Call for Papers (EN)

Call for Papers

The 13th Annual Glendon Graduate Conference in Translation Studies

Glendon Campus, York University, Toronto

April 14-15, 2023

Translation and Unheard Voices

Unheard voices have been an increasing concern and the focus of considerable research in a variety of disciplines in the past few decades. The term is used to refer to voices that are ignored or overlooked, be it deliberately or unintentionally. These voices include those of communities that have been marginalized in different contexts, including language and communication, knowledge production, policy making, access to resources, and others.

The United Nations Development Programme has defined marginalization as “the state of being considered unimportant, undesirable, unworthy, insignificant and different resulting in inequity, unfairness, deprivation and enforced lack of access to mainstream power” (Messiou 11). According to Neil Harrison and Graeme Atherton, considering that some groups may be “more passively marginalized by collective indifference, uncaring bureaucratic systems or indirect exclusions from power that are unenforced, but nevertheless pervasive” (3) broadens the description. Marginalization, from the perspective of the marginalized, is also a subjective experience, “to have a sense that one does not belong and, in so doing, to feel that one is neither a valued member of a community and able to make a valuable contribution within that community nor able to access the range of services and/or opportunities open to others” (Mowat 457).

In Translation Studies, as in other fields and disciplines, the issue of “unheard voices” and of marginalization has been discussed in various ways and from different perspectives. For instance, in his polysystem theory, Itamar Even-Zohar addressed the distinction between center and periphery and the competition for dominance between distinct interacting systems (Shuttleworth 420). In this theory, a polysystem or the “system of systems” is pictured “as a multiply stratified whole where the relations between center and periphery are a series of oppositions” (Even-Zohar “System, Dynamics, and Interference in Culture: A Synoptic View” 88). Reminded by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak that “the subaltern, on the fringes of history, located in language, is not generalizable” (165-166), we must be more attentive to the situated collectives and the relationships between languages and translations affecting them. 

In this year’s graduate conference we invite you to share your research on marginalization in relation to interpreting and translation of texts, multimodal representations, performances, and other instances of cross-linguistic exchange. Research can be grounded in Translation Studies as well as in adjacent fields, such as Linguistics, Humanities, Comparative Literature, World Literature, Education Studies, or Social Studies.

Research Topics can include, but are not limited to, the following: 

  1. Translation (and non-translation) of marginalized or endangered languages 
  2. Translation of, for, and with marginalized peoples (e.g. Indigenous, Black, women, queer, differently abled, and others) 
  3. Translators’ voices and agency 
  4. Translation and migration 
  5. Translation in contexts of war or other conflicts  
  6. Translation in crisis and disaster situations 
  7. Translation of minoritized or lesser studied literatures  

Graduate students and emerging academics are invited to submit proposals by March 9th, 2023 via this form, including author’s name, email, affiliation, short biography, title of the paper, abstract of 250-300 words, and an indication if you will be available to present in person at the Glendon campus or online only. Abstracts are accepted in Spanish, French or English. Presentations will be held in one of those three languages and should be no longer than 15 minutes.

For any questions or concerns, please contact us at glendontsconference@gmail. For more information, please also see our website: www.glendon.yorku.ca/transconf/.

Works Cited

Even-Zohar, Itamar. “System, Dynamics, and Interference in Culture: A Synoptic View.” Poetics Today, vol. 11, no. 1, 1990, pp. 85–94. https://doi.org/10.2307/1772672

Harrison, Neil, and Graeme Atherton. “Introduction: Marginalised Communities in Higher Education.” Marginalised Communities in Higher Education: Disadvantage, Mobility and Indigeneity. Edited by Neil Harrison and Graeme Atherton, Routledge, 2021, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429293399

Messiou, Kyriaki. Confronting Marginalisation in Education: a Framework for Promoting Inclusion. Routledge, 2012. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203121184

Mowat, Joan G. “Towards a New Conceptualisation of Marginalisation.” European Educational Research Journal EERJ, vol. 14, no. 5, 2015, pp. 454–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904115589864

Shuttleworth, Mark. “Polysystem Theory”. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, edited by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha, 3rd ed., Routledge, 2020, pp. 419–423. 

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Living Translation. Edited by Emily Apter et al. Seagull Books, 2022.