CFP: The Scientific Imagination / ICFA / Orlando, FL (Oct 31; Mar 18-22)

Call for Paper and Panel Proposals

36th International Conference

on the Fantastic in the Arts

The Scientific Imagination

March 18-22, 2015

Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel

The ICFA welcomes papers on any aspect of the fantastic - including fantasy, science fiction, weird fiction, horror, gothic, and fairy tales.

This year, we are particularly interested in topics related to our theme, The Scientific Imagination. Join us as we explore the possibilities and intersections of science and imagination—from Faust and Frankenstein, through the Golden Age and the New Wave, to steampunk and mash-ups—in all their guises, including fiction, film, television, music, theater, comics, visual art, and social media. Papers might explore topics such as rationalism vs. belief, science for good and ill, alternate and speculative technologies and biologies, futurism, imaginary sciences, time travel, and the tensions inherent in discovery, among other topics. We welcome papers on the work of our guests: Guest of Honor James Morrow (winner of the Sturgeon Award, the World Fantasy Award, and two Nebula Awards), Guest of Honor Joan Slonczewski (winner of two Campbell Awards), and Guest Scholar Colin Milburn (author of Nanovision: Engineering the Future).

The Visual & Performing Arts and Audiences (VPAA) Division accepts papers on

• visual arts such as comic books, paintings, architecture, sculpture, photographs and illustrations;
• the performing arts, including (film, TV, game, pop/rock) music, dance and theater;
• games, including fanfic, fan artwork and cosplay;
• transformative texts, both fan and professional, including mashups and viral marketing;
• and audience/reception studies concerning audiences for any medium or genre of the fantastic.

The VPAA Division Head is Isabella van Elferen. Queries can be sent to I.vanElferen@Kingston.ac.uk or I.A.M.vanElferen@gmail.com. Further contact information can be found below.

Our submissions portal will open soon to receive proposals: http://www.fantastic-arts.org/annual-conference/submissions/ . The deadline for submitting proposals is October 31.

CFP: Italian Science Fiction / journal issue (September 30)

Call for Papers

Italian Science Fiction

Science-Fiction Studies Special Issue

Science-Fiction Studies* is gathering scholarly essays for a special issue on Italian Science Fiction. The projected publication date is 2015.  Articles on this topic that would be of interest include the following themes or approaches:

• analysis and discussion of important works of Italian SF (novels, short stories, film, comics, magazines, t.v. series, on-line journals, in the academy, etc.)
• profiles of important Italian SF writers
• works of SF written by authors who are considered part of the literary mainstream (e.g. Buzzati, Landolfi, Levi, Morselli, etc.)
• the critical debate around SF in Italian culture and the academy
• the socio-cultural impact of science fiction’s visions in Italy

Articles should be written in English, should be between 8,000 and 13,000 words (including endnotes and bibliography), and include a comprehensive bibliography. Authors should follow Science-Fiction Studies’s formatting guidelines (see below **).

Abstracts (max. 500 words) are due on or by September 30, 2013. They should be sent via email as an MS Word attachment, or included within the body of the email to Arielle Saiber (asaiber@bowdoin.edu) and Umberto Rossi (teacher@fastwebnet.it). 

If your proposal is accepted, you will receive a message no later than October 20. We will then need the complete article by May 31, 2014. All submitted articles will be sent for peer-review; final acceptance will be based on reviewer reports and those of the special issue’s editors.

* For information about Science Fiction Studies see http://www.jstor.org/page/journal/sciefictstud/about.html  and http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/

** Guidelines for formatting the article: http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/masthead.htm?47,34

CFP: Adapting Frankenstein / essay collection (June 30, 2013)

As posted on IAFA-L...

Adapting Frankenstein
The Monster’s Eternal Lives

in Popular Culture

 

We propose to edit a  book of new essays on the general subject of the many ways Frankenstein has been adapted in popular culture, including films, television, radio, graphic novels, comic books, newspaper cartoons, music, the stage, novels, short stories, children’s and adolescent literatures, new media, and so forth.

