Conference

The conjuncture of globalisation, increased migration and digitisation has created new spaces for communication, social and cultural exchanges and encounters. Both in online and offline environments across the globe, we experience an increase in plurilingualism and multiculturalism. Further, digital technologies have made communication increasingly multimodal as we switch or swipe between images, text, memes, emoticons, sound clips, etc.

In today’s complex societal ecologies where multiple languages and modalities are simultaneously available for communication, it is vital to develop enhanced literacies capable of fostering individual and community agency and engagement for this highly interconnected but fragmented world. The role of translation, between languages (interlingual) and between media (intersemiotic), is central to such an undertaking.

In March 2021, we set up the present Network to investigate interlingual and intersemiotic translation as a method of creation and communication, as a method for learning and teaching, collaboration and participation within multilingual, multicultural and multimodal settings.

At the conference in July 2022 we shared some of the work we conducted within the network alongside contributions from a range of international scholars and practitioners who submitted proposals to our open call for interventions.

We invited anyone with an interest in translation, whether literary, technical, artistic, professional or amateur, to attend the 3 days of talks, presentations, performances and workshops that comprise our conference and join us in the ongoing enquiry into what translation can, or needs to, be and do.