CFP Santa Claus, Christmas, and Implicit Religion in SFF (3/25/2026)

"I don't know what Christmas is, but Christmas time is here": Santa Claus, Christmas, and Implicit Religion in SFF

deadline for submissions:
March 25, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Maura Ives and Claire Carly-Miles

contact email:
m-ives@tamu.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/03/12/i-dont-know-what-christmas-is-but-christmas-time-is-here-santa-claus-christmas-and.

"I don't know what Christmas is, but Christmas time is here": Santa Claus, Christmas, and Implicit Religion in SFF

Abstracts (250 words) are invited for papers exploring Santa Claus and/or the Christmas holiday in science fiction, speculative fiction and fantasy literature, film, and graphic novels. Considerations of the interrelation of secular and religious themes in SFF Christmas, implicit religion, and contemporary ritual welcome.



Deadline: March 25, 2026

Abstracts to m hyphen ives@tamu.edu and c.carly-miles@tamu.edu; please include SFF Christmas in your subject line.


Last updated March 14, 2026

CFP Special Issue: AppleTV+ and Science Fiction--EXTENDED DEADLINE (5/21/2025)

 

Special Issue: AppleTV+ and Science Fiction--EXTENDED DEADLINE

deadline for submissions: 

May 21, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Science Fiction Film and Television

contact email: 

projectscifi.appletv@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/12/07/special-issue-appletv-and-science-fiction-extended-deadline.

Special Issue: AppleTV+ and Science Fiction 

Guest Editors: Burcu Kuheylan, Milt Moise, Nicholas Orlando

contact email: projectscifi.appletv@gmail.com

EXTENDED DEADLINE—Abstracts due May 21, 2025 

In this special issue of the journal, editors seek scholarly articles that contextualize and critique AppleTV+ and its production of science fiction television against the tumultuous Zeitgeist of post-2016.   

The unprecedented popularity of streaming platforms has transformed the playing field, as well as the rules, of the entertainment business. It is nevertheless rare for a streaming service to aggressively invest in one particular genre as AppleTV+ has done with science fiction. Some platforms with vast repertoires, like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, sample an array of genres and narrative modes – including science fiction, action, stand-up comedy, and reality shows – without privileging quality or diverging from mainstream tastes. While Netflix operates independently of older media conglomerates, Amazon and others like Max and Hulu harness their links with “legacy” media giants, like Metro-Goldwyn-Myer; HBO and Warner Bros.; and Disney, FX, and Fox Searchlight respectively.

New to the scene is AppleTV+, which launched in 2019 and has since offered an alternative model to content production. AppleTV+'s branding and production strategies consist in offering original titles that feature A-list actors and directors while displaying a preference for the high-quality, technically proficient content that cultural commentators often associate with prestige TV. More central to this special issue, however, is the company’s investment in science-fictional media. Series such as Dark Matter (2024), Constellation (2024), and Silo (2023) are only the company’s three latest entries into a growing collection of titles including For All Mankind (2019) and Severance (2022). While AppleTV+ is not the only streaming platform fueling the popularization of science fiction on screen, TV critics and cultural commentators alike seem to agree that AppleTV+ is television’s new “sci-fi Valhalla” (Speicher, “AppleTV+ Has Become”).

This special issue accordingly invites critics to explore Apple’s investments – financial and otherwise – in science fiction. A powerhouse of consumer technologies, Apple has long drawn inspiration from the imaginaries of science fiction, not least in its marketing campaigns, which include iconic Super Bowl commercials directed by Ridley Scott (“1984”) and Mark Coppos (“Hall”); iPhone advertisements by David Fincher (“Hallway”; “Break In”); and the now-controversial “Crush” ad by Gal Muggia and Vania Heymann. In each case, the genre’s technological imaginaries were central to Apple’s marketing of its cutting-edge products, and they have since helped the brand hone its distinctive futuristic look and minimalist style. 

AppleTV+’s singular emphasis on science fiction as its privileged genre of production could also reflect the company’s larger business strategies for product management and development. Under its current CEO, Tim Cook, Apple has maintained Steve Jobs’ hallmark emphases on streamlined production and paternalistic oversight. Not only does the company commit to practices of austerity and lean production models to limit the number both of original films and TV shows/episodes produced, it also reportedly supervises and “meddles'' in content production, sometimes to the chagrin of seasoned producers and directors (Goldberg and Fienberg, “Ron Moore is Ready”; Szalay, “iPhone TV”). Cook’s avoidance of controversial subjects like religion, nudity, violence, China, or negative representations of technology – or of Apple, more specifically – similarly exemplifies his tight control of the brand’s image (Mayo, “Tim Cook Reportedly”; Smith, “Apple TV”; Rosen, “Rian Johnson”; Kent, “The Problem with Canceling Jon Stewart”). Under such circumstances, the high premium AppleTV+ has placed on science fiction, how the genre informs Apple’s public image, marketing strategies, and future enterprises elicits closer scrutiny from scholarly readers and researchers of the genre. 

