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CFP: Brutal Themes in Brutal Times: Teaching Edgar Allan Poe in a Culture of Violence, Northeast Modern Language Association

  • July 24, 2018 – 12:22 pm
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Brutal Themes in Brutal Times: Teaching Edgar Allan Poe in a Culture of Violence

deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Northeast Modern Language Association

contact email:
chendricks@goodwin.edu

This panel seeks papers that explore pedagogical strategies for teaching the horror stories of Edgar Allan Poe and his contemporaries. With the looming, true-to-life violence bombarding us every day in the news and in other media outlets, the macabre tales of our favorite authors resonate too well. Teaching the violent and psychologically disturbing short stories of Poe, and others writing in this genre, can be challenging in the current climate of violence in America. Exploring the depths and darkness of humanity through literature can be traumatic for contemporary students who are bombarded with violent words and images every day through social media and news outlets. This panel seeks papers that explore pedagogical strategies devoted to travelling through dark literary themes while maintaining a safe atmosphere in the classroom. How can instructors align class discussions, specifically the ones that take a sociopolitical turn, to heal the contemporary student in an America riddled with nihilism, senseless violence, and psychological desperation? The significance of this panel is to uncover innovative teaching strategies when bringing students classic horror tales for discussion in the milieu of a terrorizing era in American history.

CFP: Stephen King Area (2019 PCA National Conference), Washington D.C.

Stephen King Area (2019 PCA National Conference)

deadline for submissions:
October 1, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Patrick McAleer/Popular Culture Association

contact email:

stephenkingpca@gmail.com
Stephen King Area

2019 PCA/ACA Annual National Conference

Washington D.C.: Wednesday, April 17th-Saturday, April 20th

The co-chairs of the Stephen King Area—Philip Simpson of Eastern Florida State College and Patrick McAleer of Inver Hills Community College—are soliciting papers, presentations, panels and roundtable discussions which cover any aspect of Stephen King’s fiction and film for the Annual National Joint Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference to be held in Washington D.C. from April 17th-April 20th 2019. Papers, presentations, and panels can cover King’s experimentation with medium (e-books, graphic novels, TV series), his more recent fictions, including his Dark Tower series, and anything in between. Indeed, feel free to view past programs of the PCA/ACA conference at www.pcaaca.org to see what has been covered during recent conferences.

To have your proposal/abstract considered for presentation, please submit your proposal/abstract of approximately 250 words through the PCA/ACA Database—http://ncp.pcaaca.org/ — by October 1st, 2018. Here you will submit your paper proposal/abstract and also provide your name, institutional affiliation, and contact information. Responses/decisions regarding your proposals will be provided within two weeks of your submission to ensure timely replies. Of course, should you have any questions specific to the Stephen King Area, please send an e-mail to stephenkingpca@gmail.com and we will be happy to assist you.

Complete panel proposals of 3-4 people are also welcomed, as are proposals for roundtable discussions with two or more featured speakers and a moderator. For more information, visit the PCA/ACA at www.pcaaca.org.

Margaret Atwood’s Borders and Intersections of Culture, Language and Peoples, NeMLA, Washington D.C.

  • July 17, 2018 – 10:24 am
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Margaret Atwood’s Borders and Intersections of Culture, Language and Peoples

deadline for submissions:
September 30, 2018

full name / name of organization:
Louisa MacKay Demerjian/NeMLA

contact email:
lmdemerjian@gmail.com

This panel session is sponsored by the Margaret Atwood Society and will take place during the 2019 NeMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association) convention in Washington D.C.

Margaret Atwood is a world renowned writer who has always identified herself specifically as a Canadian writer, even at a time when it was argued (even within Canada) that Canadian Literature didn’t exist. Her identity as a Canadian is important to her but, over the course of her career, her novels have revealed a progression to a more global viewpoint. Atwood’s earlier work might invite analysis of internal borders (between Canadian provinces, between urban and natural spaces and in the psychic spaces of her characters) whereas her later work more clearly offers opportunities to examine transnational spaces.

This panel would examine Atwood’s use of borders, literal and figurative, and the intersections of culture, language and peoples that result from crossing those borders. Atwood’s most recognized works, especially recently, are The Handmaid’s Tale and her Maddaddam trilogy. Abstracts are welcome on any of her work but the goal of the panel would be to look at more than her most famous novels and to do some comparative analysis. We might look at her fiction over the years but Atwood also writes poetry and non-fiction. In fact, Atwood writes in many genres and her “borders” between the genres are not always absolute. This panel would be open to considering borders of many types and looking at where intersections result or where cultures, languages and peoples remain separate and distinct.

