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CFP: The 44th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Afrofuturism

The 44th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

Afrofuturism

Guest of Honor: Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki

Guest Scholar: Isiah Lavender III

March 15-18, 2023

Orlando Marriott Lakeside Hotel

 

The theme of the 2023 ICFA will be “Afrofuturism.” If Afrofuturism is rising, as the title of Isiah Lavender III’s groundbreaking study of the literary movement proclaims, or is already risen like Africa itself, as the title of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki’s jointly edited anthology asserts, it does so as part of a groundswell across fantastic modes, genres and media. From the cosmic artistry of Sun Ra, and iconic visionaries speaking from and for estranged and defamiliarized spaces such as Olaudah Equiano, W.E.B. DuBois, Chinua Achebe, Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Herbie Hancock, Earth, Wind and Fire, Ben Okri, Michelle Cliff, Maryse Condé, Stafford L. Battle, Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes, N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson, Tobias L. Buckell, and Nisi Shawl, to fast-rising stars such as Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Wanuri Kahiu, Fanuel Leul, Sheree Renée Thomas, Zelda Knight, Manzi Jackson, P. Djeli Clark, Mame Boukouma Diene, Deji Bryce Olukotun, C.L. Clark, Rivers Solomon, Tade Thompson, Dilman Dila, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Justina Ireland, and Tlotlo Tsamaase, the 44th Annual ICFA will celebrate the fantastic imaginations of creators from Africa and its Global Diaspora, crossing linguistic and other identity and communicative boundaries and borders to arrive at Afrofuturism’s unifying, edifying, uplifting, and often terrifying revelations.

 

Topics may address, but need not be limited to:

 

  • Representations of African-ness in space and time
  • Afrofuturism among Othered futurisms
  • Depictions of relations in the process of power-shifting by African and Diaspora creatives and scholars addressing race, gender, class, ethnicity, traditional versus colonial nationalities, and/or mechanisms of exclusion, exploitation, appropriation, or reparation, among other topics
  • Exploring traditional, colonial and de-colonialist nationalities, ethnicities and boundary-defined affiliations
  • Reclaiming and proclaiming by proto-claiming
  • Problematics of representations of African-ness by non-African-descent creators
  • Gatekeeping, stereotyping, eurocentrism, and the demand for Realism in African and Diaspora works in scholarship and publishing
  • Being African or Diaspora in publishing: challenges and best practices regarding acceptance, revision and rejection of works, marketing, finding an agent, getting paid
  • New technologies and platforms shaped by Afrofuturism’s creatives, scholars and fans, challenging Eurocentric conceptions of futurism
  • Global applications of an Afrofuturist lens
  • Chattel enslavement and its legacies, as represented in Afrofuturism
  • Globalizing and negotiating identities
  • An African and Diaspora canon
  • Masking, unmasking and empowerment
  • Monstrous, demonic and shapeshifting Afrofuturism
  • Afrofuturism troubling, querying and/or challenging concepts of utopias and dystopias
  • Pandemics, plagues, poxes, and Afrofuturism: the spread of colonizing, eugenicist, genocidal, and/or resistance infections
  • Afrofuturism in languages other than the colonial
  • Globalized neoliberalism
  • Politics, ideologies and revolution

 

We welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of Afrofuturism in any media. We encourage work from creatives, institutionally affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work on the fantastic in languages other than English, and students.

 

Proposals not related to the conference theme are also welcome.

 

Submit abstracts here: https://forms.gle/67JJZeKoSWMyhRvQ8

Abstracts due: October 31st

 

ICFA 44 Guest of Honor – Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki

 

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer, editor and publisher from Nigeria. He has won the Nommo award for Best Speculative Fiction by an African, twice, for Short Story and Novella, as well as the Nebula, Otherwise and British Fantasy Awards. He is the first African to have won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette and be a Hugo finalist as well, in the same category. He’ll be the first Black writer to be a Hugo award best editor short form finalist alongside Sheree Renee Thomas and the first BIPOC to be a finalist in both the Hugo Award Editing and Fiction categories in the same year. He has also been a finalist for the Locus, Sturgeon, British Science Fiction and World Fantasy award. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in Tordotcom, Asimov’s, Uncanny Magazine, Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, Galaxy’s Edge, Tordotcom, NBC and more.

