The Łódź-ZHAW Duo Colloquium on Translation and Meaning

2nd session: ZHAW, Winterthur, Switzerland, 2-4 September 2021
The Łódź-ZHAW Duo Colloquium on Translation and Meaning is a successor to the internationally acclaimed event with the same concept, organised in Maastricht and Łódź from 1990 to 2015.
The ZHAW session takes place from 2 to 4 September 2021 in Winterthur and approaches applied aspects of the theme Contextuality in Translation and Interpreting. The session held online in Łódź from 3 to 5 December 2020 focused on theoretical aspects (see http://www.duo.uni.lodz.pl/). We are planning to stage a full on-site session in Winterthur.
Call for papers
The ZHAW session of the Łódź-ZHAW Duo Colloquium has an applied orientation to this year's central theme Contextuality in Translation and Interpreting. For full details, see the calls for papers in English and German (links below).
Participants who would like to give a paper should upload their abstracts in pdf format by using the Submit button. The full submission must contain:
- the title of the paper
- the name(s) of the author(s)
- the full name(s) and address(es) of the affiliation(s)/institute(s) of the author(s), including e-mail address
- the sub-theme(s) the abstract relates to (see list of sub-themes in the call for papers)
- a 250-300 word abstract (excluding references)
- a list of references (max. 5)
Abstracts and presentations can be in English or German. A selection of papers based on presentations given at the Duo Colloquium 2020/2021 will be published as a volume by Peter Lang.
Download Call for Papers
Dates, fee and registration
Important dates
- 30 April 2021: deadline for submission of abstracts
- 31 May 2021: notification of acceptance of abstracts
- 30 June 2021: deadline for early-bird registration (for all presenters)
- 15 July 2021: publication of programme (preliminary version)
- 8 August 2021: deadline for regular registration
- 2-4 September 2021: Duo Colloquium session at ZHAW in Winterthur
Conference fee (on-site)
Early-bird registration and presenters’ registration (by 30 June 2021): CHF 300
Regular registration (by 8 August 2021): CHF 350
IUED Alumni and DÜV members: CHF 250
External students (except for Łódź and ZHAW students): CHF 150
Łódź and ZHAW students as well as IUED staff: please contact duocolloquium.iued@zhaw.ch for details
Please note that student and DÜV member registration requires written confirmation of your status from your institution/organisation.
Your registration is only valid if you pay the correct conference fee before the conference. It is not possible to pay at the venue.
The fee covers:
- participation in the conference
- conference materials
- refreshments during coffee breaks
- lunch served at the conference venue
- evening reception on the second day of the conference
- technical and administrative assistance during the conference.
Please note that the fee does not cover accommodation. Please consult the section Venue and travel information for hotel suggestions and further information on the venue.
Registration
Presenters have to register by 30 June 2021 in order to ensure their place on the programme. All other participants can register by 30 June 2021 to be eligible for the early-bird fee or by 8 August 2021 for the regular fee. The following means of payment are accepted: credit card, PayPal and bank transfer. Please click the Register button to sign up for the conference, pay the fee and upload the written confirmation of your status from your institution/organisation (only necessary for students and DÜV members).
Register
(available as of 1 June 2021)
Keynote speakers
Piotr Cap, University of Łódź

Issues in cross-cultural translation of linguistic research: translating discourse space models into Persian as a case in point
Translated works of academic research are commonly believed to be examples of translator’s faithfulness and attachment to literality of the source text. In my talk, I argue that this belief does not always survive the test of cross-cultural translations, from English into languages other than those of the Western geographical and scholarly space. Focusing on published (by IranLogos) translations of English-language research in linguistics into Persian, I discuss the most frequent problems and their possible reasons. Specifically, I explore some problematic issues emerging from recent translations of the work on discourse space models within the rapidly expanding school of Critical Discourse Studies (CDS). The analysis shows that the translators – Persian linguists – often interpret the source texts in accordance with culturally motivated pre-conceptions underlying their own original research. As a result, a whole new meaning is given to many core ideas in discourse space studies, such as the Self-Other positioning of entities or proximization. For the reader, this seriously affects the overall understanding of CDS, because its main mission to demystify the negatively charged coercive operations is much less elucidated.
Piotr Cap is professor of linguistics and head of the Department of Pragmatics at the University of Łódź, Poland. His interests are in pragmatics, critical discourse studies and political linguistics. His books include “Proximization: The Pragmatics of Symbolic Distance Crossing” (Benjamins, 2013) and “The Language of Fear: Communicating Threat in Public Discourse” (Palgrave, 2017). He is managing editor of “International Review of Pragmatics” and regular contributor to journals in the field, such as the “Journal of Pragmatics, Discourse & Society” and “Critical Discourse Studies”.
Sharon O’Brien, Dublin City University