Please go to https://www.nemla.org and create a username account (free) to submit your abstract. The deadline for submitting an abstract is September 30, 2018.

CFP: ComiqueCon: Celebrating Women in Comics, Dearborn, MI

ComiqueCon: Celebrating Women in Comics

deadline for submissions:
July 31, 2018

full name / name of organization:
ComiqueCon

contact email:
kinoclub313wsu@gmail.com

Call for Papers:

ComiqueCon (Dearborn, MI)

Deadline for submissions:

July 31, 2018

Conference location/date:

October 13, 2018; Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, Michigan

The goal of this conference:

ComiqueCon is a one-day celebration of the amazing work of female and non-binary comic creators. Join us in Metro Detroit for this one-of-a-kind event, and check out our featured guests, awesome sponsors, and talented exhibitors!

This year’s ComiqueCon will include an academic track with paper presentations and workshops related to the general theme of women in comics. Papers should be accessible to a general audience; please be sure to define your terms and give context for any theoretical or discipline-specific arguments you reference.

Topics might include the following:

Comics, graphic novels, sequential art, manga and feminist theory

Women in the comics industry – writers, artists, editors, shop owners, etc.

Intersectional identities in comics and graphic novels

The comics industry and #MeToo, #Comicsgate, and sexual harassment culture

Representation of women in comics and related texts – superhero films, action figures, merchandise, promotional materials, etc.

Queer representations of women in comics

Representation of motherhood and maternity in comics

Genre-specific representations of women (in romance comics as compared to action comics, for example)

Paper Proposals: Paper proposals must include an abstract of 300-500 words and an author biography of 100 words or less. Pre-constituted panels of three to four presenters are also welcome, and should include, in addition to individual paper abstracts and biographies, a 150-200 word panel proposal that details the way the papers connect together and how the panel will engage with the conference theme.

Workshops: Workshops may have up to three facilitators. Workshop proposals must include a brief explanation of topic (250-500 words), a list of facilitators, and a biography of 100 words or less for each facilitator. Workshop proposals should be skill-focused and can be: creative (making comics, zines, fan art, etc.) or pedagogy-oriented (how to teach with comics, etc.).

Due Date:

July 31, 2018

Presenters will be notified of acceptance into the conference via email by August 17, 2018.

All inquiries and proposals should be sent to kinoclub313wsu@gmail.com.

CFP: Things That Go Bump in the North: Canadian Horror Media

Things That Go Bump in the North: Canadian Horror Media

deadline for submissions:
July 31, 2018

full name / name of organization:
UOIT

contact email:
andrea.braithwaite@uoit.ca

Things That Go Bump in the North: Canadian Horror Media

Horror stories speak of our fears. In doing so, horror stories also speak of our everyday, our “normal,” as this ordinariness is quickly thrown into disarray. Things That Go Bump in the North will look at Canadian horror across media – from fiction, film, and television to games, graphic novels, and web series. This edited collection considers what Canadian horror texts can tell us about Canadian culture, media, history, and politics. Things That Go Bump in the North aims to see horror stories as stories about nation, as sites for critical reflection on the meanings and uses of “Canada” in this genre – and what we are terrified to lose, or perhaps keep.

This collection deliberately uses “Canadian” and of “horror” loosely in order to more fully explore the cultural work of horror stories. By “Canadian,” we seek texts that are by, in, and/or about Canada or Canadians; “horror” includes inflections like the gothic and the grotesque, the silly and the supernatural. We encourage diverse submissions from a range of critical approaches and research methods; we are particularly excited about work that addresses Indigenous, diasporic, and other underrepresented productions and perspectives.

Topics may include and are not limited to:

-A specific creator or creative team

-A singular media form, text, or series

-Adaptations and transformations

-Generic hybrids

-Regional or community-specific horror stories

-Studies of fans, audiences, and reception contexts

-Historical horror tales and texts

-Co-productions and international ventures

-Alternate histories and horrifying futures

-Industry and/or policy analysis

-Transmedia texts and storytelling

-True crime texts

Proposals of not more than 250 words will be due by July 31 2018. Final essays of approximately 6000-8000 words, including all notes and references in Chicago author-date style will be due by April 30 2019. Please direct inquiries and proposals to: andrea.braithwaite@uoit.ca and p.greenhill@uwinnipeg.ca.

The Evolution of Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Academia Lunare

Academia Lunare

Academia Lunare is the Luna Press Publishing academic branch for Fantasy and Science Fiction.

One of the most exciting aspects of fandom is the critical assessment of literature, as a way to show one’s love for a particular author or body of work. Speculative non-fiction is also a mirror for society, with an eye cast into the future.

The Evolution of Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction
​
We are very proud to announce our third Call For Papers. The theme of the 2018 CfPs is: “The Evolution of Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction”.

