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Monthly Archives: January 2017

IAFA Statement Regarding Current Travel Restrictions

Dear IAFA Members,

As an international organization, we are watching unfolding political events regarding travel between nations. While we don’t anticipate any problems for our attendees based on the new rules as we understand them and the current composition of our membership, the board will revisit the issue as the situation becomes clearer and make adjustments in accordance with our mission as an international organization.  If you have concerns about your personal status, please contact the board with details.

We want to assure our members that as always, we value diversity, equity, and inclusion. We stand with the international community of scholars and writers and will continue to support all those who believe in the free exchange of ideas.

IAFA Board

David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award

David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award (formerly the Graduate Student Award)

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts presents an annual award and
stipend to the graduate student submitting the most outstanding paper at the Association’s
conference. The award, and a check for $250, will be presented to the winner at the Awards
Banquet on Saturday evening. Students must submit their completed paper (3500 words,
excluding bibliography) and verification of student status by February 1.

CRITERIA & INSTRUCTIONS

1. The student will have had a paper accepted for presentation at the Conference. The
paper submitted for the competition should be essentially the same as that presented at
the conference. The maximum length for entries is 3500 words (about 2 pages over the
recommended reading length of 8-9 pages). Students should be aware that funds are limited
and that only one award will be given. The paper selected will be published in the Journal of
the Fantastic in the Arts, and therefore must not have been previously published or submitted
for publication elsewhere. Please note that acceptance of a paper for the Conference does not
guarantee an award.

2. It is the responsibility of the student to send a copy of the paper by 1 February 2017 to the 1st
VP Isabella van Elferen (i.vanelferen@kingston.ac.uk), as well as a copy of the letter of acceptance and verification of student status. Submissions may be in Word, RTF or PDF format.

3. The committee is looking for clear, coherent, and interesting writing. Essays should be
solidly grounded in scholarly tradition, showing awareness of previous studies and of historical
and theoretical contexts. Essays may use any suitable method of analysis, including historical
and sociological approaches as well as those that originate in literary theory. Essays will be
evaluated for their originality and quality of insight into the text.

The judges for the 2017 award will be:
Dr. Mark Bould, University of the West of England Bristol
Jordan S Carroll, UC Davis
Dr. Regina Hansen, Boston University

ICFA 38 Normal Registration Pricing Ending Soon!

Hello Everyone!

As the Thirty-Eighth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts nears, I wanted to send out a few reminders!  If you haven’t already done so, you can renew your membership and register for the conference here.  

Although you can join the association even if you don’t attend the conference, current IAFA membership is required if you are presenting a paper at the conference, so you should join the association or renew your membership before attempting to register for the conference if you are presenting a paper.  

A list of all fees associated with the conference can be found here and a “How To” guide for membership renewal can be found here, and a “How To” guide for registering and paying for the conference can be found here. 

IMPORTANT DATES:

Normal registration rates end on January 31, 2017 at midnight Orlando time, so if you want to take advantage of the regular registration rates, you only have a few days left!

Late registration begins February 1, 2017 and lasts through the conference.

After March 1, 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 22, 2017.

Please note that date changes for registration purposes are reckoned by local time in Orlando, Florida.

Student Caucus (SCIAFA):

The purpose of the Student Caucus (SCIAFA) is to foster and promote growth, scholarship, and fellowship among the student members of the IAFA and to address the needs of students working in the field of the fantastic, by establishing mentoring and other programs, through coordinating efforts with the main body of the IAFA. If you are a student member of the IAFA, you are automatically a member of SCIAFA

Mentoring Program:

The mentoring program is an important part of the SCIAFA. Since 2001, the IAFA Student Caucus (SCIAFA) has sponsored a Mentoring Program aimed at helping student scholars to find their way around ICFA, discover the natural friendliness of the conference as quickly as possible, use ICFA as an entrance into existing scholarly communities concerned with the fantastic, and leave with both fond memories of the supporting organization and plans to return.

This year, the SCIAFA is still accepting participants for the Mentoring Program, and we are in great need of mentors, so please consider signing up.

For more information about the Mentoring Program, or to sign up as either a mentor or mentee, please contact Amanda Rudd at rudd.am AT gmail.com.

THE HOTEL:

The conference will be held March 22-26, 2017 at the Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel.  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. Click the “+” sign next to “special rates” and fill in the group code before you click “find.” You can find more information about the hotel here.

The hotel deadline is fast approaching, and rooms will not be available at the conference rate after January 31–and will probably not be available at any rate, so if you haven’t booked your room yet, you may want to soon.

