‘translation’ as a travelling concept in other disciplines and/or with travelling concepts in Translation Studies and that address the following main questions (though we certainly do not remain restricted to them):
Please send your extended abstract (700-800 words, excluding references) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 31st August 2023.
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To mark the 35th anniversary of the journal TTR, the conference “Redefining translation? Historical fluctuations, new practices, and epistemologies in the making” will bring together established and emerging scholars to address themes related to translation (including interpretation), terminology, and writing. Translation, together with terminology and professional writing, constitutes a complex set of practices, processes, and epistemologies that, no matter what they are called, (e.g., translation, adaptation, transfer, intertextuality, transformation), has always played a prominent role in civil society while also being used as a tool of colonization and discrimination. Translation thus raises crucial ethical issues that call for serious reflection.
Starting from the tripartite definitions of translation proposed by Roman Jakobson (1959) and Gideon Toury (1995), among others, this conference invites scholars to reflect on the (re)definitions of translation and interpretation and their ethical implications throughout history. The following questions can serve as points of departure:
Does translation (along with interpretation) only involve transfer between languages, individuals, texts, communities or nation states? Or does it also concern any material, even biosemiotic, form of transfer that may or may not include interlingual exchange? Are translation and interpretation always synonymous with transfer?
Can we move from a restricted to an enlarged view of translation while also ensuring that this field of knowledge retains its specificity and common foundations? If so, what would these be (see Nouss, 2012)?
Is translation exclusive to human beings, that is to say, does it only take place between humans? What role does or should technology play in the translation process in light of the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and neural machine translation (NMT)? How do these changes affect human translation? What are the characteristics of the contemporary translating subject? To what extent can advances in AI and the ethical issues they raise enrich our analysis of the production of bilingual or multilingual content?
Given the complex power dynamics that characterize the Anthropocene, what roles can translation and interpretation play in mediating and raising awareness of contemporary issues? Clearly, the mediating role that both translation and interpretation play, whether in community settings or times of crisis, is a pressing current issue.
Insofar as translation can also be considered a cognitive act that precedes and facilitates communication despite differences, what cognitive theories can help us better understand translation and its practices?
As an interpretative act, translation is a heuristic tool that has the potential to participate in the production and circulation of knowledge. How might this potential be achieved?
This conference seeks to encourage dialogue on the important social role that translation plays in the formation and transformation of knowledge as well as in the movement and mediation of ideas.
We welcome proposals focusing on historical fluctuations (e.g., definitions of translation), new practices (e.g., linguistic revitalization thanks to translation), and epistemologies (e.g., the science of translation, hermeneutics, the interpretive school, various sociologies of translation, and complexity theory) that have defined, still define, and will define translation in the broader sense going forward.
We propose the following avenues of reflection corresponding to the three (inter)disciplines that form the title of TTR:
Translation
Inclusive translation: gender, accessibility, decolonization, Indigenization Translation, AI, and NMT: the role of humans
Translation and diversity: ethical issues
Translation, pseudo-translation, self-translation: toward new paradigms? Translation and adaptation: the limits of translation
Translation and interpretation: social contexts, crisis situations
Translation and migration: movement, displacement, uprooting, confinement Post-translation and transmediality: new forms of translation
Translation and pedagogy: what to teach and how? What is (or should be) the role of technology?
Translation and official bi- or multilingualism: increasing accessibility, equity, and diversity or maintaining the status quo?
Terminology
Socioterminology or terminology and sociology?
Terminology and interpretation: the role of terminological research
Terminology, AI, and NMT: the human contribution
Terminology and pedagogy: how to teach terminology as a key element to ensuring a more equitable society?
Translation and terminology: are they inseparable?
Professional Writing
Professional writing, editing, revision, and post-editing: are they essential relationships? Inclusive writing: diversity, gender, accessibility, decolonization, Indigenization Professional writing and terminology: are they inseparable?
Professional writing and pedagogy: to what extent has writing become an essential competence for future translators? How should new generations be trained?
Deadline for submissions: 1 October 2023
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As a Lecturer in Spanish and Translation & Interpreting Studies you will be a key member of the Spanish team, teaching into the postgraduate programmes in Translation and Interpreting (PG Certificate T&I; PG Diploma T&I; Master of Applied T&I). Courses include advanced Spanish language acquisition (SPAN301 Advanced Spanish A, SPAN302 Advanced Spanish B, SPAN312/412 Advanced Spanish Seminar, and SPAN405 Translation Studies: Focus on Spanish) as well as two essential aspects of translation and interpreting: Digital translator tools (LANC403 Translating in the Digital Era: Tools and Practices) and half of our course, Interpreting skills (LANC404 Translating and Interpreting for the Community). You will also conduct quality research in the area of Translation and Interpreting Studies and/or Spanish, and will contribute to postgraduate supervision in the Department of Global, Cultural and Language Studies.
