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Osiris volume on Frankenstein and its iterations in the history of science and medicine

Type:
Call for Papers

Date:
October 15, 2016

Location:
United States

Subject Fields:
History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Intellectual History

To follow the publication of our recent book, Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives (Rutgers UP, 2016) and in honor of the upcoming bicentennial of the publication of Frankenstein, Les Friedman and I are proposing an edition of the history of science journal Osiris to be devoted to iterations of the Frankenstein story in the history of science and medicine. We are still searching for a few contributors who would be interested in writing on any aspect of this in any region at any time. Possible themes include but are not limited to experimentation, scientific institutions and universities, Arctic exploration, the search for the “spark of life,” Galvinism, anatomy, the rise of scientific disciplines, and the formalization of scientific practice/the formation of scientific truth. For now, only a 500 word abstract is required by the miuddle of October. It will be submitted with the complete proposal for consideration, and we hope to hear we were selected in November. I hope to hear from interested contributors ASAP at akavey@jjay.cuny.edu.

Thanks!
Allison Kavey
History Department
CUNY John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center

Contact Info:
Allison Kavey
CUNY John Jay College-History Department
524 W 59th St
NY, NY 10019

Contact Email:
akavey@jjay.cuny.edu

From R.U.R. to Mr. Burns: Science Fiction Takes the Stage

deadline for submissions:
November 26, 2016

full name / name of organization:
Panel Call for Comparative Drama Conference

contact email:
Lsnyder4990@stevenson.edu

Science Fiction as a genre is ubiquitous in our culture, dominating popular novels and summer blockbuster movies. Teachers have been quick to note how this pop culture force can draw students into the classroom to discuss ‘high culture’ themes. I have taught a course on futuristic literature spanning 1984 through The Hunger Games. My peers are teaching courses on slipstream and video games as literature. The courses fill fast with excited learners ready to engage in high-level debates on topics as diverse as the environment, government surveillance, cloning, and consumerism. Yet, as I have looked over the course reading lists, I have noted that none of them, not even my own, included a play. It’s not that there aren’t science fiction plays, or that they all deserve a ‘low culture,’ ‘pulp’ categorization. The 1920 Czech play R.U.R., which introduced the term ‘robot,’ critiqued Fordism and post-war culture, much like Brave New World. The Rocky Horror Show premiered first as a stage play at the Royal Court Theatre, later becoming the LGBTQIA iconic film. Ayckbourn and Churchill have penned sci-fi plays that surely cannot be dismissed as purely pop culture action pulp. And the current boom in science fiction plays provides excellent examples of theatre with pop-culture appeal and ‘high’ culture thematic content; Jennifer Haley’s The Nether and Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, are two notable examples. Both have won critical accolades as well as large audiences. Clearly, the genre deserves greater critical attention than it has so far received.

This panel is interested in papers that explore any facet of the development of the genre of science fiction plays, plays within and/or playwrights that write within the genre (Ayckbourn, Churchill, Nguyen, Adams, George, Washburn, Haley, et al.), companies that stage sci-fi plays (e.g. Vampire Cowboys Theatre Co., Otherworld Theatre), major contemporary themes being developed in the genre, or teaching strategies that involve science fiction plays. The panel is being proposed for the 2017 Comparative Drama Conference, April 6-8, in Orlando, FL. (For more information visit http://blogs.rollins.edu/drama/call-for-papers-2/)

To be considered for the panel, send a 250 word abstract with paper title, author’s name, institutional affiliation, status, postal address and email address at top left, to Dr. Laura Snyder at Lsnyder4990@stevenson.edu . Proposals should arrive no later than November 26. I will acknowledge receipt of the abstract within three days and will inform submitters of the status of their submission by Dec. 2.

Dear IAFA Members,

At our meeting in March, the IAFA Board discussed several issues assocationed with the ongoing operation of the book room. We propose several changes to the Book Room at the conference, including decreasing the amount of back stock that we store. We also will begin a relationship with Scholars Choice, a conference service that makes academic books for sale at conference venues.

