Translating cultures – Cultures of translation. 33rd European Meeting of Cultural Journals

The 33rd European Meeting of Cultural Journals will take place from 7–9 November 2025 in the Slovenian–Italian cities of Nova Gorica/Gorizia, a ‘borderless’ European Capital of Culture in 2025. The conference is co-organized with Razpotja magazine.

Taking its lead from the cities’ bilingual and bi-national identities, the conference returns to a topic at the core of the Eurozine project: translation as means for the formation of a transnational public sphere.

When Eurozine met in Belgrade back in 2003 to discuss Europe and the Balkans: Politics of Translation, the political dimensions of translation emerged in sharp focus. With the violent collapse of the Yugoslav state fresh in the memory, and the discursive turn enjoying a second wind, translation seemed to be a ‘central metaphor of our time’. Translation was understood as ‘intercultural praxis’; as engagement with difference that avoided the pitfalls of identitarian essentialism.

Over two decades later, does that understanding  still resonate? When the rationalist faith in public spheres has been shaken to the core, can translation still serve as a metaphor of social progress? Is a more utilitarian definition called for in an era of culture wars, nationalist revanchisms and authoritarian throwbacks, of linguistic homogenization and technological hyper-acceleration? Or do precisely these things require a radical critique of identity – one rooted in theories of language and textuality, as was the case against the backdrop of the wars of the ’90s and early 2000s?

In Nova Gorica/Gorizia, the Eurozine network will be reassessing translation’s role in the formation of a transnational public sphere. Our aim will be to explore how translation, understood in both a figurative and functional sense, can help us negotiate the present moment. Panels range from the literary and linguistic aspects of translation in relation to cultural power and ideology, to questions about the impact of artificial intelligence on the practice of translation as well as transnational cultural discourse more broadly.

All panels and keynotes will be open to the public.

Programme

FRIDAY 7 NOV

Network meeting (Eurozine partners only) 15:00–17:30

KEYNOTE 18:00–19:30: Marci Shore

Working title: Everything is translation: Possibilities and impossibilities of understanding in a dystopian world

SATURDAY 8 NOV

PANEL 1 09:30–11:00

Directions of travel: Literary translation and cultural power

This panel brings together literary translators and journal editors to discuss how relationships of cultural power are not just reflected in but also challenged by practices of literary translation. Starting with wider questions about literature and cultural power, the discussion will move to concrete examples of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic translation.

Panelists: Jordan Elgrably, Erica Johnson Debeljak

Moderator: Ann Ighe

PANEL 2 11:30–13:00

Cultures within limits: Minority languages and translation

This panel explores how multilingual polities negotiate relations between minority and majority languages, and the role of translation in these processes. Taking Nova Gorica’s multilingual identity as a starting point, cultural journalists and linguists will discuss issues around language rights, representation and protection in a range of minority-majority constellations.

Panelists: Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Marco Stolfo, Sofiya Zahova

Moderator: Simona Škrabec

PANEL 3 14:30–16:00

Tyranny in translation: The transfer of authoritarianisms

The concept of translation can be used to understand processes through which political ideas, ideologies and practices migrate. Bringing together historians and journalists, this panel will explore the ‘translation’ of authoritarian politics at regional and global levels. The aim is not to compare authoritarianisms in the abstract but to identify concrete and organic processes of transfer and exchange.

Panelists: Stefano Bottoni, Hamit Bozarslan, Marci Shore

Moderator: Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič

PANEL 4 16:30–18:00

Transnational public spheres in the age of AI: Translation and technological change  

Neural machine translation wouldn’t exist without access to the work of translators. But how are AI translation tools altering the function of translation? How is the ubiquity of AI impacting on the formation of transnational publics? And how is AI’s ‘revolutionization’ of translation impacting the ethics of cultural content creation? Translators and researchers offer answers to these questions, drawing conclusions for cultural journals in particular.

Panelists: Florian Cramer, Claudia Hamm, Tanja Petrič

Moderator: Igor Harb

KEYNOTE 19:00: Mladen Dolar (tbc)