He edited and published the first ever Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction anthology, a Hugo, WFA, Locus, and BFA finalist, and the non-fiction anthology, Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations on Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature in a Pandemic. He co-edited the British Fantasy award-winning Dominion anthology and the Africa Risen anthology, which has a starred review from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. He guest-edited the collections window of Interstellar Flight Press, is the founder of Jembefola Press and the Emeka Walter Dinjos Memorial Award for Disability in Speculative Fiction. He co-organized the Discon 3 African stream and 2021 Nommo Award ceremony, and is a Guest of Honour at the 2022 Can*Con. He is the first African-born Black writer and the youngest writer to be Guest of Honor at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts 44 taking place in 2023. You can find him on Twitter https://twitter.com/penprince_ and his latest works on his website https://odekpeki.com/2022/09/11/2022-awards-eligibility-post-list/.

Please follow these links to immerse yourself in the works of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki:

“Destiny Delayed” in the May/June issue of Asimov’s – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kl0Iks1M8xk-zMC-FE3Xl3FsNf8Ce4f9/view?usp=drivesdk

Bridging Worlds anthology:

Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations On Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature In a Pandemic

Too Dystopian for Whom? A Continental Nigerian Writer’s Perspective
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/too-dystopian-for-whom-a-continental-nigerian-writers-perspective/

Africa Risen anthology pre-order: https://publishing.tor.com/africarisen-shereereneethomas/9781250833006/

 

Guest Scholar – Dr. Isiah Lavender III

 

Isiah Lavender III is Sterling-Goodman Professor of English at the University of Georgia, where he researches and teaches courses in African American literature and science fiction. His books include Race in American Science Fiction (Indiana UP, 2011), Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction and Dis-Orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction (UP of Mississippi, 2014 and 2017 respectively), Afrofuturism Rising: The Literary Prehistory of a Movement (Ohio State UP, 2019), and Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century (Ohio State UP, 2020), co-edited with Lisa Yaszek. His interview collection Conversations with Nalo Hopkinson is forthcoming from UP of Mississippi in early 2023. He is currently hard at work on The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms, co-edited with Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Grace Dillon, and Taryne Jade Taylor as well as his manuscript-in-progress, Critical Race Theory and Science Fiction. If you would like to know more about Dr. Lavender, check out https://narrativeencounters.aau.at/how-reading-shapes-us-isiah-lavender/

 

The title of his ICFA Guest Scholar presentation shall be “Imaginary Amendments and Executive Orders: Race in United States Science Fiction.”

 

For a list of the IAFA Divisions and Division Heads, see https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Division-Heads.

 

For information about the IAFA BIPOC Caucus, see https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/BIPOC-Caucus.

 

For information about the IAFA Student Caucus, see https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Student-Caucus.

 

For more information, visit our website https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/.

 

Follow us on Twitter @IAFA_TW. Our conference hashtag is #ICFA44.

“Like” us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FantasticArts/.

To learn more about our Guests of Honor, please see: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2022/icfa-44-guest-of-honor-and-guest-scholar/

 

ICFA 44 will feature the debut of some new registration categories. “Underfunded” rates have been added at the student price for anyone without the means to attend ICFA otherwise. Several registration levels now have an optional version called “Supporting Rates.” These are a new option that allows some registrants to help the IAFA support the registrations of underfunded attendees. Those selecting this option will be listed and thanked in the conference program (except for the Late Registration Supporting Rate, which will be listed on the errata paper).

3rd Call for October Volunteers!

As our October VICFA is drawing near, we are still looking for volunteers willing to help as tech support during the upcoming virtual conference. We have received 13 generous offers of help, but given the number of concurrent streams and our wish not to overburden the volunteers, we need more!

