Queering Translation, Translating the Queer. Theory, Practice, Activism, 2017
Eva Nossem calls for the development of a queer approach in the area of lexicography. She begins ... more Eva Nossem calls for the development of a queer approach in the area of lexicography. She begins by challenging the popular notion of an objective, purely descriptive lexicography, and discusses the social norms and values underpinning lexicographical work. In line with Foucault, she assigns a discursive function to lexicographers, through which they play an active role in the production of knowledge. In bilingual dictionaries, the heteronormative ideas conveyed are further exacerbated by requirements of equivalence. Nossem advocates for an anti-normative approach and seeks to lay the foundations for a queer lexicography that establishes the very conditions of possibility for a queer translation practice.
(Baer, Brian James and Klaus Kaindl: "Introduction: Queer(ing) Translation)
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Articles by Eva K Nossem
(Baer, Brian James and Klaus Kaindl: "Introduction: Queer(ing) Translation)
Ein Blick auf diese Bezeichnungen macht deutlich, wie Sprache und gesellschaftliche Wahrnehmung sich gegenseitig beeinflussen.
Nicht nur die Bezeichnungen verändern sich im Laufe der Zeit. Es entstehen immer neue Bezeichnungen und vorhandene Bezeichnungen unterliegen einem Bedeutungswandel. Aber auch die bezeichnete Realität selbst ist keine starre Einheit.
Nach Betrachtung des sprachlichen Repertoires ist zu überlegen, ob ausreichende sprachliche Möglichkeiten vorliegen oder ob Lücken offen bleiben und was die verwendeten Bezeichnungen bzgl. der Wahrnehmung und Wertung von Nicht-Heteronormativität aussagen.
Talks by Eva K Nossem
With the knowledge of these fabricated tragedies, a tug of war has been going on in EU (and European national) politics between efforts of securitization and humanitarianism/humanitarianization. “[W]ith with Mediterranean crossings becoming a matter of life and death […], irregular crossers are not only classed as threats, but also as victims to be ‘saved’” (Moreno-Lax 2017: 4).
Since the EU has scaled down maritime patrols to rescue migrants on the perilous crossing, this task has now been taken on by private sea rescue operations. In politics as well as in (social) media, news reports about rescuing operations quickly transform into raging debates between supporters and representatives of pro- and anti-immigration policies. The already heated debates about sea rescue operations seem to escalate further when the category of gender is added to this conundrum.
In my talk I will provide a critical analysis of the Italian news coverage and social media discourses about Carola Rackete and Pia Klemp, captains of the Sea Watch 3, who dominated the news in the summer 2019 with their rescue operations, arrest and release, public honors and refusals, and all associated polemics. Fights over gender domination, I argue, as well as the Mediterranean Sea as a site of border making and breaking play a key role in the discursive production of the two capitane either as saints, saviors, or smugglers.
(Baer, Brian James and Klaus Kaindl: "Introduction: Queer(ing) Translation)
Ein Blick auf diese Bezeichnungen macht deutlich, wie Sprache und gesellschaftliche Wahrnehmung sich gegenseitig beeinflussen.
Nicht nur die Bezeichnungen verändern sich im Laufe der Zeit. Es entstehen immer neue Bezeichnungen und vorhandene Bezeichnungen unterliegen einem Bedeutungswandel. Aber auch die bezeichnete Realität selbst ist keine starre Einheit.
Nach Betrachtung des sprachlichen Repertoires ist zu überlegen, ob ausreichende sprachliche Möglichkeiten vorliegen oder ob Lücken offen bleiben und was die verwendeten Bezeichnungen bzgl. der Wahrnehmung und Wertung von Nicht-Heteronormativität aussagen.
With the knowledge of these fabricated tragedies, a tug of war has been going on in EU (and European national) politics between efforts of securitization and humanitarianism/humanitarianization. “[W]ith with Mediterranean crossings becoming a matter of life and death […], irregular crossers are not only classed as threats, but also as victims to be ‘saved’” (Moreno-Lax 2017: 4).
Since the EU has scaled down maritime patrols to rescue migrants on the perilous crossing, this task has now been taken on by private sea rescue operations. In politics as well as in (social) media, news reports about rescuing operations quickly transform into raging debates between supporters and representatives of pro- and anti-immigration policies. The already heated debates about sea rescue operations seem to escalate further when the category of gender is added to this conundrum.
In my talk I will provide a critical analysis of the Italian news coverage and social media discourses about Carola Rackete and Pia Klemp, captains of the Sea Watch 3, who dominated the news in the summer 2019 with their rescue operations, arrest and release, public honors and refusals, and all associated polemics. Fights over gender domination, I argue, as well as the Mediterranean Sea as a site of border making and breaking play a key role in the discursive production of the two capitane either as saints, saviors, or smugglers.
In our paper, we will look at queer (im)migrants in the global Southern borderlands. As non-citizens, immigrants, especially those with no official legal status, lack basic civil rights both in the EU and the U.S.; they become invisible and thus lose their existence. As Luibhéid (2008) observes: “Most scholarship, policymaking, service provision, activism, and cultural work remain organized around the premise that migrants are heterosexuals (or on their way to becoming so) and queers are citizens (even though second-class ones).” Queer migrants thus face further marginalization not only from the Northern society but also from their heterosexual fellow migrant community. Consequently, there arises an urgent need for queer migrants to form alliances and build coalitions in order to become visible, regain their existence, and locate themselves on the map.
