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FAQ Sheet for Presenters

ICFA 42 “Climate Change and the Anthropocene”

March 18–21, 2021 @ Online

The IAFA is aware of the power (and life) disruptions across much of
Texas and in other parts of the United States, and we will make
exceptions for submitting presentations as needed. Because our
deadline was created to ensure that everyone is able to view the
presentations before the conference, we ask that any member who can
meet the original deadline (which is February 23, 2021) to please do
so.

PRESENTATION
Once accepted, the author may choose to present in one of the following formats:
● Text document
Format: PDF; maximum length: 1800 words
● PowerPoint slideshow with audio commentary
Format: PPTX or MP4; length: 10–15 minutes
● Prezi presentation with audio commentary
Format: any exportable Prezi format; length: 10–15 minutes
● Video recording
Format: MP4; length: 10–15 minutes

Links to tutorials about creating PowerPoint and Prezi slideshows with audio commentary are available at IAFA’s YouTube account (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWbFN8jKysYvj4C4xE1yQVA). For those new to Zoom, we have linked to short official Zoom tutorials. Information regarding presentation uploads, including file naming protocols, is available at “Upload Files for ICFA 42,” linked below.

Please upload your presentation (in any of the above formats) to the conference Dropbox (https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/ICFA-42-Upload). The process is easy: click the link, choose the presentation file, and hit Upload. A Dropbox account is not required to upload. You will need to drop your file by February 23, 2021.

The conference participants will have almost three weeks (March 1–18, 2021) to read, view, or otherwise peruse and become familiar with the presentations.

The Zoom sessions during the conference will be limited to Q&A. Time limitations mean that authors will not be allowed to summarize the papers, but we envision plenty of time for real-time discussions.

DATES TO REMEMBER (ALL TIMES US-EST GMT-5)
● February 1 (Monday): Final schedule posted.
● February 22, 11:59p (Monday): Registration closes.
● February 23, 11:59p (Tuesday): Papers/presentations due via upload.
● March 1 (Monday): Version of program with links to presentations goes live.

Please consider volunteering to help us put on ICFA 42!

Volunteers are needed to manage the Zoom rooms in 4-hour blocks (don’t worry, training is provided). Registration fees will be refunded upon completion of the task.

To volunteer for ICFA 42, click here and fill in your availability: https://forms.gle/qYYJrQPN8v5sD6T49

Some further requirements:

Must be members of IAFA
Must have a reliable, reasonably high-speed internet connection
Must have a working knowledge/basic experience with a virtual meeting platform, Zoom experience preferred
Must be willing and able to attend a training session in February
A Zoom account is not required

Thank you!

IAFA Registrar

Emily Midkiff

https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/

IAFA Membership Update

Current Events

IAFA is happy to announce two new division heads. Please join me in welcoming Stina Attebery as the DH for Film and Television and Libby Ginway for International Fantastic. Thank you to outgoing DHs Valérie Savard and Ida Yoshinaga for their service.

We here in Registration have been prepping the mailing lists for the academic journals we sell subscriptions for via our membership form. If you haven’t renewed your membership, please do so now to avoid any delay in journal receipt.

If you have a credit…

Please be sure to log into the same account as the credit. Create an invoice, but do not pay (select “invoice me”). Then email Reg (iafareg@gmail.com) your invoice number. We will apply the credit and email you the paid invoice. We must do a Thing in the software on your behalf to apply it.

ICFA 42 News

A draft schedule for ICFA 42 “Climate Change and the Anthropocene” (March 18–21, 2021) is available on the home page (https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/). This link will be continually updated. Thank you to Valorie Ebert, 1VP, for putting all the moving parts together.

The volunteer sign-up form is live (https://forms.gle/qYYJrQPN8v5sD6T49). We are looking for Zoom managers to volunteer in 4-hour blocks in exchange for reimbursement of registration fees. Training is provided. Thank you to Emily Midkiff for organizing the volunteers.

