CfP: Routledge Handbook of Translation and Activism
Rebecca Gould (University of Birmingham) and Kayvan Tahmasebian are seeking additional contributions to the Routledge Handbook of Translation and Activism. Confirmed contributions range across the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Although all regional foci are welcome, we particularly welcome contributions focusing on Central Asia, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and the Americas. In addition to translation studies and literary studies, we welcome contributions from anthropology, political science, and law; our focus is on translation in the broadest sense, and includes oral interpretation. Contributions from scholars, translators, writers, and creative practitioners are encouraged. We are particularly eager for contributions on political theory (Marx, Gramsci, Walter Benjamin, Fanon) in relation to translation and activism, as well as those addressing the following themes:
* Translators as activists
* Translators’ contributions to activism across multilingual divides
* Translating activist and political texts
* Translators as interpreters for refugees and in other immigration contexts
* Translation and political change in premodern, modern, and postmodern contexts (including the ‘Abbasid translation movement, the Mughal translation movement, the Soviet construction of world literature, etc.)
* Life-stories and insights from your experiences and struggles as a translator
* Manifestos for enabling activist agendas and social transformation within translation as a profession and translation studies as an academic discipline
* Case studies that reveal the relation between aesthetics and politics in a translational context
* Translation and revolution (in Cuba, the Soviet Union, Iran, Egypt, etc.; see the work of Mona Baker, Translating Dissent)
* Translation and Eurocentrism/overcoming racism/class-based prejudice and other social hierarchies.
* Other themes inspired by your reflections on translating and your work and life as a translator and scholar of texts in languages other than your native tongue.
Chapters (6000-8000 words) will ideally be completed by 2018 or early 2019 (and then entered into the peer-review process), with abstracts due during the summer of 2018. Please write to globalliterarytheory@gmail.com if you are interested in contributing. Although we will consider all proposals until the end of September please contact us as soon as you decide you are interested in contributing in order to discuss the focus of your contribution and to avoid overlap.