ANNULÉ - Luise von Flotow, Univ. of Ottawa : ‘Global English’ and the Challenges of Transnational Feminist Translation Studies

‘Global English’ and the Challenges of Transnational Feminist Translation Studies

Translation Studies, an academic discipline focused on studying transnational communications, is largely undertaken in English: the most important academic journals in the field are English, conferences are largely run in English (with other languages sometimes allowed) and the best-known and cited academics in the field write in English. This situation has been commented on/criticized, often by those same well-known academics. My talk addresses this situation in regard to the translation and academic study of feminist materials. It is based on a recent project that was designed to get beyond the 'Anglo-American Eurozone' in the field of feminist and gender-focused translation studies: Translating Women. Other Voices and New Horizons (eds. Luise von Flotow and Farzaneh Farahzad, Routledge 2017). The project continuously ran into obstacles and challenges posed by the importance of English, not only as a global lingua franca, but as one of the major references for feminist work in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. My paper will address three specific issues: the problem posed by global English in regard to feminist translation studies, the challenges faced when editing and integrating academic work from other cultures into English-language academia, and the internecine issues that arise and can confound shared goals.