Equally important for scholars to investigate is how Apple influences the public perception of science fiction as it cherry-picks the genre’s aesthetic and narrative tropes primarily to serve its corporate interests. The privilege such a giant of consumer technologies accords to science fiction indubitably raises the profile and visibility of this historically marginalized genre. This represents a chance for science fiction to publicize its radically different – and potentially subversive – imaginaries of what is possible, which endears the genre to its well-versed enthusiasts. In prioritizing corporate profit, however, Apple also exploits the genre’s futuristic style, aesthetic values, and cultural associations for branding purposes. Can the science fiction it sponsors effectively scrutinize, let alone dismantle, the deeper structures of inequality that the company also perpetuates beyond a fashionable lip service to pluralism, diversity, and globalism? How can we read Apple’s self-fashioning through science fiction in light of, say, its manufacturing partnerships with off-shore sweatshops like the Chinese Foxconn or its failure to provide its content writers a home with proper work conditions, job security, and equitable compensation (Albergotti, “Apple Accused”; Fuster, “#BadApple”)? Given Apple's record of complicity in resource extraction, labor exploitation, and union-busting politics, this issue invites contributors not simply to affirm but to critique the Apple brand’s sci-fi output against the contentious political, economic, and socio-cultural dynamics of the contemporary. 

Such critique has increased urgency as Apple launched its streaming platform and focus on science fiction in a moment of social and political instability in the U.S. and around the globe. Our contemporary moment reflects what Lauren Berlant has dubbed “crisis ordinariness” (Cruel Optimism), which not only overwhelms our perceptive capacities but also defies the conventional limits of the real – the global rise of right-wing politics with a flagrant disregard for objectivity, facts, or truth; concomitant assaults on women’s reproductive rights and equal opportunity initiatives that helped promote racial justice; the rising number of havocs wreaked by climate-change-caused natural disasters; the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East; the mass migration of people fleeing wars, violence, famine, or political persecution; and the attacks against the LGBTQ+ community are only a few examples. Against this state of crisis ordinariness, how can we read Apple as an agent in the (re)production of convergent worlds of aesthetics, economics, and politics? What do Apple’s images of futurity and history do for viewers at a moment of impasse? What kinds of social and political imaginaries does Apple open up and/or disavow? And how can we read these imaginaries against the neoliberal capitalist logics they mediate? 

Some possible topics may include AppleTV+ in relation to:

• Generic developments/trends in science fiction (TV);
• Science fiction in the post-truth political moment;
• Streaming TV and Media (adaptation, mediation, and/or immediacy);
• Writing sci-fi in the age of globalization, corporate profit, and labor precarity; 
• Shifts in social class, labor organization, and worker solidarity; 
• The aesthetics of political economy (venture capital; "stealth wealth");
• The cult and operational logic of disruption (& the rise of AI);
• The history/trajectory of the Apple brand, television, and marketing;
• The potential and limits of futurism and techno-solutionism;
• Nostalgia – (esp. in the context of the MAGA movement's backlashes against women, minorities, LGBTQ+ people, and immigrants); 
• Politics, economics, and social (re)production of science-fiction aesthetics;
• Representations of work/anti-work movements and politics;
• Crises -- aesthetic, reproductive, climate, economic, care work, immigration, political, and leadership; 
• Science fictional representations of futurity (Utopian & Dystopian).

**NOTE: We are particularly interested in essays that address, preferably within a science-fictional framework, AppleTV+’s less discussed series, including but not limited to Dr. Brain (2021), Invasion (2021), and The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (2022), among others. We will also consider essays on AppleTV+’s original science fiction films, such as Finch (2021), Fingernails (2023), and Swan Song (2021). We have received many proposals for essays on Severance, so additional essays on this series alone will not be considered. We are also interested in essays that critically assess issues of class, disability, gender, and race.

Abstracts of no more than 500 words will be due by May 21, 2025. Acceptance notifications will be sent out by May 30, 2025 with complete drafts of 5,000-7,500 words due by November 28, 2025.

Please submit abstracts and questions to projectscifi.appletv@gmail.com.

Last updated May 1, 2025

CFP Transformers and SOGIE: Call for Proposals for Edited Collection (5/31/2025)

 

Transformers and SOGIE: Call for Proposals for Edited Collection

deadline for submissions: 

May 31, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Daniel M. Look

contact email: 

dlook@stlawu.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/09/25/transformers-and-sogie-call-for-proposals-for-edited-collection.

