Skip navigation

CFP: Science Fiction Research Association, Facing the Future, Facing the Past: Colonialism, Inidigeneity, and SF

  • October 17, 2018 – 9:31 am
  • Posted in CFP
  • Comments Off on CFP: Science Fiction Research Association, Facing the Future, Facing the Past: Colonialism, Inidigeneity, and SF

CFP: SCIENCE FICTION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2019
Friday, June 21 – Monday, June 24, 2019
Chaminade University, Honolulu, Hawaii

Conference Theme: Facing the Future, Facing the Past: Colonialism, Inidigeneity, and SF
Keynote Speaker: Nalo Hopkinson

The Science Fiction Research Association invites proposals for its 2019 annual conference, to be held on the campus of Chaminade University, Honolulu, Hawaii.

“I ka wā mua, ka wā ma hope” is a Hawaiian proverb that can be translated, “In the past lies the future,” or more literally, “In what is in front of you is found what is behind you.” In the Native Hawaiian way of thinking, according to scholar Lilikalā Kame‘eleihiwa, “The Hawaiian stands firmly in the present, with his back to the future, and his eyes fixed upon the past, seeking historical answers for present-day dilemmas.” Another way of interpreting this saying might be, you must face the past to prepare yourself for the future. Thinking about this Hawaiian proverb in the context of science fiction brings up questions about ways of knowing, ways of orienting ourselves in time and space, the relation of our notions of the possible to our understanding of history, the ethical and political obligations of our scientific-technological practice in relation to the past and the future, and our expectations of social change as well as our sense of how it comes about.

SFRA 2019 will meet in Hawai‘i, a set of islands that after two and a half centuries of Western contact has become the world leader in species extinction, while being transformed during the nineteenth century from a wholly self-sustaining civilization into a plantation economy dominated by export crops and ravaged by epidemics that reduced the Native Hawaiian population by 80% or more, and whose political sovereignty was stolen by the settler-controlled and US-military-aided overthrow of the monarchy in 1893. As we plan to meet on this occupied land with its long history of indigenous resistance to colonial incursion, we welcome papers and panels on the relation of science fiction to colonial history and its ongoing effects, to the contemporary ecological crisis, to issues of political and economic justice, and to past and ongoing visions of the future.

Topics related to the conference theme include the relation of SF to the following:

* indigenous futurism
* colonial fantasies & indigenous survivance
* explorers, settlers, and natives
* indigenization v. cultural assimilation of forms & genres
* the dynamics of recognition, versions of the colonial gaze
* the “post” in postcolonialism
* decolonial speculative fiction
* the symbiosis of colonialism & capitalism
* epistemology in the contact zone
* speculative technologies of resistance
* Native and regional disruptions of the colonial biopolitical order
* indigenous intellectual property in light of transgenics, genetic modification, & other man-made mutations
* biopolitical imperialism, biopiracy, bioprospecting
* food security, organic & smart farming
* ecocriticism & the anthropocene
* progress v. sustainability
* estranging empire, rethinking centers and margins
* world systems & world construction
* world, nation, & culture: imagined communities and communities of practice

We also welcome papers on topics relevant to science fiction research broadly conceived that are not specifically related to the conference theme.

Graduate students are encouraged to apply and attend; as with previous SFRA conferences, the first day of conference programming will include roundtables and workshops targeted at early-career teachers and researchers working in SF studies and in the study of popular culture more generally.

300-500 word abstracts should be sent to rieder@hawaii.edu by March 1, 2019. Notification of acceptance will occur by April 1, 2019. We also welcome submission of preconstituted panels and roundtables.

Call for Nominations by 30 October 2018: IAFA President and First Vice President

Call for Nominations by 30 October 2018: IAFA President and First Vice President

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts announces a call for nominations for the elected Executive Board positions of President and First Vice President. To be eligible for President, an IAFA member in good standing must have served either as a Division Head or as a member of the IAFA Executive Board. Any IAFA member in good standing may run for the position of First Vice President.

Those interested in running or in nominating someone for either position should send a nomination to both IAFA Immediate Past-President Sydney Duncan at and IAFA Chief Technical Officer Michael Smith at by 30 October 2018. The Election Committee will notify each nominee of her or his nomination and will provide each with the names of everyone else who has accepted nomination during that election cycle. Candidates declining nomination must notify the Election Committee immediately upon notification of their nomination.

