Journal of World History Special Issue: Found in Translation: Linguistic Dimensions and Cultural Intersections — free!

The World History Association hosts its annual meeting in Incheon, South Korea from June 25 to 27, with the theme “Closed Borders and Global Connections: Being Global after Globalization.”  The Journal of World History offers this accompanying special collection, “Found in Translation: Linguistic Dimensions and Cultural Intersections,” for free on the Project MUSE platform through September 30. Select world history titles will also be 30% off from July 1 through September 30, 2026 using coupon code WHA2026.

The ten articles collected in “Found in Translation: Linguistic Dimensions and Cultural Intersections” dare to ask: how can we write, teach, and think about world history in a moment characterized both by global entanglement and anti-globalist politics ? What historical precedents—such as empires, invasions, epidemics, diasporas, trade routes, or cross-cultural encounters—might help us imagine a world that is connected but not necessarily globalized in the modern sense? 

In their introduction Sonali Chadha, Gideon Choi, Emily De La Torre, Wonjun Kang, Leeanna See and editor Laura J. Mitchell introduce special issue, “Found in Translation: Linguistic Dimensions and Cultural Intersections”:

“Translation gets taken for granted in historical research. It’s omnipresent, yet hidden when done well. The language and ethos of past societies come to life for present-day audiences when readers in China are immersed in the Mughal court or French students hear a lecture on Aztec agriculture. Filters of language, culture, and period fade as skilled communicators make clear the dynamics of people and places distant in time and space. These interpretive acts are inherent to everything we do as learners, teachers, and researchers, but historians rarely focus on the processes, forms, or implications of translation. The 2026 digital-only special issue of the Journal of World History calls attention to the possibilities lurking in this oversight. This collection of previously published articles highlights the benefits of paying close attention to methods and ways of thinking that we sometimes overlook. These articles frame translation as a state’s or people’s desire for influence, power, or resistance. Language played a central role in universal claims to knowledge. Exploring these claims through the lens of translation exposes tension between the desire among the powerful to universalize knowledge—expressed through a dominant language—and subalterns’ desire to belong, catch up, and sometimes appropriate the power rooted in claims to universality. In this clash of desires, we see multiple roles for language: sometimes literal, sometimes abstract. This spectrum of roles includes the physical circulation of books and tangible translator training—long-term processes that afforded access to specific forms of knowledge.”

Read the special issue here.

University of Hawai‘i Press is proud to sponsor the 2026 Annual Meeting of the World History Association, taking place June 25–27, 2026 in Incheon, South Korea! As publisher of the Journal of World History, the official journal of the World History Association, we are honored to support scholarship that explores history on a global, comparative, and transnational scale. In addition, explore our Perspectives on the Global Past series, which showcases innovative approaches to world history, cross-cultural encounters, global themes, and large-scale historical processes. Save 30% on Perspectives on the Global Past titles and other selected history books with code WHA2026. Valid for online orders only through September 30, 2026.