History and Translation Network

Call for contributions for a forthcoming volume, edited by Lieven D’hulst and Yves Gambier

Title: Large-scale projects in translation and interpreting history: challenges and outlooks

The history of translation and interpreting has reached a mature stage, characterized by heightened self-reflection, the emergence of dedicated book series and journals, as well as special issues of journals targeting a broad audience of historians. This evolution reflects the growing recognition of translation and interpreting as significant areas of study across the biomedical sciences, natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. Another outcome is the growth of large-scale enterprises, such as multi-author overviews, encyclopaedias, collaborative projects and interdisciplinary programs that span transnational areas and different time periods.

Large-scale projects in translation and interpreting history: challenges and outlooks will focus specifically on these large-scale enterprises and aims at the broad range of cultural and social historians, historians of linguistics, science, law and more who have been tasked in the past decade or so with conceiving, carrying out or taking part in one of these enterprises. They are invited to reflect on major challenges and outlooks, of which four stand out:

• Epistemological challenges: Transcultural perspectives that rest on the assumption of comparable understandings, views, and values must contend with a certain degree of incommensurability of discursive practices, concepts, and knowledge systems rooted in diverse languages, worldviews, and rationalities. As translation and interpreting encompass both linguistic and epistemic dimensions, another critical question arises: how to bridge gaps between the metalanguages of past translators and present historians, between observer and participant narratives, and between the historical categories and periodizations crafted by historians across different regions of the globe?
• Challenges of content selection: The scope of translation and interpreting history is virtually limitless, as it can cover all parameters of discourse (texts, processes, agents, places, languages, contexts etc.). However, given the relatively small number of translation and interpreting historians, parameters and topics prioritized in translation and interpreting studies or general history often contribute to shaping the agenda of historians of translation and interpreting. This interdependence may create or sustain  blind spots – unexplored periods, regions, or aspects. How do translation and interpreting historians determine their focus? What do they recognize as blind spots within their field?
• Methodological challenges: Analytical tools designed by descriptive research like the study of processes, products, and agents have long proven their applicability in historical research. The same holds true for general historical issues such as heuristics and data management (from archives to digital tools). However, some commonly used historical tools risk functioning as Procrustean beds imposing frameworks that may not accommodate translational contexts: language-based histories, domain-based histories, and nation-based histories often fail to capture the cross-linguistic, cross-disciplinary, and cross-cultural dimensions of translation and interpreting. Further, as global history emerges as the logical next frontier, what role should – or may – AI play in providing enhanced data analysis, streamlined access to diverse translation sources and new methodologies for cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research?
• Institutional challenges: How do historians foster and navigate concrete interactions with peers from diverse backgrounds and expectations, working across various departments and research institutes? How do they oversee the continuity of projects within long-term programmes? What impact do translation and interpreting histories search to exert and exert effectively on national or comparative histories? Further, managing ongoing projects and programmes demands substantial resources: beyond the general evaluation criteria for “good research”, what do historians identify as the essential conditions for securing successful funding?

The articles should focus specifically on one or more of these challenges and outlooks, drawing on ongoing or recently completed collaborative projects in translation and interpreting history or in social and cultural history with an emphasis on translation.

• Authors will receive a response by April 15, 2025
• Authors submit a first version (English only, 8.000 words) to the editors by September 30, 2025
• Revised versions submitted by January 31, 2026
• Expected publication date: 2026