Candidates eligible for the offices to which they have been nominated and willing to run for those offices will be asked to submit position statements by 20 November 2018. The Election Committee will distribute position statements and ballots to the membership on 10 December 2018, and ballots will be counted by the Election Committee after 10 January 2019. If no candidate receives a majority vote, a runoff election between the two candidates who have received the most votes will be conducted. The Election Committee will announce results of the election at the IAFA business meeting at ICFA 40 in March 2019, with additional announcements in appropriate IAFA venues thereafter.

For those elected, terms will begin immediately following the conclusion of ICFA 40 in March 2019 and will last for three years. Duties of each position are listed below. Please contact Sydney Duncan if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from you!

President

The President is the chief executive officer, responsible for directing and coordinating all functions of the organization, including the annual conference, the quarterly journal, other sponsored publications, the Awards Program, and public relations of all kinds. The President sets the agenda for, and presides at, all meetings of the Executive Board and the annual business meeting at the ICFA. The President is also the chief planning officer, responsible for setting agenda in all Association projects. The President oversees the work of the other officers, recruits special guests, seeks institutional support, confirms non-elected Board members, etc. The President is elected by majority vote of the IAFA members who participate in the election.

First Vice President

The First Vice President coordinates the ICFA Program, overseeing the work of the Divisions Heads and scheduling paper sessions for the Annual Conference Program. The First Vice President also consults with the President and Second Vice President concerning appearances by special guests in panels, readings, and lectures, and with the Conference Chair about physical arrangements such as AV equipment, room assignments, etc. The First Vice President substitutes for the President when necessary. The First Vice President also oversees the IAFA David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award, including the following: advertising the award, organizing the prize committee, and collecting and forwarding submissions to the committee for a blind reading process. The First Vice President is elected by majority vote of the IAFA members who participate in the election.

“Politics and Conflicts”: Some Global Accents, A call for papers & panels by the International Fantastic Division, ICFA 40

  • October 4, 2018 – 12:03 pm
  • Posted in CFP
  • Comments Off on “Politics and Conflicts”: Some Global Accents, A call for papers & panels by the International Fantastic Division, ICFA 40

“Politics and Conflicts”: Some Global Accents

A call for papers & panels by the International Fantastic Division

of the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts for the

International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts #40

March 13-16, 2019

Orlando, Florida

CFP Deadline 10/31/18

Through Oct. 31, 2018, the International Fantastic Division of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts is soliciting proposals for ICFA 2019 papers, sessions, creative readings, and other panels about the GLOBAL FANTASTIC in any media and discipline.

Our Division encourages international research and art about spiritual, fabulist, weird, and experimental manifestations of the non-real/surreal/transreal throughout the world. We research and create narratives on how such speculative or fantastic expressions can engage:

· The global division of labor through the production of an international fantastic (for example, science-fiction animation made in one place but exported to another)

· Native/Aboriginal/First Nations/Indigenous speculative fictions of the world

· Diaspora, sojourners, and settlement: e.g., alien borders, migration, liminalities

· Literatures in translation including those that offer fabulist creoles, pidgins, and dialects created by cultural authors and artists

· (Post) colonialism and its monstrous/transgressive discontents

· Globalectic narratives that illustrate social relations between international (imagined or imaginary) communities

· Posthuman/dehumanized refugees; the estrangement of middle passages and immigrant detention centers

· Folklores about/of transnational families and laborers, myths and legends about/of local businesses and regional industries

· Fantastic literatures as cultural imperialism or as national literatures

· Global circuits, time-space compression, and speculative financial flows in the international knowledge economy

· Xenophobic superheroes; neo-Orientalism of the action genre’s War on Terror; Islamophobia and the fantasy narrative; and so on

· Zombie capitalism and the necrocultural alienation of the overseas worker

· Alternative or localized forms of sustainability, materiality, technological practice

· Syncretized/creolized/hybridized spiritualities and magicks of the world

· The imported (or exported) apocalypse

· Millennial SF/fantasy/horror signaling the “digital divide” between regions, classes, countries

· New international slaveries and speculative resistance

· The Global North’s “dronification” of state violence and imperial military work

· Continental, agricultural, island/insular, urban, and other SFnal ecologies

· Community engagements with “globalized” science and technology

We accept academic proposals about worldwide decolonial, and indigenous texts by university and independent scholars; by translators, librarians, scientists, and other researchers; and by graduate students in all fields. For questions, contact the IF Division Head at iafa.div.if@fantastic-arts.org. Artists of fantastic works may submit proposals to the ICFA Creative Track of writing, music, theater, film, and poetry sessions, as well as for panels on topics of interest to creative professionals. In March, we will meet at the Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside to celebrate, debate, and deduce speculative fiction’s contributions to grasping the politics and conflicts of our past in their capacity to guide us toward more inclusive futures.