The last day to sign up for the conference is February 22, 2021, at midnight Florida time (GMT-5). Academic presenters must be members of IAFA to present at ICFA 42.

See you in March!

–Karen Hellekson for the Reg team

The conference’s acceptances have gone out, and the draft schedule is being reviewed for release.

MERCHANDISE

Merch will look a little different this year. All purchases must be made in advance as preorders. There will be no merch available at the time of the conference. If you are not registering this year, don’t worry! You can still keep up your ICFA merch collection through our online store (https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Store/). Preordering closes on February 22, 2021.

In addition, you don’t have to wait for the conference for the reveal of the art! You can see it now on the merch in the store. The image is from the cover of Slow Death #1, the first ecologically-themed underground comic from the 1970s. Slow Death was published and distributed at UC Berkeley in conjunction with the very first Earth Day. The comic featured work from major underground comics creators such as R. Crumb, Jaxon, Dave Sheridan, and Greg Irons, the artist who created the cover image (which depicts a skyscraper-encrusted Earth devouring itself). Greg worked on the film Yellow Submarine, and he also created posters for Bil Graham that were featured at the Fillmore Auditorium. This image is used with generous permission from Greg’s brother, Mark Irons, who holds the image’s copyright.

VOLUNTEERING

As usual, we could use volunteers to help us run ICFA 42. This year, we will need volunteers who can manage our Zoom channels. This will be different from chairing sessions. Volunteer managers will be expected to host a Zoom channel for 4 hours. In thanks, IAFA will cover your registration costs.

Some further requirements:

Managers must be members of IAFA
Managers must have a reliable, reasonably high-speed internet connection
Managers must have a working knowledge/basic experience with a virtual meeting platform, Zoom experience preferred
Managers must be willing and able to attend a training session the week of Feb 8-15.
A Zoom account is not required to be a manager

Please contact Emily Midkiff at iafareg@gmail.com to volunteer or ask questions!

CREDITS

If you have a credit from ICFA 41, please select the option to create an invoice during registration, and then contact us at iafareg@gmail.com in order to apply our credit. Your total credit may look like it has changed, but we need to finalize it behind the scenes.

ORIENTATION

The SCIAFA be hosting an orientation session on Thursday, March 18 at 15:00-16:00 EST for new members, especially graduate students. If you are a long-time attendee, please join us to welcome the newcomers! This is also a great opportunity to test out your Zoom connection.

STUDENT CAUCUS MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

The SCIAFA is still accepting applications for the mentorship program until February 15, for both mentors and mentees (but especially mentors!). If you are interested, please send an email to iafa.studentcaucus@fantastic-arts.org.

NETWORKING

Conference hashtag: #ICFA42
IAFA Listserv: http://lists.iafa.org/listinfo.cgi/iafa-l-iafa.org
IAFA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FantasticArts/?fref=ts
IAFA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iafa_tw?lang=en
Student Caucus (SCIAFA) on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/833849033305627/

See you in March!

IAFA Registrar

Emily Midkiff

https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/

We have extended the deadline for ICFA 42 proposal submissions to 4 December at 11:59 PM (Orlando time). There is still plenty of time to get your proposal submitted!

CFP: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2020/call-for-papers-for-the-42nd-annual-international-conference-on-the-fantastic-in-the-arts-climate-change-and-the-anthropocene/

ICFA 42 “Climate Change and the Anthropocene”

When: March 18–21, 2021, via Zoom

Guest scholar: Stacy Alaimo (University of Oregon)

Guest author: Jeff VanderMeer

Call for papers (proposals due November 29, 2020): https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2020/call-for-papers-for-the-42nd-annual-international-conference-on-the-fantastic-in-the-arts-climate-change-and-the-anthropocene/
Detailed scholarly proposal info: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Proposal
Netiquette: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Netiquette
Accepted papers/presentations due: March 1, 2021

We are repeating the theme from 2020’s canceled ICFA 41. You may propose the same paper. Previous acceptance for ICFA 41 does not guarantee acceptance for ICFA 42.

