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Upcoming Events
We run events, talks and workshops on all aspects of literary translation. Our events are open to the public and, unless stated otherwise, admission is free. Events are usually held at Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, 36 Fenian Street, Dublin D02 CH22 (two minutes' walk from Trinity's Lincoln Gate), and occasionally at larger venues on Trinity's campus. Most of our events are run in hybrid format, so you can join from wherever you are in the world. If you would like to receive advance notice of these events, please complete the form at the bottom of this page, or email littrans@tcd.ie. We will not use your contact details for any other purpose.
Lafcadio Hearn’s Japan: from Enchantment to Intercultural Understanding
Friday, 7 March 2025
9.00am to 7.00pm
Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub
Our colleagues at the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies are hosting a conference on Lafcadio Hearn, the translator who brought the folklore of Japan to Westerners. |
The Rhythm of Semiotic Landscape
Thursday, 13 March 2025
6.00pm at 36 Fenian Street and online
Please join us for a talk on soundscapes and rituals among Nepalese followers of Tenrikyō, the Japanese ‘New Religion’. The talk will be delivered by social anthropologist, Marilena Frisone, assistant lecturer in the Study of Religions Department of University College Cork.
Book tickets (in-person and online)
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World Fiction Book Club
6:30-7:30pm, Tuesday, 18 March 2025
(online only)
Our book club will meet to discuss Before the Queen Falls Asleep by Huzama Habayeb, translated from Spanish by Jennifer Croft.
Register to attend via Zoom.
View future dates and book titles. |
Polish Book Club: The Possessed
Wednesday, 26 March 2025
6.30 to 7.30pm at 36 Fenian Street and online
The Polish book club will meet to discuss The Possessed by Witold Gombrowicz, in the new English translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
Register to attend
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Dante's Divine Comedy
12-2pm
at 36 Fenian Street, Dublin 2
Upcoming dates: 13 and 27 March, 10 and 17 April.
Our lunchtime readings of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy are led by Emeritus Professor Corinna Salvadori Lonergan, with John Walsh, IRC Government of Ireland Scholar (Comparative Literature), both of Trinity College.
Information on future dates are available here. You may attend as many or few readings as you wish - please book for each date you plan to attend. |
Call for Papers
Human Translators in Focus: Exploring the Human Aspects of Japanese Literary Translation through a Sociological Lens
22 – 24 October 2025
Trinity College Dublin
Final Call for Papers
The human aspects of literary translation have been attracting increasing scholarly attention across Translation Studies. The shift from focusing on translation as a product to examining the human translator has emerged as a sub-field, termed "Literary Translator Studies" (Kaindl 2021). Recent research on human translators offers new methodological approaches that examine literary translators through a sociological lens, highlighting the multifaceted roles they perform beyond translation: from image-building and visibility-attracting (Sela-Sheffy 2008, 2010), to engaging directly with readers and marketing themselves on social media (Fini 2024), to their involvement in self-publishing (Marin-Lacarta 2018) and teaching translation (Woods 2020). These approaches emphasise the significance of translators' roles beyond the chain of translated literature production.
However, literary translation studies in the Japanese context—an underrepresented area within the discipline in general— traditionally tends towards close reading-based approaches to text analysis or biographical-based studies in historical contexts (Wakabayashi 2012 175-176). Nonetheless, a human translator-focused approach is highly relevant to the Japanese context, as demonstrated by research such as that by Bilodeau (2019), Karashima (2020), Zielinska-Elliott (2020), and Akashi (2018, 2024) which highlights the significance of translators' contributions to the popularity of their source authors and works in receiving cultures. Similarly, other human aspects of translation—such as translators' roles in giving target readers access to the voices of marginalised communities in the source culture (e.g., Okinawan, Ainu, and Zainichi Korean)—not only by translating their literature but also through activities like public talks, workshops, and interviews, could foster meaningful discussions within the discipline.
This conference showcases research on the human aspects of Japanese literary translation. It contributes to the development of Japanese Translation Studies and raises the visibility of the Japanese context within Translation Studies. With these goals in mind, we invite abstracts on topics related to literary translation from or into Japanese, including but not limited to:
- Translator-publisher/editor relationship
- Hierarchy within the translator community
- Human translator/AI relationship
- Translator (in)visibility (e.g., celebrity translators)
- Translators’ presence and agency in digital spaces (e.g., online diaries and social media)
- Forms of non-translated writing by translators (e.g., translator memoirs)
- Translators’ self-publishing
- Translators’ roles in readership-building
- Translators’ commercial roles and personae
- Translators training translators (e.g., mentorship, workshops, translation schools)
- Translator collectives
Each speaker is given 20 minutes to present, followed by a 10 minute Q&A session. Submissions are made in the form of abstracts of no more than 300 English words to this Online Form by 5pm (GMT) on 15th March 2025.
This conference has a hybrid format, meaning that remote and in-person presentations are both accepted. The entire event will be recorded and made available online after the event. All presentations and talks are in English.
Contact: conferencetclct@gmail.com |
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