To submit proposals by 10/31, visit https://www.fantastic-arts.org/icfa-submissions/ and select the International Fantastic as the Division to which to forward your proposal.

For more on ICFA 40, see: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/annual-conference/. You can also contact the other IAFA Division Heads based on your subgenre/media of interest: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/about/governance/division-heads/.

CFP: Walking in Other Worlds: Fantastical Journeys of Children’s Agency

Call for Papers
Walking in Other Worlds: Fantastical Journeys of Children’s Agency
Editors: Ingrid E. Castro and Jessica Clark

We are seeking completed submissions for an edited volume that interrogates representations of child and youth agency in fantasy. Our collection Walking in Other Worlds: Fantastical Journeys of Children’s Agency explores child and youth agency in the context of fantasy popular cultural forms. These sources of analyses may include television, cartoons, films, novels, toys, comic books/graphic novels, advertising, storytelling/folklore, fashion, art, video games, etc. An academic publisher is connected to this project.

Representations of children’s agency in fantasy can be analyzed from a variety of grounding points. For example, chapters might consider the intersection of agency and:

Friendships/Dating
Family/Intergenerational Relations
Pets/Animals/Nature
Age/Time
Material Culture: Permanent/Impermanent
Gender/Race/Ethnicity/Class
Bodies/Sexuality/Disability
Religion/Spirituality
Education/Work
Innocence/Knowledge
Space/Place/Location
Genre/Era
(This list is by no means exhaustive and we are happy to consider any work which places representation of children’s agency in fantasy at its center).

We will be including chapters by authors from a variety of disciplines, nationalities, and viewpoints, reflecting the contemporary study of and with children and childhood. In their submissions, authors are expected to engage with both their own discipline’s work on children/youth/agency as well as the interdisciplinary Childhood Studies work on children/youth/agency.

All accepted chapters must be written by PhD holders, as per publisher stipulation. Please submit to: representationsofagency@gmail.com

Due date for submission of completed drafts: October 15, 2018

Jargon-free drafts should be 7,000-9,000 words in length, Times New Roman 12 font, double spaced, Chicago Style in-text references. Please use endnotes, not footnotes, for any additional information or useful commentary when necessary.

Job Announcement: Indigenous Futures

York University is conducting a search for an Indigenous scholar who works on Indigenous futurisms for their anthropology department.

Position Rank: Full Time Tenure Stream – Assistant/Associate Professor

Discipline/Field: Indigenous Futures

Home Faculty: Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Home Department/Area/Division: Anthropology

Affiliation/Union: YUFA

Position Start Date: July 1, 2019

Department of Anthropology

The Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies invites applications for a tenure-track professorial-stream appointment in Indigenous Futures at the Assistant or Associate Professor level, to commence July 1, 2019.

We are seeking a candidate whose research is grounded in decolonial methodologies, including a focus on issues such as resurgence, refusal, or survivance in relation to Indigenous knowledges, lands, territories, land/body relations, and/or urban Indigeneity. An ongoing engagement with Indigenous issues and/or communities in the candidate’s area of research is strongly desired. The area of specialization is open but a grounding in ethnographic research methods is required. The geographical setting of the candidate’s ethnographic research is open. A PhD, or a PhD near completion by the start of the appointment, in Sociocultural Anthropology or an allied discipline such as, but not limited to, Indigenous Studies or Native American Studies is required.

Qualified candidates must demonstrate excellence or the promise of excellence in teaching and in scholarly research and publications appropriate to their stage of career. The candidate must be suitable for appointment to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The successful candidate will be expected to teach courses in their own areas of expertise as well as core courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Pedagogical innovation in high priority areas such as experiential education and technology enhanced learning is preferred. For more information about our undergraduate and graduate programs, please visit our website at http://anth.laps.yorku.ca/

York University acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, and the Métis. It is now home to many Indigenous Peoples. We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. This territory is subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region. York University supports Indigenous research and education through its Indigenous Framework for York University , the Centre for Aboriginal Student Services, the York Aboriginal Council, and Skennen’kó:wa Gamig, or the House of Great Peace, a space for Indigenous faculty, staff, and students. York is committed to fostering understanding of, respect for and connections with Indigenous communities; and the University is working to support the recruitment and success of Indigenous undergraduate and graduate students, the integration of Indigenous cultures, approaches and perspectives into curricular offerings and research, collaboration with indigenous communities, and recruitment and retention of Indigenous faculty and staff.