All dates and times are reckoned in Orlando, Florida, time (GMT-5).
Authors

Please reach out to 2nd VP David Higgins (iafa.2vp@fantastic-arts.org) with questions or concerns.
Registration

The registration portal for ICFA 42 is now open (https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/event-3870896). Registration is $40 for regular registration, $20 for student/adjunct. Registration closes on February 22, 2021.

Do you have a credit from last year? (Credits are good for 2 years.) When logged in, look at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen; it will indicate your credit amount. To apply the credit, create an invoice, and then email me so I can apply it.

Important: Credits cannot be transferred between accounts. If you have a credit, make sure you’re logged in correctly before registering and creating an invoice.

If you think you have a credit but it’s not showing up, first check to make sure you’re logged into the correct account (usually it’s Gmail versus your institutional email address). You may have to tell the system you lost your password to gain access. Inadvertently being logged into the incorrect account is the #1 reason users experience problems.

If that isn’t the issue, then email me and I will research it.

Merch

We are partnering with our usual merch vendor, a small company based out of Orlando, to print, package, and mail the merch. No extras will be printed for sale at a future physical convention. Prices are designed to break even; this is not a fund raiser. Merch will automatically be sent to the address on file in your membership account.

We were able to stop ICFA 41’s merch print run, so there is no ICFA 41 merchandise available, and the few test items that were printed were discarded by the vendor.

Social media

Join the Listserv: http://lists.iafa.org/listinfo.cgi/iafa-l-iafa.org
Follow us on Twitter: @IAFA_TW, #ICFA42
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FantasticArts/

Forthcoming

Info will be forthcoming regarding volunteering, Graduate Student Caucus, online infrastructure, and more!

As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns.

—Karen Hellekson, coregistrar (iafareg@gmail.com)

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts is accepting applications for the position of Division Head of the International Fantastic (IF) Division and the Film and Television (FTV) Division. (Please see division descriptions below.)
Division Heads are appointed by the President, on the recommendation of the First Vice President, who chairs the Council of Division Heads, after formal discussion and majority vote of the Board. The term is for three years.

Both the IF Division Head and the FTV Division Head will begin full Division Head duties immediately following the conference in March of 2021 without a shadow year.

Each Division Head organizes and supervises all conference activity within a subdivision of fantastic scholarship. Division Heads work under the guidance of the First Vice President. Division Heads are responsible for recruiting session proposals and papers and are responsible for formatting these to the requirements of the First Vice President. Division Heads are responsible for forwarding all information to the First Vice President in a timely fashion. Division Heads have the responsibility to check the draft program for accuracy and AV needs. Division Heads are expected to liaise with other Division Heads and the First Vice President. The First Vice President is the final arbiter of the program under the aegis of the Executive Board. At the conference the Division Heads oversee sessions in their respective Divisions and collect suggestions for future topics, special guests, etc.
Those interested in applying must send a cover letter explaining their interest in, and qualifications for, the position, and a current CV, to the First Vice President, Valorie Ebert at iafa.1vp@fantastic-arts.org, no later than 10 November 2020.

IF Division description:
The International Fantastic division welcomes scholarship in all subgenres of the fantastic in world media. “International” means either non-anglophone or originating in a culture considered foreign within the anglophone world; this may include minority or Indigenous texts within an anglophone country. Projects in postcolonial and diaspora studies, area and language studies, translation theory and studies, comparative literature and media, non-anglophone epistemologies and technocultures, the role of the international division of labor and global finance in textual development, gender and queer studies especially in the Global South, international justice movements, global research methodologies and national archives, and Indigenous and Trans-Indigenous Studies are welcome.

FTV Division description:

The Film and Television division welcomes critical scholarship, panels, and theory roundtables that deal with cinema and television and engage any genre of the Fantastic, including science fiction, fantasy, and horror. As with other narrative forms, the analysis of film and television can be taken up multiple ways and through varied critical lenses.

