CFP GIFCon 2026 - The Technologies of the Fantastic (1/18/2026; Online 5/13-15/2026)

GIFCon 2026 - The Technologies of the Fantastic

deadline for submissions:
January 18, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, University of Glasgow

contact email:
GIFCon@glasgow.ac.uk

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/12/16/gifcon-2026-the-technologies-of-the-fantastic

The Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic is excited to announce the call for papers for Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations (GIFCon) 2026, to be held online on 13-15 May, with the theme of ‘The Technologies of the Fantastic’.

Many addendums have been made over the years to Arthur C. Clarke’s famous third law: ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ (‘Technology and the Future’), from Professor Barry Gehm’s corollary, ‘any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced’ (Analog) to Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen’s explanatory statement in The Science of Discworld that ‘Technology works because whoever built it in the first place figured out enough of the rules of the universe to make the technology do what was required of it … With magic, in contrast, things work because people want them to’. Such discourse leaves us asking what, if anything, fundamentally separates the technological from the magical?

Though scholars have attempted to clarify the division between science fiction and fantasy by suggesting that the latter is solely concerned with the impossible whilst the former is concerned only with fact, such binaries disregard the foundations of the fantastic prevalent in science fiction, in which ‘the only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible’ (Arthur C. Clarke Profiles of the Future). Similarly, the fantastic is filled with the technological. We can find technology in carefully constructed runes and magical glyphs that operate as locks and keys; in the textile metaphors of spell weaving; in the taxonomy of the naming of the wind and waves; and in the engineering of biomechanical monsters piloted by traumatized teens to fight angelic horrors.

This year, GIFCon invites the consideration of the technologies of fantasy, emphasizing those things that are too often overlooked both in the real world and in fantasy, whether through hierarchical practices that limit the definition of the scientific or because ‘technology’ has become so ubiquitous in everyday life.

GIFCon is a three-day virtual conference welcoming proposals from researchers and practitioners working in the fields of fantasy and cognate genres/subgenres across all media, whether from within academia or beyond it. We are particularly interested in submissions from postgraduate and early career researchers, and warmly welcome proposals from researchers whose work focuses on marginalized communities and subjects.

Topics for papers may include, but are not limited to:The rules of magic and magic systems.
The Science-Fantasy genre.
Who are these fantasy worlds made for? What does their magic and technology account for, and who do they overlook?
Nonwestern technologies and colonialist constructions of science in Fantasy.
Exploring Fantastic infrastructures: how cities, buildings, modes of transportation, paths, and worlds are shaped by fantastic interventions/inventions.
How the body (whether human, non-human, posthuman, or something in between) is shaped by technology.
Disability and impairment in fantasy literature.
The relationship between technology, time, and fantasy.
Fantasy as escapism from notions of advancement.
The response to technological growth in fantasy.
Echoes of the real world in technological fantasies: responses, adaptations and critique.
Fantasies created by science practitioners: how real-world science and scientists influence the genre.
Technological dystopias and/or utopias.
The relationship between Ecology and Technology in Fantasy.
Punk Practices: Rethinking technological and social practices through subgenres like cyberpunk, steampunk, or solarpunk.
Queer and Trans Theory approaches: how may queer and trans theory offer insights to the concatenation of the magical and technological?
What is left out in normative narratives of the scientific and technological? How does fantasy disrupt these narratives?

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers, which should be submitted using the proposal form. This form includes a 250-word abstract supplemented by a list of 5 keywords describing your paper and a 100-word biographical note.

We also welcome proposals for roundtables and workshops, consisting of 75-minute interactive online sessions which can be run on any aspect of our conference theme by either an individual or group. Generally, workshops have limited capacities and do not set preliminary reading, but participants sign up in advance and flexibility is possible. We encourage creative responses to the workshop call; please select ‘Workshop/Roundtable’ on the proposal form if you intend to lead a workshop or roundtable session.

The call for papers and workshops closes on Sunday, 18th January 2026 (11:59pm GMT). Please submit your proposal by this time to be considered for participation in GIFCon 2026.


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Last updated December 18, 2025

CFP Escaping Escapism in Fantasy and the Fantastic (1/31/2018; Glasgow 4/26-27/2018)

Escaping Escapism in Fantasy and the Fantastic (Deadline Extended)
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/01/16/escaping-escapism-in-fantasy-and-the-fantastic-deadline-extended

deadline for submissions:
January 31, 2018


full name / name of organization:
University of Glasgow


contact email:
gifconference@gmail.com




Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations

Escaping Escapism in Fantasy and the Fantastic

26th – 27th April 2018

The second Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations welcomes proposals for papers on the theme of escapism in fantasy. What is the role of fantasy and the fantastic? Why—and perhaps more crucially, how—does the genre matter? Fantasy theorists frequently define the genre in opposition to what is possible and real: Kathryn Hume, for instance, sums it up in Fantasy and Mimesis as “departures from consensus reality”. Critics often scrutinize this departure as a negative, and disparage representations of the fantastic either due to their failure to depict real world issues or their presumed attempts at “escapism.” This perceived link between fantasy and escapism is so strong that dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary define escapism as “engaging in fantasy”.

Despite this association, a growing body of evidence asserts both that escapism can be healthy and that the fantastic can influence how its consumers perceive real world issues even when their representations are deemed problematic. For example, though readers and scholars have criticized the portrayal of minority groups in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, studies suggest that people who read the series are more accepting of stigmatised groups and more likely to vote for political candidates whose policies support these groups. And while some critics view the creation of fictional Secondary Worlds as a troubling detachment from reality, creativity scholars have drawn links between creating imaginary worlds as a child and high achievement in artistic and scientific fields later in life. Escapism is perhaps not as escapist as it was previously perceived to be, and even when it is, it can have a positive impact. The “escapism accusation” is being flipped on its head, with texts as disparate as Diana Wynne Jones’s Fire and Hemlock and Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Normal Again” presenting the rejection of the fantastic in favour of “reality” as the dangerous escapist behaviour. The traditional dynamic between escapism and the fantastic is constantly being changed and renegotiated.

This two-day symposium seeks to examine and honour the relationship between escapism and the fantastic. We welcome proposals for papers on this theme from researchers and practitioners working in the field of fantasy and the fantastic across all media, whether within the academy or beyond it. We are particularly interested in submissions from postgraduate and early career researchers.

We will offer workshops in creative writing for those interested in exploring the creative process.

We ask for 300-word abstracts for 20-minute papers, as well as creative presentations that go beyond the traditional academic paper.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Intersections and interplays between fantasy and reality.
• Metatextual responses to escapism in fantastic texts and media.
• Theoretical and/or critical discussions of escapism in relation to fantasy and the fantastic, broadly defined.
• Relationships between Secondary Worlds and the Primary World; relationships between world and characters.
• Reading, writing, and engaging with fantasy as a political act; the depiction of real world issues, or lack thereof, in fantastical settings and contexts.
• Representations of the fantastic in media associated with escapism, such as live-action role-playing, board games, tabletop role-playing games, television, etc.

Please submit a 300-word abstract and a 100-word biography in separate editable documents (not PDF) to submissions.gifconference@gmail.com by Wednesday, the 31st of January 2018.

Last updated January 16, 2018