Call for contributions: Special Issue on Kurdish and European Minority Language Translation in Dialogue

Translation into and out of minority languages in Europe and the Middle East operates under conditions of asymmetric institutional recognition, fragmented standardization, and uneven access to publication and broadcast infrastructures. For Kurdish communities across Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, as well as in European diasporas, translation constitutes a site where language policy, state power, and minority identity converge. Kurdish is spoken across several states and has no single institutional center; its speakers navigate translation in a context shaped by diverse language policies, script variation (Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic), cross-border dialect divisions (Kurmanji, Sorani, and Zazaki/Gorani), and uneven access to formal recognition. At the same time, translation functions as a tool of revitalization: literary translation, subtitling, dubbing, digital activism, and community interpreting all create new spaces for Kurdish language visibility and cultural survival.

This special issue examines translation as a political and cultural practice that shapes minority identity and visibility in Europe and the Middle East. We invite contributions that move beyond descriptive accounts of translation to interrogate how translation practices both reproduce and resist asymmetries of power between majority and minority languages. A European dimension is central to this special issue. We therefore particularly welcome contributions that:

• Address Kurdish and other minority language translation within European states (especially Turkey, but also European diasporic contexts);
• Situate Kurdish translation practices in comparative dialogue with European minority language contexts (e.g., Amazigh, Catalan, Galician, Basque, Albanian, Welsh, Roma, and other minoritized languages);
• Engage European legal, policy, and institutional frameworks for minority language rights, including the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, EU enlargement and neighbourhood policies, and Council of Europe instruments;
• Examine translation flows between Europe and the Middle East, including diasporic translation networks, publishing circuits, and digital activism;
• Reflect on what European minority language translation histories and theories can learn from Kurdish and Middle Eastern cases, and vice versa.

Contributions that are not Europe-focused are welcome, provided they adopt a comparative perspective with European case studies, frameworks, or debates.

Guest Editors: Dr. Milad Miraki (Adjunct Lecturer, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran) and Dr. Zakarya Bezdoode (Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran)

Submission Details:

Abstracts (300-400 words) should be sent as a Word document to milad.miraki@fgn.ui.ac.ir and zakarya.bezdoode@uok.ac.ir with the subject line “JEMIE Special Issue - Abstract Submission.” Please include the author’s name, affiliation, email address, and a short biographical note (50-80 words).

Abstract submission deadline: 15 November 2026

Notification of abstract acceptance: 6 December 2026

Full manuscript submission deadline: 15 April 2027.