DISCUSSION LIST: 

All IAFA members are invited to join the IAFA listserv. You may do so by clicking here.  

VOLUNTEERING:

Interested in helping us make ICFA 38 a success? We are looking for volunteers to assist with the book room, registration desk, and A/V. Please use the survey link below to let us know when and where you would like to help. If you know of other people attending the conference that would like to volunteer and earn ICFA bucks to help them keep coming back, please share the survey with them. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Valorie Ebert, Membership and Registration Coordinator (iafareg ATgmail.com).

Please Note: We need extra volunteers to help load and unload the book room.  If you plan on being at the hotel Monday and/or aren’t leaving until the following Sunday or Monday and would like to help with this important task, please indicate your willingness on the volunteer survey or please contact Valorie Ebert, Membership and Registration Coordinator (iafareg AT gmail.com)..

** Book Room Set Up normally begins at 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning.  They need all the help they can get, so if you are at the conference early on Monday, stop by and lend a hand.

** Book Room Breakdown normally begins at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.  Again, they need all the help they can get, so if you are an early riser, go lend a hand.

You can find the volunteer survey here.

Social Media:

If you are on Facebook you can connect with IAFA here.  You can follow us on Twitter here. In addition, if you are a student you can also join the Student Caucus Facebook page here.

If you have any questions or need any help with membership renewal or registration, please email me at iafareg AT gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you in March!

Regards,

Valorie

Runoff Election for Second Vice President

Hello IAFA Members!

Make sure to check the email account linked to your IAFA Member Profile for an opportunity to vote in our Second Vice President Runoff Election. Since no candidate for Second Vice President received at least 51% of the vote, the bylaws require a runoff between the two candidates who received the most votes. Voting will remain open until midnight Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017. The link was sent to the email attached to your Member Profile, and only IAFA members may vote.

Call for Applications: Horatio Alger Fellowship for the Study of American Popular Culture Northern Illinois University

  • January 27, 2017 – 10:57 am
  • Posted in Awards
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Horatio Alger Fellowship for the Study of American Popular Culture
Northern Illinois University

The University Libraries, Northern Illinois University, invite applications for the Horatio Alger Fellowship for the Study of American Popular Culture. Funding is available to scholars who will be using materials from the Libraries’ major holdings in American popular culture. These holdings include the Albert Johannsen and Edward T. LeBlanc Collections of more than 50,000 dime novels, and the nation’s preeminent collections related to Horatio Alger, Jr., and Edward Stratemeyer. Eligible collections also include our comic book, science fiction and fantasy literature, and American Popular Literature Collections. Topics which could draw on the collections’ strengths might include the plight of urban children, image of the American West in popular literature, widespread use of pseudonyms, and stereotypical portrayals. Preference will be given to applicants who signify an interest in conducting research related to Horatio Alger, Jr.

The 2017 Fellowship award consists of a $2000 stipend.

Candidates should submit a letter of interest, a curriculum vitae, a brief proposal for their research, and two letters of recommendation to: Lynne M. Thomas, Head, Rare Books and Special Collections, University Libraries, Horatio Alger Fellowship, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115-2868. Electronic applications may be emailed to lmthomas@niu.edu

The deadline for applications is May 31, 2017, with research taking place between July 1 and December 31, 2017.

Unfortunately, due to state and university regulations, this award is available to US residents only.

 

http://libguides.niu.edu/rarebooks/fellowships

CfP: 42nd Meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies, Memphis, TN

Call for Papers and Proposals
42nd Meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies
CPF Deadline: July 15, 2017

Conference Theme: Utopian Gracelands, Dystopian Blues, and the City on the Bluff

When: Nov 9-12, 2017
Where: Doubletree By Hilton Memphis Downtown, 185 Union Avenue, Memphis, TN

The Society for Utopian Studies is pleased to be meeting once again in Memphis, Tennessee, and invites you to submit papers and proposals on the theme, “Utopian Gracelands, Dystopian Blues, and the City on the Bluff.” As an interdisciplinary society from its founding, we encourage scholars and practitioners from any academic field to join and participate, as well as architects, city planners, artists, musicians—anyone whose work relates to utopian thought and possibility, and dystopian realities and visions. Members of intentional communities are also welcome to attend and/or to present.