Title: TBD, but potentials include:

• ‘Til All Are One: Gender, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity/Gender Expression (SOGIE) in Transformers

Editors (Collaborators): Elizabeth Sanders, Daniel M. Look

Description / Call for Papers:

We are soliciting chapters/articles for an edited academic book on topics relating to the Transformers franchise and gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression.Proposals from academics and independent scholars covering official continuity/properties, fanfiction, the fandom, and content creators will be considered. Proposals should be for new essays, not republications of previous works.

Since its inception in 1984, the Transformers property has had a complicated relationship with concepts relating to sex and gender. During the creation of the names and personalities for the original characters, Bob Budiansky proposed that Ratchet, the medical robot, be a female character. Hasbro rejected the idea, reportedly saying "this is a boy toy. We don't wanna have, you know, girl robots."

However, during the Sunbow animated series, we are introduced to (unfortunately, one-dimensional) ‘female Autobots’ in the episode “The Search for Alpha Trion” and, in 1986, Transformers: The Movie introduced the first recurring female transformer in Arcee.

In the US Marvel comics continuity, the transformer Cloudburst states that for transformers “there are no men, no women…no mates!” Female transformers exist in the Marvel UK comic series, but this is primarily a result of that continuity incorporating aspects from the 1986 animated movie.

Starting in the animated series Beast Wars, cast inclusion of one or more female characters became more commonplace, but they were still heavily outnumbered. Likewise, their gender and gender expression and relationships, when they existed, were cisgender and heteronormative.

The 2005 IDW comics continuity changed this landscape and moved gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and more diverse relationships closer to the spotlight with, we add, Hasbro’s endorsement and support. We see an incredible explosion of topics ranging from homonormative societies, gender without the “biological” concept of sex, transgender robots, and concepts for close, platonic relationships (amica endura) and spouses (conjunx endura).

These topics are complex and not something expected from a ‘toy’ franchise. Further, there was a directed effort to include women and LGBTQIA+ creators and consultants to write these stories in believable and sensitive ways. That effort has continued in follow up cartoon series, including Transformers: Earthspark, which introduced the first non-binary Transformer. Although some of the expected pearl-clutching occurred, the response was, by and large, positive. However, beyond interviews with creators and fan articles, little academic attention has been paid to the Transformers franchise and its relationship to these topics.

To our knowledge, there is no published academic work relating to this material. Our hope is that this edition will not only stand on its own, but also welcome and encourage further scholarship in this field.

Contributions could include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Potential Sections & Chapter Ideas

Why “Genderless” Means Male

• Portrayals of Masculinity
• Boys Toys = Boys: Hasbro specifying only wanted male character ers for G1 cartoon
• How “Genderless” Appears in Comics: more as “sex less,” but really all monosexed/gendered as male
• One of Those: Intimacy and emotions not being the focus (traditionally)
• The Trouble with Gobots: Gobots had many female characters and, for the most part, you could not tell male from female from their body design
• Monstrous Reproduction
  • Physically monstrous: Budding, Protoforms
  • Ideologically Monstrous: Made to Order, Vehicons
  • Frankenstein Approach: “Firstborn,” Dinobots, Tarantalus, Quintissons
  • Sacred Well: Vector Sigma, Quintus Prime
• The Problem of Fembots/Femmebots
  • Arcee’s Journey as “The Only One”
  • Toys for Boys: Fembots/Femmebots as Sexual/Romantic Objects
  • All Hail the Queen: Black Arachnia / Airachnid
  • Bringing Balance: Caminus (IDW), Fan Polls (female Megatronous/Victorion) + Windblade, Mairghread Scott (author)
• Queer Identities
  • Found Family: Conjunx Amica
  • MLM and WLW: Conjunx Endura
  • Trans-Transformers: Anode, Lug, Arcee
  • A Wonderful Experience: Nightshade, Non-binary Transformer
  • Intention vs. Interpretation: Knock Out and Breakdown
  • Frenemy or “Will they/Won’t They?”: Ratchet and Drift as a romantic partnership that would have been predicted had they been perceived as male/female

• Humans (Fans and Creators)
  • Own Voice: Queer Creators in Transformers (writers, consultants)
  • Importance of seeing yourself in your fiction
  • Unchecked Privilege and complaints about Genderswapping: “If you want more female characters create new characters”
  • Won’t someone think of the children?: Fan reactions to themes related to gender/orientation in fiction for children
  • Fan reactions: “don’t get your politics in my toys”
  • Cultural differences in reactions from international fanbase

• Misc.
  • Bishojou Figures
  • Kiss Players (tread carefully here)
  • TFs in love with humans, aliens, mermaids, etc. (Seaspray and Powerglide) as explorations of gender identity/sexual identity

To express interest and receive details about submitting a proposal, please contact the editors at esanders5@lamar.edu and dlook@stlawu.edu.

