CFP: European Colloquium on Gender & Translation. University of Ferrara, Italy, 6-7 June 2022

 European Colloquium on Gender & Translation (5th edition) 

Gendering Agency and Activism in Translation and Interpreting 

University of Ferrara, Italy, 6-7 June 2022 

Call for Papers  

The main aim of this hybrid Colloquium (in person and online) – which has shifted venue from edition to edition since 2016 – is to periodically offer an overview of the latest trends in the research on translation and gender around the world, with special emphasis on its cross-pollination with a number of disciplines, including but not limited to Translation Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Cultural and Media Studies, Sociology, Politics, Linguistics and Literary Criticism. Besides its overview of the growing diversity of research (both theoretical and practical) on translation and gender/sexuality/equality, the 5th edition of this Colloquium will have a thematic orientation focused on the role played by translation and interpreting as agents of resistance to and change of the dynamics between gender and power in society.

The alliance between feminism(s) and translation has fostered the development of studies centred around agency and performativity of the individual, the translator or the interpreter and their role in society. In the 21st century, both feminism(s) and translation have become privileged spaces of agency, activism and resistance, thus becoming central to the identification and analysis of the strategies of subordination used to exercise social, political and cultural power.

Starting from the work by Rebecca Ruth Gould and Kayvan Tahmasebian, The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Activism (2017), we intend to develop further the notion of the translator/interpreter as activist, namely as champion of political change, advocate of gender equality, promoter of gender diversity, voice-giver and helper of minorities, migrants and refugees, and agent of change capable of putting “into words the perspectives and experiences of oppressed and silenced peoples”. Our reflection also follows in the footsteps of Olga Castro and Emek Ergun’s research on Feminist Translation Studies. Local and Transnational Perspectives (2017) in order to widen the discussion on the interplay between feminist translation, agency and activism as academic fields of enquiry.

The Colloquium aims at making visible the important role of interpreters and translators in: 1) promoting and enabling social, political and cultural change around the world; 2) promoting equality; 3) fighting discrimination; 4) supporting gender diversity; 5) supporting human rights; 6) empowering minorities; 7) challenging authority and injustice not only across European countries but all over the world; 8) facilitating network-building activities among activists and agents of change and 8) teaching feminist translation as a pedagogical act in support of social and gender equality.

We are aware that translation is a powerful tool capable of producing social, political and cultural transformation. Thus, the Colloquium wants to open a forum of discussion and reflection on the contribution offered by practitioners, stakeholders and scholars to the study of translation as activism and agent of change.

Abstracts (up to 250 words) are invited on any aspect of the interface between translation, agency and activism and particularly on (but not limited to) the following Topics:

Activism through translation and interpreting

The role of translators and interpreters in promoting gender equality

The role of translators and interpreters in fighting discrimination

The role of translators and interpreters as champions of gender diversity

Translation and interpreting as acts of resistance to and change of the dynamics between gender and power

The role of translators and interpreters as voice-givers to minorities

Translation and human rights

Translators’ and interpreters’ agency exercised across different media

Translation and interpreting as network-building activities among activists and agents of change

Feminism(s), translation and interpreting: common grounds, challenges, divergences

Implementing innovative (feminist) strategies of translation across media and cultures

Border-crossing and feminism(s): synergies in translation and interpreting projects

The importation of feminism(s) through translation and interpreting

Personal experience and the translation praxis: the importance of (feminist) translators’ agency

Teaching (feminist) translation as a pedagogical act in support of social and gender equality

Translating (feminist) texts from/into different languages and cultures

Practical arrangements

Colloquium format: in person (University of Ferrara) and online

Presentations: in the form of Papers (a 20-minute presentation + a 10-minute discussion)

Official languages: presentations will be in English and Spanish

Abstract evaluation: double-blind and peer-reviewed.

