CfP MonTI 20 (2028)

Creativity in Translation: new perspectives in current educational and professional scenarios

In today’s society and job market, characterised by volatility and the surge of artificial intelligence, skills such as critical thinking and creativity, resilience, flexibility, agility, and digital literacy are not only considered critical but are also projected to take on greater importance in the future (World Economic Forum 2025). In this context, a new educational approach seems more necessary than ever, given that higher education institutions face the challenge of equipping students with the skills required by innovative economies and a diverse offer of pedagogies is the most effective way to achieve it (Avvisati, et al., 2013).

In Translation Studies, creativity has been an elusive concept often linked to the dichotomy between literal and non-literal translation since Kussmaul (1991) and Durieux (1991) first mentioned it in their research. Years later, Malmkjær (2019) examined the concept in an attempt to provide a definition and establish its boundaries. More recently, the development of technologies and the automation of translation processes have led to a paradigm shift. New markets require strategic and efficient professionals who are able to adapt in a rapidly changing working landscape due to the dramatic advances of machine translation. Solving translation problems with high doses of creativity involves a combination of four dimensions: acceptability, flexibility, novelty, and fluency (Bayer-Hohenwarter 2009, 2010, 2011). This is in line with Rojo’s approach (2018, p. 353), for whom “creative solutions have to be novel and depart from conventional translation behaviour, but should also render meaning accurately and give solutions appropriate to a certain textual, situational and cultural context”.

Therefore, further research is needed on the concept of creativity competence in translation and the new methodological tools that can be used for teaching and learning (Rojo 2019, Rojo & Meseguer 2015, 2018). In addition, studies on the effects of creativity on translation reception, as far as the readers’ engagement, enjoyment and satisfaction are concerned (Asimakoulas & Guerberof-Arenas 2026; Guerberof-Arenas & Toral 2022a, 2022b, 2024) seem to have gained paramount importance against the challenges brought by artificial intelligence and machine translation.

Aims

This volume is aimed at gathering contributions that open new avenues for a better understanding of the ways in which creativity can be included in the curriculum at different levels and contexts, as well as highlighting the importance of human creativity in translation processes, including its connection with cross-curricular topics such as equality (Martínez Motos & Gómez González-Jover, 2024), agency, accessibility, intersectionality, decolonialisation, and situatedness.

We welcome submissions from authors open to discuss the importance of creativity in translation from different perspectives.

Topics of interest

• Translation as a creative process
• Creativity and the translation profession
• Didactics of creativity in translation
• Creativity in general, literary and specialised translation
• Creativity in AVT, DAT & accessibility
• Creativity, translation and artificial intelligence
• Translation, creativity and technologies
• Creativity and agency in translation
• Ethics, inclusion and accessibility in creative translation
• Emotions and translator’s creativity
• Translation, transcreation and adaptation in multimodal contexts
• Creativity and critical thinking in translation
• Creativity as a cross-curricular competence

References

Asimakoulas, Dimitris & Ana Guerberof-Arenas. (2026) “The double-helix of creative writing and translation: postgraduate translation students and tutors reflect on creativity, AI assistance and translation.” The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750399X.2026.2635239

Avvisati, Francesco; Gwénaël Jacotin & Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin. (2013) “Educating higher education students for innovative economies: What international data tell us.” Tuning Journal for Higher Education 1:1, pp. 223–240. https://doi.org/10.18543/tjhe-1(1)-2013pp223-240

Bayer-Hohenwarter, Gerrit. (2009) “Translational creativity: how to measure the unmeasurable.” In: Göpferich, Susanne; Arnt Lykke Jakobsen & Inger M. Mees (eds.) 2009. Behind the mind: Methods, models and results in translation process research. Copenhagen: Samfund Litteratur, pp. 38–59.

Bayer-Hohenwarter, Gerrit. (2010) “Comparing translational creativity scores of students and professionals: flexible problem-solving and/or fluent routine behavior?” In: Göpferich, Susanne; Fabio Alves & Inger M. Mees (eds.) 2010. New Approaches in Translation Process Research. Copenhagen: Samfund Litteratur, pp. 83–111.

Bayer-Hohenwarter, Gerrit. (2011) “’Creative Shifts’ as a means of measuring and promoting translational creativity.” Meta 56:3, pp. 663–692. https://doi.org/10.7202/1008339ar

Durieux, Christine. (1991) “Liberté et créativité en traduction technique.” En: Lederer, Marianne & Fortunato Israel (eds.) La liberté en traduction. Paris: Didier Erudition, pp. 169–179.

Guerberof-Arenas, Ana & Antonio Toral. (2022a) “CREAMT: Creativity and narrative engagement of literary texts translated by translators and NMT.” In: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the European Association for Machine Translation. Ghent: European Association for Machine Translation, pp. 357–358.

Guerberof-Arenas, Ana & Antonio Toral. (2022b) “Creativity in translation: machine translation as a constraint for literary texts.” Translation Spaces, 11:2, 184–212. https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.21025.gue

Guerberof-Arenas, Ana & Antonio Toral. (2024) “To be or not to be: a translation reception study of a literary text translated into Dutch and Catalan using machine translation.” Target 36:2, pp. 215–244. https://doi.org/10.1075/target.22134.gue?locatt=mode:legacy

Kussmaul, Paul. (1991) “Creativity in the translation process: Empirical approaches.” En: Leuven-Zwart, Kitty M. & Ton Naaijkens (eds.) Translation studies: The state of the art. Proceedings of the first James S. Holmes Symposium on Translation Studies. Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 91–101.

Malmkjaer, Kristen. (2020) Translation and creativity. London: Routledge.

Martínez Motos, Raquel & Adelina Gómez González-Jover. (2024) “Creatividad y pensamiento crítico. Un antídoto contra la ceguera de género en el aula de traducción.” Hikma 23:2, pp. 1–34. https://doi.org/10.21071/hikma.v23i2.16549

Rojo, Ana & Purificación Meseguer. (2015) “Fomentando la creatividad una propuesta didáctica para el aula de traducción.” Quaderns 22, pp. 255–271. https://raco.cat/index.php/QuadernsTraduccio/article/view/294272

Rojo, Ana & Purificación Meseguer. (2018) “Creativity and translation quality: Opposing enemies or friendly aliens?” Hermes 57, pp. 79–96. https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.v0i57.106202

Rojo, Ana (ed.) (2019) La investigación de la creatividad en traducción. Resultados del proyecto Transcrea. Granada: Comares.

Rojo, Ana. (2018) “The role of creativity.” In: Schwieter, John W. & Aline Ferreira (eds.) The Handbook of translation and cognition. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 350–368.

World Economic Forum. (2025) The future of jobs report 2025. Geneva: World Economic Forum.

Contact details

Queries related to the scientific content of the volume may be addressed to any of the publishers.

Ana Guerberof-Arenas: a.guerberof.arenas@rug.nl

Raquel Martínez Motos: raquel.motos@ua.es

María L. Medel: medel@ua.es