Call for Chapters: Digital Heritage Communication: AI, Translation, and Cultural Representation

Editors

Mohamad Noor Salehhuddin Sharipudin, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Hazlina Abdul Halim, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Zahid Hussain, Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Institute of Technology (KASBIT), Pakistan
Nurzihan Hassim, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
Hussein Khalifa, Cairo University, Egypt

Call for Chapters

Proposals Submission Deadline: July 5, 2026
 Full Chapters Due: September 27, 2026
 Submission Date: September 27, 2026

Introduction

Heritage communication today lies at the intersection of technology, identity, ethics, and public engagement. With the digitization of cultural heritage, communication has become increasingly multilingual, multimodal, and interactive, extending beyond physical spaces into digital environments. Translation plays a key role in enabling access and understanding across languages and cultures, both through human and machine-assisted approaches. However, the use of AI-driven translation and emerging technologies such as AR/VR and digital storytelling also raises important challenges, including issues of accuracy, cultural nuance, representation, ownership, and ethics. These developments highlight the need for responsible, context-sensitive, and community-informed practices in heritage communication. This book explores these intersections of translation studies, technology, identity, and ethics in contemporary heritage communication, and invites contributions that address issues of access, representation, multilingualism, and the responsible use of AI in preserving and sharing cultural heritage.

Objective

This book explores the intersections of translation studies, technology, identity, and ethics in contemporary heritage communication. It aims to advance discussions on how cultural heritage is accessed, represented, and communicated in a digital and AI-driven environment, with particular attention to multilingualism, inclusion, and the responsible use of translation technologies. We welcome conceptual, empirical, and practice-based contributions that examine heritage communication from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives, including translation studies, digital humanities, communication, cultural studies, museology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, public history, and AI ethics. The volume is intended as a resource for researchers, practitioners, educators, students, and policymakers, offering both theoretical insights and practical applications related to cultural heritage preservation, communication, and digital innovation.

Target Audience

1. Translation Scholars and Practitioners • Researchers and academics in translation studies who are investigating how AI technologies (e.g., neural machine translation, computer-assisted translation) affect the fidelity, functionality, and cultural sensitivity of heritage-related texts. • Professional translators and interpreters working with museums, archives, or heritage projects who are exploring AI tools for multilingual content delivery and cultural mediation. 2. Heritage Professionals, Museum Curators, and Archivists • Curators, cultural managers, and heritage site coordinators looking to integrate AI tools for digitizing, cataloguing, and enhancing visitor experiences. • Archivists and documentalists seeking to use AI for metadata tagging, restoration of historical documents, and automated transcription of oral histories. 3. Digital Humanities and Cultural Informatics Experts • Academics and practitioners in digital humanities focusing on corpus linguistics, cultural analytics, and interactive heritage narratives. • Cultural informaticians using computational methods to preserve and analyze cultural artefacts, languages, and historical narratives. 4. AI Developers and Technologists in Culture and Language • Engineers and data scientists designing AI applications for voice recognition, automatic translation, or virtual museum experiences in a heritage context. • Innovators building inclusive AI tools tailored to the needs of multilingual and culturally diverse audiences. 5. Academics and Researchers (Interdisciplinary) • Scholars from disciplines such as linguistics, anthropology, communication, computational linguistics, museum studies, and cultural studies interested in the convergence of heritage and technology. • Researchers conducting empirical studies on audience engagement, AI ethics, or multimodal heritage dissemination. 6. Policy Makers, Cultural Institutions, and NGOs • Government bodies, heritage councils, and cultural policymakers who need to understand the implications of AI for cultural preservation, digital rights, and linguistic diversity. • Non-governmental organizations advocating for minority language rights, intangible heritage preservation, and digital equity in global heritage initiatives. 7. Students and Educators • Undergraduate and postgraduate students in translation studies, heritage studies, digital humanities, and AI ethics who require updated scholarly resources. • Educators and curriculum designers integrating heritage, sustainability, and AI into higher education programs. 8. Creative Industries and Content Developers • Producers, documentarians, and content creators working with heritage narratives for films, documentaries, podcasts, or exhibitions, especially those involving multilingual or multicultural storytelling. • Game designers and AR/VR developers focused on creating immersive and AI-enhanced experiences that communicate historical and cultural narratives. This book will serve not only as an academic resource but also as a practical guide for organizations and individuals navigating the complex intersection of technology, culture, and communication. By bridging research, case studies, and forward-looking strategies, it empowers its readers to engage with heritage in ways that are inclusive, intelligent, and innovative.