Our first call for papers, “Gender and Sexuality in Fantasy and Science Fiction” received 2 BSFA Awards nomination and one BSFA Awards shortlist. The second call for papers, “The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction”, will be out this summer.

It is time for a new challenge!

Writers are invited to explore the concept of evil in all its shapes and developments, in literature, games, movies and TV.

Here is some food for thought, though it should not restrict your own ideas:

​Focus on a specific character which has embodied the concept of evil

The development of a specific archetypal character which, over the course of the centuries, has undergone a transformation from neutral/positive figure into an evil one, or vice versa – historical and socio-political influences that brought about this transformation

Development of a representative type of evil over time (trolls, fairies, mad gods, dark lords, vampires, demons, etc.)

The impact of religion on folklore

Latest incarnations of evil mirroring socio-political changes

Latest incarnations of evil in general

Evil as an embodiment of modern society

Evolution of evil through the ages

Possible representations of minorities as evil

Creating evil – what makes a successful villain?

Heroes as villains

Other representations of evil, e.g. hostile environments. Music as a tool for implying threat and hostility

​
Before you start, get in touch! Send us an email either with your abstract or simply to let us know what topic you intend to explore: it is perfectly fine to have more than one author discussing the same topic, as long as the angle is different.

Word Limit: up to 6,000 words.

Full references for citations must be included using Harvard referencing style. Download the full guide and the quick guide on the Academia Lunare page.

Closing Date: 30th of November 2018.

Publishing contract for all participants, with shared royalties from each sale and a free copy of the book.

Do not fear if this is your first non-fiction work: if you love research, you need a chance to start somewhere. Take a look at the past two Call For Papers blog posts and explore the articles submitted – it may help you decide your course of action.

For more information, please see https://www.lunapresspublishing.com/academialunare.

CFP: “Politics and Conflicts,” the 40th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

CFP: “Politics and Conflicts,” the 40th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

Please join us for ICFA 40, March 13-17, 2019, when our theme will be “Politics and Conflicts.”

We welcome papers on the work of: Guest Scholar Mark Bould (Reader, University of the West of England; winner of the SFRA Pilgrim Award; author of several books on sf including Science Fiction: The Routledge Film Guidebook) and Guest Author G. Willow Wilson (winner of a PEN Center award; writer of the Hugo-Award-winning series Ms. Marvel, author of Alif the Unseen).

Speculative texts have a tremendous power to help us envision how the world might be otherwise and to see the historical contingencies that have given us the world as we find it. Fantastic genres allow us to imagine other paths that history might have taken and to explore the power dynamics of conflicts among competing factions, from the local scale of family and gender arrangements to the global scale of transnational trade and migration. Such texts can often articulate critiques that would have been silenced by censorship of realist genres in times and places of government, religious, or other oppression. We invite papers that understand the concept of politics very broadly, from international relations and structures of governance, through to the politics of everyday life. If at times the genres of the fantastic can be complicit in naturalizing and perpetuating dominant power structures and the politics they endorse, more often they provide a rich set of tools for telling such stories from marginalized perspectives, visions that cannot be captured by a realism that is structured by default ideological assumptions. We also welcome proposals for individual papers, academic sessions, creative presentations, and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media. We will gather in 2019 to question, celebrate, argue over, and deduce speculative fiction’s contributions to thinking through the politics and conflicts of our past and its capacity to guide us toward more inclusive futures.

The deadline for proposals is October 31, 2018. We encourage work from institutionally affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, graduate students. Artists are encouraged to submit proposals for our Creative Track, which features sessions on writing, art, music, and poetry, as well as panel discussions on topics of interest for creative professionals.

For more information on the IAFA and its conference, the ICFA, see https://www.fantastic-arts.org/. The Submissions Portal opens on September 1st. To submit a proposal, go to https://www.fantastic-arts.org/icfa-submissions/.

To contact the Division Heads for help with submissions, go to https://www.fantastic-arts.org/about/governance/division-heads/.

For information on the Creative Track, go to https://www.fantastic-arts.org/annual-conference/creative-track/.

Call for Applications, Managing Editor, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

Call for Applications

Managing Editor, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

Duties:

To work with the Editor and the editorial team on the production and distribution of the Journal, including maintaining lists of subscribers; working with the printer or publisher; preparing budgets and keeping financial records; maintaining contact with content providers such as JSTOR and ProQuest and indexers such as the MLA Bibliography; researching technology and trends in academic publishing; creating and updating documentation relating to policies and processes; and overseeing quality control. Experience in an academic publishing environment and familiarity with MS Office and Adobe products, including InDesign, are essential.