Call for Papers for the 42nd Annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Climate Change and the Anthropocene

March 18-21, 2021

ICFA 42 will be a virtual event.

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO 4 DECEMBER.

Since the turn of the millennium, the term Anthropocene has been widely popularized to describe the massive changes humanity has inflicted upon the planet through our technologies and ways of living—influences so substantial that some believe we have entered into a new geological epoch. Climate change, and its related crises of ecological damage, forced migrations as weather and arable land shift, and mass extinctions of nonhuman species, are imaginative and materially entwined. Climate change asks us to think in spatial and temporal scales that exceed human lifetimes and perceptions, while the concept of the Anthropocene encourages us to think in global, perhaps cosmic registers about humanity’s pasts and possible futures.

Amitov Ghosh suggests in The Great Derangement (2017) that among the difficulties of confronting climate change is the fact that it is “unthinkable” via the conventions of realist fiction. Taking our cue from Ursula K. Le Guin’s phrase “realists of a larger reality” in her acceptance speech for the Medal for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters, IAFA 42 (March 18-21, 2021) will explore the power of fantastic genres to make climate change and other crises of the Anthropocene visible and intelligible. How have fantastic genres helped us represent and respond to this reality? How might these genres offer us new ways for thinking about humanity, our planet, and the complex entanglements between them? How might we reimagine ourselves and the future in the face of climate change? We welcome papers and panel proposals addressing these and related questions across any genre, every language, and across all media of the fantastic. We encourage submissions about Black authors, filmmakers and creators, and by Black scholars.

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
• Texts engaging questions of eco-horror aesthetics and themes
• Environmental racism
• Critiques of the term Anthropocene from a Critical Race Studies perspective, and those from the intersection of Black Studies and the Environmental Humanities.
• Non-anglophone speculative fictions related to the anthropocene
• Fantastic texts by that explore indigenous worldviews on ecology
• Analyses of how specific motifs or themes emerge and change with time, such as climate-driven apocalypse or images of urban worlds
• Texts that imagine innovative technologies and/or new lifeways that offer new patterns for human habitation
• Texts or other media that interrogate questions of ontology, especially humanity’s relationship with other life
• Engagements with alternative terms used to frame our present era—Donna Haraway’s Cthulhucene, Jason Moore’s Capitalocene, and the like
• Work emerging from ecocritical frameworks and methodologies
• Work emerging from posthumanist frameworks and methodologies, especially human-animal studies
• Work emerging from environmental humanities and petrocultures frameworks and methodologies
• Dystopian and/or utopian responses to climate change
• YA and children’s literature and its distinct strategies for representing climate change
• Work on significant authors of ecologically themed works, such as Kim Stanley Robinson or N.K. Jemisin or the subgenre solarpunk
• Analyses of texts or other media that question the human/animal boundary
• The role of fantastic texts in offering new theoretical rubrics for thinking about climate change and the Anthropocene

The conference will feature Guest Scholar Stacy Alaimo (University of Oregon) and Guest of Honor Jeff Vandermeer. We encourage proposals that engage the work of these two distinguished guests.

The IAFA Portal open for submissions on 2 November and close on 29 November, URL forthcoming.

We are pleased to announce that the themes for our 2022 and 2023 conferences will be “Fantastic Alterities” and “The Black Fantastic: The African Diaspora and Speculative Fiction”, respectively.

Submission process:

Paper or session proposals will go to the appropriate Division Head as usual.
Once accepted, the author may choose one of the following formats:
• Papers will only be accepted in .pdf, maximum 2000 words.
• Presentations will be accepted in PowerPoint or MP4 format, and should be between 10-15 minutes.

The papers/presentations must be read before the sessions, which will be limited to discussing of them. Authors will not be allowed to summarize them due to time limitations.

Panels will be synchronous, limited to 3-4 participants, and proposals should be sent to the appropriate Division Head, or to the 1st VP.

More information forthcoming at https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/.