Italy assumes a particular role in the context of migration: For many immigrants, Italy is the country of arrival, for others a place of transit, and again for others, for many Italians themselves, the country of departure. Also Italy’s oscillating role between North and South, both due its geographical location on the European Union’s external border and also because of its internal regionalism and North-South divide, deserves particular attention. With President Trump’s threats to build a wall, the U.S.-Mexican borderlands have received renewed attention. While the situation of queer Chican@s and migration is currently at the center of heated debates, research on issues of queer migration in Europe is still scarce. As summed up by Richardson, among others, “questions of nationalism and national border making connected with ideas about modernity and tolerance” and the constitution of “neo-orientalist and colonial practices“ are analyzed under the topic of ‘sexual citizenship’ (2017, 209). Looking at some selected cultural examples which situate the constructions of sexual and queer identities within global processes of globalization, capitalism, and nationalism, we want to juxtapose activities by U.S.- and Europe-based activist groups to outline their fight against oppression through different and shared forms of coalition building.
In questo talk affronterò alcuni temi della migrazione queer concentrandomi in particolare sul ruolo oscillante dell’Italia fra Nord e Sud, dovuto alla sua posizione geografica situata alla frontiera esterna dell’Unione Europea e al divario interno fra Nord e Sud.
Mentre l’Europa, particolarmente il Nord-Ovest, è diventato un significante per modernità, politiche sessuali liberali e ‘civilizzazione’, il Sud sta per ‘arretratezza’ e limiti al progresso italiano. L’Italia vacilla fra aspirazione alla modernità europea e battaglie contro l’arretratezza interna e ‘immigrata’ che “potrebbe mettere a rischio diritti e libertà non ancora ottenuti ma in vista” (Colpani 2014). Questi presunti pericoli si rispecchiano in costruzioni discorsive sul ‘non-settentrionale arretrato’, inteso come ‘extracomunitario’ e ‘clandestino’ nel caso di migranti non-europei, o come ‘terrone’ per persone del Sud dell’Italia.
La consapevolezza della discriminazione intersezionale di persone LGBTQ e di non-settentrionali ha portato alla formazione dei primi gruppi per migranti LGBTQ nel Mezzogiorno che si impegnano a creare discorsi alternativi riappropriandosi per esempio dell’offesa ‘terrone” (cf. Baldo 2017) e dando al Sud una voce.
This year, we invite submissions dealing with the construction, representation, and assessment of borders in crisis.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted by April 6, 2023 to [email protected]. Please include a brief bio (100 words max.).
On February 4 and 5, border scholars from the greater region and far beyond will gather for the “Border Renaissance” conference hosted by the UniGR Center for Border Studies. Questions concerning the (re)emergence of borders, especially in recent pandemic times, are addressed from social science and humanities perspectives. Theoretical scientific approaches are complemented by strong practice-oriented and everyday social perspectives. Opening food for thought will be provided by Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn (Friday 4:00 p.m. CET); the scientific keynote lecture at the intersection of spatial and cultural border studies will be delivered by renowned border researcher Prof. Dr. Victor Konrad of Carleton University in Canada (Saturday 1:30 p.m. CET).
Le 4 et 5 février prochain, expertes et experts des frontières viendront discuter à Sarrebruck des questions relatives à la (re)naissance de frontières, pertinentes notamment en ces temps de pandémie. La conférence « Border Renaissance », organisée par l’UniGR-Center for Border Studies en format hybride, abordera le sujet sous l’angle des sciences sociales et culturelles et sera complétée par des exemples pratiques tirés du quotidien sociopolitique.
La conférence sera ouverte par le ministre des Affaires étrangères luxembourgeois, Jean Asselborn (vendredi 4 février à 16h). Pour l’exposé scientifique principal (keynote), intitulé "Border Renaissance in a Time of Border Perplexity ?", la conférence accueillera le professeur Victor Konrad de l'Université de Carleton au Canada (samedi 5 février à 13h30).
Über Fragen des (Wieder-)Auflebens von Grenzen, gerade auch in jüngsten pandemischen Zeiten, diskutieren Grenzexpertinnen und-experten am 4. und 5. Februar bei der Konferenz "Border Renaissance" in Saarbrücken und online. Die Hybrid-Veranstaltung, die vom UniGR-Center for Border Studies organisiert wird, betrachtet das Thema aus gesellschafts- und geisteswissenschaftlicher Perspektive – ergänzt durch praktische Beispiele aus dem gesellschaftlichen und politischen Alltag.
Den einleitenden Vortrag hält der luxemburgische Außenminister Jean Asselborn (Freitag, 16.00 Uhr). Den wissenschaftlichen Hauptvortrag liefert der renommierte Grenzforscher Prof. Victor Konrad von der Carleton-Universität in Kanada (Samstag, 13.30 Uhr).
