From 11 to 13 June 2019, a PhD course on “Translation and Cultural Transfer” will take place at Ghent University and KU Leuven/Campus Brussels. Keynote lecturers Diana Roig Sanz (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) and Petra Broomans (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) will present theoretical models and methods for analyzing intra- and extra-textual aspects of cultural transfer processes in peripheral multilingual contexts.

The course is conceived as an interactive seminar. It is a combination of ex-cathedra lectures, hands-on methodological workshops, tutorials/short presentations by doctoral researchers, discussions, and preliminary reading.

PhD students can apply by 20 May 2019 by sending a 500-word abstract of their presentation to anneleen.spiessens@ugent.be or beatrijs.vanacker@kuleuven.be. Call, full (preliminary) program and evaluation criteria are available here.

Post-docs and other university staff are welcome to attend lectures and discussions without actively participating. For practical reasons, we kindly ask you to register by e-mailing Anneleen or Beatrijs by 20 May.

CULTURAL AMBIVALENCE, INTERSEMIOTIC TRANSLATION AND ARTISTIC IDENTITIES : The literary Production of Musician Writers

This symposium will be held the 28th of May at Université de Liège (Place du 20 août) – Salle de l’Horloge (main building).

The main theme of this symposium is the study of the complex relations between music and literature from the perspective of popular musicians who, some on the margins of their musical career, have also built a literary oeuvre. The number of such ‘crossovers’ is extensive, and over the years they have acquired an institutional validity and identity. We hope to obtain a greater understanding of the internal dynamics at work within various artistic systems and at the same time bring into alignment a number of theoretical concepts from translation studies and comparative literature, such as ambivalence, intersemiotic translation, polygraphy and ethos.

How do the artists themselves view the relationship between these two practices? To what extent does intersemiotic translation occur, or reworking, adaptation or separation, between oeuvres? Why do these artists decide to produce a literary work at a given point in their career? Do they anchor this dual practice in one or two artistic identities? How are these interrelated? To what extent do the two practices overlap (textually or otherwise)? Do they focus attention on this hybrid identity in either their primary discourse (the literature and music) or secondary texts (interviews, paratexts, etc.)?

How are these works positioned in the literary system? Is it easier or harder to get them published and reviewed? Are different norms used to evaluate them? To what extent does the literary criticism draw comparisons to the musical work? What genres do musicians prefer – canonical (poetry, novels) or peripheral (crime fiction, science fiction, children’s books)?

Organizing committee

• Francis Mus (Université de Liège)
• Michel Delville (Université de Liège)
• Christophe Pirenne (Université de Liège)
• Denis Saint-Amand (FUNDP – Université de Namur)

Full progamme and registration : www.musicianwriters.be

From March 21st to 25th Fouad Laroui is writer in residence at the VUB. For this occasion he will give lectures and seminars in different languages:

Thursday 21 March, 17.00-19.00 (room D.3.08): Discussion seminar / séminaire de discussion “Aesthethics and Ethics in Multicultural Literature Today” (hosted by Prof. dr Daniel Acke & Prof. dr. Elisabeth Bekers) ;

Friday 22 March 12.00-14.00 (Studentenrestaurant, STOA): Séminaire déjeuner avec Dr. ir Fouad Laroui “Réflexions postcoloniales sur la Francofonie” (organisatie Prof. dr. Daniel Acke & Prof. dr. Sabine Hillen for La Semaine de la Francophonie) ;

Friday 22 March 18.30-21.00 (U-Residence, groene zaal): Alumni Drink en Literaire Avond met Fouad Laroui rond zijn laatste roman L’insoumise de la Porte de Flandre (2017)

Monday 25 March 13.00-15.00 (Promotiezaal D.2.01): Gesprek tussen Jean Paul Van Bendegem en Fouad Laroui over diens recent boek Dieu, les mathématiques et la folie (Robert Laffont, 2018)

Complete programme: Programma F. Laroui 21-25 maart

Location: KU Leuven, Faculty of Arts, Campus Antwerp

Date : 15-03-2019

Multilingual writing has been a common practice since Antiquity, but has only become a popular research topic among critics in recent years. Kellman, who prefers the term translingualism, states that “the creation of a new voice means the invention of a new self” (2014). Many writers as well as film directors draw on their daily use of more than one language as a creative resource, but, as Yildiz points out in her authoritative essay Beyond the Mother Tongue, The Postmonolingual Condition, multilingualism is still haunted by the ideal of one true mother tongue (Yildiz 2012). Moreover, there is the material impossibility of a radically plurilingual literature because big publishing houses are not interested in it (Lennon 2010).

