IJoC Publishes Special Section on “Translating in the 21st Century”

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IJoC Publishes Special Section on “Translating in the 21st Century”

Translations have historically played a central role in the dissemination of and access to knowledge, culture, arts, and sciences across national and cultural borders. While globalization processes have generated an international milieu where English is increasingly the lingua franca of communication in popular culture and academic conversations alike, distances and differences among cultures still remain, and translations retain a key presence and function in international communication flows.

Babel and Globalization: Translating in the 21st Century, guest-edited by Paolo Sigismondi, University of Southern California, is the latest Special Section of IJoC. It breaks new ground — delving into the craft and the challenges of translating and the evolving role of the translator in the 21st-century international communication landscape shaped by the evolution of digital technologies within the unfolding phenomena of globalization. Whereas economic and technological forces appear to bring about an increasing invisibility of translators, this collection of work focuses instead on the centrality of their role as essential connectors in a multicultural and multilayered global landscape.

The interdisciplinary approach of this publication has drawn 14 contributions — 12 original articles, a book review, and the editorial introduction — from international scholars at the intersection of diverse fields of academic inquiry, in particular, communication and translation studies. This Special Section aims to provoke new thinking and perspectives on translations while bridging existing distances among diverse theoretical standpoints and academic backgrounds. [Click on the article title for direct link to the paper.]

Babel and Globalization: Translating in the 21st Century — Introduction
Paolo Sigismondi

Communication Studies Without Frontiers? Translation and Cosmopolitanism Across Academic Cultures
Silvio Waisbord

Rapid and Radical Changes in Translation and Translation Studies
Yves Gambier

Translation’s Histories and Digital Futures
Karin Littau

Massively Open Translation: Unpacking the Relationship Between Technology and Translation in the 21st Century
Minako O’Hagan

The Impact of Translation Technologies on the Process and Product of Translation
Stephen Doherty

Translators as Adaptive Experts in a Flat World: From Globalization 1.0 to Globalization 4.0?
Vanessa Enriquez Raido

“The Task of the Translator”: Comparing the Views of the Client and the Translator
Hanna Risku, Christina Pein-Weber, Jelena Milosevic

The Challenges and Opportunities of Legal Translation and Translator Training in the 21st Century
Catherine Way

Cultural Translators of Communication Studies in Greater China
Jack Linchuan Qiu

Synchronization Techniques in Multilingual Fiction: Voiced-Over Films in Poland
Katarzyna Sepielak

The Stimulating Challenges of Translating Contemporary German Swiss Poetry
Lucia Salvato