Applications should be sent to Brian Attebery, editor, attebria@isu.edu, by September 1, 2018

CFP: “Bounds of Humanity,” Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany

CALL FOR PAPERS

“Bounds of Humanity”

The 1st International Students’ Conference ICON Mainz 2018 will be held on 2nd and 3rd Nov. 2018

at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany

Who are we?

We are a group of students of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) who organizes the first annual international
students’ conference that will be held at JGU. The conference is open to all university students worldwide. It’s our
pleasure to invite you to participate in this event. The conference language is English.

What’s the topic?

We searched for a topic which resonates with all students, facilitates interdisciplinary discussions, and encompasses
existential concerns, as well as current and future challenges. That’s why we decided on “Bounds of Humanity”. Are
there bounds for humankind and humanity? What are the limits of responsibility? Can we overcome mental, political,
and social boundaries? Come to Mainz and discuss, among other things: social constructs, bioethics, human rights,
and conceptions of humanity.

Topics of interest could be

• identities (gender, disability, nationality, stereotypes, xenophobia)
• cloning, organ donation, fertility, healthcare systems
• immigration law, refugee policy
• freedom of speech and of the media (and attacks on it)
• the impact of climate change on humanity and vice versa

We will offer a variety of key note sessions, individual and joint talks, and a closing workshop for all participants.
Submit your abstract for an individual or joint talk. Please find our guidelines for authors of abstracts
https://icon.uni-mainz.de/guidelines-for-authors/ . Deadline for abstract submission is 22nd July 2018.

Why should you take part?

• expand your knowledge in and outside your field, think out of the box
• connect with people from all around the world
• present your paper and/or participate in discussions
• publish your paper (optional)
• improve your soft skills
• receive a certificate of attendance

…and because we want you to be a part of it!

Place: campus of the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany

Date: 2nd and 3rd November 2018

More information will be available on our website https://icon.uni-mainz.de/ and Facebook page
www.fb.me/iconMainz very soon.

For any inquiries, please contact: icon@uni-mainz.de.

We look forward to seeing you at ICON Mainz 2018 and to receiving your submissions.

CFP: The Sixth International Symposium on the Poetics of Science Fiction, 17-18 March 2019, Tel-Aviv University

The Sixth International Symposium on the Poetics of Science Fiction

Re-Collections:

Memory, History and Mindspace in Science Fiction

Department of English and American Studies

and the Porter School of Cultural Studies,

Tel-Aviv University

17-18 March 2019

While science fiction excels at alternating between hopeful and bleak visions of possible futures, perhaps the most unsettling scenario the genre has to offer involves modification of individual and/or collective memory. So often thought of as the foundation of identity, memory has been shown to be unstable, malleable and subject to falsification. Science fiction writers have poked and prodded at the basic tenets of cognition and memory, constructing nightmarish visions of identity crises, fractured psyches, and mental projections with the depth and detail of an entire world. But memory is also a collective endeavor, shaping our cultural ontologies and our perception of history. Here as well, SF has shown how manipulation of collective memory is capable of generating dystopian societies and altering our perception of both past and future.

Whether hard or soft, space opera or cyberpunk, technological and ideological encroachment on our memories and minds remains a subject that continues to fascinate authors across space and time: from Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward to George Orwell’s 1984 to Octavia Butler’sKindred, from Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It For you Wholesale” to Roger Zelazny’s The Dream Master to Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” (the basis for the blockbuster movie Arrival). Memory, both individual and collective, remains at the forefront of SF’s engagement with technological, social and psychological change.

Our conference, the sixth in the annual series of SF symposia, is jointly hosted by the Department of English and American Studies and the Porter School of Cultural Studies at Tel-Aviv University, and seeks to address cultural, historical, and narrative questions raised by representations of memory and the mental realm in science fiction. We welcome multimedia, transmedia and interdisciplinary proposals, from literary texts to film and television to video games and more. Topics can include, but are not limited to:

  • Technological manipulation of memory (e.g. false memories, artificial memories, memory transfer/erasure, uploading minds)
  • Artificial intelligence and memory
  • The interrelation between mental, physical and virtual spaces in SF
  • Alternative history and memory
  • Memory and temporality (e.g. time travel)
  • Posthuman and Transhuman memory
  • Alien memory (e.g. “mind-melds” with alien species)
  • Utopian/Dystopian memory
  • Memory as commodity (e.g. cyberpunk)
  • Memory and Nostalgia in the SF genre
  • Digital ghosts and virtual memories

Proposals of up to 300 words for individual papers and/or panels are to be submitted alongside a short bio to egomel@post.tau.ac.il and tausfsymposium@gmail.com by September 30, 2018. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by the end of October 2018.

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