2023 ASA VIRTUAL PANEL: Translation and Archipelagic Thought
Panel Title: Translation and Archipelagic Thought: American Solidarities and Melting Points Allied with the ASA 2023 conference theme of solidarity, this panel examines two realms of solidarity-making: translation and archipelagic thinking. Translation has been a mode of solidarity-making to the degree that it has constructed bridges—no matter how contingent or tenuous—between languages and cultures. Meanwhile, archipelagic thinking has also attuned itself to questions of solidarity or connection among different islands. In considering the archipelagic Americas and American-connected archipelagoes beyond the Americas, what could it mean to suggest that translation and archipelagic thought are or may exist in solidarity, as intertwined, interdependent, and even co-constitutive practices? For translators and translation studies scholars, what could it mean to take the ocean-island complex of the archipelago as a methodological template? For scholars of archipelagic thinking (which has emanated from numerous archipelagic regions across the planet), what could it mean to take translation as a structuring metaphor for how we understand the ontologies of the archipelago? And how do we understand the epistemologies that the archipelago makes possible? Beyond structuring metaphors and methodological templates, what other and perhaps unforecasted solidarities might arise between archipelagic thinking and translation? And, of course, when and how do such solidarities fall apart, arriving at melting points beyond which solidness is no longer useful or desired? Addressing the conjunction of translation and archipelagic thought, the papers in this panel bring into conversation American, America-connected, and US imperial regions: Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, Vietnam, Korea, the US South, Cuba, Spain, and Brazil. Panelists: Brian Russell Roberts, Adrian De Leon, Craig Santos Perez, Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi, Elena Lahr-Vivaz Chair: Susan Gillman
Panel Title: Translation and Archipelagic Thought: American Solidarities and Melting Points Allied with the ASA 2023 conference theme of solidarity, this panel examines two realms of solidarity-making: translation and archipelagic thinking. Translation has been a mode of solidarity-making to the degree that it has constructed bridges—no matter how contingent or tenuous—between languages and cultures. Meanwhile, archipelagic thinking has also attuned itself to questions of solidarity or connection among different islands. In considering the archipelagic Americas and American-connected archipelagoes beyond the Americas, what could it mean to suggest that translation and archipelagic thought are or may exist in solidarity, as intertwined, interdependent, and even co-constitutive practices? For translators and translation studies scholars, what could it mean to take the ocean-island complex of the archipelago as a methodological template? For scholars of archipelagic thinking (which has emanated from numerous archipelagic regions across the planet), what could it mean to take translation as a structuring metaphor for how we understand the ontologies of the archipelago? And how do we understand the epistemologies that the archipelago makes possible? Beyond structuring metaphors and methodological templates, what other and perhaps unforecasted solidarities might arise between archipelagic thinking and translation? And, of course, when and how do such solidarities fall apart, arriving at melting points beyond which solidness is no longer useful or desired? Addressing the conjunction of translation and archipelagic thought, the papers in this panel bring into conversation American, America-connected, and US imperial regions: Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, Vietnam, Korea, the US South, Cuba, Spain, and Brazil. Panelists: Brian Russell Roberts, Adrian De Leon, Craig Santos Perez, Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi, Elena Lahr-Vivaz Chair: Susan Gillman