CFP Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2023 12th Annual Conference (3/25/2023; Livepool UK and remote 6/29-30/2023)

Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2023 12th Annual Conference

deadline for submissions:
March 25, 2023

full name / name of organization:
Current Research in Speculative Fiction

contact email:
crsf.team@gmail.com

source:

Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2023 12th Annual Conference

29th – 30th June 2023, University of Liverpool, In Person and Online, https://crsfhome.home.blog/

“While most people conceptualise thinking as this straightforward linear thing, I see ideas spreading out into alternatives before one is selected. In this place every notion can potentially become reality.” (Tade Thompson, Rosewater)

KEYNOTES: Roz Kaveney (Writer and Independent Researcher) Dr Chris Pak (Swansea University)

AUTHOR ROUNDTABLE: Exploring metamorphosis and change in SF

PUBLISHING ROUNDTABLE: Getting published in academic journals

WORKSHOP: Curating your SF and working across different media

OPEN MIC: Creative Writing Readings

“Then I saw the body descend to the beasts whence it ascended, and that which was on the heights go down to the depths, even to the abyss of all being.” (Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan)

“But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings)

Whether it is science fiction, fantasy, or horror, speculative fiction allows us to envision transformed worlds full of dread, excitement, and wonder so utterly different from our own. We escape to imagine wizards who unravel reality, men who transform into cockroaches, and spaceships that warp time, all the while uncovering more about our past, present and future than many forms of conventional fiction. For CRSF’s 12th year, this hybrid event (taking place both in person and online) seeks to generate interdisciplinary discussions of metamorphosis in speculative fiction, exploring the transformations the genre allows and how changes both minuscule and grand manifest themselves within textual and visual cultures in the present day.

We welcome papers for the fields of literary studies, creative writing, media studies, philosophy, arts, anthropology, sociology, and political theory that speak to, but are not limited to:

• The body and its transformations (the posthuman body; the racialised & gendered body; the queer body)
• Technological metamorphoses, uplift fictions and their alterations of beings
• Speculative fiction as a vehicle of political critique and social transformation
• Speculative worlds and how they are changed willingly and unwillingly
• Representations of transhumanism, augmented or artificial intelligence, robotics, and extra-terrestrial life
• Interrelationships between power, fantasy, actors, action, forms, and reality
• Representations of waste (including but not limited to: nuclear waste; bodily matter; humans as waste; natural resources)
• Forms of alternative kinship made possible (or restricted) by speculative fiction
• Breaching boundaries in speculative fiction

We welcome proposals for academic and artistic contributions that speak to any of the issues. Abstracts (max. 300 words) and a short biographical note (max. 100 words) should be submitted to crsf.team@gmail.com by Midday, Saturday the 25th of March 2023.

All queries can be directed to the above email address or message on Twitter @crsfteam



Last updated January 26, 2023

CFP The Souths and Science Fiction (6/1/2023; SAMLA Atlanta 11/9-11/2023)

The Souths and Science Fiction

deadline for submissions:
June 1, 2023

full name / name of organization:
The Society for the Study of Southern Literature, SAMLA

contact email:
zhuesing3@gatech.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/01/27/the-souths-and-science-fiction.

The Society for the Study of Southern Literature invites papers on the South and science fiction for a panel at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association’s 94th Annual Conference from November 9-11, 2023 in Atlanta, GA.

This conference’s theme of “(In)Security: The Future of Literature and Language Studies” presents a unique opportunity to consider the imagined futures offered within SF works, including their representation of social inequalities and the possibilities of the SF genre to raise awareness to the value of Literature and Language studies.

Papers may discuss any of the sub-genres of science fiction, including Afrofuturism, post-apocalyptic, or alternate history and may focus on any media including video games, novels, poetry, movies, television, or comics. The chosen texts should share the South, “Southern-ness,” or Global Souths as a concern. We welcome presentations that offer to 'expand' the canon of Southern literature and science fiction itself, especially papers that focus on works by BIPOC, AAPI, or LGBTQ+ writers.

Please direct any questions to Cameron Winter and Zita Hüsing at cameron.winter@gatech.edu and zhuesing3@gatech.edu.

Submit 200-500 word abstracts, 50 word bionotes, and A/V requirements via the following Google form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfarFqg-qrrbHkES62aC7Q3W-Za7eIq89o6snqnQ2pKmKR97w/viewform by June 1, 2023.



