Seeking HPS scholars with language skills for a plan to translate new work from the global south – Transformational HPS
The Transformational HPS network is committed to organising the translation of original work in HPS from scholars in the global south who do not normally or regularly publish in English. These translated works will also form the basis of a seminar series.
There are a number of steps in the scheme we are proposing, which are outlined below. At this initial stage we are looking for HPS scholars who are able to identify potential authors and assess abstracts submitted in languages other than English, in order to select particular authors for future translation.
If you have these skills and would be interested in participating, please email Dr Dominic Berry at d.berry@bham.ac.uk including a short summary of your language skills. We are of course particularly interested in hearing from those with languages that are widely spoken in the global south. To be clear, this is not for the purposes of making full translations, but only the reading and assessment of submitted abstracts in languages other than English.
Finally, you will notice in the steps below that we will eventually reach a stage where we appeal to universities and scholarly societies for funding to pay for translations. Please keep this in mind if you believe you can leverage funds from your own institution or organisation.
Yours,
Dominic Berry, David Ludwig, Lindsey Breitwieser, Harun Küçük and Diego Ballestero
The plan (progression through each stage 1-7 is dependent on completion of the previous one)
1 – Find HPS scholars prepared to participate in abstract selection panels
2- Secure funding
3- Publish a call for abstracts and also potential translators.
4- Notify the successful authors, letting them know they have 8 months in which to write and return their article to be handed to the translators.
5- Receive the completed articles and pass them to their translators, with a sensible deadline.
6- Organise the seminars. It is intended that the seminar will be given in the language preferred by the speaker, on the topic of their article. The translation will be circulated in English ahead of time to those who register.
7- The translated versions of these articles will belong to the authors, to do with as they wish. We will offer help and support if a path to collective publication becomes available, but otherwise the authors can proceed however they prefer.
There are a number of steps in the scheme we are proposing, which are outlined below. At this initial stage we are looking for HPS scholars who are able to identify potential authors and assess abstracts submitted in languages other than English, in order to select particular authors for future translation.
If you have these skills and would be interested in participating, please email Dr Dominic Berry at d.berry@bham.ac.uk including a short summary of your language skills. We are of course particularly interested in hearing from those with languages that are widely spoken in the global south. To be clear, this is not for the purposes of making full translations, but only the reading and assessment of submitted abstracts in languages other than English.
Finally, you will notice in the steps below that we will eventually reach a stage where we appeal to universities and scholarly societies for funding to pay for translations. Please keep this in mind if you believe you can leverage funds from your own institution or organisation.
Yours,
Dominic Berry, David Ludwig, Lindsey Breitwieser, Harun Küçük and Diego Ballestero
The plan (progression through each stage 1-7 is dependent on completion of the previous one)
1 – Find HPS scholars prepared to participate in abstract selection panels
- Announce that we are looking for provisional chairs and selection committee members for people with relevant language skills.
2- Secure funding
- Provided that we get enough panels together around different languages (aiming for 5-6 panels minimum), we then advertise that we are looking for departments and societies to partner and fund the initiative. A minimum amount of funding will be asked for from potential supporters.
3- Publish a call for abstracts and also potential translators.
- Circulate a Call for HPS abstracts in the 5-6 languages we have specified, with preference for scholars based in the global south, asking that they be sent to the chairs of the relevant panels. People will be limited to submitting only one abstract to the entire exercise (i.e. we will not allow people to submit in multiple panels).
- In the same announcement we will say we are also looking for people who we can pay to translate these languages into English, either professional translators or those with sufficient experience and expertise.
4- Notify the successful authors, letting them know they have 8 months in which to write and return their article to be handed to the translators.
5- Receive the completed articles and pass them to their translators, with a sensible deadline.
6- Organise the seminars. It is intended that the seminar will be given in the language preferred by the speaker, on the topic of their article. The translation will be circulated in English ahead of time to those who register.
7- The translated versions of these articles will belong to the authors, to do with as they wish. We will offer help and support if a path to collective publication becomes available, but otherwise the authors can proceed however they prefer.