The conference is scheduled for the weekend of October 7-9 (9 a.m. – 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). At least partial availability during that time window is required.

Volunteers need to be:
available for the aggregate of at least 4 hours over the three days of the conference
comfortable with using Zoom and helping others with it.

All volunteers will receive training before the conference.

Volunteers who are participating in the October 2022 VICFA will have their conference fee waived. Those who are not presenting during VICFA but want to help will receive ICFA 44 T-shirts (to be picked either in March 2023 at the conference or mailed after the conference).

If you’re interested in helping IAFA in this manner, please fill in the Google Form https://forms.gle/vc4XyagH1eBNhdSa9 by September 16. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the IAFA President, who is also wearing the hat of the VICFA Coordinator, at p.frelik@uw.edu.pl .

#IAFAGlobalFantastic

2nd Call for VICFA Volunteers!

Following our previous post, we have received several generous offers of help, but we need more hands on deck!

IAFA is inviting members willing to volunteer as tech support during the upcoming virtual conference (also known as VICFA). The conference is scheduled for the weekend of October 7-9 (9 a.m. – 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). At least partial availability during that time window is required.

Volunteers need to be:

available for the aggregate of at least 4 hours over the three days of the conference
comfortable with using Zoom and helping others with it.

All volunteers will receive training before the conference.

Volunteers who are participating in the October 2022 VICFA will have their conference fee waived. Those who are not presenting during VICFA but want to help will receive ICFA 44 T-shirts (to be picked either in March 2023 at the conference or mailed after the conference).

If you’re interested in helping IAFA in this manner, please fill in the Google Form https://forms.gle/vc4XyagH1eBNhdSa9 by September 15. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the IAFA President, who is also wearing the hat of the VICFA Coordinator, at p.frelik@uw.edu.pl .

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FantasticArts/

Follow us on Twitter @IAFA_TW

#IAFAGlobalFantastic

Call for Papers: Queering Camelot: LGBTQQA+ Readings, Representations, and Retellings of Arthuriana, Extension

  • September 8, 2022 – 2:07 pm
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Call for Papers – Extension

Queering Camelot: LGBTQQA+ Readings, Representations, and Retellings of Arthuriana

Fantastika Special Issue

Guest Editors: Rebecca Jones and Sebastian F.K. Svegaard

This is an open call for papers for a special issue of Fantastika continuing on from its Queering Fantastika issue, which will explore the queer side of Arthurian tales, adaptations, and fanworks. It seeks to include any and all media, whether directly adapting or only alluding to Camelot and Grail narratives. This issue will present a multivalent approach and is seeking both critical and critical practice-based research on this subject. The call has been extended to reflect a need for a longer writing period.

Submissions can range from historic analyses of Medieval manuscripts up to and beyond analysis of fanworks published yesterday. This exploration seeks to acknowledge the ways in which Arthuriana has a legacy steeped in ideas of gender roles and relations; sexual encounters, taboos, and restraints; and the limitations that society and individuals place on themselves which break relationships and create toxic spaces. By exploring how adaptations, readings, games, and fanworks reframe these narratives and choose to explore more queer pairings (shipping in fanfiction) or the relationships already there (the polyamorous potential of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere and the swinger Lord and Lady of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) this collection seeks to open new explorations of adaptation practice, fan responses and reframing, and present new readings of these old tales by allowing scholars and authors alike to take the chivalric and question how we engage with it today.