Recommended Topics

1. Understanding Human Communication in Heritage • Definition and scope of human communication in cultural contexts • The role of communication in the preservation, interpretation, and transmission of heritage • Communication as cultural performance: rituals, narratives, and non-verbal heritage • Human communication vs. mediated/digital communication in heritage practices • Issues in heritage communication 2. Digitization and Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage • Endangered language documentation using AI tools and corpora • Semantic tagging and annotation of folklore and oral texts • Deep learning in cultural archiving and classification • Data sovereignty and indigenous heritage in digital archives 3. Multilingualism and Cross-Cultural Interpretation • Community translation models and citizen subtitling • Translating traditional ecological knowledge across linguistic boundaries • Intercultural dialogue through translation in museum exhibitions • AI subtitling and voiceover in oral heritage documentation • Ethics and accuracy in machine-mediated heritage translation • Translational justice and decolonizing digital access 4. Ethics, Identity, and Representation • Ethical frameworks for AI use in cultural communication • Identity, ownership, and authorship in digital heritage narratives • Algorithmic bias and representation of minority voices • Curating sensitive or sacred knowledge in public-facing platforms 5. Public Engagement and Participatory Practices • Gamification and VR/AR for youth engagement in heritage • Social media campaigns and crowdsourced storytelling • Oral history platforms and multilingual digital storytelling • ESDC (Education for Sustainable Development Competencies) and SDG 11.4 integration in heritage projects. 6. Corpus-Based and Computational Approaches • Building and analyzing parallel corpora for heritage translation • NLP (Natural Language Processing) tools for metadata enrichment and multilingual indexing • Corpus-driven analysis of translated oral histories or community narratives • Comparative corpora for regional linguistic variation in heritage contexts 7. Legal Frameworks and Policy in Digital Heritage • Intellectual property and copyright in translated heritage content • Legal implications of AI-generated heritage materials • Cultural policy and the protection of indigenous languages and expressions • International frameworks: UNESCO conventions, WIPO, and digital heritage governance 8. Heritage Communication in Crisis Contexts • Translation and dissemination of heritage content during conflicts or displacement • Digital archiving of endangered heritage due to climate change or war • AI tools for rapid documentation and translation in disaster zones • Narrating trauma and resilience in multilingual post-conflict heritage projects 9. Training, Pedagogy, and Curriculum Development • Teaching translation for heritage communication in higher education • Developing multilingual digital literacy for heritage interpreters • Capacity-building through blended learning and AI-supported platforms • Integrating SDGs and ethics in translation/heritage studies curricula 10. Future Frontiers and Emerging Technologies • The role of the metaverse and Web3 in heritage communication • AI avatars and immersive guides for heritage tourism • Holography and real-time multilingual interpretation in heritage sites • Predictive modeling and simulations of lost or hypothetical heritage environments

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before July 5, 2026, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by July 19, 2026 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines.Full chapters of a minimum of 10,000 words (word count includes references and related readings) are expected to be submitted by September 27, 2026, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions at https://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/ prior to submission. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-anonymized review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, Digital Heritage Communication: AI, Translation, and Cultural Representation. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-anonymized peer review editorial process.

All proposals should be submitted through the eEditorial Discovery® online submission manager.

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global Scientific Publishing, an international academic publisher of the "Information Science Reference", "Medical Information Science Reference", "Business Science Reference", and "Engineering Science Reference" imprints. IGI Global Scientific Publishing specializes in publishing reference books, scholarly journals, and electronic databases featuring academic research on a variety of innovative topic areas including, but not limited to, education, social science, medicine and healthcare, business and management, information science and technology, engineering, public administration, library and information science, media and communication studies, and environmental science. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit https://www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2027.

Indexing Information for Prospective Authors

IGI Global Scientific Publishing meets the criteria for inclusion in major indexing services such as Scopus; however, it is important to note that all indexing decisions are made independently by these services. IGI Global Scientific Publishing books are selectively indexed by the indexing organization after publication. Indexing cannot be guaranteed for any book prior to publication, and the indexing organization has complete control over the final selection and timeline.

Important Dates

July 5, 2026: Proposal Submission Deadline
July 19, 2026: Notification of Acceptance
September 27, 2026: Full Chapter Submission
November 8, 2026: Review Results Returned
December 6, 2026: Final Acceptance Notification
December 13, 2026: Final Chapter Submission

Inquiries

Mohamad Noor Salehhuddin Sharipudin Universiti Putra Malaysia salehhuddin@upm.edu.my Hazlina Abdul Halim Universiti Putra Malaysia hazlina_ah@upm.edu.my Zahid Hussain Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Institute of Technology (KASBIT) zahidhussain9341@gmail.com Nurzihan Hassim Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia nurzihan@ukm.edu.my Hussein Khalifa Cairo University h-khalifa@cu.edu.eg
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