The votes are in! The IAFA membership has selected to extend the terms of the First and Second Vice Presidents by one year. The positions will now be staggered so that the President will be elected in year one, the First VP will be elected in year two, and the Second VP will be elected in year three.
Thank you to those of you who took the time to vote.
Emily Midkiff
IAFA Registrar
If you plan on attending our symposium and you have not yet booked your hotel room yet, please do so before September 1 or you will miss out on our special rate.
As you know, your registration is all inclusive for the symposium, including the food functions: Friday reception, Saturday lunch, and Sunday continental breakfast. Weather permitting, lunch on Saturday will be served outside in the bar area. If you know that you will not be attending the lunch, please let Jeri know at iafa.confchair@fantastic-arts.org. This will save IAFA from paying for meals that are then wasted. If you have any Saturday lunch restrictions (other than vegetarian or gluten free), please reach out to Jeri at iafa.confchair@fantastic-arts.org no later than Aug 15. The buffet will be similar to our ICFA lunches, so there will be gluten free as well as vegetarian options.
We are monitoring the Covid situation in Orlando and are cautiously optimistic that the symposium will go on as scheduled. We are in regular contact with the Marriott about their own virus protocols, and we are instituting our own, as well. For example, we are adding a rider to our Code of Conduct that addresses convening in the age of Covid; also, we have requested that the hotel set chairs three feet apart in all meeting rooms. If you are interested to know about the hotel’s protocols for virus safety, you can find that information here: https://whattoexpect.marriott.com/mcoap
Please note that we can only provide refunds for cancellations until September 5th. You can cancel your registration from your profile on https://www.fantastic-arts.org
Emily Midkiff
IAFA Registrar
The registration portal for Trans/Inter/Cross: A Symposium on the Fantastic Between Genres, Media, and Cultures on October 1-3, 2021 is now open! Accepted session participants have already been given a chance to register, but there are still some spaces left for anyone who wants to attend without presenting.
Please be aware that this event is very limited in size, and we believe that the remaining space will go quickly! If you see that all available spots are already taken, you can click through to be added to the wait list (in case of cancellations or other changes). Once you have registered, you will be sent information for the symposium hotel block.
Register here: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/event-4272794
The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts is accepting applications for the position of Division Head of the Science Fiction Literature (SFL) Division. (Please see division description below.)
Division Heads are appointed by the President, on the recommendation of the First Vice President, who chairs the Council of Division Heads, after formal discussion and majority vote of the Board. The term is for three years with an opportunity to renew for an additional term.
The incoming SFL Division Head will shadow Pawel Frelik, the current SFL Division Head, through March 2023, and will take over full SFL DH duties after the March 2023 conference.
Each Division Head organizes and supervises all conference activity within a subdivision of fantastic scholarship. Division Heads work under the guidance of the First Vice President. Division Heads are responsible for recruiting session proposals and papers and are responsible for formatting these to the requirements of the First Vice President. Division Heads are responsible for forwarding all information to the First Vice President in a timely fashion. Division Heads have the responsibility to check the draft program for accuracy and AV needs. Division Heads are expected to liaise with other Division Heads and the First Vice President. The First Vice President is the final arbiter of the program under the aegis of the Executive Board. At the conference, the Division Heads oversee sessions in their respective Divisions and collect suggestions for future topics, special guests, etc.
Those interested in applying must send both a cover letter explaining their interest in, and qualifications for, the position, and a current CV, to the First Vice President, Valorie Ebert at iafa.1vp@fantastic-arts.org, no later than 20 July 2021.
SFL Division description:
The Science Fiction Literature division welcomes critical scholarship on topics related to science fiction novels, short stories, poems, and other forms that can be considered literary as well as those focused on critical theories related to the SF genre. This division’s emphasis is textual as well as theoretical; papers considering science fiction in film, television, or comics are encouraged to apply to the Film and Television division or the Visual & Performing Arts and Audiences division instead.
Are you an undergraduate looking to build your CV in anticipation of applying to grad school or other future jobs? Do you know an undergraduate who wants to take on a position of leadership? Then I would recommend nominating yourself for the SCIAFA undergraduate representative position! You would gain experience in managing an international organization representing hundreds of students! Responsibilities would include organizing and managing a mentorship program (along with the vice representative of SCIAFA) and proposing and moderating a panel at ICFA—an international conference with hundreds of attendees annually.
