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From 29 Sept to 1 Oct 2021, the International HHU Summer School "Translation, Transnation: European Cultures of Translation" will be hosted by the Centre for Translation Studies. Credit points can be acquired by registering for the event in the LSF. Late registration for the seminars is still possible!

The interdisciplinary International Summer School “Translation, Transnation: European Cultures of Translation” focuses on the complex and conflictual interfaces between translation and transnation within Europe. It centres on the critical and historical analysis of Europe as a pluralized and heterogeneous culture of translation, i.e., a culture that is constituted in and through the translation of texts, media, languages and respective knowledge. While the centrality of translation may be evident in our current, globalized and racialized age, a historical perspective that considers the multidirectional translation strategies employed in the contexts of, e.g., colonialism, voyages of exploration and intellectual networks is equally important.

The Summer School is particularly interested in the transformative and innovative functions of translation, understood as a thoroughly political practice that opens up a transcultural contact zone. Translation is always concerned with the negotiation of otherness. Frequently, these negotiations take place in contexts that are marked by an imbalance of power between languages and cultures. These imbalances inevitably shape the ways in which linguistic and cultural otherness can be experienced. We consider how translations affect cultural innovation, social change and transcultural connection across Europe and how best to inquire into the interfaces between translation and activism.

One of the aims of the Summer School is to embed Europe within a polycentric network of translational exchange and frame the continent as a transnational space of knowledge and communication. An interdisciplinary approach to the intersections of ‘translation’ and ‘transnation’ will reveal the continuing significance of the nation-​state, while also transcending its (multifarious) frontiers to challenge static notions of identity – of nations, but also of so-​called ‘Fortress Europe’.

We invite doctoral and MA students to engage in our debates about a wide spectrum of literary and scientific texts that are circulated transnationally and considered nodal points of exchange.

More information can be found here.