36.2147, Confs: International Travelling Conference 2026: "Who Are We Translating For? Who Is Translating?" (Belgium)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2147. Mon Jul 14 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.2147, Confs: International Travelling Conference 2026: "Who Are We Translating For? Who Is Translating?" (Belgium)

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Date: 12-Jul-2025
From: Isa Hendrikx [isa.hendrikx at uliege.be]
Subject: International Travelling Conference 2026: "Who Are We Translating For? Who Is Translating?"


International Travelling Conference 2026: "Who Are We Translating For?
Who Is Translating?"
Short Title: Traductologie de plein champ 10

Date: 13-Mar-2026 - 13-May-2026
Location: Liège, Belgium
Meeting URL:
https://www.cirti.uliege.be/cms/c_12730794/fr/cirti-traductologie-de-plein-champ

Linguistic Field(s): Translation

Submission Deadline: 15-Sep-2025

Is it the end of translation? Should we bid farewell to universality?
Our era is not only one of artificial intelligence (AI); it is also
marked by the fragmentation of societies, political entities,
professions (particularly translation) and audiences. Translation and
translation training are at the heart of these developments, which
affect professionals, teachers, students, and translation audiences
alike. We propose to examine how a narrower focus on a specific
audience can lead to different translations. Indeed, while the shift
from the widespread distribution of audiovisual products
(broadcasting) to targeted distribution (narrowcasting) has raised a
whole series of questions that go far beyond the field of marketing,
the orientation of translation towards a specific audience raises
questions a bout the practices, strategies, professional profiles, and
ethical, deontological, and ideological issues of translation.
All of these changes are underpinned by two related questions:
1) Who are we translating for?
Communication, especially when it is multilingual, is becoming
increasingly calibrated: it is multiplying to target specifc
audiences, often driven by tools that rely on the use of big data, for
better—reaching audiences that were previously marginalized or even
ignored, with implications for citizenship and inclusivity— or for the
worse—sometimes transnational and multilingual influence campaigns
designed to sway political or societal choices, with democratic and
civic implications.
2) Who is translating ?
Translation graduates; specialized audiences; members of the same
social group with shared identities; IT professionals; conversational
agents... Computerization, as we know, has led to a fragmentation of
professional translation. Its most recent expression, at the perhaps
precarious time when we are launching this call for papers, will it
have the opposite effect, given that it is a general-purpose
technology, as indicated by the acronym GPT (General Purpose
Technology), even if the iconic ChatGPT originally owes the second
part of its name to (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer)?
The organizing committee of this international conference (Belgium,
France, Poland, Quebec, Switzerland) certainly does not believe that
human translation will disappear; however, believing is not enough: we
must argue, we must demonstrate, we must organize ourselves to weigh
in and show the place of human translation in today's world. Has the
audience for translation changed? If so, how? How does accessibility
shape translation practices and broaden the very concept of
translation? How and why is the identity of the translator now taking
center stage? Can everything be translated, and for everyone? What are
the ethical, professional, environmental, and democratic issues at
stake in translation in the age of AI? How can we ensure that these
issues are visible in the public and private sectors? What role does
human translation still play, and what role should machine translation
play in various areas of public life (justice, hospitals, politics,
etc.)? How can training programs anticipate these developments?
We welcome proposals addressing, but not limited to, the topics listed
below, from three perspectives corresponding to the three meeting
places, namely (1) interactions between translations, translators, and
contemporary audiences (University of Wrocław); (2) translation and
community (University of Sherbrooke); and (3) translation and
questions of ethics and professional conduct (University of Liège):
 - Translation, dissemination, and targeted broadcasting (or
narrowcasting)
 - Translation and editing for specific audiences
 - The role of translation in the community (public service, justice,
accessibility)
 - Translation professions: what future for general or specialized
translation?
 - Contemporary audiences for translation
 - Ethical, professional and democratic issues in translation in the
age of AI
 - Defining contemporary universals for translation
This conference is part of the Traductologie de plein champ series,
which began in 2007 at Paris Diderot University (now Paris Cité
University). This will be the tenth edition. Like previous editions,
it aims to bring together translation scholars, translation teachers,
professionals, and students around topics of common interest. As in
previous editions, the conference will take place in three locations
on three different dates, in person:
Wrocław (Poland), March 13 and 14, 2026
Sherbrooke (Quebec), April 16 and 17, 2026
Liège (Belgium), May 12 and 13, 2026.
The conference will be followed by three publications in peer-reviewed
journals: Parallèles (University of Geneva, late 2026); Romanica
Wratislaviensia and Anglica Wratislaviensia (University of Wrocław,
2028).
Schedule
Proposals in French or English, the languages of the conference,
should be sent before Sept. 15, 2025 to
traducto.de.plein.champ at gmail.com.
They should include:
 - an abstract of approximately 300 words;
 - a short bibliography (3 to 5 references maximum);
 - a biography (100 words).
Response to contributors: October 10, 2025
Dates of the three parts of the conference:
Wrocław: March 13-14, 2026
Sherbrooke : April 16-17, 2026
Liège: May 12-13, 2026
For full list of scientific comittee members, please see the
conference website.
For any other questions, please email us at:
traducto.de.plein.champ at gmail.com



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