Translating Across Time and Space, American Philosophical Society

 

“Translating across Time and Space: Endangered Languages, Cultural Revitalization, and the Work of History”

October 13-14, 2016
American Philosophical Society
Philadelphia, PA
The Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR) at the American Philosophical Society (APS) is seeking papers for an academic symposium on October 13-14, 2016 to coincide with the APS Museum’s 2016 exhibition, Gathering Voices: Thomas Jefferson and Native America.  The exhibition traces the story of Native American language collection at the APS from Thomas Jefferson’s Indian vocabularies to the anthropological fieldwork of Franz Boas and his students to the language revitalization and community-based initiatives supported by CNAIR today. In doing so, the exhibition also explores the themes of translation across cultures and borders, the politics of representation, practices of language collection and study, cultural continuity and change, and the transformation of the material archives.
The accompanying symposium aims to attract scholars and practitioners whose work expands upon and deepens understanding of the core themes of the exhibition.  Conference organizers are particularly interested in presenters whose work deals with:
1) the preservation of endangered languages, both historically and in the present day;
2) cultural practices surrounding translation and translators over time;
3) the work of language and cultural revitalization; and
4) current and/or collaborative Native language projects.
In the spirit of the exhibition’s emphasis on crossing linguistic, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries, the APS encourages the submission of interdisciplinary papers and will design panels that cross disciplinary boundaries.
The symposium will begin with a keynote address sponsored by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania on Thursday evening.  On Friday, October 14, panels will convene at the American Philosophical Society.

Applicants should submit a title and 250-word proposal along with a C.V. by February 1, 2016 to: conferences@amphilsoc.org. Decisions will be made by the summer of 2016.  All presenters will receive travel reimbursement and hotel accommodations.  Accepted papers will be due a month before the conference and precirculated to registered attendees.  Papers should be no longer than 25-double spaced pages.  Presenters will also have the opportunity to publish revised papers in the APS’s Proceedings, one of the longest running scholarly journals in America.