SCIAFA represents all students, but the leadership is currently only graduate students—we want to make sure the needs of every students are being met so we of the board are seeking an undergraduate who is ready and willing to help lead this organization and make an impact in SCIAFA and IAFA more broadly!
If you are interested in applying for this position follow this link: https://forms.gle/xgjp4YYRJ4bMBC7y5
Thank you so much for considering this position and please feel free to email me (iafa.studentcaucus@fantastic-arts.org) with any questions!
Samantha Baugus
University of Florida
Doctoral Candidate
Student Caucus Representative for the International Association for the Fantasy in the Arts
Dear IAFA Members:
Your IAFA Executive Board met on Saturday 6/5 and Sunday 6/6 and, among other business, discussed several new initiatives, two of which we are happy to announce:
1) We will create a J.E.D.I. (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) Officer and formulate an IAFA policy document on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. This will be a lengthy process involving extensive dialogue and research into best practices, and we will keep you posted as the process evolves.
2) In response to our growing international membership and the numerous difficulties members have expressed involved in funding travel, we are creating a virtual conference to be held yearly beginning in October 2022. Again, there are many details to be worked out, but we will keep you informed.
As a result of these and other changes there will be many new opportunities to gain experience, strengthen your C.V. or resumé, and perhaps start down the path to future leadership in the IAFA. So please keep an eye on your IAFA list serve!
In further news:
As Brian Attebery is stepping down after 16 years of distinguished service as Editor of our Journal of the Fantastic of the Arts, for which the organization owes him a great debt of gratitude. A search will soon take place to identify new editorial leadership, so stay tuned for a call for applications.
Bill Clemente, our long-time Treasurer responsible for getting the IAFA taxed-exempt status and putting us on sound financial footing, is also stepping down. Thank you Bill! A search will happen soon so….well, you know.
We all wish Brian and Bill the very best in their future endeavors!
On behalf of the IAFA Executive Board,
Dale Knickerbocker
IAFA President
The IAFA Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award recognizes emerging authors who use science fiction to address issues of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.
To be considered for the award, submit the following:
200-word statement with background & goals in writing SF
4,000-word maximum writing sample addressing Indigenous perspectives
Deadline: November 1, 2021
Send your materials as attachments to Professor Grace L. Dillon (dillong@pdx.edu)
Use Word Document or PDF format
Name and Page numbers on story and bio
Double space the story and use 12-point font
Proof the work for typos and other errors.
The contest winner will be announced at the ICFA Awards Banquet and on the Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/349927541693986. Not a member? Think about joining!
This year’s judge: acclaimed author Andrea Hairston
For more information, please visit https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Imagining-Indigenous-Futurisms-Award/.
There are still a few more days to submit to Trans/Inter/Cross: A Symposium on The Fantastic Between Genres, Media, and Cultures
October 1-3, 2021
Marriott Orlando Airport Lakeside
Orlando, Florida
*Submissions Portal closes 1 June 2021*
The genres of the fantastic have always existed at a crossroads between forms: from Brian Aldiss’s contention that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein creates the first science fiction novel from the bones of The Gothic to Brian Attebery’s definition of fantastic literatures as “fuzzy sets” made up of modes rather than genres. These blurred boundaries manifest themselves in many ways. Most obviously they may be seen in the various arguments over where fantasy ends and science fiction and/or horror begins. They are also present in the Anglophone literary and mediatic characterization, classification and appropriation of traditions beyond the Anglophone axis, creating and working in a contested space. In a similar vein, cross-media content creation no longer points to a singular source, as narrative creation occurs across lines traditionally drawn around media types. Ludic, graphic, textual, visual, and performance-based arts intertwine and converse across those lines to create transmedia. This phenomenon exists in the context of the deluge of content creation, and the diversity of this transmedia enriches the canonized material of a franchise or text (used broadly). However, for many, strict definitions of genre and media remain, and lines of inquiry remain bound while source materials transcend labelling. These fraught dynamics are further deepened and complicated by narratives of diaspora and intercultural identities, such as those by Deepak Unnikrishnan and Nnedi Okorafor. This symposium seeks to examine these notions of boundaries and further the conversation and discourse raised by new approaches in conversation with established methodologies.
