[Commlist] CfP Material Turns in Translation. Intermediality and Circulation

Call for Papers: the 2nd Trextuality Conference
MATERIAL TURNS IN TRANSLATION:
INTERMEDIALITY AND CIRCULATION

September 4-6, 2025
Anderson Centre for Translation Research and Practice
University of Galway, Ireland
Web: https://translation.universityofgalway.ie/trextuality2/ 
<https://translation.universityofgalway.ie/trextuality2/>
Submission link:
https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/76934/submitter 
<https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/76934/submitter>

Keynote speakers:
Karen Bennett (NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal)
Piotr Blumczynski (Queen’s University Belfast, UK)

The Anderson Centre for Translation Research and Practice at the 
University of Galway, Ireland, is delighted to announce the 2nd 
Trextuality Conference, scheduled on *September 4-6, 2025. *Following 
the success of the inaugural conference at the University of Turku 
(Finland) in September 2023, titled “Interdisciplinary Approaches to 
Translated and Multilingual Texts,” this second edition will focus on 
the theme *“Material Turns in Translation: Intermediality and Circulation.”*

The concept of ‘trextuality’ brings together the perspectives of text, 
transmission and translation. This second dedicated conference aims to 
deepen the discussion on how today’s media hybridity influences both the 
products and processes of translation, examining the ways in which the 
convergence of different media forms reshapes translated texts. This 
includes exploring how combining text, sound, image, and interactive 
elements affects the creation, interpretation, circulation, and 
reception of translations. We also seek to understand how these hybrid 
forms challenge traditional notions of translation, requiring new 
approaches and methodologies that reflect the complexities of multimodal 
and cross-media environments. By investigating these dynamics, we hope 
to cast a shining light on the evolving role of the translator in 
navigating and negotiating the intersections between diverse media 
platforms and cultural contexts.

More specifically, we invite scholars to reflect on the intersection 
between translation, mediality, technicity (Littau 2011, 2016), and 
performativity (Bennett 2018, 2022) and to delve into the media, modes, 
and modalities of translation (Elleström 2010/2021 and 2023; Marais 
2019; Bruhn 2021). The framework proposed by late media scholar Lars 
Elleström explores how translation is not merely a linguistic process 
but a multimodal and intermedial phenomenon. He argues that translation 
involves a complex dynamics between various media (such as text, sound, 
and image), modes (e.g., argumentative, narrative, or descriptive 
styles), and modalities (e.g., sensory channels or cognitive perceptions).

Recent work in translation studies drawing on Karin Littau’s and the 
Linnaeus School of Intermediality’s influential scholarship has 
emphasized the importance of understanding how these elements interact 
and shape the translation process (O’Connor 2021; Blumczynski 2023; 
Tanasescu 2024; Vidal Claramonte 2024), impacting not only the meaning 
conveyed (Haapaniemi 2024) but also the way it is perceived and 
understood across different cultural and technological contexts 
(Robert-Foley 2024). We encourage scholars to examine these complex 
relationships and delve into how translation functions across different 
media and how it adapts to the specificities of each modality and mode 
involved (Cronin 2017; Grass 2023; Campbell & Vidal 2024). This approach 
asks for a broader consideration of translation, seeing it as a dynamic 
process that goes beyond the transfer of words between languages to 
include the transference of cultural, social, sensory, and technological 
experiences.

CONFERENCE THEMES:
We warmly encourage contributions that engage with the following topics:

1. Hybridity in translation (intermedial translation) (analysis of 
hybrid forms of translation across different media, including print, 
digital, and audiovisual formats);

2. Translation across transmedial cultures (rendering content, 
narratives, or ideas across different forms of media, such as from 
literature to film, video games, art, or digital platforms);

3. Multimodal translation practices (exploring how translation 
intersects with various modes of communication—text, image, sound, and 
gesture);

4. Translation studies and textual scholarship (exploring the 
theoretical, methodological and practical intersections between various 
disciplines);

5. Historical perspectives on translation materiality (investigation of 
printed traditions, manuscript cultures, and their impact on the 
translation process);

6. Circulation of translated texts (investigating the ways translated 
works move across borders, both geographically and culturally, and the 
socio-cultural implications of these movements);

7. Translation and infrastructure (examining infrastructures for and of 
translation as well as translation as infrastructure);

8. Digital and postdigital translation (studying the impact of digital 
technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine translation, 
  on translation products and practices, including issues of 
accessibility, interactivity, and media convergence);

9. Eco-translation and environmental media (exploring how translation 
studies engage with inter-species translation, environmental discourses, 
green media, and sustainability narratives across different cultures and 
languages);

10. Translation and sensory experience (investigating how translation 
mediates sensory experiences, such as taste, touch, and smell, in 
addition to the more traditional senses of sight and sound);

11. Embodiment and translation (investigating how bodily experiences and 
corporeal movements influence translation, particularly in performance 
arts, dance, and embodied literatures);

12. Translation and memory (exploring the role of translation in 
preserving, transforming, or erasing cultural and material memory across 
generations and within diasporic communities);

13. Translation and participatory culture (investigating how translation 
practices intersect with participation, where users actively contribute 
to content creation and dissemination across media platforms);

14. Visual and spatial translation (exploring how visual art, 
architecture, and spatial design are translated across cultural and 
media boundaries).

