As some readers may already know, I am helping to put on a graduate symposium this October 18-19 at the University of Illinois called Imagining Alternatives: A Graduate Symposium on Speculative Fictions.
The deadline for proposals is coming up and I’d like to use this space to invite readers to submit their work.
From the CFP:
In her 1973 essay “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie,” noted fantasy and science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin writes that fantasy is “a game played for very high stakes….It is a different approach to reality, an alternative technique for apprehending and coping with existence….[it is] superrealistic, a heightening of reality.” The Imagining Alternatives Graduate Symposium invites proposals for papers and panels that interrogate the alternative possibilities imagined in the heightened realities of speculative fictions: fantasy, science fiction, horror, the weird, alternate history, the utopian, and the dystopian, in literature, film, television, and video games. Such fictions give us not only alternative worlds, but alternative views of our own pasts, presents, and possible futures. They reflect our hopes and fears; they offer alternative narratives of race, gender, sexuality, and nation; they suggest the magic and the horror embedded in our own realities. We suggest the topics below, but are open to other interpretations suggested by the symposium theme and genre focus.
Proposals should consist of a 200-300 word abstract in .docx or .rtf format to:
imaginingalternatives@gmail.com
Panel proposals should include a 100-200 word panel description as well as abstracts for up to 3 papers.
We also invite proposals for alternatives to traditional panel sessions; we particularly encourage submissions of creative work (visual arts, short films, performance pieces, and creative writing) that explores the conference theme.
The deadline for submissions has been extended to August 30, 2013.
Participants are invited to imagine alternative…
Embodiments
Identities
Races
Genders and Sexualities
Communities and Nations
Religions
Languages
Models of Citizenship
Diplomacies and Geopolitics
Economies
Landscapes and Spaces
Futures
Histories
Epistemologies
Pedagogies
Values and Ethics
Texts and Canons
We will also have some amazing attractions including a fantastic keynote from Dr. Alexis Lothain with a reception to follow, a screening of the award-winning indie sci fi film Ghosts With Shit Jobs, and a panel on how to convert conference presentations into journal articles featuring Dr. Stephanie Foote of Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanties and Dr. Melissa Littlefield of Configurations.
Be sure to like us on Facebook and spread the word about the CFP! We hope to see you there!
Our conference’s logo, painted by the amazing and talented Erin Heath
Megan Condis 