Graduate Student Conference on Translation Studies

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Loredana Polezzi, Stony Brook University

The art of translation, as Edouard Glissant reminds us, involves “the practice of trace, which, as against systematic thought, points the way to the uncertain, the threatened, which come together and strengthen us.” The 2024 Graduate Student Conference on Translation Studies at UMass Amherst seeks to explore the multifaceted and multidisciplinary nature of translation and the traces it preserves, generates, and transforms: from printed words to digital bytes, from soundwaves to various forms of artistic expression. As Translation Studies scholar Loredana Polezzi eloquently asks, shall we build “a model of translation based not on perfect equivalence, substitution and erasure but on trace and co- presence, on the connectedness between present and past, between foreign and same”? In what ways can we think of translation not as the erasure of difference, but rather as a way “to keep its trace and to keep it as trace”?

This year, we welcome abstracts and panel proposals that address the theme of translation and/as trace, pertaining to any subfield of translation and interpreting studies. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

● Co-presence and traces in literary translation
● Translation traces in multimodal and multisemiotic contexts
● Cultural imprints and historical impacts of translators and interpreters
● Collaborative translation and the meshwork of translation traces
● Translation as a mode of reconstituting lost histories and extirpated cultures
● Translation pedagogy and the multilingual classroom
● Language access and interpreting for minoritized groups
● Translating at the intersection of race, class, and sexuality
● Experimental translation involving non-human mediation, mistranslation, unconventional languages and/or media

In addition to the keynote address and the panels, conference activities will include translation workshops, multilingual literary reading, and social gatherings.