The MATI programme is the only such programme in the South Island and is uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of UC's internationalisation strategy, with local engagement and global connection being at its core. MATI makes a strong contribution to all of UC graduate attributes, and this role in particular is key to maintaining this. Employable, Innovative, and Enterprising: MATI is a professional programme that trains accreditation- and workforce-ready professional translators.
Deadline for applications: 30 July 2023
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Conference date: 15-16 Sep 2023
Organised by: School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University Centre for Translation Studies, University of Leeds
Host: School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University
Theme: Translation Education and Studies in the New Technological Context: Challenges and Opportunities
Aims and scope: Translation and interpreting have played and will continue to play indispensable roles in various aspects of UK-China relations and people-to-people exchanges. In addition to the translation and interpreting activities in various forms linking bilateral relations and bridging peoples’ hearts and minds, the English/Chinese stream has been established and developed in dozens of translation and interpreting programmes in the UK and in hundreds of T&I programmes in China.
Against this background the UK-China Symposium on Translation Studies is planned as a biannual conference co-organised by a China university and a UK university in order to promote exchanges among T&I scholars from both countries and to explore various aspects of Translation Studies and T&I education. The 1st UK-China Symposium on Translation Studies was successfully convened in University of Leeds on 16-17 Aug 2021. Selected papers from the conference have been published in Perspectives (SSCI and A&HCI), Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies (ESCI), Frontiers in Communication (ESCI).
The 2nd UK-China Symposium on Translation Studies, jointly organised by Beijing Foreign Studies University and University of Leeds, will be held in Beijing Foreign Studies University on 15-16 Sep 2023. The conference will focus on the various topics related to recent technological developments, their application and impact in T&I education and studies, in which we hope to promote exchanges among educators and researchers in translation and interpreting studies between the two countries. All colleagues are welcome to join the conference to share their experience and ideas covering (not limited to) the following topics.
Sub-themes:
Deadline for submissions: 1 Aug 2023
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The School of Modern Languages is seeking a Lecturer in Translation Studies (Teaching and Research pathway)
The successful applicant will deliver high-quality and research-led teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level in the field of Translation Studies, with a particular focus on Arabic translation. They will contribute to the research record of the School through commitment to carrying out research leading to the publishing of high-quality research. They will pursue excellence in research, teaching and enterprise and inspire others to do the same.
The post is full time (35 hours per week) and open ended.
Salary:
£36,333 - £43,155 per annum (Grade 6) or
£45,737 - £52,841 per annum (Grade 7)
For informal enquiries about the vacancy please contact David Clarke, Head of School, via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Dr Caroline Lynch, Deputy Head of School, via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Date advert posted: Monday, 10 July 2023
Closing date: Monday, 31 July 2023
Please be aware that Cardiff University reserves the right to close this vacancy early should sufficient applications be received.
Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds who have the ambition to create a University which seeks to fulfil our social, cultural and economic obligation to Cardiff, Wales, and the world. In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.
Cardiff University is a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions we will evaluate applicants on the quality of their research, not publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which the research is published. More information is available at: Responsible research assessment - Research - Cardiff University
Job Description
Main Function
To deliver high-quality and research-led teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and contribute to the research record of the School through commitment to carrying out research leading to the publishing of high-quality research. To pursue excellence in research, teaching and enterprise and to inspire others to do the same.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
Research
Grade 7: contribute to internationally recognised research performance
Grade 7: independently develop research objectives, acting as PI as required
Grade 7: present at international level
Teaching
Grade 7: Acts as a PGR progress review panel member as required
Other – all Grades
Person Specification
Our Person Specification is split into 2 sections: essential and desirable. Please demonstrate clearly how you meet all of the essential criteria. Where possible you should give examples of how, when and where you have used your experience, knowledge, specific skills and abilities to match those required for this particular job role.
Please ensure that you communicate this fully by creating a supporting statement document, listing all of the criteria and commenting against each one as to how you meet them.
When attaching the supporting statement to your application profile, please ensure that you put your name and the vacancy reference number, e.g. Supporting Statement for NAME XXXXBR.’
The desirable section contains a list of skills, qualifications and experience that it would be beneficial for the jobholder to have.
All short-listing decisions will be based initially on essential criteria, with desirable being used to further select or deselect candidates as appropriate.
We interview those candidates who are the closest match to the identified criteria.
Shortlisted candidates will be asked to provide examples of their research publications for consideration by the selection panel.
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INContext is a unique international and interdisciplinary journal that encourages innovative research in language-related subjects, including but not limited to technical or literary translation and conference interpretation as well as intercultural issues.
Aim and Scope
INContext is a collaborative journal bringing together the Korean Association for Public Sector Translation and Interpretation (KAPTI), the Language and Intercultural Studies Institute (LISI), Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).
INContext is a unique international and interdisciplinary journal that encourages innovative research in language-related subjects, including but not limited to technical, scientific and literary translation and conference interpretation as well as intercultural studies such as cultural studies, gender studies, race and cultural identity.