We will put the Book Room on the agenda for the Business Meeting at the conference this coming March and will present more details about the history and the situation then. That will also be an opportunity to have a discussion with the membership about your desires moving forward so that we can ensure that we are proceeding in the appropriate way.

For the time being, the linked document provides a brief précis of the relevant issues and the steps we have taken thus far. I hope this document will help members understand the context in which the Board took the decisions we have made.

We will soon be advertising for a new position as part of the IAFA conference staffing, the Book Room Liaison. The person who takes on this role will play a crucial role in guiding the conference forward to a new model of the Book Room and its place in our conference culture.

Please hold your questions until the General Meeting rather than opening a discussion by email, but be assured that we look forward to hearing your thoughts and that no decisions taken thus far are set in stone.

I look forward to that opportunity to further discuss the future of IAFA with you.

Best wishes,
Sherryl Vint
IAFA President

book-room-information-to-members

Call For Papers

Three-hundred and nineteen years since the publication of Charles Perrault’s famous Histories du Temps Passé, the myth of Cinderella remains integral to many current facets of our cultures. Inspired by the University of Bedfordshire’s collection of scripts, books, theatrical memorabilia, designs, ephemera on Cinderella and organised by the Research Institute for Media, Arts and Performance, this conference focuses on the role of performance and storytelling as a way to analyse moments of significant artistic, cultural and social change.

The interdisciplinary event will provide an open debate about this ever-present story from different cultural perspectives across the world and we invite abstracts of 300 words for 20 minute papers. Possible themes include:

Cinderella narratives and metaphors
Cinderella on screen and stage
Transnational Cinderella
The publishing of Cinderella
Victorian Cinderella
Cinderella and design
Adaptations of the Cinderella story
The psychology of Cinderella
Non-traditional proposals featuring collaborative papers, practice-led research, video-essays, elements of performance etc. where they increase our knowledge of the role of re-narration of fairy tales in artistic, cultural and social change are actively encouraged. RIMAP wishes to offer a prize for the best Postgraduate proposal.

Please include the following with your abstract:

Collaborators’ and presenters’ names, addresses, affiliations, contact details in a short biography, together with a URL to a sample of work (if appropriate). Please state if you are a postgraduate research student.
Description of the presentation/performance/screening 300 words max (if appropriate)
Technical or space requirements
Duration (the standard duration is 20 minutes but you may request multiples)
Please send your abstracts and support documentation to cinderella@beds.ac.uk by 11.30pm on 9th December 2016. Notification of acceptance will be sent by 3rd February 2017.

More information about the conference will be posted on the conference website: www.beds.ac.uk/cinderella and on Twitter @cinderellaconf

2016 James Tiptree, Jr. Symposium: A Celebration of Ursula K. Le Guin
Symposium on feminist SF to highlight Oregon’s own Grand Master

Welcoming scholars, luminaries, and fans of speculative fiction to Eugene, the University of Oregon will host a two-day symposium dedicated to the life and work of Ursula K. Le Guin on December 2-3, 2016.

Tentative keynote speakers: Karen Joy Fowler, Kelly Sue De Connick, and Brian Attebery.

Co-sponsors include the UO Libraries and Oregon Humanities Center.

For more information, please visit: https://library.uoregon.edu/tiptree-symposium-2016.

Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference held in tandem with StokerCon 2017

Conference Dates: April 27 – 30, 2017

Conference Hotel: The Queen Mary, Long Beach, California

Conference Website: www.StokerCon2017.org

The Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference co-chairs invite all interested scholars and academics to submit presentation abstracts related to horror studies for consideration to be presented at the Second Annual StokerCon, April 27-30, 2017 held on the historic The Queen Mary, moored at Long Beach, California (see: www.queenmary.com ).

Horror continues to be a dominating genre within the wider pop-culture arena, and continued academic analysis of horror remains critical. Hence, we are looking for presentations that will discuss completed or works-in-progress that expand the scholarship on various facets of horror that proliferates in:

Art
Cinema
Comics
Literature
Music
Television
Video Games
Etc.