Translation as a risk reduction and resilience building tool in crisis contexts
When we think about crises, or large-scale disasters, we often envision sudden-onset, large-scale, highly disruptive events such as an earthquake or a tsunami. We understand that timely and accurate communication is of crucial importance in the hours and days after such events. Increasingly, disaster responders also understand that translation (including interpreting) plays a very important role in the immediate response phase. The field of disaster management, however, recognises that there are four stages in the disaster cycle (Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery). More and more in the field of disaster risk reduction and management, the focus is on the ‘prevention' and ‘preparedness' stages, which clearly present different communication contexts compared with the ‘response' stage. What is the role of translation, then, in the broader context of disaster management? How well recognised is translation in stages other than ‘response’? This talk will focus on the potential for translation as a risk reduction and resilience building tool for crisis contexts.
Sharon O’Brien is Professor of Translation Studies at the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies in Dublin City University. She is co-ordinator of the H2020-funded International Network in Crisis Translation and a funded investigator in Science Foundation Ireland’s ADAPT Research Centre and Centre for Research Training in Digitally-Enhanced Reality (D-Real).
Aline Remael, University of Antwerp

Breaking down the context of emerging practices in AVT/Media Accessibility
What is the impact of contexts on the quickly changing and diversifying practices of audiovisual translation and media accessibility? How do contexts, users, producers and technology interact? Which actants co-determine the outcome of these interactions and what light can the analysis of such interactions throw on recent developments in some concrete instances of the two related fields? How might the very concept of “context” be undermined? With the growing focus on universal design and on disability as a social rather than a physical or medical given, the complexity of providing interlingual, intralingual and intersensorial access to all is becoming increasingly complex. How can it be conceptualized? How encompassing can the very concept of translation be? These and related questions will be the focus of this talk.
Prof. Em. Aline Remael was Department Chair and Professor of Translation Theory, Interpreting and Audiovisual Translation at the Department of Applied Linguistics/Translation and Interpreting at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, until 2019. She is a founding member of OPEN, the faculty’s Expertise Centre for Accessible Media and Culture. Her main research interests and publications are in AVT/media accessibility, including audio description (AD), live subtitling with speech recognition and translation theory. In 2018, she received the ESIST Jan Ivarsson Award for invaluable services to the field of audiovisual translation.
Programme
A preliminary version of the detailed programme will be available by 15 July 2021.
Venue and travel information
Venue
For information regarding the venue, please visit: https://www.zhaw.ch/en/linguistics/about-us/venue-and-travel-information/.
Entry requirements for Switzerland
Please make sure to check whether you need a visa. Further information can be found here: https://www.zhaw.ch/en/linguistics/about-us/venue-and-travel-information/. Depending on your citizenship, you might also need a letter of invitation. If this applies to you, please contact us at duocolloquium.iued@zhaw.ch.
Hotel rooms
As there is only a limited number of hotels in Winterthur, we have temporarily reserved enough single rooms at a reduced rate in the hotels in the list Conference hotels in Winterthur (PDF 119,6 KB). We would ask you to book your hotel room as early as possible, but by 4 July 2021 at the very latest. If your preferred hotel is already fully booked, please choose another one from the list. Please mention the following code when booking your room to receive the reduced rates: Duo Colloquium ZHAW. Please also mention the time of your arrival. As some of you might wish to share a room, we have also reserved a limited number of double rooms in the following hotels: Hotel Krone, Hotel Wartmann and Park Hotel.
Download list of hotels with special conference rates
Organising committee and contact
Organising committee
Gary Massey (Chair)
Michaela Albl-Mikasa
Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow
Marina Bösiger
Romina Schaub-Torsello
Katrin Andermatt
Contact
If you have any questions, please contact duocolloquium.iued@zhaw.ch.
Sponsorship opportunities
The Duo Colloquium provides a forum for academic discussions and international networking of research and practice. With its industry-oriented focus, it is the ideal conference for sponsors to connect with stakeholders in the language professions. Would you like to be one of the Duo Colloquium sponsors? Please download the information here: Sponsoring request (PDF 172,4 KB) or contact us at duocolloquium.iued@zhaw.ch to discuss sponsoring opportunities.