INContext publishes original research articles with a theoretical, empirical or applied approach. Specifically, submissions will be appreciated to widen the scope of research; propose innovative research methodology; offer meta-reviews of theoretical formulations and prospects of different approaches; link translation studies with intercultural studies; and provide a macro perspective of issues we are already familiar with. In addition to the regular issues, proposals for special issues will be considered by the editor.
Only quality papers that meet the standards of INContext will be reviewed. After an initial screening by the editor, all submissions will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review. While the official language of INContext is English, submissions in other languages will be considered by the editor.
Guidelines for Contributors
INContext welcomes articles relevant to the Aim and Scope of the Journal throughout the year. The submission instructions and guidelines can be found on the Journal’s Submissions page.
Please contact our editorial staff regarding any further inquiries:
INContext editorial team (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
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Cultus is a Journal dedicated to Intercultural communication, and this will be the theme of Cultus 17. Yet, ‘culture’, as understood in anthropological rather than ideological terms has had rather a bad press. The concept has been widely criticized for being essentialist, for pigeonholing people and peoples into straitjacketed ways of being or doing and of meaning. The late great Michael Agar, anthropologist and member of the Cultus scientific committee, openly asked: “Culture: Can you take it anywhere?”; while another anthropologist lamented “”Everyone is into culture now” (Kuper 1999), meaning that the concept has been appropriated, as well as distorted, so that now “cultural translation” is more often understood as a site of tension, of power struggles between different discursive practices than the sort of translation that practicing translators and interpreters have to deal with. Yet, as Kyle Conway mentioned (2018) in his spirited ‘Putting Translation back in Cultural Translation’: “Translators are among the most culturally aware people I know, and the way they rewrite texts is anything but mechanical”.
So, in this cultural (re)turn we would like to focus on the “cultural” and the “translation” from a cross-linguistic perspective; highlighting cutting edge research, findings and even theoretical argumentation validating the importance in practice of translating and interpreting with culture in mind.
We particularly welcome proposals focusing on new insights regarding intercultural communication and Translation Studies. For example:
Deadline for abstracts: 1 December 2023
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This full-time post is available from 01/09/23 - 31/08/26 on a fixed term contract, in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies is a vibrant and friendly Department. Within French and francophone studies our research and teaching interests range from the medieval period to the present day, from linguistics to gender studies, from film to publishing, from literary fiction to translation. We welcome applications within any area of French and francophone studies.
The role
The post of Lecturer in French will be to support the delivery of French language teaching at all levels, teaching on French culture modules at all undergraduate levels with the possibility of some MA teaching.
You will have responsibility for the design, development and production of teaching and learning material, will teach language at all levels, and will contribute to a range of cultural modules within French and Francophone Studies. You will work with the Head of Department, the Director of Education and Student Experience and the Director of Language Learning to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of teaching programmes in accord with the Faculty’s education strategy and implementing the External Affairs strategy. You may also contribute to the development and implementation of innovative teaching practices across the Faculty.
About you
For a Lecturer post you will:
Deadline for applications: 7 August 2023
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Round trips wanted! Travelling concepts between Translation Studies and the Social Sciences, and beyond
Submission deadline: 31 August 2023
Text:
We welcome conceptual-theoretical contributions that engage proactively with the uses of ‘translation’ as a travelling concept in other disciplines and/or with travelling concepts in Translation Studies and that address the following main questions (though we certainly do not remain restricted to them):
Please send your extended abstract (700-800 words, excluding references) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Further Information: https://transcultcom.univie.ac.at/news-and-events/news-detail/news/call-for-papers-special-issue-of-translation-in-society/
We invite proposals for a special guest-edited issue of JoSTrans to be published in January 2026. JoSTrans, The Journal of Specialised Translation, is an electronic, openaccess peer-reviewed journal bringing non-literary translation issues tothe fore. Published bi-annually since 2004, it includes articles, reviews and streamed interviews by translation scholars and professionals. The journal is indexed with the main humanities bibliographies, including Scopus (Q1, CiteScore 4.2) and Web of Science/JCR (Q2, IF = 1.561). We publish two issues per year: a non-thematic issue and a special guest-edited issue. We invite proposals for a call which deals with any novel area or aspect of specialised translation which have not been covered yet by the journal (for previous special issues see http://jostrans.org/archive.php).
In particular, we are interested in calls which address: • AI and translation/interpreting; • financial/business translation; • translation and politics / politics of translation; translation and Global North & Global South; • medical translation; • interpreting and specialised domains; • translation and diversity; • methodologies of researching specialised translation.
The proposal should include: • a topic • a brief presentation of the topic • names of guest editors and their editing expertise • if you propose a closed call, please provide names of contributors and titles of papers.
Please send your call to the editor-in-chief Łucja Biel at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject line JoSTrans Call for calls Issue 45 by 1 November 2023. The decision will be communicated by the end of November 2023.
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