We welcome work on any kind of Arthurian narrative with a queer background in theory and/or praxis. These could be, but are not limited to, BBC’s Merlin (2008-2012), Mists of Avalon (1982), The Green Knight (2021), Dark is Rising (1965-1977), Cursed (2020), Fables (2002-2015), Once and Future (2019), or the tabletop role playing system Romance of the Perilous Lands (2019). We are interested in all forms of media adaptation, allusion, and engagement. Subjects and ways of analysis may include, but are not limited to:

  • Critical and queer readings of Arthurian adaptations (ex. lesbian Morgana in Cursed, the homoerotic tension in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
  • Music and affect as queer and/or feminist influence in Arthurian adaptations
  • The queerness of chivalry and the Arthurian body (ex. the Fisher King’s body being bound to the land)
  • Queering Camelot through casting
  • Creative adaptations/retellings of Arthuriana
  • Game worlds and player interactions in Arthuriana-inspired role playing, video games, and board games

 

We are seeking articles and creative-critical* works which should be between 5000-7000 words. Please include a 500 word abstract which should contain any content warnings at the end if applicable (warnings are not included in word count) and a 100-word author biography. The deadline for submission is 16 December 2022, but early submissions are greatly encouraged. Email us if you have any questions about critical-creative submissions. Fantastika is an open access journal, so be sure you have proper permissions for any images or content submitted and are happy for your work to be publicly accessible. Feel free to ask if you have any questions about permissions and the accessibility of your work.

We will not accept submissions arguing for the importance of studying Fantastika, and in the same vein we will not be accepting anything that argues for the importance of LGBTQIA+ representation and criticism. We take these arguments as a given and not open to debate. These ideas may of course be part of a larger and more nuanced analysis, but we do not accept submissions which have as its central aim arguing for its value.

All submissions will be peer reviewed. As part of this process, we require contributors to also join in the anonymous peer review process by reviewing 1-2 submissions.

Email all submissions to Rebecca Jones and Sebastian Svegaard at Queering.Camelot@gmail.com using the subject line ‘Queering Camelot Submission’. Please indicate your preferred pronouns in your submission email.

 

* Creative-critical is the use of a critical framework to inform a creative practice that explores aspects of society, media and culture. It is a tradition going back to Plato’s dialogues, that we wish to continue here.

For creative-critical pieces, we require an abstract that explains the academic scope of the piece and how it relates to the theme of the journal as well as some element of contextual, critical writing to go along with the creative work, which can take any form that is replicable in the journal.

 

 

Rebecca Jones (she/they) is an American researcher interested in representation across media and has published on the representation of women within fantasy television adaptations and science fiction films, diversity within comics, and the representational shifts within survival horror video games. She is a reviewer for Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction and BSFA Vector journals.

Sebastian F.K. Svegaard (he/him) is a Danish researcher who works in the intersection of media, fan studies, music and affect. He has published on feminist offense as a creative influence for fans, vidding research methodology, and presented on queered superhero bodies in fanvids. He is on the editorial board for the journal Riffs.

 

 

 

Call for Volunteers for VICFA 2022

The IAFA is inviting members willing to volunteer as tech support during the upcoming virtual conference (also known as VICFA). The conference is scheduled for the weekend of October 7-9 (9 a.m. – 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). At least partial availability during that time window is required.

Volunteers need to be:

available for the aggregate of at least 4 hours over the three days of the conference
comfortable with using Zoom and helping others with it

All volunteers will receive training before the conference.

Volunteers who are participating in the October 2022 VICFA will have their conference fee waived. Those who are not presenting during VICFA but want to help will receive ICFA 44 T-shirts (to be picked either in March 2023 at the conference or mailed after the conference).

If you’re interested in helping IAFA in this manner, please contact the IAFA President, who is also wearing the hat of the VICFA Coordinator, at p.frelik@uw.edu.pl by September 15 .

IAFA Program Book Editor — Call for Applications

The IAFA is soliciting applications for the position of the Program Book Editor to edit the fall Virtual ICFA (VICFA) program and the ICFA conference program book. This appointment will be for one-year, with the possibility to renew indefinitely. Experience with IAFA culture is considered an asset for the position. Professional experience with layout and similar design work is a must. Those applying should have access to their own design software (InDesign or equivalent). The content for the book will be provided by the IAFA officers, and the files used in design of previous program books will be made available to help assist in the production of the new one. At the time of appointment, the IAFA will provide a detailed outline to the Program Book Editor of what should be included in the program book and in what order it should be printed.

