About our research
Research is one of the three pillars of academia. Teaching and social impact are impossible without research. To this end academic staff at the
Department of Afrikaans and Dutch are involved in all sorts of research projects. View individual research profiles by visiting the page for our academic staff. And every two years our postgraduate studens showcase their research at
USAN.
Visit
SUNScholar to view theses, dissertations, articles and inaugural addresses created by our staff and students.
Call for book chapters
The reality of revision
Dear colleague
Ilse Feinauer (aef@sun.ac.za) and
Amanda Marais (alourens@sun.ac.za) are planning an edited volume under the title
The reality of revision. The book will be a peer-reviewed volume of full-length contributions showing the real-life actions of revisers. We are currently in discussions with the John Benjamins Publishing Company regarding the potential publication of the book.
We would like authors to give account of everyday, normal ways of action to make meaning of the terms
reviser and
revision. Investigations could also include what the agent performing the revision looks like and what the role of this agent is in any specific finished product. Authors could also consider the role of AI as agent in all their revisionary activities. In this book, we group all revisionary activities (currently referred to using the terms
revision,
editing,
proofreading,
post-editing,
fuzzy matching) under
revision as the umbrella term. We request authors to investigate professional practices to advance theoretical approaches regarding revision; in turn, practice may draw on these new theoretical perspectives, e.g. project managers understanding the complexities of the social networks in which the various agents operate in order to generate a specific product.
The research framework used will be data-based, drawing on patterns that emerged from the analysis of real-life data. Authors will follow a more sociological approach in researching publishing projects, since sociological theories may provide the background against which we can explain the very complex patterns in the actual revisionary activities. At this stage, very little is known about the way revision takes place, but empirical data on the actual genesis of published texts will describe the various roles, power relations, as well as the socio-cognitive aspects operative in revision.
The styles and applications of revisionary activities may vary from project to project, and also from agent to agent, depending on the nature of the text and individual working style and personality of the agent at work.
We therefore invite contributions on the following topics:
-
workplace and classroom revision practices
-
revision agents (author, translator, reviser, reader, reviewer) and their agencies (habitus, processes, networks, power relations, gender, post-colonialism)
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revisionary practices in various genres (e.g. literary, technical, academic) either generically or in specific publications
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revisionary practices in manuscript development in various genres
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revisionary practices in all types of (sign language) interpreting
Reference list
Buzelin, H. 2005. Unexpected alies: How Latour’s network theory could complement Bourdieusian analyses in Translation Studies. The Translator, 11(2):193-219.
Gagné, A. 2023. Multiple constraints, multiple avenues: Exploring the sense of agency in a revision project through a multi-method approach.
Translation in Society, 2(2):167-187.
Koponen, M., Mossop, B., Robert, I. and Scocchera, G. (eds.). 2021.
Translation Revision and/or Post-Editing. London & New York: Routledge.
Linguistica Antvrepiensia, New Series: Themes in Translation Studies, 14. 2015. On Generic Translation Studies.
Mossop, B. 2014.
Revising and editing for translators. 3rd edition. London & New York: Routledge.
Confirmation and abstract submission
- Please submit your abstract to
Annie Burger (annieburger@sun.ac.za) by no later than
Monday 29 July 2024.
- Abstract requirements:
- Your abstract must clearly indicate your problem statement and methodology.
- Please include 5 keywords.
- Length: 500 words (excluding references)
- Expect to receive
feedback on your abstract by
Friday 30 August 2024. Technical requirements for chapters, including length requirements and referencing standards, will be communicated upon acceptance of your proposal.
- Completed chapters will be expected by
Monday 31 March 2025, after which the peer review process will commence.