We are interested in what has made Frankenstein’s monster so indestructibly fascinating to the public mind through the many generations since his inception in 1818—almost 200 years ago! We are interested in essays that explore the creature’s versatile ability to appear as threatening monster or sympathetic high school loser, as Milton the Monster or Frankenweenie, as eternal outsider refined in a Tibetan monastery or as a cloned sheep. We are also interested in indirect adaptations: Edward Scissorhands, The Stepford Wives, The Golem, The Colossus of New York, Godzilla and other spawn of the atomic age, as well as zombies and the various replicants, androids, robots, and re-animations.

Paper proposals should be around 300-450 words and should reflect current inter-textual approaches in adaptation theory. They might ask such questions as how an adaptation engages its source(s), our culture, and, perhaps, other adaptations; the relevance of a particular adaptation in the context of its time and culture; the significance of the monster’s role as cultural icon or matrix figure; how an adaptation changes our view of the source text, etc. Studies on adaption such as Hutcheon, The Theory of Adaptation, Leitch, Film Adaptation and its Discontents, Perry and Sederholm, Adapting Poe: Re-Imaginings in Popular Culture, and Albrecht-Crane and Cutchins, Adaptation Studies: New Approaches provide model adaptation studies and theory along the lines we suggest. We expect that successful articles will be rigorous and scholarly, but accessible to a more general audience.

Send proposals to Professors Dennis R. Perry (dperry@byu.edu)  or Dennis Cutchins (dennis_cutchins@byu.edu) before June 30, 2013.

CFP: Indigenous 'Deep' Space: Indigenous Absence and Presence in Sci-Fi and Comics (Dec 2; Feb 13-16)

Call for Papers:

Indigenous 'Deep' Space:

Indigenous Absence and Presence

in Sci-Fi and Comics
Native/Indigenous Studies Area

Southwest/Texas Popular & American Culture Association
nativestudiespca@gmail.com

Southwest/Texas Popular & American Culture Association's 34th Annual Conference in Albuquerque, NM

Submit abstracts to: http://conference2013.swtxpca.org/

***DEADLINE Extended to December 2, 2012***

Paper proposals are now being accepted for a panel dedicated to the absence and presence of Indigenous characters and cultures in popular sci-fi and comics. From Star Trek Voyager's Chakotay to the X-Men's Danielle Moonstar, sci-fi and comic genres have capitalized on the Indigenous landscape for characters and cultures. This panel asks presenters to examine and discuss the absence and presence of Indigenous characters and cultures in these popular genres.

Listed below are some suggestions for possible presentations but topics not included here are welcomed and encouraged:

• Indigenous writers of sci-fi and speculative fiction genres
• Indigenous cultures in space (issues of colonization that mirror Indigenous histories in sci-fi deep space settings)
• Blue Corn Comics
• Indigenous/Native American descended characters in sci-fi
• Indigenous/Native American descended characters in comic and graphic novels
• Specific sci-fi T.V. shows and webisodes incorporating Indigenous cultures and characters (episodes of Stargate, Angel, Buffy, Star Trek, etc.)
• Online comics
• History of Indigenous characters in sci-fi or comics

Inquiries regarding this area may be sent to Brian Hudson and Margaret Vaughan at *nativestudiespca@gmail.com*

Please forward this information to people who would be interested in participating.

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/nativeswtxpca and Twitter @nativeswtxpca

CFP: Science Fiction Media (Oct. 5; Apr. 10-14)

Note the explicit suggestion of "SF Comics and Manga"...

Call for Papers

April 10-14, 2013

Riverside, CA

Science Fiction Media

This conference—cosponsored by the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy (UC Riverside) and the Science Fiction Research Association—will examine science fiction in multiple media. The past several decades have witnessed an explosion in SF texts across the media landscape, from film and TV to comics and digital games. We are interested in papers that explore SF as a multimedia phenomenon, whether focusing on popular mass media, such as Hollywood blockbusters, or on niche and subcultural forms of expression, such as MUDs and vidding. We invite paper and panel proposals that focus on all forms of SF, including prose fiction, and that address (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• Mainstream Hollywood vs. Global SF Cinema
• SF Comics and Manga
• SF Anime and Animation
• SF on the Internet and the World Wide Web
• Multimedia “dispersed” SF narratives
• Fandom, Cosplay, Mashups, and Remixing
• Broadcast and Cable SF Television
• SF Videogames
• World’s Fairs, Theme Parks, and other “Material” SF Media
• Short-form SF film
• Afrofuturism
• SF and/in Music
• SF Idiom and Imagery in Advertising
• Webisodes and TV Games
• SF Art and Illustration

Abstracts of 500 words (for papers of 20-minutes in length) should be submitted by October 5, 2012. We also welcome panel proposals gathering three papers on a cohesive topic. 

