CFP Current Research in Speculative Fiction Conference 2024 (3/24/2024; Liverpool, Eng./Hybrid 7/3-5/2024)

Current Research in Speculative Fiction Conference 2024

deadline for submissions: March 24, 2024

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

contact email: crsf.team@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/01/22/current-research-in-speculative-fiction-conference-2024

Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2024

14th Annual Conference

3 – 5th July 2024, University of Liverpool, Offline and Online, https://crsfhome.home.blog/



“I realize I don’t know very much. None of us knows very much. But we can all learn more. Then we can teach one another. We can stop denying reality or hoping it will go away by magic.”(Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower)



KEYNOTES: Lindz McLeod (Manchester Metropolitan University); TBC



AUTHOR ROUNDTABLE: (TBC)



ACADEMIC PUBLISHING ROUNDTABLE (TBC)



SF WRITING WORKSHOP

Dr Rachel Handley (Possible Worlds and Other Stories, 2022; various other publications including in The Liminal Review and Sonder Magazine)



OTHER ACTIVITIES (in person): ARCHIVE VISIT (July 3rd); OPEN MIC (July 4th)



“Economics was like psychology, a pseudoscience trying to hide that fact with intense theoretical hyperelaboration. And gross domestic product was one of those unfortunate measurement concepts, like inches or the British thermal unit, that ought to have been retired long before.” (Kim Stanley Robinson, Blue Mars)



“When the reasoning mind is forced to confront the impossible again and again, it has no choice but to adapt.”

(N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season)



Whether it is science fiction, fantasy, or horror, speculative fiction allows us to imagine new worlds, for authors and readers to fully engage their imaginations with what is beyond our current capabilities or comprehension. We build up Earth in beauty and destruction. We think of distant new planets or dimensions, radical and fantastical species, and find that even in the darkest dystopias there is something to learn. For CRSF’s 14th year, this hybrid offline/online event seeks to generate interdisciplinary discussions of growth in speculative fiction, exploring the theme in its many different guises.



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

• Technological growth, uplift fictions; advanced societies
• Expansion; population growth; space colonisation; speculative worlds
• Representations of waste such as nuclear waste; humans and animals as waste; natural resources
• Representations of transhumanism, augmented or artificial intelligence, robotics, and extra-terrestrial life
• The body and its transformations (the posthuman body; the racialised & gendered body; the queer body)
• Speculative fiction as a vehicle of political critique and social transformation
• Interrelationships between power, fantasy, actors, action, forms, and reality
• 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. Papers should be 15-20 minutes long. Abstracts (max. 300 words) and a short biographical note (max. 100 words) should be submitted to crsf.team@gmail.com by March 24th. For those reading at the open mic, please submit your piece (any speculative prose, poetry, or drama, max. 1500 words) to the same address by May 31st to secure a reading spot on the night.



All queries can be directed to the above email address or message on Twitter @CRSFteam or Instagram @crsfliverpool.

https://crsfhome.home.blog/


Last updated January 24, 2024
This CFP has been viewed 2,346 times

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