This selection will be limited to Aboriginal (Indigenous) peoples. York University values diversity and encourages candidates from Aboriginal (Indigenous) communities to self-identify as a member of one or more of the four designated groups: Aboriginal (Indigenous) Peoples, women, visible minorities (members of racialized groups) and persons with disabilities. Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens, Permanent Residents and Indigenous peoples in Canada will be given priority. Applicants wishing to self-identify can do so by downloading, completing and submitting the forms found at: http://acadjobs.info.yorku.ca/ . Please select the “Affirmative Action” tab under which forms pertaining to Citizenship and Affirmative Action can be found.

Applicants should submit a signed cover letter; a curriculum vitae; a statement of teaching philosophy; a core reading list for a graduate and an undergraduate course; and one writing sample of no more than 50 pages. Please email the application package in PDF format with the subject line “Indigenous Futures” to Professor Shubhra Gururani, Chair, Department of Anthropology at jobsanth@yorku.ca. The applicant should arrange to have three letters of reference sent to the Chair by email. The letters should arrive by the deadline from referees’ professional email address.

The deadline for receipt of completed applications is November 1, 2018. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. All York University positions are subject to budgetary approval.

Please see the call here: http://webapps.yorku.ca/academichiringviewer/viewposition.jsp?positionnumber=1924

JFA Update

Look for JFA 28.3 (2017) to arrive in the mail very soon! The final issue of Volume 28 is a special issue on representations of the body in YA fiction, guest edited by Mathieu Donner. To read his introduction and for a preview of the contents, check out the current issue page.

Please also check out the JFA blog here: http://www.fantastic-arts.org/jfa/jfa-28-3/.

Assistant Professor, Folklore and Narrative

Assistant Professor, Folklore and Narrative

The George Mason University Department of English invites applications for a nine-month, tenure track Assistant Professor Position in Folklore and Narrative. We encourage applicants with expertise in the verbal folklore of African American, Asian American, Latinx, Native American, Asian American, immigrant, and other marginalized U.S. communities. George Mason University has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Mason’s academic and culturally inclusive environment.

George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university, with an R-1 rating and is committed to keeping our doors open and accessible to as many capable students as possible. Mason was recently named the most diverse university in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report. Our students represent all races, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, sexual orientation and gender identities and hail from over 130 countries. We are devoted to providing access to excellence, and that sets us apart from many of our peers. In a continuing effort to enrich GMU’s academic environment and provide equal educational and employment opportunities, we actively encourage applications from members of all ethnic groups underrepresented in higher education.

The English department is home to two dynamic and growing graduate programs in folklore: an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Folklore and a graduate certificate in folklore. These programs prepare graduates for a wide range of careers in community and cultural organizations that demand expertise in documenting local culture and bringing informed historical and cultural frameworks to public sites and discussions. We also have a robust undergraduate minor and concentration in the English major.

Responsibilities:

Candidates will teach in the Folklore Studies Program undergraduate and graduate programs beginning Fall 2019, teaching a 2:2 load. Candidates should be prepared to teach folklore graduate courses, including courses on folk narrative and U.S. diversity, narrative genres (i.e., legend, myth, fairy tale folk tale, personal experience narrative), narrative and literature, and departmental undergraduate courses in folklore, including the ethnographic field school for cultural documentation and the introduction to folklore studies.

Please visit http://english.gmu.edu for more information about the department and http://folklore.gmu.edu for more information about the folklore studies program.

Please visit https://jobs.gmu.edu/postings/43927 for more information about this position.

CFP: Mythopoeic Children’s Literature, Special Issue of Mythlore

Call for Papers: Mythopoeic Children’s Literature, Special Issue of Mythlore

Fall 2019 Guest Edited by Donna R. White ** Draft Deadline: March 30, 2019 ** Final paper deadline: June 30, 2019 **

Mythlore, a journal dedicated to the genres of myth and fantasy (particularly the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis), invites article submissions for a special issue focused on children’s literature.