Send electronic submissions to conference co-chair Melissa Conway at <Melissa.Conway@ucr.edu<mailto:Conway@Melissa.Conway@ucr.edu>> with the subject heading: EATON/SFRA CONFERENCE PROPOSAL. Please include a brief bio with your abstract and indicate whether your presentation would require A/V.

To insure that your proposal will receive consideration, please follow these instructions carefully:

1. Send your proposal in a separate WORD file. Proposals pasted into e-mail windows will be returned to the sender for resubmission. The file should be saved  as follows: Last name, first initial. 2013  (e.g, Doe, J. 2013).
2. Include your name and e-mail in the top left-hand corner of your WORD file.  The organizers need this information to correspond with you.
3. Send your 100-word biographical statemen as a separate WORD file.  Save the file as" Doe, J. BIO."
4. Use the subject line: Eaton/SFRA Conference Proposal. This helps the organizers to sort and search for proposals. Files without this subject line may be overlooked inadvertently.

For more information on the conference, including travel and accommodations, see http://eatonconference.ucr.edu/ 

CFP: Science Fiction Media (Sept. 14; Apr. 10-14)

Call for Papers 

The 2013 Joint Eaton/SFRA Conference

Science Fiction Media

April 10-14, 2013

Riverside Marriott Hotel

Riverside, California

This conference—cosponsored by the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy (UC Riverside) and the Science Fiction Research Association—will examine science fiction in multiple media. The past several decades have witnessed an explosion in SF texts across the media landscape, from film and TV to comics and digital games. We are interested in papers that explore SF as a multimedia phenomenon, whether focusing on popular mass media, such as Hollywood blockbusters, or on niche and subcultural forms of expression, such as MUDs and vidding. We invite paper and panel proposals that focus on all forms of SF, including prose fiction, and that address (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• Mainstream Hollywood vs. Global SF Cinema
• SF Comics and Manga
• SF Anime and Animation
• SF on the Internet and the World Wide Web
• Multimedia “dispersed” SF narratives
• Fandom, Cosplay, Mashups, and Remixing
• Broadcast and Cable SF Television
• SF Videogames
• World’s Fairs, Theme Parks, and other “Material” SF Media
• Short-form SF film
• Afrofuturism
• SF and/in Music
• SF Idiom and Imagery in Advertising
• Webisodes and TV Games
• SF Art and Illustration 

The conference will also feature the fourth Science Fiction Studies Symposium on the topic of “SF Media(tions),” with speakers Mark Bould, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., and Vivian Sobchack. Keynote speakers and special guests will be announced as they are confirmed; see the conference website at <http://eaton.ucr.edu> for periodic updates.

Conference sessions will be held at the newly remodeled and centrally located Riverside Marriott Hotel, with rooms at a reduced conference rate ($109). For more about the hotel, see their website at <http://www.marriott.com/hotels/ hotel-information/travel/ralmc-riverside-marriott>. A block of rooms will also be available at a discount ($139) at the historic Mission Inn Hotel and Spa two blocks from the Marriott: <http://missioninn.com>. Rooms in both hotels are limited and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Abstracts of 500 words (for papers of 20-minutes in length) should be submitted by September 14, 2012. We also welcome panel proposals gathering three papers on a cohesive topic. Send electronic submissions to conference co-chair Melissa Conway at > with the subject heading: EATON/SFRA CONFERENCE PROPOSAL. Please include a brief bio with your abstract and indicate whether your presentation would require A/V. Participants will be informed by December 1 if their proposals have been accepted.