Guest editors

Delfina Isabel Cabrera, Universität zu Köln, Germany

Audrey Canalès, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada

María Constanza Guzmán, York University, Canada

Languages of submission 

Proposals may be submitted in English or French or Spanish. Submissions in other languages may also be considered, subject to confirmation by the editors.

The Archive as a Translational Experience

In her essay “The Archives Moment,” historian Lila Caimari describes the intensification of thought about the archive as a “tectonic movement” that has reshaped the landscape of the humanities over the last three decades (2020, p. 224). This phenomenon reflects a transformative encounter between critical theory and technological innovations, giving rise to what has been known as the “archival turn.” Today, the archive is a key notion and methodological tool in various fields of knowledge and practice, including the humanities and the arts. 

The relationship between archives and translation has given rise to several interdisciplinary studies focusing on various production networks and materialities (Goldchluk & Cabrera, 2020; Guzmán, 2020; Sciarrino & Anokhina, 2018; Hersant, 2020). Our archives, archival practices—including the stories we choose to archive—and the ways in which we view and approach the relationship between translation and the archive are subject to the complex dynamics of narratives, memory, and discourse, to power dynamics, and to the logics of inclusion and exclusion (Guzmán, 2020; Elsadda, 2016/2022). Archives house and activate languages and forms of narrative and discourse, and reveal and render cultural agents and practices. As such, archival research has the potential to put conceptual and disciplinary commonplaces of the field at “risk,” in Anne Dufourmantelle’s sense of opening up an unknown space and facilitating the emergence of the unprecedented and the unexpected. This involves the researchers’ own experiences with archive spaces, languages, and materials, and reveals the archive as a translational experience.

Our relationship with new reproductive and disseminative possibilities for documents and their impact are still being investigated, and inequalities related to the digitization of collections and their accessibility, including geopolitical ones, are continuously revealed. For instance, materials from the Global South are frequently underrepresented online, causing many researchers to focus on collections preserved and digitized by Global North archives with established digital infrastructure. This asymmetry and related needs and demand for access present a valuable opportunity to rethink the representation and inclusion of global heritage and to address disparities in access across borders and economies. 

For this issue on “The archive as a translational experience,” we welcome papers on these and related themes, and drawing from diverse geographical and disciplinary perspectives. Possible lines of inquiry include, but are not limited to:

• How do researchers, translators, activists and artists experience the archive as a translational encounter, and which forms of knowledge emerge from that experience?

• How does translation operate within archival practices—not only as linguistic transfer but also as a process of mediation, interpretation, and transformation?

• What happens when archives resist translation—through language, format, affect, or access?

• How do questions of power, agency, and authorship manifest in the translation of archival materials or in the creation of new archives?

• What ethical, political, or affective concerns arise when our experiences of the archive involve others’ voices, languages, and memories?

• How might experiences of translation in the archive differ across geopolitical, linguistic, or disciplinary contexts?

• How does digitization transform our embodied or emotional relationship to archival work?

• How do contemporary art, literature, or performance practices use translation to intervene in or activate archival materials?

• What forms of collaboration or co-creation emerge when translators, archivists, and communities engage collectively in shaping or reinterpreting archival materials?

Timeline

Deadline for submission of synopses (1000 words) and bionotes (100 words): 01 April 2026

Selected contributors notified of acceptance of synopsis: 01 July 2026

Deadline for submission of full contributions: 01 October 2026

Confirmation of provisional acceptance of contributions: 01 December 2026

Confirmation of full acceptance of contributions: 01 March 2027

Deadline for submission of translation(s): 10 July 2027

Publication date: 30 November 2027

Contact and submission

Guest editors: translationalexperience@gmail.com

About Encounters in translation

Encounters in translation is an interdisciplinary, Diamond Open Access (free of charge to authors and readers) and double-blind peer-reviewed journal. It also operates an open, multilingual and community-supported translation policy. By hosting and publishing this special issue, Encounters hopes to attract scholars who adopt a resolutely transdisciplinary approach, and who draw on insights from multiple fields to illuminate the multifaceted and translational nature of archives. For more information, see our Editorial policy and the website section: How to support us and join us.

References Cited

Anokhina, O., & Sciarrino, E. (2018). Plurilinguisme littéraire: De la théorie à la genèse. Genesis. Manuscrits – Recherche – Invention, 46. Caimari, L. (2020). El momento archivos/The archives moment. Población & Sociedad, 27(2), 222–233.

Dufourmantelle, A. (2011). Éloge du risque. Payot & Rivages.

Elsadda, H. (2016). An archive of hope: Translating memories of revolution. In M. Baker (Ed.), Translating dissent: Voices from and with the Egyptian Revolution (pp. 148–160). Routledge. (Reprinted in S. Deane-Cox & A. Spiessens (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of translation and memory, pp. 315–324, Routledge, 2022)

Goldchluk, G., & Cabrera, D. (2020). Entre le don et la traduction: Formes de la critique génétique en Argentine. Continents manuscrits, 14. https://doi.org/10.4000/coma.5165

Guzmán, M. C. (2020). (re)Visiting the translator’s archive: Toward a genealogy of translation in the Americas. Palimpsestes, 34, 45–58.

Hersant, P. (Ed.). (2020). Dans l’archive des traducteurs [Special issue]. Palimpsestes, 34.

A PDF of this call is available below in English, French and Spanish.