CONFERENCE - Friday 24 April
Translating conflict and refuge: language, displacement, and the politics of representation – 24 April 2026 (part hybrid)
Register to attend: Translating Conflict and Refuge: Language, displacement, and the politics of representation - CRASSH
In-person registration closes on 16 April 2026, online registration closes on 23 April 2026
Venue: West Hub, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0US
Convened by:
Tugba Basaran (Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement/Cambridge Refugee Hub, University of Cambridge)
Ángeles Carreres (Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, University of Cambridge)
María Noriega-Sánchez (Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, University of Cambridge)
Marissa Quie (Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement/Afghanistan Desk, University of Cambridge)
Linguistic barriers exacerbate the already formidable challenges of responding to humanitarian crises, particularly—but not exclusively—in conflict zones. In the past decade alone, armed conflicts worldwide have inflicted untold suffering on large populations and often resulted in mass displacement. Addressing the needs of those affected by war and violence necessitates the involvement of large numbers of translators and interpreters, many of whom are frequently untrained volunteers. In addition to the immediate crisis response, people with, or seeking, refugee and/or asylum seeker status require sustained access to translation and interpreting support in host countries, both in order to access basic services and to enable their integration into local communities.
This event will bring together translators, interpreters, scholars, refugees, and NGO representatives to develop a deeper understanding of the complex demands and realities involved in translating conflict and refuge. Our aim is to create a space for meaningful exchange as well as to generate concrete opportunities for collaboration.
Plenary talks in the morning will be offered in hybrid format; parallel sessions in the afternoon will be in person only and will take the form of standard papers delivered in thematic panels.
This conference addresses topics related to armed conflict and forced displacement, including discussion of violence and humanitarian crises, and their impacts on individuals and communities. Some sessions may reference traumatic experiences.
Programme
[Please note that this programme may be subject to changes]
9:00-9:15 | Arrival and registration |
9:15-9:30 | Welcome and introduction |
9:30-11:00 Hybrid | Plenary Session 1: Translating in conflict zones: challenges and ethical dilemmas
Federico Federici, Professor of Intercultural Crisis Communication, Director of the Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS), UCL Aline Larroyed, Principal Investigator of research project ‘Access to Translation as a Means to the Materialisation of Human Rights in Crisis Settings’, Dublin City University Rasheed Abdul Hadi, freelance interpreter and translator, Senior Lecturer at Damascus University and Visiting Research Fellow at Bath Spa University [remote participation] |
1100-11:30 | Coffee break |
11:30-13:00 Hybrid | Plenary Session 2: Translating at the coalface and the politics of language in conflict and displacement
Lesia Ponomarenko, Postdoctoral Researcher and freelance translator and interpreter, and Lucía Ruiz Rosendo, Associate Professor and Head of the Interpreting Department, Faculty of Translation and Interpreting, University of Geneva Lucio Bagnulo, Head of Translation and Language Strategy, Amnesty International Yongcan Liu, Professor of Applied Linguistics and Languages Education, Faculty of Education, Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement (University of Cambridge), and Zach Denton, PhD student, Faculty of Education (University of Cambridge), co-founder and convener for the Cambridge Refugee Language Education Unit (CRLEU) |
13:00-13:45 | Lunch |
13:45-15:45 In person
| Parallel sessions Strands:
Please see a full list of presenters and titles below. |
15:45-16:10 | Coffee break |
16:10-17:30 In person | Reframing translation and displacement through collaboration Humanitarian response and practical support: Seren Roff (Workforce Development and Training Lead, RESPOND: Crisis Translation), RCT: From grassroots activism to economic justice for language practitioners Eszter Papp (Terminology Officer) and Alice Castillejo (Programme Development Manager), CLEAR Global, Navigating ethical and linguistic challenges in humanitarian response
Literature, translation and advocacy: Ambrose Musiyiwa (poet and project coordinator, Journeys in Translation) and Christophe Gagne (translator; University of Cambridge), The places in between: finding common humanity through translation and poetry Tamanna Easer (writer and translator, Paranda network of Afghan writers) and Anam Zafar (translator and project manager), Untold Narratives, Imagining Beyond Conflict: the role of fiction in translation |
17:30 | Closing and farewell |
19:00: conference dinner at Sidney Sussex College (limited places; separate registration)
Parallel sessions: thematic panels
Language justice, translation and language access policies, support for asylum seekers and refugees | Interpreters and translators in conflict and displacement settings, ethical dilemmas, training | Politics of representation, translation in media coverage and humanitarian discourse, literary translation |
Javier Moreno Rivero (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, and City University of New York, US), Translating displacement in superdiverse societies: language access and the politics of representation Banaz Kamil (University of the West of Scotland, UK), How are evaluations of the credibility of asylum seekers affected by interpreter-mediated encounters within the UK immigration system? Sofía Antequera, Candelas Bayón, Carmen Pena and Andrea Sanz (University of Alcalá, Spain), Climate Change, Migration, and the Politics of Communication: Translation and Interpreting as Infrastructures of Sustainability Anneleen Spiessens (Ghent University, Belgium), Cartographies of belonging: Migrant translation, urban space, and the politics of refuge Nebojša Radić (University of Cambridge, UK) and Timur Križak (Government Agency for Education, Croatia), Refugees without Geography: the Case of the Croatian Serbs Eugenia Portioli, Paolo Canavese and Annarita Felici (University of Geneva, Switzerland), «Simplifying Borders»: Promises and Limits of AI-Driven Easy-Language Translation | Ahmed Halil (Cambridge Muslim College, UK), Interpreting Forced Migration: A Dual-Perspective Study on Syrian Refugee Support in Türkiye Mariia Onyshchuk (Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland, and Мykhailo Drahomanov Ukrainian State University, Kyiv, Ukraine), Interpreter Positionality in Conflict-Related Scenarios Hilary Footitt (Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK), Displacing the interpreters: the politics of the aftermath of war Mikhael Touma (Founder and CEO, Language Justice Network, Australia), At the Margins of War and Identity: Interpreting Queer Refugee Narratives Huiming Jin (Independent scholar and freelance court interpreter, Germany), Invisible Boundaries: Translating the Voices of Chinese Migrants with “Duldung” Status in Germany Nina Gavlovych (Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Spain), Interpreting Conflict: Military versus Operational Language Mediators. Discursive Socio-Professional Identity Construction | Sema Üstün Külünk (Bogazici University, Istanbul, Türkiye), Translating testimonies in the platform age: self-translation, volunteer OCT, and ethical mediation of Gaza narratives Rima Jamil Malkawi and Sanaa Benmessaoud (University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates), Moral Agency and Advocacy in Translation: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Gaza Editorials pre- and post- October 7th Maria Cristina Seccia (Università degli Studi “G. D’Annunzio” di Chieti, Pescara, Italy), Representing Displaced People in the Mediterranean: Humanitarian Discourse in Translation Alessia Mangiavillano (Independent interdisciplinary researcher, Italy), Comics as Creative Translation: Migrant Voices in Graphic Narratives Ellen Pilsworth (University of Reading, UK), Translating Victimhood: Shaping Jewish Refugee Memoirs for Interwar and Wartime British Readers Yanwei Wang (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany), Translating Displacement across Ideological Borders: Language Politics in East Germany’s Sinn und Form (1949–1990) |
Full programme with abstracts will be available at the beginning of March 2026