 This edited volume will be organized into thematic sections around these topics and others that emerge from submissions. Prospective authors should contact the editors with any questions, including potential topics not listed above.

Please submit a 300-500 word abstract of your proposed chapter contribution as a Word Document (not PDF) with a brief bio (in the same document), current position and experience with the topic, affiliation (if any), and complete contact information to editors Elizabeth Sanders and Daniel Look by May 31, 2025. Full chapters of 6000-8000 words are likely due December 2025. A publisher has shown preliminary interest.

Please share this announcement with anyone you believe would be interested in contributing to this volume. Proposals from academics and independent scholars covering official continuity/properties, fanfiction, the fandom, and content creators will be considered. 

Note: Acceptance of a proposed abstract does not guarantee the acceptance of the full chapter.

Last updated May 1, 2025

CFP 2025 Conference of The Incredible Nineteenth Century: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Fairy Tale (3/28/2025; online 5/2-3/2025)

 

2025 Conference of The Incredible Nineteenth Century: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Fairy Tale

deadline for submissions: 

March 28, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

The Incredible Nineteenth Century: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Fairy Tale

contact email: 

i19@mtsu.edu

Our third annual conference on May 2-3 via Zoom! This online conference is free to attend. Please use this link to register to present or attend: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeSiuxTNYFJPUPxF1gAdfH1pQthfjig...

Submissions may cover any aspect of literature, film, or art related to science fiction, fantasy, or fairy tale in the Long Nineteenth Century (approximately 1789 to 1918). Also welcome are presentations on tv, film, and video game adaptations of nineteenth-century texts, or on works that re-envision the nineteenth century through science fiction or fantasy. Submissions to present are due by March 28.

Our keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Ann Schmiesing of the University of Colorado. She is the author of the recent book, _The Brothers Grimm: A Biography_.

Last updated January 25, 2025

CFP AppleTV+ and Science Fiction (3/31/2025; Spec Issue SFFTV)

 

Special Issue: AppleTV+ and Science Fiction

deadline for submissions: 

March 31, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Science Fiction Film and Television

contact email: 

projectscifi.appletv@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/12/07/special-issue-appletv-and-science-fiction.

Special Issue: AppleTV+ and Science Fiction 

Guest Editors: Burcu Kuheylan, Milt Moise, Nicholas Orlando

contact email: projectscifi.appletv@gmail.com

 

In this special issue of the journal, editors seek scholarly articles that contextualize and critique AppleTV+ and its production of science fiction television against the tumultuous Zeitgeist of post-2016.   

The unprecedented popularity of streaming platforms has transformed the playing field, as well as the rules, of the entertainment business. It is nevertheless rare for a streaming service to aggressively invest in one particular genre as AppleTV+ has done with science fiction. Some platforms with vast repertoires, like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, sample an array of genres and narrative modes – including science fiction, action, stand-up comedy, and reality shows – without privileging quality or diverging from mainstream tastes. While Netflix operates independently of older media conglomerates, Amazon and others like Max and Hulu harness their links with “legacy” media giants, like Metro-Goldwyn-Myer; HBO and Warner Bros.; and Disney, FX, and Fox Searchlight respectively.

New to the scene is AppleTV+, which launched in 2019 and has since offered an alternative model to content production. AppleTV+'s branding and production strategies consist in offering original titles that feature A-list actors and directors while displaying a preference for the high-quality, technically proficient content that cultural commentators often associate with prestige TV. More central to this special issue, however, is the company’s investment in science-fictional media. Series such as Dark Matter (2024), Constellation (2024), and Silo (2023) are only the company’s three latest entries into a growing collection of titles including For All Mankind (2019) and Severance (2022). While AppleTV+ is not the only streaming platform fueling the popularization of science fiction on screen, TV critics and cultural commentators alike seem to agree that AppleTV+ is television’s new “sci-fi Valhalla” (Speicher, “AppleTV+ Has Become”).

This special issue accordingly invites critics to explore Apple’s investments – financial and otherwise – in science fiction. A powerhouse of consumer technologies, Apple has long drawn inspiration from the imaginaries of science fiction, not least in its marketing campaigns, which include iconic Super Bowl commercials directed by Ridley Scott (“1984”) and Mark Coppos (“Hall”); iPhone advertisements by David Fincher (“Hallway”; “Break In”); and the now-controversial “Crush” ad by Gal Muggia and Vania Heymann. In each case, the genre’s technological imaginaries were central to Apple’s marketing of its cutting-edge products, and they have since helped the brand hone its distinctive futuristic look and minimalist style. 

