Translation and Decolonisation

Translation and Decolonisation: Interdisciplinary Approaches offers compelling explorations of the pivotal role that translation plays in the complex and necessarily incomplete process of decolonisation. In a world where translation has historically been a tool of empire and colonisation, this collection shines the spotlight on the potential for translation to be a driving force in decolonial resistance. The book bridges the divide between translation studies and the decolonial turn in the social sciences and humanities, revealing the ways in which translation can challenge colonial imaginaries, institutions, and practice, and how translation opens up South-to-South conversations. It brings together scholars from diverse disciplines and fields, including sociology, literature, languages, migration, politics, anthropology, and more, offering interdisciplinary approaches and perspectives. By examining both the theoretical and practical aspects of this intersection, the chapters of this agenda-setting collection explore the impact of translation on decolonisation and highlight the need to decolonise translation studies itself. The book illuminates the transformative power of translation in transcending linguistic, cultural, and political boundaries.

Claire Chambers is Professor of Global Literature at the University of York, where she teaches twentieth- and twenty-first-century writing in English from South Asia, the Perso-Arab world, and their diasporas. Her books include Imagining Muslims in South Asia and the Diaspora, Britain Through Muslim Eyes, and Making Sense of Contemporary British Muslim Novels.

Ipek Demir is Professor of Diaspora Studies and Director of the Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS) at the University of Leeds. Her publications span race, diaspora, migration, decoloniality, and interdisciplinarity. Her research has been funded by the EU, ESRC, and AHRC. She is also the author of Diaspora as Translation and Decolonisation (2022).