In a 2015 conversation published by New Statesman, Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro discuss the arbitrary taxonomy of genre and how economics have impacted the reception of genre regarding the inventiveness and development of new technologies. If genre already maintains such a precarious position, might it be useful to apply the kind of critique that Judith Butler leverages in Gender Trouble to it and beyond genre to culture? By building on the work of global futurist scholars such as Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, can we further theorize about not just “gender trouble,” but “genre trouble,” and “culture trouble” that creates a space where these amalgamations can be fully explored and the lines between distinct and hybrid forms interrogated?
Drawing on discourses surrounding intersectionality, intertextuality, adaptation, and transmediation, which highlight the interrelationship and interdependence of texts as products of and producers of culture, this symposium will trouble these waters and explore what happens when we think and talk beyond the boundaries (both assigned and self-created) that separate us and focus instead on what can be gained from interlocution across and between defined spaces of engagement. We welcome paper session and panel proposals addressing these and related questions across any genre, every language, and across all media of the fantastic.
Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
challenges inherent in writing across genre boundaries in an industry whose market relies on genre categories
crossroads as physical and/or metaphorical space
encounters between genres, modalities, cultures, and epistemologies
genderqueer, transgender, two-spirit, nonbinary, and intersex bodies and identities
global fantastic narratives which cross genre and/or physical boundaries
the hybridization of identity across multiple cultures/locations/worlds
intersectional feminisms and the destabilization of categories
multi-media or transmedia
narratives of diaspora and/or transformation that cross boundaries of taxonomy
texts that focus on transcultural, intercultural, and/or trans-species communication
theoretical perspectives and texts that challenge accepted notions of genre
the transcendence from virtual/secondary/created world to primary/ actual/ “real” world
The IAFA Portal is open for submissions and will close on 1 June 2021. To submit a proposal, go to https://www.fantastic-arts.org/submit-a-proposal-to-iafa-2021-tic-symposium/ .
For questions about academic or creative programming, please email us at symposium@fantastic-arts.org .
Submission process:
Session proposals will be reviewed by a committee and may comprise of:
proposals for fully-formed sessions featuring three 15-minute paper presentations (one paper presenter should agree to serve as chair)
proposals for fully-formed panel discussions which include scholars and/or creative presenters
proposals for fully-formed sessions where authors and artists share their creative work and/or offer panel discussions on creative topics
proposals for roundtables discussing a text or texts with a specific focus
proposals for workshops focused on some aspect of the symposium topic.
All submissions must adhere to the theme of the symposium. The event will run on limited capacity, so inclusion in the program is not guaranteed. Any submission that does not respond to the theme will not be considered until a possible second round of review.
Unlike ICFA, registration for the symposium for all presenters and attendees will be a flat fee of $100 that will include several meals. A small block of rooms for this special symposium will be available at the amazing rate of $109 per night.
More information forthcoming at https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/.
Dates to remember:
The Submission Portal is open now.
Submissions will be due 1 June 2021.
Registration will open 15 June 2021.
All Registration ends on 5 September 2021.
Follow us Twitter @IAFA_TW. Our symposium hashtag is #IAFACrossings.
“Like” us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FantasticArts/.
Call for Proposals for Trans/Inter/Cross: A Symposium on The Fantastic
Between Genres, Media, and Cultures
The International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts
October 1-3, 2021
Marriott Orlando Airport Lakeside
Orlando, Florida
*Submissions Portal is open and closes 1 June 2021*
The genres of the fantastic have always existed at a crossroads between forms: from Brian Aldiss’s contention that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein creates the first science fiction novel from the bones of The Gothic to Brian Attebery’s definition of fantastic literatures as “fuzzy sets” made up of modes rather than genres. These blurred boundaries manifest themselves in many ways. Most obviously they may be seen in the various arguments over where fantasy ends and science fiction and/or horror begins. They are also present in the Anglophone literary and mediatic characterization, classification and appropriation of traditions beyond the Anglophone axis, creating and working in a contested space. In a similar vein, cross-media content creation no longer points to a singular source, as narrative creation occurs across lines traditionally drawn around media types. Ludic, graphic, textual, visual, and performance-based arts intertwine and converse across those lines to create transmedia. This phenomenon exists in the context of the deluge of content creation, and the diversity of this transmedia enriches the canonized material of a franchise or text (used broadly). However, for many, strict definitions of genre and media remain, and lines of inquiry remain bound while source materials transcend labelling. These fraught dynamics are further deepened and complicated by narratives of diaspora and intercultural identities, such as those by Deepak Unnikrishnan and Nnedi Okorafor. This symposium seeks to examine these notions of boundaries and further the conversation and discourse raised by new approaches in conversation with established methodologies.