AppleTV+’s singular emphasis on science fiction as its privileged genre of production could also reflect the company’s larger business strategies for product management and development. Under its current CEO, Tim Cook, Apple has maintained Steve Jobs’ hallmark emphases on streamlined production and paternalistic oversight. Not only does the company commit to practices of austerity and lean production models to limit the number both of original films and TV shows/episodes produced, it also reportedly supervises and “meddles'' in content production, sometimes to the chagrin of seasoned producers and directors (Goldberg and Fienberg, “Ron Moore is Ready”; Szalay, “iPhone TV”). Cook’s avoidance of controversial subjects like religion, nudity, violence, China, or negative representations of technology – or of Apple, more specifically – similarly exemplifies his tight control of the brand’s image (Mayo, “Tim Cook Reportedly”; Smith, “Apple TV”; Rosen, “Rian Johnson”; Kent, “The Problem with Canceling Jon Stewart”). Under such circumstances, the high premium AppleTV+ has placed on science fiction, how the genre informs Apple’s public image, marketing strategies, and future enterprises elicits closer scrutiny from scholarly readers and researchers of the genre. 

Equally important for scholars to investigate is how Apple influences the public perception of science fiction as it cherry-picks the genre’s aesthetic and narrative tropes primarily to serve its corporate interests. The privilege such a giant of consumer technologies accords to science fiction indubitably raises the profile and visibility of this historically marginalized genre. This represents a chance for science fiction to publicize its radically different – and potentially subversive – imaginaries of what is possible, which endears the genre to its well-versed enthusiasts. In prioritizing corporate profit, however, Apple also exploits the genre’s futuristic style, aesthetic values, and cultural associations for branding purposes. Can the science fiction it sponsors effectively scrutinize, let alone dismantle, the deeper structures of inequality that the company also perpetuates beyond a fashionable lip service to pluralism, diversity, and globalism? How can we read Apple’s self-fashioning through science fiction in light of, say, its manufacturing partnerships with off-shore sweatshops like the Chinese Foxconn or its failure to provide its content writers a home with proper work conditions, job security, and equitable compensation (Albergotti, “Apple Accused”; Fuster, “#BadApple”)? Given Apple's record of complicity in resource extraction, labor exploitation, and union-busting politics, this issue invites contributors not simply to affirm but to critique the Apple brand’s sci-fi output against the contentious political, economic, and socio-cultural dynamics of the contemporary. 

Such critique has increased urgency as Apple launched its streaming platform and focus on science fiction in a moment of social and political instability in the U.S. and around the globe. Our contemporary moment reflects what Lauren Berlant has dubbed “crisis ordinariness” (Cruel Optimism), which not only overwhelms our perceptive capacities but also defies the conventional limits of the real – the global rise of right-wing politics with a flagrant disregard for objectivity, facts, or truth; concomitant assaults on women’s reproductive rights and equal opportunity initiatives that helped promote racial justice; the rising number of havocs wreaked by climate-change-caused natural disasters; the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East; the mass migration of people fleeing wars, violence, famine, or political persecution; and the attacks against the LGBTQ+ community are only a few examples. Against this state of crisis ordinariness, how can we read Apple as an agent in the (re)production of convergent worlds of aesthetics, economics, and politics? What do Apple’s images of futurity and history do for viewers at a moment of impasse? What kinds of social and political imaginaries does Apple open up and/or disavow? And how can we read these imaginaries against the neoliberal capitalist logics they mediate? 

Some possible topics may include AppleTV+ in relation to:

• Generic developments/trends in science fiction (TV);
• Science fiction in the post-truth political moment;
• Streaming TV and Media (adaptation, mediation, and/or immediacy);
• Writing sci-fi in the age of globalization, corporate profit, and labor precarity; 
• Shifts in social class, labor organization, and worker solidarity; 
• The aesthetics of political economy (venture capital; "stealth wealth");
• The cult and operational logic of disruption (& the rise of AI);
• The history/trajectory of the Apple brand, television, and marketing;
• The potential and limits of futurism and techno-solutionism;
• Nostalgia – (esp. in the context of the MAGA movement's backlashes against women, minorities, LGBTQ+ people, and immigrants); 
• Politics, economics, and social (re)production of science-fiction aesthetics;
• Representations of work/anti-work movements and politics;
• Crises -- aesthetic, reproductive, climate, economic, care work, immigration, political, and leadership; 
• Science fictional representations of futurity (Utopian & Dystopian).

Abstracts of no more than 500 words will be due by March 31, 2025. Acceptance notifications will be sent out by May 30, 2025 with complete drafts of 5,000-7,500 words due by November 28, 2025.