We welcome submissions from both emerging and established scholars 
across various disciplines. Contributions may employ traditional methods 
or innovative, mixed-method approaches, reflecting the evolving nature 
and interdisciplinarity of the translation studies field.

Submission guidelines:
Submissions should be sent via the Oxford Abstracts platform:
https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/76934/submitter 
<https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/76934/submitter>.
No payment from the authors will be required.

Timelines:

Submission deadline: February 15, 2025
Notification of acceptance: March 15
Long abstract (1500 – 3000 words) submission: July 1*
Early bird registration: March 15 (opens); June 01 (ends)
Registration deadline: August 25
Conference: September 4-6
Full paper submission: January 15, 2026*
[* These stages are optional; please see below.]

Publication: Selected papers will be considered for publication in a 
special issue of a peer-reviewed journal or in an edited volume 
(open-access) with a major press. Please see submission deadlines above. 
A long abstract will kindly be requested of the participants interested 
in this opportunity.

For more information, please visit our website 
https://translation.universityofgalway.ie/trextuality2 
<https://translation.universityofgalway.ie/trextuality2>

or contact Raluca Tanasescu at (raluca.tanasescu /at/ universityofgalway.ie) 
<mailto:(raluca.tanasescu /at/ universityofgalway.ie)>.

Bibliography:

Bennett, K. (2018). “Translation and the desacralization of the western 
world: From performativity to representation.” Alif: Journal of 
Comparative Poetics 38.
Bennett, K. (2022). “The unsustainable lightness of meaning: Reflections 
on the material turn in Translation Studies and its intradisciplinary 
implications.” In Dionísio da Silva, G. & Radicioni, M. (eds.), 
Recharting Territories: Intradisciplinarity in Translation Studies, 
49-74. Leuven: LUP.
Blumczynski, P. (2023). Experiencing Translationality: Material and 
Metaphorical Journeys (1st ed.). New York: Routledge.
Bruhn, J. (2021). “Towards an intermedial ecocriticism.” In Elleström, 
L. (ed.), Beyond Media Borders, Volume 2: Intermedial Relations among 
Multimodal Media, pp. 117-148. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Campbell, M., & Vidal, R. (2024). The Experience of Translation. London; 
New York: Routledge.
Cronin, M. (2017). Eco-Translation. Translation and Ecology in the Age 
of the Anthropocene. New York: Routledge.
Elleström, L. (2021). “The Modalities of Media II: An Expanded Model for 
Understanding Intermedial Relations.” In Elleström, L. (ed.), Media 
Borders, Multimodality and Intermediality, 2nd ed., 3-92. London: 
Palgrave Macmillan.
Elleström, L. (2023). “Intermedial Approaches.” In R. Meylaerts and K. 
Marais (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Translation Theory and 
Concepts, 389-409. New York: Routledge.
Grass, D. (2023). Translation as Critical-Creative Practice. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press.
Haapaniemi, R. (2024). “Translation as meaning-construction under 
co-textual and contextual constraints: A model for a material approach 
to translation.” Translation Studies 17(1): 20-36.
Littau, K. (2011). “First steps towards a media history of translation.” 
Translation Studies, 4(3), 261–281.
Littau, K. (2016). “Translation and the materialities of communication.” 
Translation Studies 9(1): 82-96.
Marais, K. (2019). A (Bio)Semiotic Theory of Translation. The Emergence 
of Social-Cultural Reality. London: Routledge.
O’Connor, A. (2021). “Translation and religion: Issues of materiality.” 
Translation Studies 14(3): 332–349.
Robert-Foley, L. (2024). Experimental Translation. The Work of 
Translation in the Era of Algorithmic Production. London: Goldsmith Press.
Tanasescu, R. (2024). “Reimagining Translation Anthologies: A Journey 
into Non-Linear Computational Assemblages.” In C. Tanasescu (ed.) 
Literature and Computation. Platform Intermediality, Hermeneutic 
Modeling, and Analytical-Creative Approaches, pp. 87-116. New York: 
Routledge.
Vidal Claramonte, M.Á. (2024). Translation and Objects. Rewriting 
Migrancy and Displacement through the Materiality of Art. New York: 
Routledge.

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