The CHCI-Mellon Global Humanities Institute on “Translation’s Theoretical Issues, Practical Densities: Violence, Memory, and the Untranslatable” is a partnership formed by four university-centers from four different continents: the Interdisciplinary Center of Studies in Philosophy, Arts, and Humanities (University of Chile), Humanities Commons (University of California Irvine), the Centre for Humanities Research (Western Cape University), and Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation at The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (Oxford University).

The aim of this Global Humanities Institute is to establish an academic exchange articulated on the basis of a multidimensional concept of translation. It will privilege an interdisciplinary approach articulating philosophical, literary and artistic perspectives in order to explore how the task of translation, with its specific problems and performances, becomes a model to rethink urgent and enduring questions in the realms of epistemology (the constitution of representation, the passage of meaning), ethics (responsibility, violence, hospitality), history (temporal economy, memory), and politics (status of the subject, foundation of the community). (See “Lines of Research and Topics”).

As part of the Global Humanities Institute on Challenges of Translation, we will organize a two-week intensive school, which will take place in Santiago, Chile, between July 15-26, 2019. Intended to foster a multiregional and multidisciplinary dialogue, the school expects to have a wide-range of representation from different cultural backgrounds and epistemological strategies. We encourage the application of advanced graduate students and postdocs from the whole scope of the humanities, including philosophy, literature, translation studies, cultural studies, gender studies, history, law, theory of art, anthropology, and other disciplines able to tackle the multidimensional sphere of translation challenges in transdisciplinary collaboration.

The school will be delivered through a range of keynote speeches by four invited scholars, working sessions conducted by the twenty-six active participants in different forms of collaboration (seminars, workshops, etc.), as well as artistic activities. The common working language will be English; when needed, there will be simultaneous translation from Spanish, French or other languages. Active participants, who are expected to attend all instances of the school, include twenty members from the four associated centers/universities and six graduates/postdocs to be selected amid the applicants to this call.

Please note that applicants must be affiliated with a CHCI member-organization or a university hosting a CHCI member-organization (see CHCI directory).

Applicants eligible for this call include early career scholars (PhD completed in 2013 or later), as well as advanced PhD students.
The Global Humanities Institute on “Challenges of Translation” will pay the expenses of the participants selected from this call, including travel, accommodation, and main meals. (Travel should be booked and paid by each participant and will be reimbursed upon completion of the school. If you are unable to access funds for this, please let us know and we will arrange alternative ways of booking your travel).

The call is now closed. Decisions will be communicated by early December 2018.

More information on the Institute available here.