[Commlist] CFP - Transfers | and | Traversals: Interdisciplinary Translation Studies Conference

TRANSFERS | and | TRAVERSALS
Interdisciplinary Translation Studies Conference 2022
University of the Free State, South Africa

https://www.ufs.ac.za/conferences/conference/transfers-and-traversals-2022 
<https://www.ufs.ac.za/conferences/conference/transfers-and-traversals-2022>


In December 2022, the University of the Free State will be hosting an 
interdisciplinary translation studies conference, ‘Transfers | and | 
Traversals’, for which we are presently inviting abstracts. At this 
stage, we are planning a hybrid (face-to-face and online) conference on 
the Bloemfontein campus of the university, but our arrangements 
regarding the format will remain flexible depending on the pandemic.

THEME:
Having long exceeded the purview of traditional translation studies, the 
theme of translation opens a fertile interdisciplinary space that brings 
into dialogue a range of disciplines in academia. In the Humanities, 
these include fields as diverse as philosophy, anthropology, cultural 
studies, comparative literature, comparative arts, adaptation studies, 
art history, and visual culture studies. In the social sciences, 
sociology, law, business studies and economics can be included as fields 
invested in issues of translation. Likewise, in the natural sciences, 
mathematics, computer science, medical science and biology use the term 
and have an interest in translation at both conceptual and practical 
levels. All of these disciplines use translation as a concept, category, 
or theme in thinking about the emergence of social-cultural phenomena, 
practices, and processes, as well as in thinking about forms of 
knowledge more broadly.

An expanded category for understanding translation is also emerging from 
within translation studies itself where the focus is increasingly pushed 
beyond conventional interlingual translations to also investigate 
intersemiotic or multimodal translations of cultures, artifacts, 
practices, and processes (Aguiar and Queiroz 2013, Marais 2019, Petrilli 
2003). Conceptualized semiotically, in that (following Peirce) the 
meaning of any sign(s) is its translation into another sign(s), 
translation includes all meaning-making and meaning-taking actions that 
underlie the interaction between living organisms, generally, and human 
beings, specifically. Whether one studies the emergence of 
society-culture from the perspective of, for example, aesthetics, 
computer science, law, or biology, you will at some point face the 
problem of meaning-making. This means that translation, if regarded as 
the process underlying the emergence of societyculture, could offer a 
handy gateway to inter or even transdisciplinary studies that include 
the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences. In addition, one 
finds proliferating cultural forms such as adaptations, remediations, 
remixes, gamifications, and transmedia story worlds that are deeply 
receptive to such analysis owing to their inherently ‘translational’ 
nature. Scholars from all fields of study moreover face questions about 
knowledge creation, the translation of pure knowledge into applied 
knowledge, translations between specialists (e.g. medicine and law), the 
ways in which knowledge travels, etc. Ultimately, the very nature of 
interdisciplinary collaboration as such is frequently conceived of in 
terms of ‘translations’—a probing metaconcept for thinking about the 
various orders of transfer and transversal that occur when disciplines 
operate side-by-side.

Against this background, the organizers invite abstracts that address 
any of these issues—from any field of research. While this particular 
call originated from the Humanities, we hope to initiate discussion 
between as many fields of study as possible.


Possible topics could include the following:

#  the study and critical analysis of any translations, adaptations, 
remediations, remixes, gamifications, transmediations, intermedialities, 
appropriations, and so forth, from an inter- or multidisciplinary 
perspective

#  epistemological, social, political, legal, ethical-moral, and/or 
legal aspects of (interlinguistic, intersemiotic, intercultural, 
intermedial, interart) translations or translational processes

#  cultural (or cross-cultural) translation, dialogue, appropriation, 
transfer, and migration— as conceived of within historical inquiry, 
postcolonial studies, critical race theory, and beyond

#  the study—whether theoretical, experimental, or performative—of 
relations, interactions and creative translations between arts and/or 
media (e.g. between music and fine art; between theatre and literature; 
between film and video games)

#  the translation and application of vocational knowledge, skills, 
practices, or ‘know-how’ (e.g. of mathematicians, medical specialists, 
computer scientists, engineers, architects, legal experts, theologians) 
within other, seemingly unrelated, societal spheres

#  questions about knowledge translation, sociology of knowledge, etc.

#  issues concerning (the concept of) translation as a facilitator of 
inter-, multi-, post- or transdisciplinary research, including 
perspectives from ecology studies

#  the productive transfer, translation, and transformation of any 
meta-discourse— concepts, models, theories, methods, research practices, 
or knowledge cultures—from one academic discipline to another.


TIMELINE, ABSTRACTS, ARRANGEMENTS
Submission of abstracts: 15 April 2022
Presenters notified of outcome of review process: 1 May 2022
Registrations open: 1 August 2022
Registrations close: 15 October 2022
Conference: 1-2 December 2022

For queries or the submission of abstracts contact 
(Transfers2022 /at/ ufs.ac.za) <mailto:(Transfers2022 /at/ ufs.ac.za)>. Please submit 
abstracts before 15 April 2022. Kindly include with the abstract of ca. 
300 words a brief bio of 100 –150 words.

The conference is organized by the Departments of Art History and Image 
Studies, Communication Science, Fine Arts, Hebrew, Linguistics and 
Language Practice, as well as the Odeion School of Music at the 
University of the Free State, South Africa.

Details regarding options for accommodation etc. will be communicated 
closer to the event.

The organizers can confirm that a special edition of the journal 
/Critical Arts/ has been secured for publications from this conference. 
Martin P. Rossouw will be the guest editor. /The Journal for Translation 
Studies in Africa/ will also publish either a special edition or 
individual papers from the conference, depending on the number of papers 
submitted. Yet further publication opportunities are also being explored.


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