In the one-day conference, Polyglots and Polysystems, it is our aim to analyze multilingualism in literature and film from different perspectives through which both the product and the process can be approached. Codde, for instance, reminds us that, although Polysystem Theory seems to have lost its appeal for students and researchers of comparative literature, Even-Zohar’s interpretative model still offers a “framework for a wide-ranging and still topical study of a variety of cultural phenomena” (Codde 2003). The conference will bring together insights and methodologies from literary studies, film studies and translation studies, and confront these with new perspectives in the field. We also welcome case studies of contemporary literary works and films from 2000 until now. The main focus will be on texts and films in English and/or Spanish.

Organizing Institutions: KU Leuven, Research Group VICT (“Translation and Intercultural Transfer”) and Ghent University, Research Group CLIV (“Literature in Translation”)

Conference programme : Polyglots and Polysystems

The University of Perugia announces its upcoming conference

La traduzione come atto politico
Translation as Political Act
La traduction comme acte politique

which will be hosted at Perugia from 9 to 11 May 2019 by the Department of Political Sciences, in collaboration with the Genealogies of Knowledge Project, University of Manchester (UK).

The conference seeks to address four areas of particular interest. The first area concerns the role of translation in the development and dissemination of political ideas; the second area considers how translation operates in the context of institutional politics; the third looks at how social movements and interest groups use translation to advance their agendas or political demands; finally, the fourth area concerns translation practices in the media, focusing on international politics.

CLIV-members Guy Rooryck and Lieve Jooken will deliver a keynote paper on “Le traducteur-médiateur: un dialogue franco-britannique au siècle des Lumières”.

Full programme  home.translationaspoliticalact.net/program
Conference website home.translationaspoliticalact.net/home-1
Registration closes on 30 April 2019.

Organising committee:

Diana Bianchi (Università di Perugia, Italia)
Jan Buts (University of Manchester, UK)
Henry Jones (University of Manchester, UK)
Francesca Piselli (Università di Perugia, Italia)
Federico Zanettin (Università di Perugia, Italia)

The Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication of the Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht University is seeking applications for a full professorship in the field of Translation Studies. The Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication (TLC) brings together expertise in the fields of specific Languages (Celtic & Classics, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish) as well as those of Linguistics, Comparative Literature and Communication Studies. The successful candidate will have a key role to play in the department in the strategic development of Translation Studies both in teaching and research.

The Professor of Translation Studies will have teaching responsibilities in translation studies and be responsible for overseeing and further developing undergraduate and graduate teaching in the field. The Chair will also be charged with developing research capacity and new research lines in the field of Translation Studies, and will have responsibility for the staff involved in these teaching and research programmes.

Profile
The successful candidate will be able to :

• initiate and stimulate graduate and undergraduate teaching within the Department on topics relating to Translation Studies;
• initiate, stimulate, and supervise research within the Department in state of the art in Translation Studies;
  contribute to the visibility of the field of study both within and beyond the Faculty of Humanities and the Dutch academic world;
• apply successfully for research funding;
• initiate, and participate in, activities aimed to disseminate academic knowledge to the wider public;
  demonstrate outreach, openness and the ability to build bridges between diverse approaches and colleagues;
  provide guidance and coaching to younger colleagues;
• able and willing in due course to contribute to the management of the Department and the Faculty.

Required competences
The successful candidate will:

• have excellent qualifications, evident from leading publications on themes relevant to the chair;
• will preferably have some practical experience as a translator;
• have a proven ability to develop a distinctive line of research within the framework described;
• be able to use Dutch as a working language in translation studies or, in the case of non-Dutch speakers, be willing to acquire the relevant language skills within a period of two years;
• have an excellent knowledge of at least one of the modern languages that is taught within the department (Dutch, English, French, Spanish, German or Italian)
• be competent in English; have supervisory skills, evidenced by the coaching of young researchers, especially PhD students;
• have a successful track record in attracting substantial research funding from external sources, or show the potential to do so;
• be experienced in interdisciplinary cooperation;
• have knowledge and experience with regard to the use and impact of research tools in field of Digital Humanities;
• have an international orientation, evidenced by international research networks, as well as a commitment to working within the Dutch context.
• be an excellent teacher who is motivated and able to motivate others;
• have experience in course and curriculum development;
• be motivated to take on administrative responsibilities within the department and the Faculty of Humanities and have all relevant organisational and practical skills to do so;• have relevant experience with administrative responsibilities;
• have strong leadership and social skills;
• be a team player who knows how to motivate people.