Abstracts and proposals of up to 250 words are due by 15 July 2017 for the following:

· a 15-20 minute individual paper;
· a full panel of up to four speakers, or an informal roundtable of 3-6 presenters (encouraged!);
· a performance of a creative work or presentation of an artwork or artifact;
· a visual/audio presentation in the form of a poster and/or demo.

As we do every year, the Society invites papers on any topic related to the literature, history and theory of utopia in literature and practice. This broad umbrella covers dystopia, science fiction, speculative fiction, communal experiments and failures, film representations of any of the above.

However, we especially welcome proposals related to our place-based conference theme: Utopian Gracelands, Dystopian Blues, and the City on the Bluff. The City of Memphis is famous for many things: its role in “King Cotton” and the slave trade; its role in the Civil Rights Movement; its music of blues, soul, and jazz; its barbecue and catfish; and, of course, its river. Within walking distance of the Doubletree Downtown, you can visit iconic sites representing each of these: The National Civil Rights Museum; Beale Street, Sun Studios, and (a short drive from downtown) Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland; the Rendezvous for barbecue; and you can’t really miss the “mighty” Mississippi River.

Less well known is the history of indigenous peoples from the Quapaw and Chickasaw Nations, who inhabited the area now known as Memphis on the Mississippi River bluffs, and forced to leave during the Indian Removals of the 1800s. Burial mounds are still visible within the city limits. (Other Tennessee tribes include the Shawnee, Yuchi, Cherokee, and Koasati).

Memphis also claims its fame as the home of FedEx, and of America’s first supermarket chain, Piggly Wiggly. Memphis history thus provides a wide variety of possible approaches and topics related to utopian and dystopian thought and practice. We particularly invite papers related to any aspect of the following:

· Civil Rights and Utopian Political Movements: the history of utopian politics and political movement in Memphis and the South; “the Promised Land”
· Indigenous Communities: Utopia and Dystopia, Before and After the European Arrival
· Global Memphis: from riverboats to vapor trails; transnational exchanges (of cotton, slaves, culture, and packages)
· The Mississippi River in Song and Literature
· The Memphis Sound and the History of Contemporary Music
· African American Literatures and Histories
· Southern Intentional Communities
· Indigenous Literatures and Histories
· Graceland: Elvis Presley and/or his famous home; but also the concept of grace, and its relation to utopian thinking or thematics. Another possible related topic: Celebrity
· Supermarkets and Consumer Utopias

As noted above, non-theme related papers are always accepted! Recent themes of interest at our meetings have included:

· Science/Speculative Fictions from around the world
· Digital Humanities—given the longevity of Utopia and its many imitators, what forms of technology showcase this texts or other imagined or real-world utopias?
· Teaching—pedagogical issues in teaching Utopia and similar works of utopian fiction, teaching dystopian works, theories of teaching speculative fiction
· Artwork—presentations or displays of art and/or analyses of utopian themes in the works of Memphis or Southern artists

**DEADLINE: 15 July 2017 for 250-word abstracts and proposals**

Please use our online forms for submissions by clicking on Submit A Proposal on our conference website, http://utopian-studies.org/conference2017.

For information about registration, travel or accommodations, please contact Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor at jaw55@psu.edu; for information about panel topics, assistance finding co-panelists, and other questions about the conference program, please contact Andrew Byers or Elizabeth Schreiber-Byers at SUS2017Conference@gmail.com. Those looking for co-panelists are reminded that H-Utopia (https://networks.h-net.org/h-utopia) offers a platform for sending out panel CFPs.

And for information on restaurants, local maps, transportation, and other information about the Memphis area, visit http://www.memphistravel.com/.

AND DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE SOCIETY’S AWARDS. Nominate yourself, or someone else, as appropriate!

Arthur O. Lewis Award – for younger scholars, revision of SUS conference paper. Deadline approaching: February 28, 2017

Eugenio Battisti Award – for the best article in Utopian Studies (journal) during 2016

Kenneth M. Roemer Innovative Course Design Award – for creative course modules or syllabi. Deadline: Sept 15, 2017

Larry E. Hough Distinguished Service Award – for service to the Society

Lyman Tower Sargent Award for Distinguished Scholarship – for lifetime achievement in the field of Utopian Studies

Call for Applications: R.D. Mullen Fellowships

Call for Applications: R.D. Mullen Fellowships

Named for the founder of our journal, Richard “Dale” Mullen (1915-1998), the Mullen fellowships are awarded by Science Fiction Studies to support for archival research in science fiction. Starting with the 2017 competition, we have four categories of awards:

1. Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

Amount: Up to $3000
Number: 1 award is available each year
Qualifications: Candidates must have received their PhD degree 2 years or less from the date of applying. Also eligible are those who have essentially completed but not yet defended the dissertation. Applicants who hold (or are contracted to begin) a tenure-track position are not eligible. The relation between the new research and the topic of the dissertation should be clarified in the proposal. The Committee understands that the two are likely to be related, but the additional research needed for the post-doctoral project should be explained.