Children’s fantasy has always been a part of mythopoeic literature, and Mythlore has occasionally published articles about myth- building children’s writers such as J.K. Rowling and Nancy Farmer; however, this special issue will focus specifically on mythopoeic literature for children. As always, we welcome essays on The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit, but we also encourage articles that discuss the works of other mythopoeic writers for young readers. Classic works like Peter Pan and The Wind in the Willows have clear mythopoeic elements, as do modern fantasies by Philip Pullman, Diana Wynne Jones, Lloyd Alexander, and many others. Studies of lesser known writers like Carol Kendall are also welcome. To get an idea of the range of topics covered in Mythlore, visit the online archive at https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/ and consult the electronic index, which can be downloaded free at http://www.mythsoc.org/press/mythlore-index-plus.htm Submission guidelines can be found at http://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore/mythlore-submissions.htm.

Send queries and questions to Donna R. White, dwhite@atu.edu. Drafts and final papers should be submitted via https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/

Job Announcement: The Future of the Human Being

The Department of Public & Applied Humanities at the University of Arizona is seeking a tenure-track Assistant Professor. The top candidate will be able to contribute expertise, leadership, and imagination to the department’s efforts to theorize and prefigure responses to the future of the human being.

Candidates should be highly collaborative, exploratory, and hardworking, with a humanities-oriented research specialization in one or more of the following areas: the environment (natural or built),
fabrication (material, biological, electronic), health (cellular, systemic, societal), technology (digital, analog, biological), or storytelling (place-based and/or digital). Experience with and an
understanding of international and/or foreign language content creation, or Indigenous/First Nations/Native lifeways will be of particular interest given the Department’s institutional and geographic location.

The teaching load is two courses per semester. Teaching responsibilities will include undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as curricular design and program innovation.

The Department of Public & Applied Humanities is one of 18 units in the University of Arizona’s College of Humanities. The Department works to translate the personal enrichment characteristic of humanities study into public enrichment and the direct and tangible improvement of the human condition. Through research-driven,
collaborative, and publicly facing projects built to explore and enhance life in the community and beyond, our students and scholars convert understanding into action for the measurable betterment of
society. The Department is fundamentally experimental, entrepreneurial, and transdisciplinary, and focuses on public and private opportunities that straddle disciplinary boundaries.

More information about the position may be found at: https://uacareers.com/postings/32090

Fantasy/Animation Research Network, Call for Contributors

Following the recent publication of Fantasy/Animation: Connections Between Media, Mediums and Genres (Routledge, 2018), we are pleased to announce the arrival of the Fantasy/Animation Research Network that pursues further the relationship between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. We are hoping that the network will open out a critical conversation on the study of the rich legacy and complexity of animated fantasy media, in whatever form this might take, and provide a space for discussion and debate among like-minded academics, practitioners, special interest groups and fans of fantasy and/or animation. This will, we hope, lead to the building of a much-needed scholarly community that will continue, develop and complicate some of the ideas put forward in the anthology. The website has recently gone live, so visit https://www.fantasy-animation.org/ to read all our news/events and collection of blog posts, as well as listening to our associated Fantasy/Animation podcast.

We are also delighted to open out a call for contributors to write short pieces or posts for the website. These blog posts can take several forms, but we anticipate starting off with 500-1000 word written blog posts that might come together as either:

– a short editorial (movie analysis/critical reflection on an idea or concept)
– event/conference reports
– film reviews
– book reviews

Potential methodological/critical approaches within individual contributions are varied, and our concern is not necessarily how animation operates as fantasy or how fantasy operates through animation, but rather how both ideas can be productively considered in dialogue with one another. This methodology allows fantasy and animation to function as a dialectic that critically examines a relationship that has, to date, been assumed, pre-supposed or obfuscated within both popular and critical discourse.

If potential contributors have ideas for blogs, or want to suggest other possible formats for content (interviews/Q&As, pieces to camera, video essays), then please do send them over and let us know the type of post under which it fits, as well as 3-4 keywords that relate to your post. We would welcome any ideas submitted either to us directly (christopher.Holliday@kcl.ac.uk and asergeant@bournemouth.ac.uk) or through the ‘Contact Us’ Tab on the network’s website.

Best wishes, and many thanks,

Christopher Holliday and Alexander Sergeant