In a similar vein, as the shift has occurred from a static understanding of the border to dynamic processes and complex interwoven practices (Wille, Fellner, and Nossem), also research on language has experienced a turn, “treat[ing] language as dynamic and emergent rather than as a reified code” (Baynham & Lee 2020: 15). The widespread turn in the humanities to focus on processuality – emblematically phrased in Street’s famous statement “Culture is verb” (1993) – has not only reached border studies, leading to the change from border to bordering, but has also affected the study of language:
The traditional understanding of ‘language(s)’ as monolithic construct(s) existing independently of communicative use has been rejected […] in favour of conceptualisations of languaging (Becker, 1995) as practical social action that draws on an expansive repertoire of (not only linguistic) semiotic resources […]. (Moore, Bradley, and Simpson 2020: 2).
Language uses that draw on multilingual resources are of particular interest for this volume. We strive to develop the notion of border languaging by introducing the contested spatiality of the border to our analysis of multilingual language practices. We aim at focusing on a (critical) analysis of creative (cf. Wei 2011) multilingual practices evolving at, on, and around the border. The work of the border as a productive site of encounter and of the formation of identities and otherness becomes visible through related language use and linguistic performances. In developing a focus on border languaging, we aim to carve out new understandings of (the use of) communicative resources in relation to the border. Such a situated approach to (multi-/pluri-) linguistic performances helps us move beyond naturalized categories of and in languages; particular focus is placed on border spaces/places as translanguaging spaces (Wei 2011: 1223), spatial repertoires (Pennycook and Otsuji 2015: 9), and life trajectories (Busch 2012).
In examining the interplay of practices of language and borders, contributions from the field of linguistic Border Studies may prove fruitful on different scales, whether e.g. addressing top-down questions of language policy or bottom-up linguistic practices (from below) of everyday interaction, the construction of language borders/boundaries, linguistic dynamics of demarcation, criticism of nativeness, the discursive (re)production and (de)construction of borders, sociolinguistic (cross-)border analyses, or many other takes on every-day, political, and aesthetic linguistic/semiotic practices.
This volume puts a special emphasis on practices involving (multilingual) communicative repertoires which challenge the (Western) ideologies of monolingualism and separate plurilingualism (cf. García & Wei 2014) and related linguistic-semiotic ordering mechanisms. It focuses on how people make use of the communicative resources available to them in and across border spaces/places. In the analyses, emphasis is placed on how linguistic/semiotic and material signifying resources are brought together in activities developing out of or resulting from the border. We invite submissions focusing on societal multilingualism and/or individual plurilingualism in relation to borders, as e.g. on
• Border Languaging as a transgressive practice,
• Critical and creative plurilingual performances at and around borders,
• Interlingual, intralingual, intersemiotic, interdiscursive, and embodied translanguaging (Baynham & Lee 2019) on the border,
• Language ideology and dynamics of exclusion,
• Performance of plurilingual repertoires at the border,
• Language policy and power relations,
• Translingualism, translingual activism (Cronin 2003), translingual practice (Canagarajah 2013, 2014), translanguaging (Garcia and Wei 2014), metrolingualism (Pennycook and Otsuji 2015), translanguageance (Aden & Eschenauer), transmodalities (Hawkins), transglossia (Garcia), etc.
• Multilingualism from below (Pennycook & Otsuji 2015, cf. Cuvelier et al. 2010),
• Translating the border.
Proposals (in English) should be sent to [email protected] by 15 January 2021. Full papers will be due by 30 April 2021.
The proposals should contain the following data:
• Abstract (approx. 300-500 words plus references)
• Bio blurb (max 200 words).
As borders tighten and close, bodies become increasingly vulnerable, rendering every political crisis a potential humanitarian disaster. This thematic issue will re-think Europe and the Americas through these crises and the challenges they pose. In so doing, it will specifically engage the transformation of European and American body politics in times of austerity, hyper-securitization, protest suppression tactics, and war. By approaching the current European and American crises through the conceptual field of the “border” and considering their impact on biopolitics in the fields of politics, literature, culture, and environmental struggles, this volume will contribute both to a critical analytical delineation of current (dialogic) processes in European and American civil societies and offer impulses towards the formulations of new visions of border conceptualizations and management.
In order to critically engage all these themes, we invite proposals along the following fields of inquiry:
Border Crises and Populism
Border Crises and Race, Gender, and Sexuality
Border Crises and Civil Society
Border Crises and Trauma
Border Crises and Environment
Border Art: Border Crises through Artists’ Eyes
Contributions (5000-8000 words) might address these topics through literary, cultural, linguistic, historical, or social approaches; additional themes may include affect, citizenship, displacement, exile, and geographies.
Please submit a 500-word abstract and brief bio directly to [email protected] by January 31, 2020. Full papers will be due on May 1, 2020.
Contributions (5000-8000 words) might address these topics through literary, cultural, linguistic, historical, or social approaches; additional themes may include affect, citizenship, displacement, exile, and geographies.
Please submit a 500-word abstract and brief bio directly to [email protected] by October 31, 2017. Full papers will be due on January 31, 2018.