Last updated February 2, 2023

CFP No Longer for Kids: Children’s Literature and Higher Education (3/15/2023; MLA 2024)

No Longer for Kids: Children’s Literature and Higher Education

deadline for submissions:
March 15, 2023

full name / name of organization:
Noah Mullens / University of Florida

contact email:
noahmullens@ufl.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/01/17/no-longer-for-kids-children%E2%80%99s-literature-and-higher-education.

Call for Papers: MLA 2024

Co-sponsored by the Children’s Literature Association and MLA Libraries and Research Forum (non-guaranteed)

Deadline Extended: March 15th

In March 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the “Parental Rights in Education” bill— dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. The policy bars teachers from discussing “sexual orientation or gender identity” with students between kindergarten through the third grade. While LGBTQ+ picture books are not necessarily banned, the implication of the law is that queer literature will no longer be easily accessible to children in elementary schools. The passage of the law is another instance of the trend of banning texts that deal with race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality. Conversely, other texts are taken out of circulation due to antiquated or harmful depictions of gender, race, and/or sexuality. This process of curation and restriction has happened throughout history. However, this panel addresses the pedagogical questions undergirding these processes.

What happens to these texts? Many are relegated to one specialized area: higher education. But what occurs when a piece of children’s literature can only be taught in a university setting, and how has it occurred in the past? How do curators shape children’s books when archiving them as research objects for scholars? Why are certain texts canonized or applauded in higher education but do not share a similar popularity with parents or elementary educators? What are possible interventions for dealing with book bans in children’s literature?

With the recent publication of the 50th edition of Children’s Literature, the annual journal of the Children’s Literature Association and The Modern Language Association Division on Children’s Literature, this roundtable asks to reflect not only of the study on children’s literature in academia, but to consider the texts that can only be studied in higher educational contexts.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Syllabi of children’s literature courses and the tastes, sensibilities, and aesthetics scholars have privileged
• The various considerations and restrictions public librarians, school librarians, and archivists navigate when curating children’s books
• Historical examples of literature that was removed from child educational settings but persisted in higher education
• Policies that reframe particular children’s texts or crossover texts to a strictly adult audience
• Differences in how scholars in higher education and readers outside of the university perceive the intended audience of children’s literature
• Texts that make critical contributions to children’s literature scholarship and representation that do not gain traction outside of the academy
• The multiple qualifiers for when to take a book out of circulation and the controversies surrounding how these texts should be approached, researched, and taught in a higher educational context
• The differences or similarities between what Michelle Ann Abate calls a “children’s literature for adults” and children’s literature that becomes adult through political agendas

Please send a brief abstract (150-200 words) for short papers suitable for a roundtable discussion to Noah Mullens (noahmullens@ufl.edu) by March 15th, 2023.



Last updated February 27, 2023

CFP (Re)Imagining Tomorrow: Agency and Possibility in Literature and Media for Children and Young Adults (grad conference 3/15/2023; Vancouver 6/23-24/2023)

(Re)Imagining Tomorrow: Agency and Possibility in Literature and Media for Children and Young Adults

deadline for submissions:
March 15, 2023

full name / name of organization:
University of British Columbia, Master of Arts in Children's Literature Program

contact email:
ubc.conference.2023@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/02/26/reimagining-tomorrow-agency-and-possibility-in-literature-and-media-for-children-and.

(Re)Imagining Tomorrow: Agency and Possibility in Literature and Media for Children and Young Adults

Call for Paper Proposals

Deadline for Submission: 15 March 2023

A peer-reviewed graduate student conference

University of British Columbia | Unceded traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Vancouver, Canada | Friday 23 June - Saturday 24 June 2023



What do we think of when we imagine the future? 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) projected a world in which humanity has spread to the stars, where visiting the moon is as routine as a flight across the country. Back to the Future Part II (1989) famously imagined hoverboards and flying cars by the year 2015. The YA dystopian boom of the late 2000s to 2010s imagined compartmentalized, constrained futures like in The Hunger Games (2008)and Divergent (2011). Today, in the face of impending climate disaster, growing economic disparity, and the lingering effects of a worldwide pandemic, the future still seems not only hard to imagine, but uncertain. How can we imagine a future that we may not live to see? How do children grapple with inheriting a future riddled with the mistakes and problems we are generating in the present? If the children are the future, what is that future going to look like? What agency do children have to create their own future? As we live through times of unprecedented global change–technological, cultural, and environmental–the future is no longer a distant reality. The future is created every day. (Re)Imagining Tomorrow: Agency and Possibility in Literature and Media for Children and Young Adults aims to discuss topics surrounding the future and its presentation in youth literature and media and showcase graduate students’ academic and creative work on the matter.



Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Forms of youth activism and agency in a changing world (e.g., climate change, children’s rights, education, etc.)
• De-/Anti-/Post-colonialism of the near and far future
• Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurism
• Posthumanism and technology in children's literature
• Cultural Change, Communication, and the Transformation of Identity
• Revolution, War, Resistance, and Reimaginings/Retellings
• Artificial Intelligence
• Alternate/Virtual worlds
• Hope, Resilience, and Memory
• Change, Transformation, and Becoming
• Utopia, Dystopia, Heterotopia
• Evolution and Progress
• The Anthropocene
• Time Travel
• The future of the publishing industry and the impact of global crisis
• The future of local, national, and global children’s literature
• Cultural, Social, and Economic Change
• The evolution of children’s literature beyond text: films, sequential art, video games, and other media.

These topics are suggestions, as we are open to proposals on any aspect of the future, agency, and possibility in children’s and young adult literature, media, education, and culture. We welcome submissions from graduate students, scholars, and practitioners from a variety of disciplines, including literary studies, cultural studies, sociology, psychology, anthropology, media studies, and others.

Academic Paper Proposals

Please send a 250-word abstract, including the title of your paper, 5-8 keywords, and 3-5 academic, bibliographic references. Your name should not appear on the proposal. Please attach a separate 50-word biography, including your name, preferred pronouns, student status, university affiliation, home country, and email address. Save the proposal and the biography as two separate Word files (.DOC or .DOCX) and use the format “Academic_Name_PaperTitle” in the email subject line.

Creative Writing Proposals

All creative writing genres and forms are welcome, including novel chapters, poetry, picture books, graphic novels, scripts, amongst others. Please send a sample of your work that is no more than 12 pages long, double-spaced. Include the title, a list of references (if applicable), and a 150-word description identifying the topic, genre, targeted age group, and relevance to the conference themes. Your name should not appear on the sample. Please attach a separate 50-word biography, including your name, student status, preferred pronouns, university affiliation, home country, and email address.

Save the sample and description as one Word file and the biography as a separate Word file (.DOC or .DOCX). Use this format “Creative_Name_SampleTitle” for the email subject line.



Participants are welcome to submit both academic and creative proposals. Each proposal will be adjudicated separately, and you may be accepted for one or both streams. Please follow the guidelines for both submissions above and send them in separate emails.

Dates and Logistics

Deadline for proposal submission: 15 March 2023

A notification of acceptance will be sent by the end of April 2023.

All submissions will be blind reviewed by the members of the Review Committee.



Contact Us

Send all submissions to submit.ubc.conference@gmail.com.


If you have any questions regarding the submission or the conference, please don’t hesitate to contact us at ubc.conference.2023@gmail.com.


Follow us on Twitter @ MACLconferenceand visit our conference website at https://blogs.ubc.ca/reimaginingtomorrow2023/for updates.



About Us

The Master of Arts in Children’s Literature (MACL) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is the only graduate program in children’s literature in Canada and one of the most multi-disciplinary children’s literature programs in the world. It is offered through the UBC iSchool (Library, Archival, and Information Studies) with joint participation from the Department of English Language and Literatures, the Department of Language and Literacy Education, and the School of Creative Writing. As one of the few venues in Canada that showcases emerging scholarship in children’s and young adult literature, this conference provides a platform for new scholars and writers from different backgrounds, especially for graduate and upper-division undergraduate students, and creates cross-disciplinary associations that may inspire new and innovative connections to support writing and research in this area.



About the Conference

The first Graduate Student Conference in Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Media and Culture took place in 2008. In addition to paper and creative writing presentations, the conference invites renowned scholars and authors as our keynote speakers. Featured keynote speakers from past conferences include Dr. Maria Tatar, Dr. Philip Nel, Dr. Elizabeth Marshall, Dr. S.R. Toliver, Dr. Angel Matos, Dr. Naomi Hamer and best-selling authors Rachel Hartman and Richard Van Camp. This year, students from the Master of Arts in Children’s Literature Program at UBC’s iSchool will come together for the tenth time to host the event.



We look forward to hearing from you!



Last updated February 27, 2023