The following call for abstracts may be of interest to list members.

Call for Abstracts

International Workshop ‘Translating Feminism: Beyond the Canon (ca. 1945-1990)’

First Workshop of the Leverhulme Trust funded International Network ‘Translating Feminism: Transfer, Transgression, Transformation (1945-1990)’

University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, 4-5 November 2016

Across the world, feminist thought– broadly defined, and including any debate on the improvement of women’s social status – has been instrumental in allowing women to articulate their experiences of inequality, as well as imagine and demand political and cultural change. This workshop will be dedicated to a variety of feminist texts, authors and debates, across the world in the second half of the 20th Century. Going beyond specific schools of ‘feminist translation’, we propose an inclusive, case study based approach, which asks fresh questions around the actors, sites and practices of translation. We aim to offer new insights, drawn not primarily from texts usually considered part of the feminist canon, but rather from lesser-known, though significant, authors and groups. In considering actors, we will consider not only trained translators, academics and publishers, but also feminist activists and collectives, NGOs, politicians and writers. In analysing practices, we discuss linguistic strategies as well as dissemination. We will aim to identify sites which facilitated and shaped translation, and establish wider geographic and sociological patterns of transmission.

What exactly happens when a politically motivated text is translated, linguistically and culturally? Who were the translators, what were their aims, and for whom did they translate? What kinds of strategies and practices did they employ when adapting a text to locally resonating discourses and politics? How do processes of translation re-shape political programmes and visions of a fairer society? And how do cultural encounters influence self-narration, as central to feminist consciousness and critique?

We propose to re-think translation as a political act and as central to the articulation of political projects. Our case studies ask in what ways the translation process holds transformative and transgressive power, and how the unlocking of ‘other’ worlds creates the possibility of re-inventing the self. Furthermore, we invite authors to critically interrogate the sometimes naïve understandings of cultural globalisation and the transnationally connected post-1945 world, some of which suffer from a teleological bias and point to an inevitability of ever-growing connections, thus failing to investigate tensions and the limits of connectivity.

Possible themes and strands include:

- the global travels of a text

- transnational and transcultural feminist networks

- translation practices by feminist collectives

- transnational lives, travel and translation

- multi-lingual texts

- self-translation

- feminist critiques of translation

- the gendered contexts of translation work

Practical arrangements:

Presenters will have approx. 15 minutes to discuss their paper, and panels will consist of 3-4 papers. The pre-circulation of papers is intended to foster deep engagement with each other’s work. Presenters may be asked to act as discussant for another paper.

The keynote talk remains to be confirmed.

Please include the following in your proposal:

- A 300-word paper abstract

- A 200-word biographical statement with main publications and current affiliation

- State if you are seeking funding, with reference to the following criteria:

Limited funding to cover travel and accommodation is available for researchers working on

temporary contracts, and for academics working outside Europe and North America.

You will be notified by 21 September and will be asked to circulate a draft of your paper by 14 October.

Proposals and any possible questions should be sent to:

Dr Maud Anne Bracke [log in to unmask]

Dr Penelope Morris [log in to unmask]

Dr Emily Ryder [log in to unmask]

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