In a 2015 conversation published by New Statesman, Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro discuss the arbitrary taxonomy of genre and how economics have impacted the reception of genre regarding the inventiveness and development of new technologies. If genre already maintains such a precarious position, might it be useful to apply the kind of critique that Judith Butler leverages in Gender Trouble to it and beyond genre to culture? By building on the work of global futurist scholars such as Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, can we further theorize about not just “gender trouble,” but “genre trouble,” and “culture trouble” that creates a space where these amalgamations can be fully explored and the lines between distinct and hybrid forms interrogated?
Drawing on discourses surrounding intersectionality, intertextuality, adaptation, and transmediation, which highlight the interrelationship and interdependence of texts as products of and producers of culture, this symposium will trouble these waters and explore what happens when we think and talk beyond the boundaries (both assigned and self-created) that separate us and focus instead on what can be gained from interlocution across and between defined spaces of engagement. We welcome paper session and panel proposals addressing these and related questions across any genre, every language, and across all media of the fantastic.
Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
• challenges inherent in writing across genre boundaries in an industry whose market relies on genre categories
• crossroads as physical and/or metaphorical space
• encounters between genres, modalities, cultures, and epistemologies
• genderqueer, transgender, two-spirit, nonbinary, and intersex bodies and identities
• global fantastic narratives which cross genre and/or physical boundaries
• the hybridization of identity across multiple cultures/locations/worlds
• intersectional feminisms and the destabilization of categories
• multi-media or transmedia
• narratives of diaspora and/or transformation that cross boundaries of taxonomy
• texts that focus on transcultural, intercultural, and/or trans-species communication
• theoretical perspectives and texts that challenge accepted notions of genre
• the transcendence from virtual/secondary/created world to primary/ actual/ “real” world
The IAFA Portal is open for submissions and will close on 1 June 2021. To submit a proposal, go to https://www.fantastic-arts.org/submit-a-proposal-to-iafa-2021-tic-symposium/.
For questions about academic or creative programming, please email us at symposium@fantastic-arts.org.
Submission process:
Session proposals will be reviewed by a committee and may comprise of
• proposals for fully-formed sessions featuring three 15-minute paper presentations
o one paper presenter should agree to serve as chair
• proposals for fully-formed panel discussions which include scholars and/or creative presenters
• proposals for fully-formed sessions where authors and artists share their creative work and/or offer panel discussions on creative topics
• proposals for roundtables discussing a text or texts with a specific focus
• proposals for workshops focused on some aspect of the symposium topic.
All submissions must adhere to the theme of the symposium. The event will run on limited capacity, so inclusion in the program is not guaranteed. Any submission that does not respond to the theme will not be considered until a possible second round of review.
More information forthcoming at https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/.
Dates to remember:
The Submission Portal is open.
Submissions will be due 1 June 2021.
Registration will open 15 June 2021.
All Registration ends on 5 September 2021.
Follow us Twitter @IAFA_TW. Our symposium hashtag is #IAFACrossings.
“Like” us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FantasticArts/.
Dear IAFA members,
As you will recall, it was announced at the ICFA that the Orlando Airport Marriott has offered us a unique, low-cost opportunity to have a small event there in October if we are interested.
The results of our post-ICFA survey demonstrate that there is a significant interest, so we are moving forward!
The event’s theme will be: “Trans/Inter/Cross: The Fantastic Between Genres, Media, and Cultures”
Dates: Oct. 1,2,3
This event will not be organized like the ICFA but rather a more intimate, symposium-style gathering of 50-100 people.
We will SOON be sending out a cfp for:
pre-formed panels on the conference theme
pre-formed paper sessions on the conference theme
pre-formed roundtables on the conference theme
pre-formed workshops on the conference theme
These may include sessions where authors and artists share their creative work or panel discussions on creative topics.
We will *NOT* consider individual papers.
KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR OUR CFP
Sincerely,
Your IAFA Executive Board