2. PhD Research Fellowship

Amount: Up to $1500
Number: 2 awards are available each year
Qualifications: Research must be in support of a dissertation topic that requires archival research. The proposal should make it clear that applicants have familiarized themselves in some detail with the resources available at the library or archive they propose to use. Projects with an overall sf emphasis, other things being equal, will receive priority over projects with a more tangential relationship to the field.

3. MA Thesis Research Fellowship

Amount: Up to $1000
Number: 2 awards are available each year
Qualifications: For students in an MA program in a humanities department that does not award the PhD, in support of MA thesis research. (Non-thesis-track MA students are not eligible.) The award is for travel in support of archival research on the MA thesis topic; the proposal should specify which materials are unique to the archive and/or essential to the project. This is not an award in support of conference travel. Among the two letters of recommendation, one must be from the MA thesis adviser, confirming that the thesis proposal has been accepted and the committee formed.

4. Collaborative Undergraduate Research Award

Amount: Up to $250
Number: 2 awards are available each year
Qualifications: For upper-division students (most likely senior majors in English or related humanities fields) to conduct archival research and write a term paper. This award can cover local travel to archives as well as funding for such expenses as copying. A faculty mentor (who will co-sign the proposal) will guide the student through the proposal process, the research process, and evaluate the subsequent paper. The work could be done as additional to regular upper-division class or in the context of a tutorial, Directed Independent Study, or BA thesis. The final report would be dual, chiefly written by the student but with a brief final statement by the faculty mentor describing the outcome.

Application Process
All projects must centrally investigate science fiction, of any nation, culture, medium or era. Applications may propose research in—but need not limit themselves to—specialized sf archives such as the Eaton Collection at UC Riverside, the Maison d’Ailleurs in Switzerland, the Judith Merril Collection in Toronto, or the SF Foundation Collection in Liverpool. Proposals for work in general archives with relevant sf holdings—authors’ papers, for example—are also welcome. For possible research locations, applicants may wish to consult the partial list of sf archives compiled in SFS 37.2 (July 2010): 161-90. This list is also available online at: <http://sfanthology.site.wesleyan.edu/files/2010/08/WASF-Teachers-Guide-2Archives.pdf>.

Applications should be written in English and should describe the proposed research and clarify the centrality of science fiction to the project’s overall design. They should show knowledge of the specific holdings and strengths of the archive in which the proposed research will be conducted and provide a work plan and budget. Candidates should explain why research in this particular archive is crucial to the proposed project. Students who receive awards must acknowledge the support provided by SFS’s Mullen Fellowship program in any completed theses, dissertations or published work that makes use of research supported by this fellowship. After the research is conducted, each awardee shall provide SFS with a 500-word report on the results.

A complete application consists of

· a cover letter clearly identifying which fellowship or award is sought,

· a project description (approximately 500 words) with a specific plan of work,

· an updated curriculum vitae,

· an itemized budget, and

· two letters of reference, including one from the faculty supervisor (a letter of collaborative support from a faculty member is required for the undergraduate awards).

Successful candidates will be reimbursed for expenses incurred conducting research, up to the amount of the award, once they complete the research and submit relevant receipts.

Applications should be submitted electronically to the chair of the evaluation committee, Sherryl Vint, at sherryl.vint@gmail.com. Applications are due April 3, 2017 and awards will be announced in early May. The selection committee for 2017-2018 consists of John Reider and Lisa Yaszek (SFS Advisory Board members) and Carol McGuirk and Sherryl Vint, SFS editors.

Download a PDF of this call here.

CfP: Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies Issue #16

Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies Issue #16

deadline for submissions:
March 1, 2017

full name / name of organization:
Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies

contact email:
irishjournalgothichorror@gmail.com

The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies (ISSN 2009-0374) is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, open-access, electronic publication, affiliated with the Irish Network for Gothic Studies, and dedicated to the study of gothic and horror literature, film, new media, and television.

We are currently seeking submissions of articles and reviews that deal with any aspect of gothic and horror studies, including (but not limited to) literature, film, television, theatre, art and architecture, music, and new media. Please note that we cannot include pictures or sound files with articles or reviews.

