36.2465, Confs: Translation at the Crossroads of Ideologies and Cultures (Lithuania)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2465. Thu Aug 21 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.2465, Confs: Translation at the Crossroads of Ideologies and Cultures (Lithuania)

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Date: 21-Aug-2025
From: Dalia Mankauskienė [dalia.mankauskiene at flf.vu.lt]
Subject: Translation at the Crossroads of Ideologies and Cultures


Translation at the Crossroads of Ideologies and Cultures

Date: 18-Jun-2026 - 20-Jun-2026
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Contact: Dalia Mankauskiene
Contact Email: dalia.mankauskiene at flf.vu.lt
Meeting URL: https://www.vertimas.flf.vu.lt/en/

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis; Ling & Literature;
Text/Corpus Linguistics; Translation

Submission Deadline: 16-Mar-2026

The Department of Translation and Interpretation Studies at the
Faculty of Philology of Vilnius University cordially invites you to
the international conference Translation at the Crossroads of
Ideologies and Cultures to discuss a multilevel role and complex
positionality of translation and translators in changing historical,
social, political, and communicational settings.
Throughout the course of history, translation has been seen as both,
dangerous and necessary. Like two-faced Janus, it has been marking the
very threshold between cultures, serving for opening up to and
blocking the Other (TATOLYTĖ 2024; LEFEVERE 1995 (1990); WOLF 2002).
It has been used and manipulated for various ends, from going through
genuine societal transformations to creating an illusion of
multicultural communication (BASSNETT, LEFEVERE 1998; MASKALIŪNIENĖ,
TATOLYTĖ 2024). This multifaceted role of translation comes into
prominence in times of change and formation, with the call for
balancing between novelty and preservation and the need of
introducing, appeasing or estranging the encountered ideologies and
cultures. Translation as bearing witness is instrumental in times of
catastrophe, and is used as a tool of empowerment by the oppressed,
and of subjugation by the dominant powers (BOASE-BEIER 2021; VAN WYKE
2010). Furthermore, Crises and precarious communicational
circumstances highlight an ethically charged role and embodiment of a
translator as mediator; carrying a certain level of responsibility for
a successful resolution due to holding a competence of bridging
participating parties (CRONIN 2005; O'BRIEN, FEDERICI 2022). Even in
minor communicational day-to-day situations, the role of translation
and translator’s positionality can shed light on larger underlying
processes and underpin socio-political, ecological, and cultural
stands. Therefore, a more detailed study into what part translation
plays in history and in our daily encounters with the Other is
invited.
How does translation as a global activity shape the values we
communicate and what is the “specificity of its impacts in different
locations over time” (CRONIN 2017)? Does it help to break the
stereotypes or does it enforce them? Is it paving the paths to
understanding or does it facilitate ostracising? What is the role of
translation in the formation of nations? How much does translation
influence our policies and legal practises? What is its impact on our
perception of the Other and the world at large? Is a translator always
a willing participant of these processes? How is this role of
translation and translator changing with the growing technology-driven
shift in cultures and societies, if at all?
We invite papers from Translation Studies and Multidisciplinary
research addressing, but not limited to, the following axes of
discussion on the role of translation:
 - Translation in nation formations and cultural transformations
(legal, literary and other modes of translation): Translation in
literary polysystem and canon formation; Translation and legal
practices and policies; Translation in diaspora; Micro historical
perspective on translation;
 - Translation in day-to-day social settings: public discourse and
performativity (periodicals, media, social media); Translation and
(self)censorship; Translation ideology and postcolonial approaches;
