Dear poetry and prose writers!
Words and worlds needs you this year at ICFA —-again or for the first time. Thanks to Isabella, Stacie and Dale we have two sessions for poetry and two for short prose and would love to hear from you if you’d like to read.
I need to know really fast though, by October 30 if you can at g.wisker@Brighton.ac.uk.
Really looking forward to this.
Gina Wisker
Hello Everyone!
As we near the deadline for submitting papers for The 38th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Fantastic Epics, which will be held March 22-26, 2017, I wanted to send out some information on the conference theme and give you all some information on submitting a paper proposal and registering for the conference! (Please click here for a VI version of this email.)
THEME:
Our theme this year is “Fantastic Epics.” We welcome papers on the work of: Guest of Honor Steven Erikson (World Fantasy and Locus Award nominee), Guest of Honor N. K. Jemisin (Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominee, Locus Award winner), and Guest Scholar Edward James (Pilgrim, Hugo, British Science Fiction Association, and Eaton Award winner).
The hero(ine)’s tale is as old as storytelling itself. We trace our way from Gilgamesh to current practitioners of the art through routes that lead to – and beyond – other kingdoms, including those of Malazan and the cities of Gujaareh, Sky, and Shadow.
Papers may tread the paths of Thomas the Unbeliever, Bren Cameron, Sundiata Keita, and Boudica, or follow a dark road through Gondor, Camelot, or any valley of shadow. We can find the Epic in the hall of Heorot and in the rooms of Schaherazade. Examinations of modern epics might include the American west, the Marvel Universe, or the world of Miyazaki. A journey, a quest, an awakening – all these and more are part of Fantastic Epics.
We also welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media.
The deadline for proposals is October 31, 2016. We encourage work from institutionally affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, and graduate students.
PROPOSING PAPERS:
If you would like to propose papers, sessions, panels, roundtables, or other programming, you can find instructions and other useful information here.
To submit a paper proposal, you will need the following information:
Once you have all of this information together, you can go to the submissions portal here to upload all of your information!
For a list of divisions, descriptions of what topics are handled by each division, and for contact information to contact the appropriate Division Head with questions go here.
MEMBERSHIP AND REGISTRATION:
If you would like to renew your membership and register for the conference, you can go here. Although you can join the association even if you don’t attend the conference, current IAFA membership is required for conference attendance, so you should join the association or renew your membership before attempting to register for the conference. A list of all fees associated with the conference can be foundhere, and a “How To” guide for membership renewal and registration can be found here for your convenience.
You can also find a brief set of instructions for renewal and registration here.
IMPORTANT DATES:
Early registration ends on January 14th, 2017 at midnight Orlando time, so if you want to take advantage of the early registration prices, make sure you register before then. Regular registration prices will be in effect from 1/15/2017 through 1/31/17, and late registration begins 2/1/17 and lasts until 3/1/17. After March 2, 2017, the on-line system will be closed temporarily so that the conference committee can commit to the hotel for space and meal requirements. The system will open again for on-site registration on March 22nd . Please note that date changes for registration purposes are reckoned by local time in Orlando, Florida.
THE HOTEL:
The conference will be held March 22-26, 2017 at the Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel. We recommend that you have your hotel reservations booked by January 31st, 2017.
For reservations, please call the hotel’s toll-free number: 1-800-380-6751, or dial direct: 407-851-9000, or use the Orlando Airport Marriott web site. The IAFA group code for the conference rate is IAFIAFA. Fill it in as the group code if you register on-line or mention it to the hotel if you call in the reservation. The box to fill in the group code is on the left hand side of the screen when you first go to search for a room. It’s below the section where it asks you the check in date and for your Marriott number. Fill in the discount code before you click “find.” You can find more information about the hotel here.
Remember to reserve your room early so that you get into the conference hotel!
If you have any questions or need any help with membership renewal or registration, please email me at iafareg ATgmail.com.
Regards,
Valorie
Valorie Ebert
International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA)
Membership & Registration Coordinator
1279 W. Palmetto Park Road, #272285
Boca Raton, Florida 33427
Call for Applications: IAFA Book Room Liaison
The IAFA Board invites applications for the position of Book Room Liaison.
Requirements
The successful application will have
· a knowledge of the field of speculative fiction publications
· good organization skills
· the ability to work productively as part of a team
· the ability to be available in the Orlando area in the month before the conference to receive and store books that are shipped for the conference. (The IAFA Board will provide a storage locker to store this inventory.)
Responsibilities
The Book Room Liaison will primarily be responsible for receiving and managing the inventory of shipments of books published by attending IAFA authors to be sold at the conference, and for supervising the set-up, staffing, and clean-up of the Book Room for each conference.
The Book Room Liaison will report to and work collectively with the IAFA Board, who will set policies on books to be purchased and stored, and who will make available the funds for any purchases to be made by the organization.
The Book Room Liaison will also be the person primarily responsible for transporting the books to and from a storage locker and for managing this locker and monitoring its inventory between conferences. The Book Room Liaison will also assist the Board members with the donation of any books that are not purchased after a duration to be set by the Board, and with the management of any books donated to members for the conference luncheons.
The Book Room Liaison will be assisted by other volunteers who will help with the physical labour of setting up the book room and returning unsold items to storage. The Book Room Liaison will work with the President and the Membership and Registration Coordinator to recruit and appoint these volunteers.
During the conference period, the Book Room Liaison will be responsible for managing Book Room operations, including the processing of payments. A cash float will be made available by the IAFA Treasurer and a system for credit card payments is in place. The Book Room Liaison will schedule staffing hours for the volunteers who will assist in running the book room during the conference.
It is expected that the Book Room Liaison will be available at the conference hotel from the Sunday preceding the conference until the Sunday following it. The IAFA Board will pay for accommodation during this period. The Board will also pay for economy-fare travel to this venue, if needed. The IAFA Board will also provide the Book Room Liaison with a complementary registration for the conference during the period of service, and with tickets to all the conference meals.
IAFA Governance
The IAFA Board governs the organization and is made up of a number of elected and appointed positions. The Board is assisted in running the conference by a number of other volunteers appointed to specific roles, such as the Division Heads, who do not sit on the Board. The Book Room Liaison will be an appointed but not a Board position.
The Book Room Liaison will report to and assist the IAFA Board. This is a voluntary, not paid, position, consistent with all positions within IAFA governance, both appointed and elected; these listed compensations are to off-set the costs that the individual will incur through the act of providing this service to the conference.
To Apply
Applications should consist of a résumé and a letter of interest outlining the candidate’s experience with the conference, qualifications for the position, and reasons for wanting to serve as Book Room Liaison.
Applications should be sent to IAFA President Sherryl Vint at sherryl.vint@gmail.com.
All applications will be reviewed by the Board and the successful candidate will be appointed by the President after a majority vote by the Board, as is consistent for all appointed positions within conference governance.
The deadline for applications is November 15, 2016.
PDF version of this call: book-room-liaison-call
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
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.