The Cultural Translation and Mobility: Processes, Spaces, Objects Working Group invites proposals for a panel titled “Planetary thinking at the intersections of cultural translation and mobility“ as part of the Canadian Association of Cultural Studies Biennial Conference (hybrid), November 5-7, 2026, hosted  by the Cultural Studies Department, Trent University, Canada.

Responding to the conference theme ‘Upheavals,’ the working group proposes to explore the intersections of translation and mobility from the perspective of planetary thinking. In Pratt’s (2022) elaboration, planetarity embraces experiences and perspectives that are polyvocal, experimental, and, crucially, look to relational forms of knowledge-making at different scales. Here translation—shaped by types of mobility— is implicated at different levels as a continuous process of relationship building and meaning-making capable of both entrenching and unsettling worldviews, often through local responses to global issues in an interconnected and fractured world. In connecting planetarity to translation and mobility, we want to foreground their complementarity across sites of cultural negotiation and the significance of knowledge ecology in planetary thinking.

We invite proposals from scholars and creative practitioners working across disciplines to explore how cultural translation and mobility (can) vitalize future-oriented planetary thinking. 

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

-       Planetary aesthetics in globalized culture: Appropriation and extractivism,  e.g., cultural translation in (im)mobile petro-cultures; cultural translation and transculturation in the context of seasonal or temporary migrant work

-       Planetary thinking in discussions of cultural/art tourism:  Images and pop-cultural stereotypes of the cosmopolitan tourist;  translation in museums and museums as translation zones

-       Media, mobile technologies and pop culture

-       Cultural translation and academic mobility: Self-translating migrant scholars; knowledge mobility and translation of scholarship from minor research practices; transnational research, knowledge production and knowledge ecology

-       Climate justice,  grassroots activism and environmental narrative circulation

-       Collective meaning-making  and translation: Contested meanings of concepts and ideas (the Anthropocene, Blackness, Whiteness, “refugee crisis”);  connections between dominant epistemologies and informal and marginalized knowledges

-       Cultural translation and forced (im)mobilities (plants, animals,  microbes)

-       Urban spaces as translation zones: Multilinguality and translation in the cultural lives of cities, e.g., translocality and cultural mobility of urban cosmopolitan spaces 

-       Travelling technologies and local translations: shifting focus from ownership/authorship to practice (recycling, repair, piracy, innovation) and  collaborative performance

Please submit abstracts of 200-300 words for papers or presentations (20 minutes) Include a brief bio (100 words) with contact information

Deadline for submissions is June 30, 2026.

Please submit a proposal to: cultransmob@gmail.com sanj92@yorku.ca agata.mergler@uap.edu.pl

For information about the working group, please check its description

@font-face {font-family:Vrinda; panose-1:2 11 5 2 4 2 4 2 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:65539 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-469750017 -1040178053 9 0 511 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:.5pt; margin-left:.5pt; text-indent:-.5pt; line-height:111%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:15.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Vrinda; color:black; mso-font-kerning:1.0pt; mso-ligatures:standardcontextual; mso-ansi-language:EN; mso-fareast-language:EN;}a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:#467886; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;}a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:#96607D; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Aptos; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Aptos; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Vrinda; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:8.0pt; line-height:115%;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}ol {margin-bottom:0cm;}ul {margin-bottom:0cm;}