Please submit abstracts and questions to projectscifi.appletv@gmail.com.

categories

cultural studies and historical approaches

film and television

journals and collections of essays

popular culture

twentieth century and beyond

Last updated December 15, 2024

Out Now - Mythlore for Spring - Summer 2024

Just released this week: Mythlore's special issue on "Fantasy Goes to Hell."

Copies of the complete issue can be purchased directly from the Mythopoeic Society. Individual pieces can be accessed from their archive at  SWOSU Digital Commons. 

Mythlore 144 Volume 42, Issue 2   

Spring/Summer 2024

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Special Issue: Fantasy Goes to Hell

— Janet Brennan Croft and Erin Gianinni

Tolkien, Augustinian Theodicy, and ‘Lovecraftian’ Evil

— Perry Neil Harrison

Substance Abuse: The Symbolic Geography of Hell in The Great Divorce

— Richard Angelo Bergen

Denial and Acceptance: A Core Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Modern Lyric

— Brian O. Murdoch

Orpheus and the Harrowing of Hell in the Tale of Beren and Lúthien

— Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Two Roads to Hell: Rebirth and Relevance in Musical Adaptations of Katabatic Myth

— Jarrod DePrado

Timeless Moments: Russell Kirk, Charles Williams, and Stephen King on the Afterlife

— Camilo Peralta

Hell on His Mind: Dean Winchester’s Journey to Hell and Back

— Anna Caterino

“Hell is Only a Word, The Reality is Much, Much Worse”: Black Holes as Fantasy Gateways to Hell

— Kristine Larsen

Hell as an Exploration of Sin: A Comparison of Alan Moore’s Providence to Dante’s Inferno

— Zachary Rutledge

Notes and Letters

Dating “The Dark Tower”: C.S. Lewis, the Nazis, and the Jews — Lee Oser

Whatever Happened to The Princess Bride? Thoughts for Further William Goldman Research — G. Connor Salter

Some Observations on the Newspaper Reports on Tolkien’s Andrew Lang Lecture in 1939 — Matthew Thompson-Handell

In Memoriam: Peter J. Schakel — Janet Brennan Croft

In Memoriam: Richard (Dick) Plotz — Janet Brennan Croft

Reviews

Monster Midway: An Uninhibited Look at the Glittering World of the Carny by William Lindsay Gresham — G. Connor Salter

Fantasy: How It Works by Brian Attebery — Glenn R. Gray

Tarot and Other Meditation Decks: History, Theory, Aesthetics, Typology, 2nd edition, by Emily E. Auger — Laurel M. Stevens

The Archetype of the Dying and Rising God in World Mythology by Paul R. Rovang — James Hamby

The Inklings, the Victorians, and the Moderns: Reconciling Tradition in the Modern Age by Christopher Butynskyi — Hannah Frances Roux

Essays Triologue: Kepler, Twain, Lewis by Susan Dorman — Sharon L. Bolding

Pursuing an Earthy Spirituality: C.S. Lewis and Incarnational Faith by Gary S. Selby — Sarah O’Dell

The Literary Tarot, The Literary Tarot Classics Edition Guidebook, and Oracle’s Atlas: A Companion to the Literary Tarot Classics Edition from the Brink Literacy Project — Emily E. Auger

The Medieval Worlds of Neil Gaiman: From Beowulf to Sleeping Beauty by Shiloh Carroll — Kris Swank

J.R.R. Tolkien in Central Europe: Context, Directions, and the Legacy edited by Janka Kascakova and David Levente Palatinus — Nancy Martsch

Tolkien in the Twenty-First Century: The Meaning of Middle-Earth Today by Nick Groom — Laura N. Van Dyke

Ursula K. Le Guin’s “A Wizard of Earthsea”: A Critical Companion by Timothy S. Miller, and Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea by John Plotz — David Bratman

Mystical Perelandra: My Lifelong Reading of C.S. Lewis & His Favorite Book by James Como — Eleanor Knobil

A Joyful Outpost: Exploring the Household Economy of the Beavers from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, by Aaron Bair — Josiah Peterson

Journey Back Again: Reasons to Visit Middle-earth, Mythopoeic Press edition, edited by Diana Pavlac Glyer — Kristine Larsen

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit: Realizing History Through Fantasy by Robert T. Tally Jr. — Bianca Beronio

Historical Dictionary of Fantasy Literature, 2nd edition, by Allen Stroud — Douglas A. Anderson

Briefly Noted:

101 Middle Eastern Tales and their Impact on Western Oral Tradition, by Ulrich Marzolph — Daniel C. Snell

The Road to Fair Elfland: Tolkien on Fairy-stories: An Extended Commentary, by Giovanni Carmine Costabile — Landon Loftin

