Graduate Student Conference on Translation Studies
Amherst, Massachusetts
Organization: Program of Comparative Literature, UMass Amherst
The Graduate Student Conference on Translation Studies serves as a forum that exhibits the robust relationship between translation studies and other academic disciplines and professional fields. This conference brings together graduate students and early-career postdoctoral researchers united by a common interest in translation and interpreting.
This year, we welcome abstracts and panel proposals related to the topics of ethics and justice, pertaining to any subfield of translation and interpreting studies, including literary, technical, and legal translation; theory and practice of interpretation; translation history; and translation and interpreting technology. Possible themes include (but are not limited to): interpretation and migrant justice; the ethics and ideological implications of translation choices (both in terms of what we translate and how we go about it); translation as activism; translators’ and interpreters’ agency; community interpretation, family interpretation, and other pro bono modes of interpreting; ethics of medical interpreting; ethical and economic impact of machine translation; corporate translation and accountability; considerations relating to subjectivity, cultural difference, and collective identity; translation pedagogy; access to translation and interpreting services; politics of literary translation; publishing and visibility; gendered disparities in the profession; and so forth. We welcome comparative studies, case studies, corpus studies, argumentative essays, and any other methodology relevant to translation and interpreting studies.
We are honored to host our keynote speaker, Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas, a renowned scholar in the field of interpretation theory, best known for his work on the tension between justice and confidentiality in the context of mass prosecutions of undocumented workers. Since then, Dr. Camayd has continued to develop theories of interpretation, translation, and activism, with his most recent work exploring the psycholinguistics of critical thinking in the age of AI and viral propaganda.
In addition to the keynote address and the panels, conference activities will include literary and commercial translation workshops, a workshop on community interpretation, social events, and a multilingual literary reading. We are also excited to offer three scholarships for participants, to defray the costs of lodging and travel. Please indicate if you wish to be considered for scholarship funding, explaining why you believe that you deserve to be funded based on your situation or on the unique contribution of your research.
Deadline for submission of proposals: February 1, 2020
Notification of acceptance: February 12, 2020
Please send abstracts of 200-300 words and panel proposals of <150 words, including names of expected participants, to jditeman@umass.edu. While scholars at various career stages are welcome to apply, please note that priority will be given to applicants who are current graduate students.
Jeffrey Diteman