Conference: Translations and Academies in the Eighteenth Century
Tagung
25.-27. June 2026
Translations and Academies in the Eighteenth Century:
Sociability, Transnational Networks and Knowledge Circulation
Organised by Dr. Giovanni Lista, Fritz Thyssen-Fellow at IZEA
With the support of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and IZEA (Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg)
Over the past two decades, the interdisciplinary field of translation studies has increasingly focused on the historical role of translations as means for the transmission of knowledge and
ideas across cultural spaces, linguistic borders and political entities. Approaching translated texts as independent artefacts embedded in multiple historical contexts has led scholars to
examine how a wide range of factors shaped semantic shifts, linguistic choices or displacements of meanings in the relationship between ‘source’ and ‘target’ works. Moving well beyond the textual dimension, research on cultural translation has engaged with publication practices – such as the editorial and material aspects of a translation –; the authorial identities and agendas of the translators acting as cultural mediators and ideological gatekeepers; the networks of sponsors, distributors and booksellers that affected the commercial trajectory of translated works; and the gendered, imperial and global frameworks within which translators negotiated their activities.
This conference will explore how translation processes intersected with the institutional and performative life of academies and sociétés savantes throughout the long eighteenth century, pursuing a line of inquiry that has so far received only sporadic scholarly attention.
The provisional schedule will be published soon.
Kontakt und weitere Informationen:
Tel.:+49 (0)345 55 21781
izea(at)izea.uni-halle.de