Abstracts should be sent (to translationfest2022@gmail.com) as MS-Word attachments and include:

- Name(s) of author(s)

- Author affiliation(s) – university or institution, e-mail

- Title

- Abstract (up to 250 words)

- 3-4 keywords to identify the subject matter of your presentation

Following the colloquium, presenters will be invited to contribute to a publication in English (volume of essays). More information will be circulated in due time.

Key dates

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 April 2022

Notification of acceptance: 30 April 2022

Confirmed plenary speakers

Eliana Maestri, University of Exeter

Lupe Romero, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

José Santaemilia, Universitat de València

Conference organisers

Università di Ferrara: Eleonora Federici, Giulia Giorgi, Luisa Marino and Marta Fabbri

University of Exeter: Eliana Maestri

Universitat de Valencia: José Santaemilia.

CFP:Translating and Analysing Charles Darwin and Darwinism in(to) European languages (1859-2022)Conference 2022 Mainz

 "Translating and Analyzing Charles Darwin and Darwinism in(to) European languages (1859-2022)":

If Charles Darwin is “perhaps the most discussed writer in English besides Shakespeare”, in George Levine’s words, he certainly is also one of the most debated authors in any language. Yet European readers outside Britain ‒ whether scientists or ordinary educated people ‒ have usually read and criticized his texts through translations into their own languages. Now language was a terrible problem for Darwin himself as he had to express revolutionary ideas using words that had been employed through centuries of Creationist thought, as was brilliantly shown by Gillian Beer in her seminal Darwin’s Plots (1983). It can be said that Darwin’s materialistic and un-teleological concepts had to be translated into an old Christian English language. The European translations of Darwin’s works in turn reflect the difficulty of coining new phrases for new ideas, but they also mirror the specificities of each different language and culture. In France for instance, Clémence Royer ‒ Darwin’s first French translator ‒ read The Origin of Species through Lamarckian lenses and produced a Lamarckian translation that was taken for Darwin’s actual views by thousands of readers for many years. Clémence Royer's translation was also found to convey a higher degree of certainty pertaining to the views expressed than Darwin's own original text. Heinrich Georg Bronn translated the Origin into German in 1860 and opted for ‘Entstehung’ rather than ‘Ursprung’ for ‘origin’ and ‘Kampf’ for ‘struggle’. With his cuts and terms he paved the way for strands of social Darwinism under the auspices of Ernst Haeckel. The reception of Darwinism in Europe was therefore highly influenced by the individual situation of each country in terms of translation, edition, readership and cultural market. This seminar aims at showing the diversity of the circulation and reception of Darwinism (Darwin himself but also such authors as T.H. Huxley, Wallace, Spencer, or many others) from the publication of The Origin in November 1859 to the present day in the various European countries and cultures.

Proposals for papers in the domains of translation and comparative studies, reception studies and linguistics are invited. Papers on linguistic research questions applied to both the original work and the translations of Darwin’s work are welcome; linguistic topics and traditions which may be addressed include (but are not limited to) modality and epistemic stance, Appraisal Theory and Systemic Functional Linguistics, semantic relations (e.g. causality or similar semantic relations), and metaphor theory.

We also welcome proposals that probe into textual aspects of the discursive relation, for example reader response theory within a Christian framework as well as an emerging atheist stance, literary appropriations of Darwin’s work and reactions of contemporary readers in the twenty-first century, Systemic Functional analyses of the textual function, etc.

Submissions:
Titles and abstracts of the proposed papers for this seminar with a very short biography of their authors should be submitted directly to the convenors of the seminar:
Professor Michel Prum (Société des Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur)
Professor Felix Sprang (Deutscher Anglistenverband)
Professor Heidi Verplaetse (Belgian Association of Anglicists in Higher Education)

prum.michel@wanadoo.fr; felix.sprang@uni-siegen.de; heidi.verplaetse@kuleuven.be

Important dates:
28 February 2022                :       Extended deadline for submissions of paper proposals
20 March 2022                    :       Notification of acceptance       
March 2022                         :       Opening conference registrations
29 August - 2 September 2022 :  ESSE conference
 

For More Details: https://esse2022.uni-mainz.de/