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Translatio

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Pre-modern translation in all its guises.

Translatio invites work showing how key words, concepts, and texts all gather new force – and encounter new obstacles – as they are translated between languages, cultures, and societies. 

Our logo is a hybrid 'T' formed of the Celtic and Arabic-Persian-Turkic letters. The Arabic-Persian-Turkic word 'targama' is a foundational concept across the Middle East, just as translatio and its cognates are in European languages and cultures.

Submit a proposal for Translatio

What are the Translatio editors looking for?

The series investigates translation between languages in relation to other migrations and circulations – of peoples, objects, and practices; images, forms, and media – across the continents and islands of the medieval and early modern world. It treats translation neither as a matter of exclusively interlingual transfer, nor merely as a convenient metaphor, but as the basis – then and now – for a rethinking of the humanities. It tests the boundaries separating the study of medieval and modern languages from the neighbouring disciplines of literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, and visual culture. It investigates new paradigms for the comparative and cosmopolitan study of literature. It models a critically enlarged conception of translation studies. 

Translatio encourages submissions that variously challenge, realign, and remake the disciplines of the humanities, and which unsettle their established geographical and historical boundaries, including the period categories – ‘medieval’ and ‘early modern’ – that are offered as points of departure for the series as a whole. It particularly welcomes work that not only relates to the translational, but that also calls the concept into question, not least by reflecting on its own deployment of translational methods when it studies one language and its culture and society from the perspective of another.

What types of volumes do we publish?

By publishing work in a range of formats – including monographs and short works; new, facing-page English translations of primary texts; and edited volumes – the series aims to harness both the critical and creative possibilities of the translational humanities.

MONOGRAPHS | 80,000-100,000 words

Revised doctoral dissertations and theses are welcome. So are the submissions of established authors. Co-authored monographs, reflecting the expertise of more than one scholar, are also encouraged.

EDITED VOLUMES | 90,000-120,000 words

Edited volumes are highly effective when they enable collaboration across disciplines. Editors are invited to clarify what the proposed volume as a whole offers by way of contribution to the field.

TRANSLATIONS | 40,000-100,000 words

Facing-page English translations of pre-modern texts in their source language(s) are a distinctive feature of the series. They establish Translatio as a home for multilingual work by combining primary text and translation. Proposals relating to neglected primary works are particularly welcome.

SHORT WORKS | 40,000-60,000 words

Essays, manifestoes, meditations, provocations: all these have long served those writing for and against the arts of translation. This series welcomes such thought-provoking forays into shorter formats. It invites those that concentrate minds on and focus debates about emerging ideas, methods, and orientations in the field of the translational humanities.

What periods do we cover?

The series covers medieval and early modern translation, understood broadly. Since the series is open to all languages and cultures, we understand that temporal categories are flexible and are negotiated differently by different traditions. We would normally expect to see proposals situate the temporality of the text in relation to the categories of the medieval and/or the early modern. We encourage submissions that challenge those categories.

What languages do we cover? 

Our aim is to cover all languages and cultures, and the makeup of our editorial and advisory boards reflects our commitment to this diversity. Please contact us if you would like to discuss specific language requirements. 

General Editor

Richard Scholar, Professor of French, Durham University, UK (richard.scholar@durham.ac.uk)

Series Editors

Sven Dupré, Professor of History of Art, Science, and Technology (Utrecht University, Netherlands), Rebecca Gould, Professor of the Islamic World and Comparative Literature (University of Birmingham, UK), Sarah Knight, Professor of Renaissance Literature (University of Leicester, UK), Carla Nappi, Professor of History (University of Pittsburgh, USA)

Series Advisory Board

  • Ahmed Ragab, Associate Professor in the Institute of the History of Medicine (Johns Hopkins University);
  • Anne Coldiron, Professor of English (Florida State University);
  • Anita Traninger, Professor of Romance Literatures and Rhetoric (Freie Universität Berlin);
  • Giancarlo Casale, Professor of Early Modern History of the Mediterranean (European University Institute);
  • Haun Saussy, Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Civilizations (University of Chicago);
  • Kelsey Rubin-Detlev, Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures (University of Southern California);
  • Javed Majeed, Professor of English and Comparative Literature (King’s College London);
  • Ladan Niayesh, Professor of Early Modern Studies (University of Paris);
  • Michael Emmerich, Professor of Japanese Literature (UCLA);
  • Patricia Palmer, Professor of English (National University of Ireland Maynooth);
  • Racha Kirakosian, Professor of Medieval German Studies (University of Freiburg);
  • Ryan Szpiech, Associate Professor in the Departments of Romance Languages and Literatures and Judaic Studies (University of Michigan);
  • Shamil Jeppie, Associate Professor of History (University of Cape Town). 

Find out more

Find out about our other series, our publishing process and where to buy our books.

Our Series

Find out about the other series within the Durham University IMEMS Press imprint.

Purchase Translatio Publications

Visit our publishing partner, Boydell & Brewer, to view and purchase titles in the Translatio series.
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