The duties of the Program Book Editor include:

  • for the Fall VICFA, prepare a PDF program with information provided by the Board,
  • for the March ICFA, work with the Membership Coordinator to develop templates for the book in a professional design program (i.e., InDesign, Quark, or equivalent),
  • using these templates, and information provided by the First and Second Vice Presidents about the conference’s guests and program schedule, produce camera-ready copy for the production of this book,
  • with art provided by the Second Vice President, design the cover of the book,
  • submit the program book layout for approval to the IAFA Board by February 15 2023, and make any adjustments as required by the Board after this review,
  • continue to update the book with cancellations and other errata up to the time of printing; in consultation with the First Vice President maintain an errata sheet once the book has gone to print,
  • produce an index for this book, with individuals listed by name and session number, and include this index in the final book,
  • investigate appropriate vendors for printing the book in a cost-effective manner and arrange for the printing and delivery of the book to the hotel in numbers as specified by the Registration/Membership Coordinator.

The IAFA will pay a stipend of $500 for this work. Those interested in applying should submit

  • a cover letter, which provides details of professional layout and design experiences, as well as information about the candidate’s history with the IAFA;
  • a portfolio of previous design work;
  • a CV outlining relevant professional and academic experience.

Applications should be sent to Pawel Frelik, IAFA President, at p.frelik@uw.edu.pl.

The closing date for applications is September 15, 2022. An appointment will be made by the end of September.

ICFA 44 Guest of Honor and Guest Scholar

We are very excited to announce our ICFA 44 Guest of Honor, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and our ICFA 44 Guest Scholar, Dr. Isiah Lavender III!

 

ICFA 44 Guest of Honor – Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki 

 

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer and editor in Nigeria. He has won the Nommo award for Best Speculative Fiction by an African twice, both for Short Story and Novella, as well as the Otherwise and British Fantasy Awards. He is the first African to have won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette with his climate fiction story O2 Arena, for which he is also a BSFA, BFA and Nommo Award finalist, and the first African to be a Hugo Award Best Novelette finalist. He is the first African editor to be a finalist in the Hugo Award Best Editor categories and the first BIPOC editor to be a finalist in both the Hugo Award Editing and Fiction categories in the same year. He has been a finalist for the WFA, Locus, BSFA, Sturgeon, and This Is Horror Awards. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in and are forthcoming in Tordotcom, Asimov’s, Uncanny Magazine, Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, Galaxy’s Edge, and NBC, among other venues. He edited and published the first ever Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction anthology, a Hugo, WFA, Locus, and BFA finalist, and the Pan-African non-fiction anthology, Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations on Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature in a Pandemic. He co-edited the BFA-winning Dominion anthology and the Africa Risen anthology, which has a starred review from Publishers Weekly.  He guest-edited the collections window of Interstellar Flight Press and has slush read for Podcastle, Strange Horizons, Cosmic Roots, Eldritch Shores, and other publications. He is the founder of Jembefola Press and the Emeka Walter Dinjos Memorial Award for Disability in Speculative Fiction. He co-organized the Discon 3 African stream and 2021 Nommo Award ceremony, and is a Guest of Honour at the 2022 Can*Con. He is the first African-born Black writer and the youngest writer to be Guest of Honor at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts.  You can find him on Twitter https://twitter.com/penprince_ and on his website https://odekpeki.com.

