This handbook offers a broad-ranging overview of the study of translating and interpreting in conflict and crisis settings and takes the field in new directions. Covering a wide selection of multimodal contexts that build on the fundamentals of translation, interpreting and their in-between hybrid forms of mediation, the handbook is divided into four sections. The opening section covers perspectives on policy and practices, whether contemporary or historical and cases truly span the globe, from Peru and Brazil, over Belgium and Sierra Leone, to Australia, Japan and Hong Kong. International developments require profound considerations about the professionalization of access to language in times of crises, not least in contexts of humanitarian negotiation or conflict zone interpreting – these form the second section. The subsequent section deals with spheres of community in which language needs are positioned within frames of agency, positionality and trust and the challenges that these face. The contributions build on cases where interpreters act as catalysts for translation needs in settings of humanitarian aid and beyond. The final section considers language strategies and solutions in crises. This handbook is the essential guide to Translation and Interpreting in conflict and crisis settings for advanced students and researchers of Translation and Interpreting studies and also will be of wide interest in Peace studies, Political science and beyond.

In February 2006 the first international conference on Multilingualism and Applied Comparative Linguistics (MACL) was held in Brussels, Belgium. The aim of the MACL conference was to bring together scholars from various branches of applied linguistics with a shared interest in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication. The conference thus fostered an exchange of knowledge and expertise among researchers from various disciplines, including educational linguistics, cultural linguistics, terminography, translation studies and studies of specialised languages. The present book is the second of two volumes containing a selection from the approximately 120 papers that were presented at that three-day event. The book comprises five chapters, reflecting different research perspectives on cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication. The first chapter covers research articles on metaphors and planned languages. The second chapter comprises articles dealing with language attitudes, language proficiency and language practices in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural, communicative contexts. Chapter three features articles in the field of discourse-analysis research. In the fourth chapter research is presented that pertains to terminology and specialised languages. Finally, chapter five deals with translation studies.