Hemispheric Confluences: Translation Across the Americas

Hemispheric Confluences: Translation Across the Americas

One-day Symposium February 6, 2026, Boca Raton, FL

Sponsored by Florida Atlantic University’s Study of the Americas Initiative

Keynote Speaker

Kaiama L. Glover, PhD, award-winning translator of francophone fiction and non-fiction, scholar of Francophone literature, translation and Professor of Black Studies at Yale University

Translation is commonly understood as the transposing of a text from one language into another. Yet, translation is more than reading texts in languages we do not know. It allows us to experience ideas and cultures that would otherwise be inaccessible. This access, in turn, enriches our own thinking and culture. However, translating words, concepts, genres, knowledge, voices, any form of expression, is not neutral. The practice of translation benefits from theory as a translator navigates the complexities of reworking a text for those who will read the text, the culture(s) the text is part of, and the culture(s) the translation will become part of.

Dr. Kaiama L. Glover, in her work translating “Black” francophone authors into the Anglosphere, reflects on how the single word “Black,” far from unambiguous, resonates across the Americas—and beyond—with nuanced cultural, historical, and political connotations. Engaging with the “thinking of francophone and anglophone intellectuals and creative actors,” Glover develops her own concept, “trans(Re)lation, as a usefully provocative point of departure for sharing language and culture across the various borders of our persistently racialized world.”

This symposium aims to think about translation as an activity we all engage in our interdisciplinary work in the humanities across cultures, languages, and the Americas—North, South, Central and Caribbean.

We invite submissions for papers that address 1) what ways you call attention to translation in your work as a translator and in your research; 2) translation as creativity within and outside academia; 3) how you actively call attention to works in translation, think about translation, or use translation in your teaching practices.

Along with the panels, we will have a roundtable on using translation in the class setting in any humanities disciplines across the curriculum. Please specify if you are interested in the roundtable.

Send abstracts of 250 words, short bio, and any questions to Anne Molinas at amolinas2018@fau.edu by January 6, 2026. You will be notified by January 12, 2026.

With support from the Center for Peace, Justice, and Human Rights , the Department of Languages, Linguistics, and Comparative Literature, and the Department of English.