Call for Papers to the 6th Asian Translation Traditions Conference

Asia has been the site of the migration of peoples, texts, and cultures since pre-modern times. These flows have came largely from the “mother” civilizations of the Arabic, Indian, and Chinese peoples and, in the modern and the transmaritime periods, from the West. Yet the movements have also come from “within.” Intra-regionally, people and texts have navigated on the borderless seascapes of Asia; and within borders, especially in Southeast Asia, center and periphery have been defined in terms of river and hill cultures. In recent times, flows have been transmedial. The paradox of Asia, as of other regions, is that it is both bordered and borderless. It is, but it is not still. It is a reality in translation.

Given this context, the conference focuses on the translation of texts (but also their mistranslations or untranslatability, Rafael 2013), the migrations and diffusions of texts, and the discourses on translation and translational exchange in Asia. It will include “real” translations between discrete cultures and different semiotic systems (as classified by Roman Jacobson in 1959), but its larger rubric is cultural translation, in the sense that Clifford (1986, 1988) used it, encompassing the development of multiple and multilayered identities in the crossing or transgressing of borders in both physical and conceptual spaces.

The rationale for the ATT series is to challenge the Eurocentric emphasis of Translation Studies, which is largely due to the “unavailability of reliable data and systematic analysis of translation activities in non-European cultures” (Hung and Wakabayashi 2005). The ATT series was initiated by Professor Eva Hung of Hong Kong in 2002. A small but successful workshop was held in London that same year, followed by well-attended international conferences in India, Turkey, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. It is hoped that ATT6 will lead to theorizing on translation and developing methodologies on translation arising from the specific historical and contemporary contexts of Asia.

Topics for Papers
These could include, but need not be limited, to the topics below:
Migration as translation; translation as migration
Texts and translations on or by Overseas Contract Workers
Representations/Translations of Asian cultures
Inter- and intra-regional (dis)connections within Asia
Religion and translation
East-West interactions
South Asian connections/diffusions
Southeast Asian connections/diffusions
East Asian connections/diffusions
West Asian connections/diffusions
Arabic connections/diffusions
Translating indigenous cultures
Oralities and translation
Translation and vernacular cultures
Transmodal crossings/transgressions
Translation and creative writing
Translation and performativity
Translation and ritual
Translation and publishing
Pedagogy and translation
Travel and translation
Translation/transglossia
Gender (in)translation
Translation and popular culture, e.g. telenovelas, pop music.

Length of Papers

20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion

Submission of Abstracts

Please e-mail abstracts in English of no more than 250 words to Aileen O. Salonga at asiantranslation6@up.edu.ph on or before April 30, 2014. Abstracts should be in Word format and should be sent as an attachment. The following information should be included in the body of your email:
author’s full name
author’s e-mail address and postal address
institutional affiliation and address
phone number (home); phone number (office)

Participants will have the option to submit a second version of their abstract in a language other than English. The presentation itself will be in English, but both versions of the abstract will appear in the collection of abstracts distributed to participants.

Abstracts will be reviewed jointly by the Organizing Committee at the University of the Philippines Diliman and the Steering Committee of the Asian Translation Traditions Conference Series.

Notification of Acceptance of Abstracts

Authors will be notified of the acceptance of their abstracts on or before May 31, 2014