 

Please follow these links to immerse yourself in the works of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki:

O2 Arena: https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/o2-arena/

 

Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction: https://jembefola.com/the-L-best-african-speculative-fiction-2021-by-oghenechovwe-donald-ekpeki/

 

Bridging Worlds: https://jembefola.com/bridging-worlds-global-conversations-on-creating-pan-african-speculative-literature-in-a-pandemic-cover-and-toc-reveal/

 

The Emeka Walter Dinjos Memorial Award For Disability In Speculative Fiction: https://file770.com/announcing-the-emeka-walter-dinjos-memorial-award-for-disability-in-speculative-fiction/

 

Discon 3 African Stream: https://file770.com/new-african-program-stream-distinguishes-disconiii-world-science-fiction-convention/

 

Publishers Weekly starred review: https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781250833006

 

Africa Risen pre-order: https://publishing.tor.com/africarisen-shereereneethomas/9781250833006/

 

“Destiny Delayed” in the May/June issue of Asimov’s – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kl0Iks1M8xk-zMC-FE3Xl3FsNf8Ce4f9/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Guest Scholar – Dr. Isiah Lavender III 

 

Isiah Lavender III is Sterling-Goodman Professor of English at the University of Georgia, where he researches and teaches courses in African American literature and science fiction. His books include Race in American Science Fiction (Indiana UP, 2011), Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction and Dis-Orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction (UP of Mississippi, 2014 and 2017 respectively), Afrofuturism Rising: The Literary Prehistory of a Movement (Ohio State UP, 2019), and Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century (Ohio State UP, 2020), co-edited with Lisa Yaszek. His interview collection Conversations with Nalo Hopkinson is forthcoming from UP of Mississippi in early 2023. He is currently hard at work on The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms, co-edited with Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Grace Dillon, and Taryne Jade Taylor as well as his manuscript-in-progress Critical Race Theory and Science Fiction. If you would like to know more about Dr. Lavender, check out https://narrativeencounters.aau.at/how-reading-shapes-us-isiah-lavender/

The title of Dr. Lavender’s ICFA Guest Scholar presentation shall be “Imaginary Amendments and Executive Orders: Race in United States Science Fiction.” 

 

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Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iafa_tw #ICFA44

CFP #NWFGRAINAU23: SFF, Fan, Horror Panel + Colloquium / Panel SFF, fan, horreur + Colloque

  • July 8, 2022 – 2:13 pm
  • Posted in CFP
  • Comments Off on CFP #NWFGRAINAU23: SFF, Fan, Horror Panel + Colloquium / Panel SFF, fan, horreur + Colloque

Chaque année, la Relève Académique (NWF) de la GKS organise plusieurs activités dans le cadre du colloque annuel de la GKS à Grainau, en Allemagne. Pour le colloque de 2023, nous organisons un panel et un colloque, ainsi que des activités culturelles et sociales. Les candidats intéressés peuvent soumettre des propositions pour l’un des deux formats suivants : (1) panel sur les solidarités dans la SFF canadienne, la fanfiction, et la fiction d’horreur, et (2) second colloque des chercheur.se.s émergent.e.s.

Date limite pour les soumissions: 31 août 2022

Every year, the Emerging Scholars’ Forum (NWF) of the GKS organizes several activities as part of the annual GKS conference in Grainau, Germany. For the 2023 conference, we are organizing a panel and a colloquium, as well as cultural and social activities. Interested applicants may submit proposals for any of the two following formats: (1) panel on Solidarities in Canadian SFF, Fan, and Horror Fiction, and (2) 2nd Emerging Scholars Colloquium.

Deadline for submissions: August 31, 2022

See full CFP at: http://www.kanada-studien.org/6611/cfp-of-the-gks-emerging-scholars-forum-panel-on-solidarities-in-canadian-sff-fan-and-horror-fiction-colloquium

Future of ICFA Results

Dear IAFA Members,

As you know, the IAFA Executive Board has been gathering information in preparation for making the decision as to the future of the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts. In particular, we wanted to address concerns that had been vocalized to a number of us that our continued presence in Florida–a state whose government is actively passing laws and enacting policies that are anathematic to the values that an academic organization like ours holds to–was problematic at best.

We began the process by researching locations that might be amenable to us. For more information on this process, please review the FAQ found on our website: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/ICFAFAQs

What we discovered is that there are limited options due to our size and shape; rather than repeat the specifics here, we refer you to the email we sent out prior to the town hall meetings on May 24, 2022.