CFP Science Fiction of the 1870s (Spec Issue of Foundation) (10/07/2024)

Science Fiction of the 1870s

deadline for submissions: October 7, 2024

full name / name of organization: Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction

contact email: paulmarchrussell@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/03/01/science-fiction-of-the-1870s

To mark the 150th issue of Foundation in spring 2025, we would like to include contributions on the topic of sf from 150 years ago, published during the 1870s. Darko Suvin once proposed 1 May 1871 as the starting-point for sf – the day that Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race was published, George Chesney’s The Battle of Dorking began serialisation, and Samuel Butler submitted Erewhon to his publisher. Jules Verne, however, was already in full swing and he would soon be joined by such contemporaries as Camille Flammarion. Where else can we trace the roots of science fiction in the 1870s? How can we reassess the writers we know and who are the writers we need to rediscover?

We welcome articles on any aspect of science fiction published between 1870 and 1880. Articles should be 5000-8000 words long and written in accordance with the style guide available on the website (www.sf-foundation.org/journal). Topics may include but are not limited to the following:

• Ideas of utopia
• Humans and machine technology
• The impact of evolution and the biological sciences
• Sf and the invasion novel
• Sf and astronomy
• Satire and allegory
• Science and pseudo-science
• Space travel and other worlds
• Exploration and voyages of discovery
• Race and empire
• Gender and sexuality
• Arnold, Huxley and the ‘two cultures’ debate
• Sf and the non-anglophone world

The deadline for articles is 7 October 2024. Please email your submission to Dr Paul March-Russell at paulmarchrussell@gmail.com with a short (50-word) bionote


Last updated March 6, 2024

CFP Paul Verhoeven @85 Conference (6/16/2023; Bangor, UK 9/7-8/2023)

From the SFRA listserv:

Paul Verhoeven @85

An in-person academic conference hosted by The Centre for Film, Television and Screen Studies, Bangor University, UK

7 and 8 September 2023

Paul Verhoeven (b. 1938) has left an indelible mark on popular culture. His films marry a European arthouse sensibility with the US blockbuster but in a wickedly satirical way. But this does not mean his films are not open to criticism.

His American dystopic trilogy – RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990) and Starship Troopers (1997) – provided dark visions of futuristic metropoles that continues to resonate to this day, touching on capitalism, robotics, biopolitics, posthumanism, urban planning, artificial intelligence, transhumanism and climate change, while female-led dramas, such as Basic Instinct (1992), Showgirls (1995), Black Book (2006), Elle (2016) and Benedetta (2021), remain controversial for their overt eroticism, sexual violence and representation of lesbianism.

To critically explore the origins and legacies of Verhoeven’s body of work, this conference proposes to bring together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to explore Paul Verhoeven’s output, debate its legacy and consider its position within visual culture including specialists from fields as diverse as literary and cinematographic studies; the history of art, design, fashion and architecture; musicology; philosophy; political sciences; computer science and robotics; urban and ecological studies; and feminist, queer and sexuality studies.

We welcome contributions from any perspective such as (but not limited to) the following:

• Paul Verhoeven as auteur: origins, influences, production, aesthetics, publicity, reception, afterlife, sequels and director’s cuts
• Paul Verhoeven and biopolitics, posthumanism, urban planning and climate change
• Paul Verhoeven and capitalism, neoliberalism, post-industrialism and the rise of multinational corporations
• Paul Verhoeven and gender
• Paul Verhoeven and memory
• Paul Verhoeven and psychoanalysis
• Paul Verhoeven and race, ethnicity and Otherness
• Paul Verhoeven and reception: audiences, fandom and ‘cult’
• Paul Verhoeven and robotics, artificial intelligence, cybernetic organisms, the transhuman and the post-human
• Paul Verhoeven and science fiction
• Paul Verhoeven and sexuality
• Paul Verhoeven and stardom
• Paul Verhoeven and tech noir, retrofuturism, future noir, and cyberpunk.

We are applying for funding to facilitate postgraduate and unwaged participation.

Please complete the following link by Friday, 16 June 2023.

For further information, please contact the organisers Nathan Abrams and Elizabeth Miller (PaulVerhoevenConference@gmail.com).

