Marking ten years since Leonard Cohen’s passing, the conference Leonard Cohen: Global Perspectives on a Multi-disciplinary Artist aims to foster an interdisciplinary scholarly dialogue on his life, work, and legacy.

The conference will take place from 6 to 8 October 2026 at Ghent University. Keynote speakers are Robert Lecker (McGill University) and Sherry Simon (Concordia University).

The organisers invite participants to submit a 300-word proposal to cohen2026@ugent.be by April 30, 2026. The call for papers and further information can be found on the conference website.

The Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication at Ghent University is looking for a full-time (100%) PhD candidate in Translation Studies. The doctoral researcher will be affiliated with TRACE, the department’s research group on Translation and Culture.

We invite applicants to propose an original research project on translation between English and Spanish (in either direction: English–Spanish or Spanish–English). The proposal should fall within the broad field of translation and culture. We particularly welcome projects engaging with one or more of the following areas:

• Philosophy
• The novel of ideas from the twentieth century onwards
• Film and ideology
• Feminism and post-feminism
• Other relevant themes

The supervisors of the project are Prof. Jeroen Vandaele and Prof. Lieve Jooken.

Read the full vacancy and practical details for applying here. Applications are due by 18 November 2025.

On 23 and 24 October 2025, research group TricS (Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies) will organise Pornographie à Babel/Pornography in Babel, a bilingual conference on the translation of pornographic literature, sexualities and the obscene, at the University of Antwerp. You can find the call for papers here in French and here in English or via the following link: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/conferences/pornography-in-babel/. Please share this call for papers within your network. We would be delighted to receive your proposals on this still largely unexplored theme.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is 30 June 2025.

Should you have any queries, do not hesitate to contact Philippe Vanhoof (philippe.vanhoof@uantwerpen.be).

On 5 December 2024 (USquare, 6 p.m.) Vrije Universiteit Brussel welcomes the award-winning German Jewish author Esther Dischereit. The author will read from her new book Ein Haufen Dollarscheine (2024) and engage in a discussion about uncomfortable truths that linger in official sites of documentation, in family archives and, last but not least, in the memory of individuals that can be at odds with dominant narratives about the past.

This event is part of the Ties that Bind Us Series and realised in cooperation with the recently launched Chair Traces of the Resistance. To register for the evening with Esther Dischereit, follow this link.

From June 30 to July 3, 2025, the 11th EST Congress will take place in Leeds. Paper proposals can be submitted on the conference website until 26 July 2024.

Luc van Doorslaer and Anneleen Spiessens host a panel on City Museums & City Translation at the conference, for which they welcome contributions. More information in the Call for Papers.

On November 29 2024, the annual symposium of the Vlaamse Vereniging voor Algemene en Vergelijkende Literatuurwetenschap will be held at KU Leuven (Faculty of Arts). The Call for Papers invites contributions on both open topics and the symposium theme, Literature and Materiality. The VAL also welcomes submissions from translation scholars. Deadline: 23 September 2024.

Organisation: Linde De Potter, Lieke van Deinsen en Pieter Verstraeten (KU Leuven)

On Friday, 20 September 2024 (from 9.45 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.), research groups CLIV and TRACE host a symposium on Translation and Resistance. This multilingual symposium will be held in honour of the retirement of our colleague Désirée Schyns, and will take place at De Krook, Ghent. Its aim is to explore the importance, impact and ethical-political dimensions of resistance in translations.

The retirement celebration will follow at 4 p.m.

More information (registration link, programme, abstracts) can be found here: www.vertalingenverzet.ugent.be (English version).

Organisation: Anneleen Spiessens, Guy Rooryck, Arvi Sepp, Ilse Logie, Eline Denolf

On Thursday 23 May research group TRACE (Translation and Culture, Ghent University) welcomes Dr Diego Stefanelli (Universität Mainz) for a guest lecture on

Translating Crusoe (and Friday) in the 1720s. The first French translation of Robinson Crusoe (1720).

More information can be found in the abstract.

Thursday 23 May 2024 | Campus Mercator, Abdisstraat 1, A1.04, 15.00

The first TRACE/CLIV Research Day will be hosted at Ghent University (campus Mercator, room 01.04) on Friday 24 May 2024.

For more information see the TRACECLIV Research Day poster

The Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en traduction et en interprétation of the University of Liège, in collaboration with the Centre d’études Simenon, is looking for a POST-DOC in Translation Studies and Digital Humanities for a period of 20 months starting on September 1, 2024.

Deadline for applications: May 31, 2024. Full details in the call for applications.