As part of this information seeking, we held three town hall meetings with our membership, at various days and times, encouraging input and ideas. We provided a Google document whereby people could additionally comment, including anonymously if they so chose. As a result of these conversations, we provided a survey, asking people for their input.

The overwhelming response to these inquiries has been that people prefer to continue to meet at the Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside, and would like to have IAFA take steps to make our presence have greater meaning to the Florida academic community at large in a more tangible way.

This past week, the Executive Board voted to continue our relationship with the Marriott through 2026. We also decided to create a liaison position that will spearhead a task force to develop ideas and methods by which we may be an ally in Florida to all those who oppose the state’s current political drift and systemic injustice. To give you a sampling of some of the things we discussed: grants or brain trust support for creating campus organizations, guest lectures and author readings on campuses, and assistance and participation with organization of special campus events.

We are also actively seeking ways that we can support or co-sponsor a conference on the West Coast; in fact LA’s EagleCon has already reached out to us seeking this very thing. This is in recognition not only of how much our organization would benefit from a West Coast presence but also as part of a process of expanding the overall visibility and availability of IAFA that we are beginning next month with our co-sponsoring of the conference that the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic is holding.

Thank you for your continued support of IAFA. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us.

Pawel Frelik, President, IAFA (iafa.president@fantastic-arts.org) & Jeri Zulli, Conference Director, IAFA iafa.confchair@fantastic-arts.org

On behalf of the IAFA Board

Tucson Hard-Science SF Group – Upcoming Streaming Events

UPCOMING EVENTS

TUCSON HARD-SCIENCE SF GROUP

Streamed at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHUlsmR9M8Nqco76JyZnU4w 

July 2

Tosi Abegbija–“Internet of Things and Beyond”

Tosi is an amazing Prof. of electrical engineering at the Univ. of Arizona. He is back by popular demand. Plot material for SF is found repeatedly in what Tosi brings to our meetings.

Aug. 6 

Ben Kuipers–
Ben is a Prof. of Electrical Engineering at Univ. of Michigan. A longtime reader of SF. He investigates robotic knowledge, including knowledge of space, dynamical change, objects, and actions. He is currently investigating ethics as a foundational domain of knowledge for robots and other AIs that may act as members of human society.

Sep. 3

No meeting—ChiCon in session World Con in Chicago, IL

Oct. 1

David Gunkel and Ben Kuipers—“Can and Should ‘Bots have personhood, rights, and responsibilities?”
Dr. Gunkel is an Asst. Prof. Media Studies, M. Illinois Univ., so he comes to this through the lens of legal personhood, philosophical issues, and the now vexing questions that autonomous Internet of Things poses.

Nov. 5

Shane Larsen—“Astrobiology and You” (working title)
Teaches Astronomy at Northwestern University

Dec. 3

Urvashi Kuhad—“Four Indian Women SF Writers” 

She teaches in English Dept. of Univ. of Delhi.

 

Jan.  7

Mike Jansen—Dutch SF writer. Topic TBA. 

 

Feb. 4

Jack Dann—“On Working in Cultural Intersections and Markets” 

Much-awarded SF writer, Jack Dann works and lives in Australia, these days.

 

Mar. 4th

Christina Becher—“Traveling Plants in German SF Literature”

Christina is in German Lit Studies and is finishing her Ph.D. at Cologne Univ.

 

April 1

TBA

 

May 6

Sandi Petroshius—“Virtual Views of the RBEM” by Sandi, Dir. of the Ray Bradbury Experience Museum in Waukegan, IL. Not a “Great Man” Museum but something to help us learn how Ray drew upon his creative and imaginative potential.

This content comes from Dr. Gloria Lee McMillan (gmcmilla@arizona.edu) of the Tucson Hard-Science SF Group: https://m.facebook.com/HardScience-SF-Writers-Readers-Artists-Zoom-Group-1538157323143466/