 - Eco-translation, translation of the queer and feminist space—the
shift from periphery to the centre of attention;
 - Cultural and other representation in Audiovisual translation;
 - Translation in cultural milieu: visual and stage arts, cinema,
music, pop and sub culture;
 - Translation and Memory studies: translating memory and memory in
translation;
 - Translation/interpreting in borderline situations (translation in
crises and conflicts, translation of catastrophes);
 - Translation/interpretation for refugees, migrants, and ethnic
minorities: Community interpreting and interpreting in situations of
controlled communication; Education for mediation;
 - Translator’s embodiment, agency and actors’ network;
 - MA and AI translation: Biases, shortcomings, responsibilities and
perception of translation.
Following the conference, we will invite submissions for the Special
Issue of the journal Vertimo Studijos / Studies in Translation.
Keynote Speakers:
Prof. dr. Brian James Baer, Kent State University (USA)
Prof. dr. Michael Cronin, Trinity College Dublin, the University of
Dublin (Ireland)
Prof. dr. Federico M. Federici, University College London (United
Kingdom)
Assoc. prof. / Researcher dr. Oleksandr Kalnychenko, V.N. Karazin
Kharkiv National University / Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica
(Ukraine / Slovakia)
Prof. dr. Raquel Lázaro Gutiérrez, University of Alcalá (Spain)
Abstract Submission:
Conference languages are English and Lithuanian. Simultaneous
interpreting to English and Lithuanian will be provided for keynote
speakers’ presentations. The conference will be held on-site.
We invite paper contributions of 30 min in total, 20 min for
presenting and 10 min for discussion.
Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words and biographical
notes of no more than 150 words  in English or Lithuanian by 16
February 2026 using the online abstract submission form: <Abstract
Submission>
Notification of acceptance will be given by 16 March 2026.
Please note there will be a fee of 150 EUR (PhD students` concession
80 EUR) for those who present a paper, and 80 EUR (students’
concession 40 EUR) for those who wish to attend without presenting a
paper.
Should you have any questions related to this call, please feel free
to contact dr. Dalia Mankauskienė on behalf of our organizing
committee: <dalia.mankauskiene at flf.vu.lt>.
For more information, please visit our conference website.
Translation at the Crossroads of Ideologies and Cultures
https://www.flf.vu.lt/en/vsk
References:
BASSNETT, Susan, André LEFEVERE. 1998. Constructing Cultures. Essays
on Literary Translation. Multilingual Matters.
BOASE-BEIER, Jean. 2021. Retelling Catastrophe through Translation.
Narrative Retellings: Stylistic Approaches, ed. by Marina Lambrou.
Bloomsbury Publishing, 129–142.
CRONIN, Michael. 2005. Burning the House Down: Translation in a Global
Setting. Language and Intercultural Communication 5(2), 108–119.
CRONIN, Michael. 2017. Eco-translation: Translation and Ecology in the
Age of Anthropocene. Routledge.
MASKALIŪNIENĖ, Nijolė, Ingrida TATOLYTĖ. 2024. Translation And
Censorship Under Soviet Ideology. Lithuania, 1940–1990. Summary,
transl. by Daina Valentinavičienė. Vertimas ir cenzūra sovietinės
ideologijos sąlygomis. Lietuva, 1940–1990, ed. by Nijolė
Maskaliūnienė, Ingrida Tatolytė. Vilnius University Press, 478–497.
LEFEVERE, André. 1995 (1990). Translation: Its Genealogy in the West.
Translation, History and Culture, ed. by Susan Bassnett, André
Lefevere. Cassell, 14–28.
O’BRIEN, Sharon, Federico M. FEDERICI (eds.). 2022. Translating
Crises. Bloomsbury Publishing.
TATOLYTĖ, Ingrida. 2024. Dviveidis Janas: vertimas tarp atverties ir
užkardymo. Vertimas ir cenzūra sovietinės ideologijos sąlygomis.
Lietuva, 1940–1990, ed. by Nijolė Maskaliūnienė, Ingrida Tatolytė.
Vilnius University Press, 107–162.
VAN WYKE, Ben. 2010. Ethics and Translation. Handbook of Translation
Studies Vol. 1, ed. by Yves Gambier, Luc van Doorslaer. John
Benjamins, 111–115.
WOLF, Michaela. 2002. Censorship as Cultural Blockage: Banned
Literature in the Late Habsburg Monarchy. TTR 15 (2), 45–61.



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