We invite papers that take an interdisciplinary approach to their subject matter and can apply a variety of lenses and frameworks, such as, but not limited to:

Auteur theory

Close textual analysis

Comparative analysis

Cultural and ethnic

Fandom and fan studies

Film studies

Folklore

Gender/LGBT studies

Historic analysis

Interpretations

Linguistic

Literature studies

Media and communications

Media Sociology

Modernity/Postmodernity

Mythological

Psychological

Racial studies

Semiotics

Theoretical (Adorno, Barthes, Baudrillard, Dyer, Gerbner, etc.)

Transmedia

Conference Details

Please send a 250 – 300 word abstract on your intended topic, a preliminary bibliography and your CV to AnnRadCon@gmail.com by December 31, 2016. Responses will be sent out during January, 2017.

Presentation time consideration: 15 minute maximum to allow for a Question and Answer period. Limit of one presentation at the conference.

There are no honorariums for presenters; this is an academic conference. There is, however, a StokerCon2017 award opportunity; see http://horrorscholarships.com/the-scholarship-from-hell/

Organizing Co-Chairs

Michele Brittany & Nicholas Diak

Email: AnnRadCon@gmail.com

The Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference is part of the Horror Writers Association’s Outreach Program. Membership to the Horror Writers Association is not required to submit or present, however registration to StokerCon 2017 is required to present. StokerCon registration can be obtained by going to www.stokercon2017.org. If interested in applying to the Horror Writer’s Association as an academic member, please see http://horror.org/joining-the-hwa/ .

StokerCon is the annual convention hosted by the Horror Writers Association wherein the Bram Stoker Awards for superior achievement in horror writing are awarded.

Contact Info:
Nicholas Diak & Michele Brittany – co-chairs: AnnRadCon@gmail.com

Contact Email:
AnnRadCon@gmail.com
URL:
http://www.stokercon2017.org/

Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies

Special issue: The Intersections of Disability and Science Fiction

Guest editors: Ria Cheyne (Disability and Education, Liverpool Hope University) and Kathryn Allan (Independent Scholar, Canada)

“No other literary genre comes close to articulating the anxieties and preoccupations of the present day as clearly and critically as SF, making it a vital source of understanding advances in technology and its impact on newly emerging embodiments and subjectivities, particularly for people with disabilities.”
–Kathryn Allan, Disability in Science Fiction

Reflecting the status of science fiction as a genre that spans multiple mediums and audiences, this special issue of JLCDS seeks articles that explore the intersection(s) of science fiction, disability, and disability studies. What possibilities might science fiction or science fiction theory offer to disability activists and the field of disability studies? How might disability theory, or a disability-informed approach, enrich or transform our understanding of science fiction as a genre or as a mode of thought?

Topics might include, but are not limited to:
● Representations of disability in science fiction literature, comics/graphic novels, film, art, music, video games, or television, and their implications for our understanding of genre and/or disability.
● Science fiction fan culture (including conventions, fanfic and other forms of fan production).
● Science fiction and prosthesis.
● Science fiction and eugenics/genetic engineering.
● Science fiction and the posthuman.
● Accessibility and science fiction environments.
● The political and ethical consequences of imagining future worlds with or without disability.
● The figure of the alien or cyborg in science fiction and/or disability theory.
● Disability and queerness in science fiction.
● Disability and indigenous futures in science fiction.
● Science fiction, disability, and medical humanities.
● The influence of disability activism on professional or fan-based science fiction production.

Submissions that consider how disability intersects with other identity categories are particularly encouraged. The guest editors welcome contributions from independent scholars.

Please email a 500 word proposal to cheyner@hope.ac.uk and kathryn@academiceditingcanada.ca by March 15, 2017. Contributors can expect to be notified by April 26, 2017. Full drafts of the selected articles will be due by December 6, 2017. Please direct any questions to either guest editor.

Disability and Disciplines taking place next year in the UK.