What we offer
We offer a 1.0 FTE position for five years, which upon positive evaluation will be converted into a permanent contract. The gross salary – depending on previous qualifications and experience – ranges between €5,582 and €8,127 (scale H2 according to the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) gross per month for a full-time employment. Salaries are supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8 % and a year-end bonus of 8.3 % per year. We offer a pension scheme, (partly paid) parental leave, collective insurance schemes and flexible employment conditions (multiple choice model). More information is available at: working at Utrecht University.

About the organization
Utrecht University is at the heart of society and has strong ambitions with regard to the quality and success of its programmes. With its distinct research profile in Sustainability, Life Sciences, Dynamics of Youth and Institutions of Open Societies the faculty aims to contribute to a better understanding of the Netherlands and Europe within an ever changing social and cultural context.

Application
Your application can be uploaded through the link:  http://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs below until the 27 January 2019.

Your application should consist of:

• a letter of motivation;
• a CV and list of publications;
• a brief research plan which shows how you would develop your research in translation studies in the context of the Department;
• one or two course outlines from earlier courses that you have taught and that are indicative of your approach to teaching translation studies.

For further information about the Department please visit : https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/department-of-languages-literature-and-communication.

For further information about the position, please download the full Description of the Chair in Translation Studies (chair_in_translation_studies). You are also free to contact the Head of Department, Prof. Dr. Ann Rigney, for further information.

Women are encouraged to apply for this position. Interviews with selected

Apply until 06/11/2018 23:59 CET
Discipline: Translation Studies Focused on Cultural Transfer
100% Assistant professor tenure track
Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Reference number: 201809/LW/ZAP/005

The job offer can be seen on the intern and/or extern web page.

PROFILE

Knowledge/Experience

Candidates:

• have high-level academic research experience in the field of Translation Studies focused on cultural transfer, which can be corroborated by publications in quality, peer-reviewed, academic journals and books;
• should have demonstrable expertise in the department’s research field of translation and culture;
• are capable of initiating and supervising academic research and collecting the necessary funds for this;
• should possess the necessary didactic skills to help university students develop and achieve academic competences;
• should be able to demonstrate experience in academic teaching
• Should have a knowledge of Dutch and of one or more languages taught at the department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication at C2-level.

In addition:

• being internationally mobile, inter alia by taking part in research programmes at research institutions not linked to the university where the highest degree was obtained, will be considered an asset;
• having positively evaluated experience in offering and/or organising academic training is recommended;
• involvement in the professionalisation of education will be considered an asset;
• having translated in the field of culture in general is recommended.

MORE INFORMATION

For further information regarding these vacancies, please contact Professor Veronique Hoste (veronique.hoste@UGent.be) at the faculty of Arts and Philosophy, department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication.

JoSTrans 35 (January 2021)

Special issue ‘Translation and Plurisemiotic Practices’

Guest editors : Francis Mus (Université de Liège – CIRTI) and Sarah Neelsen (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – CEREG)

This special issue of JoSTrans is a contribution to the current research on translating ‘multidimensional’ works that combine texts with other semiotic elements such as music, lighting, body movements or images, usually associated with the stage. Translators who have to transfer those plurisemiotic works face hybrid objects: as meaning is not only invested in words, translators must thus take into account this intersemiotic dialectics and create multidimensional works as well.

Contributions may address the following plurisemotic pratices: theatre, performance, music, poetry in sign language, plastic arts.

Some plurisemiotic practices have already been the object of academic research. This particularly applies to translation for the stage and audiovisual translation, two fields of research that have remarkably developed over the past two decades. Other areas are much less explored. Research on the interweaving of translation and music is much more recent, especially when popular music is involved. This is also the case for translation and plastic arts, the interconnection of which has rarely been the object of systematic research: can the translation of a text be shaped as an art object? What kind of translation does the circulation of plastic works require? Sign language has attracted a lot of interest of late, but is mostly studied as a language of translation rather than as a language of creation.