Dates to remember:

The submissions portal will open Monday 2 November
SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 4 DECEMBER 11:59 p.m. (all time Eastern US)
ALL registration ends on Monday 22 February 11:59 p.m.
Papers/Presentations due Monday 1 March 11:59 p.m.

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts is accepting applications for the position of Division Head of the International Fantastic (IF) Division and the Film and Television (FTV) Division. (Please see division descriptions below.)
Division Heads are appointed by the President, on the recommendation of the First Vice President, who chairs the Council of Division Heads, after formal discussion and majority vote of the Board. The term is for three years.

Both the IF Division Head and the FTV Division Head will begin full Division Head duties immediately following the conference in March of 2021 without a shadow year.

Each Division Head organizes and supervises all conference activity within a subdivision of fantastic scholarship. Division Heads work under the guidance of the First Vice President. Division Heads are responsible for recruiting session proposals and papers and are responsible for formatting these to the requirements of the First Vice President. Division Heads are responsible for forwarding all information to the First Vice President in a timely fashion. Division Heads have the responsibility to check the draft program for accuracy and AV needs. Division Heads are expected to liaise with other Division Heads and the First Vice President. The First Vice President is the final arbiter of the program under the aegis of the Executive Board. At the conference the Division Heads oversee sessions in their respective Divisions and collect suggestions for future topics, special guests, etc.

Those interested in applying must send a cover letter explaining their interest in, and qualifications for, the position, and a current CV, to the First Vice President, Valorie Ebert at iafa.1vp@fantastic-arts.org, no later than 25 October 2020.

IF Division description:

The International Fantastic division welcomes scholarship in all subgenres of the fantastic in world media. “International” means either non-anglophone or originating in a culture considered foreign within the anglophone world; this may include minority or Indigenous texts within an anglophone country. Projects in postcolonial and diaspora studies, area and language studies, translation theory and studies, comparative literature and media, non-anglophone epistemologies and technocultures, the role of the international division of labor and global finance in textual development, gender and queer studies especially in the Global South, international justice movements, global research methodologies and national archives, and Indigenous and Trans-Indigenous Studies are welcome.

FTV Division description:

The Film and Television division welcomes critical scholarship, panels, and theory roundtables that deal with cinema and television and engage any genre of the Fantastic, including science fiction, fantasy, and horror. As with other narrative forms, the analysis of film and television can be taken up multiple ways and through varied critical lenses.

Final Call for Submissions: 2021 Jamie Bishop Memorial Award

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts announces its 15th annual Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for a critical essay on the fantastic originally written in a language other than English.

The IAFA defines the fantastic to include science fiction, folklore, and related genres in literature, drama, film, art and graphic design, and related disciplines. For more information regarding the Bishop Award and a list of past winners, see https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Bishop-award-winners-list .

Submission criteria:

· Essays should be of high scholarly quality, as if for publication in an academic journal.

· We consider essays from 3,000–10,000 words in length (or English equivalent), including notes and bibliography.

· Essays may be unpublished scholarship submitted by the author, or already published work nominated either by the author or another scholar (in which case the author’s permission should be obtained before submission).

· Essays must have been written and (when applicable) published in the original language within the last three years prior to submission.

· An ABSTRACT in English and an English translation of the essay’s TITLE must accompany all submissions. The submitted essay DOES NOT have to be translated into English.

· Only one essay per designated author(s) may be submitted each year.

· Submissions must be made electronically in .pdf or Microsoft Word format (.doc, .docx), to the email address noted below.

Deadline for receipt of submissions: October 15, 2020. Essays may be submitted prior to the deadline.

The winner of this year’s Bishop Award will be announced at the 42nd International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, March 17–20, 2021.

Prize: $250 US and one year’s free membership in the IAFA. Winning essays may be posted on the IAFA website in the original language and/or considered for publication in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (http://www.fantastic-arts.org/jfa/) should they be translated into English.

Please direct all inquiries and submissions to:

Terry Harpold

iafa.bishopaward@fantastic-arts.org