Disability and Science Fiction

Calling all disability and science fiction scholars,

I am proposing a disability and science fiction panel for the Centre of Culture and Disability Studies, Liverpool Hope University’s “Disability and Disciplines”: The International Conference on Educational, Cultural, and Disability Studies on 5-6 July 2017. The conference is taking place in Liverpool in the UK and is, in general, looking for work that is interdisciplinary in nature. For example, I am putting forward a paper proposal that draws upon a range of disciplines that intersect Disability with Cosplay, Feminism, Psychoanalysis and Film Studies in order to examine a particular fan’s response to the female character, Imperator Furiosa, from the recent film, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). Similarly, I would be interested in papers that intersect with other disciplines in their examination of disability and science fiction.

As a list of suggestions papers could intersect disability and science fiction with interests in the following:

Art and Performance, Fan Culture, Technology, Media/Social Media/Film, Medical Humanities, Literature in all its forms Novels/Graphic/Comics/Short Stories etc., Gender and Sexuality, Education.

Please email abstracts of 150-200 words and a short bio. Papers should be no more than 20 minutes. Please feel free to get in touch informally in order to discuss suggestions – sua.smith@ntlworld.com.

Deadline for abstracts is Friday 16th December 2016.

For more information here is a link to the conference’s general call for papers:

http://ccds.hope.ac.uk/ourconference.html

Regards,

Sue Smith (Independent Scholar)

Fairy Tales, Folk Lore and Legends

2nd Global Conference

Call for Participation 2017

Tuesday 4th April – Thursday 6th April 2017

Lisbon, Portugal

In contemporary retellings of historic fairy tales certain characters recur without failure: wicked witches, evil stepmothers, Rumplestiltskin, jinn, gnomes, trolls, wolves and thieves, as well as fairy godmothers, departed beloved mothers, firebirds, dwarves, princesses, dragons, woodcutters and princes charming. Disney has established a near monopoly on how these characters are viewed in contemporary society and how their stories are retold but the Disney lens is not the only one available. Fairy tales, folk lore and legends are the common patrimony of us all and the canvas on which the vast mural of good versus evil plays out; our darkest dreams or nightmares struggle against our better selves and highest hopes in these tales. At the same time, the relationship between these tales and modern society is a complex one that invites closer consideration of the changing nature of the stories and how modern sensibilities have both challenged and been challenged by the values and viewpoints that underpin the narratives.

Childhood itself, the presumed audience for most of these stories, has itself undergone radical redefinition since the tales first began to be collected or written. How have those changes influenced or been reflected in the retelling of the tales over time? Fairy tales can be interpreted in a variety of ways and from a variety of viewpoints: they can be psychological exposes, blueprints for dealing with the traumas of childhood and early adulthood, guides to navigating life, windows onto social realities long forgotten, remnants of ancient mythology or hints at how to access the Transcendent. How have adult sensibilities of what is appropriate for children appeared in the retellings or new collections? How many tales are actually retold for the benefit of adults, despite their supposed audience of children?

During the 2016 project, the unexpected preponderance of Disney-related discussions surprised all the participants. The Disney footprint seems to be inescapable when discussing this literature, whether a particular story has served as inspiration for a Disney film or not. That in itself is perhaps a subject worth discussing. The 2017 project meeting will focus on non-Disney retellings of the classic tales as well as those tales which Disney has chosen thus far to ignore.

The Fairy Tales interdisciplinary research and publishing stream investigates how fairy tales/folk tales/legends represent both good and evil, how these are personified or interact, what these reveal about the lives of those who have told them over the years, what they mean for us who read or listen to them today. Possible subjects for presentations include but are not limited to:

Exploring the Tales Themselves:

Functions of tales over time and across cultures

Socio-political context of tales and their capacity to serve as allegories for real life issues

Justice and morality in the tales

Fairy tale utopias and dystopias and the blurred lines between fiction, fact, reality, science fiction and mythology

How fairy tales shape ideas about happiness

Considerations of why tales are an enduring aspect of culture

Factors that make some tales more popular than others (and why popularity can shift over time)

(Re) interpretations and re-imaginings of the same tales differ over time or across cultures

Relationship between fairy tale characters and real life humans: do human ‘good guys’ or ‘bad guys’ behave so differently from fictional goodies and baddies, where there times when characters that seem fantastic to modern folks were actually considered to be more realistic by historical readers/listeners, what factors shape the changes that cause people to perceive characters as more or less real