The 35th issue of JoSTrans will carry on developments already started in several previous issues, for instance ‘The Translation of Multimodal Texts’ (2013) and ‘Translation in the Creative Industries’ (2018), though in this forthcoming 35th issue contributions will be limited to plurisemiotic practices performed in front of an audience. Communication between artist(s) and audience(s) occurs through some form of ‘translation’, ‘localization’ or ‘adaptation’. Analyses can thus also tackle new professional fields of expertise as well as the development of new translation technologies, various topics that have already been addressed in several issues, particularly in issues n°23 (2015), 26 (2016) and 30 (2018).

Contributions should be thematically and methodologically related to one of the following areas of research:

1. While indeed some practices have already been studied in other disciplines (literary studies, semiotics, cultural studies, etc.), the focus will be here on Translation Studies. Proposals should belong, both thematically and methodologically, to an epistemological tradition in Translation Studies that provides tools to identify the specific nature of translation, while keeping in mind its intrinsically interdisciplinary dimension. Indeed, since some semiotic devices (for instance, can or should a tune or an image be translated?) and their interaction (for instance the relationship between text and image or between text and music) are often valued differently in different cultures, all translation will necessarily, to some extent, also be a ‘cultural translation’.

2. We aim at bringing together articles that go beyond case studies and achieve a cohesive whole in which several artistic disciplines are addressed and general hypotheses examined. We will also raise the question whether
there are challenges or translation techniques that apply to all artistic practices under scrutiny. Is it for instance possible to translate independently the various semiotic devices that concur in a work? How can translators ‘distribute’ (the translation of) those devices in the translation process itself? Should the ‘distribution’ in the target text be ‘equivalent’ to what it is in the source text? How can such an equivalence be defined? Can we talk here of a ‘compensation’ strategy? Finally, does the translation of plurisemiotic works
bring up some exceptional feature in translators’ activity, or does the very complexity of these works provide an ideal research object to illustrate some fundamental principles in any translation activity?

3. In this respect the part played by translators is essential. Since their translation must simultaneously take into account several semiotic systems, sometimes at the very moment when the practice occurs on stage, their
position is significantly changed / revalued. Indeed, the overlapping of technological developments over the second half of the twentieth century with the recognition and ever greater visibility of translators has extended the field in which the latter can perform their art. In Translation Studies too this new freedom has been recognized and studied since a prescriptive research tradition has yielded to descriptive approaches that do not only focus on
equivalence, but are also interested in the translators’ creative role. In this respect the study of plurisemiotic works will make it possible to better define the limits and the possibilities of translators as co-authors and to shed light on all sorts of collaborations they can develop (with directors, musicians, actors, etc.). The reception of works which include some form of translation can also be examined, notably from the perspective of co-construction of meaning by audiences and translators.

Contributions can be written in French or English and must not be over 7,000 words (footnotes and bibliographies included).

Publication schedule:
– Proposals (500-word abstract + biographical notice) must be sent by 1 February 2019 to the two guest editors: Francis Mus (francis.mus@uliege.be) and Sarah Neelsen (sarah.neelsen@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr)
– Full articles must be sent by 25 August 2019. The journal’s style sheet can be downloaded at www.jostrans.org/style.php

Full text in English: CFP_JosTrans 35_EN_DEF

Description en français : CFP_JosTrans 35_FR_DEF

Université catholique de Louvain, 22-24 May 2019

Introduced in Cultural History in the late 1980s to cover the dead angles of comparative studies, the notion of cultural transfer refers to diverse phenomena of circulation, transformation and reinterpretation of cultural and textual goods across geo-cultural areas. As a research method intended to override national  rameworks, Cultural Transfer Studies have inspired an increasing amount of interdisciplinary work in various fields such as Literary Studies (e.g., Lüsebrink 2008, Roland 2016), Translation Studies (e.g., Göpferich 2007, Roig-Sanz & Meylaerts 2018), or Cultural and Art History (e.g., Espagne 2013, Middell 2014). Beyond the sole idea of displacement between a source and a target culture, cultural transfers aim to do justice to the heterogeneity of each cultural zone and to the logics of intersection and hybridity by identifying enclaves, networks and vectors of exchanges. Inspired by the promises of  entangled history’/’Verflechtungsgeschichte’ (Werner & Zimmerman 2003) – which takes into account the reciprocity and multidirectionality of (re-)transfers –, recent studies have investigated the diversity, intertwining and non-linearity of a broad spectrum of transfer practices, including translations, thus giving voice to mediating activities and agencies largely ignored so far (e.g., D’hulst 2012).