We will consider articles between 5000-7000 words. Articles should follow the MHRA style sheet, which is available in full here: http://www.mhra.org.uk/series/MSG.

Article deadline: 1st March 2017.

Reviews should be no more than 1000 words (though we may consider longer essay-type reviews), and should include full publication/release/transmission dates and details of the subject discussed. Please note, reviews of contemporary and classic horror films should focus on those that have been released or revived theatrically or on DVD within the last year.

Reviews deadline: 1st May 2017.

We are happy to consider submissions prior to these deadlines. However, decisions regarding publication may not be made until after the Call for Submissions has closed.

Articles and reviews can be submitted for consideration to Dr Dara Downey and Dr Niall Gillespie at irishjournalgothichorror@gmail.com.

CfP: The Gibson Critics Don’t See: Omissions, Lacunae, and Absences

The Gibson Critics Don’t See:
Omissions, Lacunae, and Absences

There are few science fiction writers whose critical coverage can rival that of William Gibson, the pope of cyberpunk, whose Neuromancer (1984) stormed postmodern syllabi and majorly contributed to opening the academy to science fiction. Nevertheless, the critical attention to Gibson has been running mostly in several intensely interesting, albeit selective, grooves, leaving many aspects of his work unexplored.

This project aims to reexamine and reassess William Gibson’s literary oeuvre in the early decades of the 21st century. While the writer’s technological prescience, his obsession with brands, and his reflections on the nature of cognition have been investigated by numerous scholars, there are other dimensions of his work that warrant more critical attention. To address this lacuna, Polish Journal for American Studies (PJAS) seeks articles for a special issue devoted to the neglected, forgotten, and bypassed aspects of the Canadian master’s fiction. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

· the poetic and stylistic quality of Gibson’s fiction
· the author’s generic maneuvers at the intersection of science fiction, noir, crime, and spy genres
· the increasing realism of his later novels and his relationship with science fiction
· the representation of the post-Cold War world order
· the artistic, literary, and pop-cultural influences and references
· the preoccupation with cultural memory, retroism, hauntology, and spectrality
· the politics of Gibson’s fiction
· the apparent un-adaptability of Gibson’s fiction in the age of transmedia and cultural franchises
· the critical and popular reception of Gibson’s fiction in various countries and territories

Abstracts of 500 words should be submitted by March 31, 2017 to Paweł Frelik, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin (pawel.frelik@gmail.com) and Anna Krawczyk-Łaskarzewska, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn (alphabase17@gmail.com). Authors of selected abstracts will be notified by April 28, 2017. Full drafts (5,000 to 7,000 words) will be due by September 30, 2017. The issue is provisionally scheduled for the second half of 2018. For more information about the journal, please visit our website: http://www.paas.org.pl/pjas/.

CfP: “Imagining Alternatives,” Special Issue of Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities

  • January 18, 2017 – 11:18 am
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“Imagining Alternatives” – CFP for a Special Issue of Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities

deadline for submissions:
June 1, 2017

full name / name of organization:
Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities

contact email:
megancondis@gmail.com

CFP for a Special Issue of Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities

“Imagining Alternatives”

From Afrofuturism to dystopian, apocalyptic fiction to alternate history to ecofeminism and cli-fi, authors of speculative fictions have been interrogating alternative worlds in literature, film, television, comic books, and video games. These visions give us access to alien planets as well as alternative perspectives on our own pasts, presents, and possible futures. They reflect our hopes and fears; they offer new narratives of race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality; they suggest the magic and the horror embedded in our own realities.

This special issue of Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities invites authors to interrogate imagined alternatives to existing systems of knowledge and distributions of power. We are interested in submissions engaging with a wide variety of subjects, genres, mediums, time periods, and national origins: from cyberpunk to steampunk, and from Gothic fiction to fan fiction. We also want to encourage authors to imagine alternative formats for their own work. In addition to traditional essays, we will also consider roundtables, interviews, photo essays, web comics, YouTube videos, Flash animations, web-based games, and other creative works.

To be considered for inclusion in the special issue, submit your work via the Resilience website (http://www.resiliencejournal.org/publishing-in-resilience/submission-form/) by June 1, 2017 for publication in the fall of 2017. Be certain to indicate in the abstract that you are submitting a piece for the “Imagining Alternatives” special issue.

Please direct any questions about the special issue to Megan Condis via email at megancondis.gmail.com or on Twitter @MeganCondis.