Relationship between fantastic and magical elements of tales and lived reality

Tales and monsters: monstrous animals, monstrous humans, children’s interaction with monsters

Intended lessons and values of stories and counter-interpretations, particularly in relation to gender, sex, materialistic values, notions of virtue and authority

Processes around the domestication of fairy tales

Tales as a source of/mechanism for oppression of individuals or groups

New/modern tales

Critical approaches to tales

Tales and their authors

Fairy tale artwork and imagery

Fairy tale geographies: spaces and places of both the worlds within fairy tales as well as the spaces and places where the narratives are told or written

Encountering Fairy Tales/Legends/Folk Tales:

Studies of readers/audiences across time and cultures

Listening versus reading: impact of oral traditions on the narratives, impact of illustrations in reception of the tales, etc.

Relationship between traditional and modern forms of interactive storytelling involving fairy tales

How adaptation to other mediums, such as film, television, visual art, music, theatre, graphic novels, dance and video games, affect the content of the tales themselves, appreciation of the narrative or our interpretations of narrative meaning

Uses of Fairy Tales/Legends/Folk Tales:

In advertising (re-imagining tales in advertising imagery, marketing the princess lifestyle, etc.)

Tales and pedagogy: using tales as teaching and learning tools

In tourism through destination marketing of spaces associated with fairy tales, Disneyfication of tales, etc.

In the formation of national/cultural/ethnic identity

In the publishing business

Communities, biography and fairy tales: How social communal identity is forged around telling and re-telling tales

Tales, Health and Happiness

Tales and magical thinking in the human development

Tales and psychological/clinical practices involving tales

Tales and unhealthy behaviour/beliefs

Effect of tales on shaping notions of (un)happiness, (in)appropriate ways to pursue it and how to respond to respond to others’ (un)happiness

Tales and aging (“growing old” as a theme in tales, how tales shape perceptions of old age, etc.)

Live Performances of Tales

Theatrical, dance and other types of staged presentations

Pantomime

Vocal performances

Art installations

Readings

Curated film screenings

Further details and information can be found at the conference website:

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/persons/fairy-tales-folk-lore-and-legends/call-for-participation/

Details about our reviewing policy can be found here:

http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/persons/fairy-tales-folk-lore-and-legends/call-for-participation/details-and-information/

What to Send

300 word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution should be submitted by Friday 28th October 2016.

All submissions be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.

You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Friday 11th November 2016.

If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 3rd March 2017.

Abstracts may be in Word, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Fairy Tales Abstract Submission

Where to Send

Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs:

Organising Chairs:

Stephen Morris: smmorris58@yahoo.com

Rob Fisher: fairy2@inter-disciplinary.net

Conference Outcomes and Outputs

The conferences we organise form a continual stream of conversations, activities and projects which grow and evolve in different directions. The outcomes and ‘outputs’ which can productively flow from these is a dynamic response to the gatherings themselves. And as our meetings are attended by people from different backgrounds, professions and vocations, the range of desirable outcomes are potentially diverse, fluid and appropriate to what took place.

For detailed information on possible outcomes and outputs, please click here. (This will open a new window).

All accepted papers presented at the conference are eligible to be selected for publication in a hard copy paperback volume (the structure of which is to be determined post conference and subject to certain criteria). The selection and review process is outlined in the conference materials. Other publishing options may also become available. Potential editors will be chosen from interested conference delegates.

Additional possible outputs include: paperback volumes; journals; open volume on-line annuals; social media outputs (Facebook pages, blogs, wikis, Twitter and so on); collaboration platforms; reviews; reports; policy statements; position papers; declarations of principles; proposals for future meetings, workshops, courses and schools; proposals for personal and professional development opportunities (cultural cruises, summer schools, personal enrichment programmes, faculty development, mentoring programmes, consultancies); and other options you would like us to consider.

The 4th Volume of Alambique is now available. Alambique (ISSN 2167-6577) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to scholarly research and criticism in the fields of science fiction and fantasy originally composed in Spanish or Portuguese.

Please visit http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/alambique/ to access the journal.