Despite its conceptual relevance and the proliferation of case studies on mediators and border crossing phenomena, Transfer Studies seem to have reached a
turning point. On the one hand and as already pointed out by Werner and Zimmerman (2003), even entangled objects, entities and practices do not escape pre-established categorizations and the essentialist pitfalls they entail. On the other hand, the insistence on coincidence and the methodological flattening out of any pre-existing borders, sometimes at the expense of historicity, risk to precipitate the methodological framework toward unproductive relativism. As a result, and because of a certain lack of consensus among theorists (Joyeux 2003), the added value and the merits of Transfers vis-à-vis related concepts in e.g. Postcolonial Studies, Translation Studies, transnational historiography or transcultural studies have been questioned. What is the specificity of cultural transfers? Can it be thought outside the West European context? Can the notion of transfer help us to overcome disciplinary, national and linguistic borders? Or does it reaffirm them? How should we apprehend the (non-)linearity and asymmetry of transfer processes over various spaces and times? Is it possible to measure the impact of transfers and (how) can we evaluate their relative ‘success’? Facing these questions and paradoxes, this conference would like to (re)think the viability of the concept of cultural transfer, its current and future challenges as well as its tools, objectives and epistemological framework(s) in an interdisciplinary perspective. The main issues we would like to discuss are related, but not limited, to four topics: (1) linearity, (2) borders/boundaries, (3) competing/connected concepts and (4) impact/success.

1) (Non-)Linearity. Transfer is a continuous process involving various moving sources and targets, such as institutions, languages, cultures, agents. How can we adequately apprehend them across time within or outside the reductionist source-target binarity, with its hierarchical and often too unidirectional frames?

2) Borders/Boundaries. Do transfers and translations create (Pym 1998), enforce (Leerssen 2014) and/or surpass borders? What is the impact of the researcher’s position on the way he/she conceives boundaries?

3) Competing/Connected concepts. Transfer is an omnipresent cultural phenomenon linked to concepts from other disciplines (e.g. hybridity, métissage,
in-betweenness, transculturality, pluriculturality, translation, networks, third space, etc.). Do these related concepts go beyond purely conceptual discrepancies, and if so, can concepts from other disciplines bring insight to Transfer Studies, and vice versa?

4) Impact/success. (How) can we evaluate the function(s), impact and success of transfer processes over time? What can we learn from failed transfers? What are the consequences of misunderstandings and how to deal with them? How and when do researchers define a transfer as ‘successful’ or not?

We invite speakers to submit abstracts of maximum 200 words, methodologically and/or theoretically motivated. The conference languages will be English and French. Please send your abstract and short bio-bibliographical note to both Julie.crombois@uclouvain.be and elies.smeyers@uclouvain.be before 30 October 2018.

Confirmed keynotes/ conférenciers confirmés
– Elke Brems (KU Leuven)
– Diana Roig-Sanz (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

Organizing committee/ comité d’organisation
– Julie Crombois (FNRS, UC Louvain)
– Dirk Delabastita (U Namur)
– Maud Gonne (FNRS, U Namur/UC Louvain)
– Hubert Roland (FNRS, UC Louvain)
– Elies Smeyers (FNRS, UC Louvain/U Gent)
– Stéphanie Vanasten (UC Louvain)

Scientific committee/ comité scientifique
– Marnix Beyen (U Antwerpen)
– Lieven D’hulst (KU Leuven)
– Jaap Grave (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
– Joep Leerssen (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
– Reine Meylaerts (KU Leuven)
– Lut Missinne (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
– Helga Mitterbauer (ULB)
– Francis Mus (U Liège)
– Arvi Sepp (VUB/U Antwerpen)

This volume offers a rich overview of research in the field of translation conducted by scholars from different countries working with the English-French language pair. Creativity is looked at from a cross-cultural perspective, taking into account many diverse aspects and angles, which involve different processes and actors. Divided into two subsections and accompanied by a double preface in English as well as by a foreword and an introduction in both languages, the book is the result of demanding editing work.

More info : http://www.aracneeditrice.it/index.php/pubblicazione.html?item=9788825509601