CFP James Bond Studies Conference 2023 (5/1/2023; London 6/30-7/1/2023)

James Bond Studies Conference, June 30th-July 1st 2023

deadline for submissions:
May 1, 2023

full name / name of organization:
International Journal of James Bond Studies, University of Roehampton

contact email:
ian.kinane@roehampton.ac.uk


source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/03/22/james-bond-studies-conference-june-30th-july-1st-2023

Call for Papers: James Bond Studies Conference

30th June – 1st July 2023

University of Roehampton, London

In association with the Centre for Literature and Inclusion and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Roehampton, the International Journal of James Bond Studies will host a 2-day international conference on the University’s beautiful parkland campus in South West London.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the publication of Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, we invite submissions for panels and individual papers on any aspect of the James Bond phenomenon (Ian Fleming’s original novels and short stories; the James Bond continuation novels; the James Bond film franchise and related media, etc.), although we are especially interested in papers and/or panel presentations on the local-global relationship between Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and London (where many Bond films have been produced and filmed), cultural geography, and global cinema tourism.

Suggested topics may include (but are not limited to):

• James Bond and Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and London
• James Bond and tourism
• James Bond and internationalism
• James Bond, gender, and sexuality
• James Bond, race, and neocolonialism
• James Bond and environmental ethics
• James Bond and political morality
• James Bond and technocracy
• James Bond and #MeToo
• James Bond, “Brexit”, and right-wing nationalism
• The future of James Bond

Prospective contributors are invited to submit a 300-word abstract along with a brief bio note to Dr. Ian Kinane (ian.kinane@roehampton.ac.uk).

Submission Deadline: 1st May 2023. (Applicants can be assured that they will hear back in good time so as to facilitate travel planning etc.)

Following the conference, contributors will be invited to submit their papers to a special issue of the International Journal of James Bond Studies, pending peer review.

This event is open to academics, casual scholars, and fans alike; and you do not have to present in order to attend. Details of how to register will follow the publication of the conference programme.

Expressions of interest and queries can also be addressed to the above email.



Last updated March 24, 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 (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

CFP 2023 Quarry Farm Symposium on “Mark Twain: Invention, Technology, and Science Fiction” (2/10/2023; Elmira NY 10/6-8/2023)

2023 Quarry Farm Symposium on “Mark Twain: Invention, Technology, and Science Fiction”

deadline for submissions:
February 10, 2023

full name / name of organization:
The Center for Mark Twain Studies

contact email:
ntlwilliams@ucdavis.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/11/29/2023-quarry-farm-symposium-on-%E2%80%9Cmark-twain-invention-technology-and-science-fiction%E2%80%9D

The Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College is hosting its annual Quarry Farm Symposium during the Fall 2023 semester, from Friday, October 6, to Sunday, October 8, 2023, organized around the theme of Mark Twain: Invention, Technology, and Science Fiction. The year’s Keynote Address will be presented by Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine and multiple Hugo Award winner. The annual symposium gathers scholars from various fields around a theme related to Mark Twain studies or the nineteenth-century more broadly and is held at the historic Quarry Farm site, where Twain wrote his most famous works during summer stays with his wife’s family in Elmira, New York.

In his landmark 2010 essay, “On Defining SF, or Not: Genre Theory, SF, and History,” John Rieder wrestles with the slippery definition of “science fiction.” He notes that clear genre definitions are frequently demanded by “two institutional locations, commercial publishing and the academy, and this pair of institutions bears no accidental resemblance to the oppositions between high and low culture....” (204). Building from Bourdieu and Habermas, Rieder argues that because of these “contradictory drives for economic profit and cultural prestige in commercial publishing, the history of sf is well positioned to contribute importantly to broader cultural history...” (206).

SF is uniquely positioned in this way, and Twain is a particularly useful lens for such genre examination. Scholars have acknowledged that much of Twain’s work could be labeled “science fiction” if it were published today, an understanding that goes back at least as far as David Ketterer’s 1984 collection, The Science Fiction of Mark Twain. Twain’s writing appeared in the nineteenth-century literary marketplace side-by-side with dime novels about boy explorers in submarines or airships, hero-worshipping biographies of famous inventors, and the translated works of contemporaries like Jules Verne. Moreover, Twain embodies the straddling of popular success and cultural prestige that Rieder mentions; then and now, Twain’s career navigates these contradictions. Locating when and how Twain’s work fits the “science fiction” label can help us see the limits and utility of genre.

Of course, Twain is more than just literary figure; he was part of a culture immersed in science and technology. Alan Gribben, in Mark Twain’s Literary Resources, Vol. 1 (2019), specifically notes science was one area Twain read voraciously, including “an entire set of Charles Darwin’s works” and “at least a dozen titles” on astronomy (44). Once he had money, Twain constantly sought new inventions to fund; his investments in new printing technology partly caused his bankruptcy. Gary Scharnhorst’s recent biography The Life of Mark Twain: The Final Years (2022) reminds us that Twain spent his later years scrutinizing osteopathy, Christian science, and other nascent medical movements, partly to help his ailing wife and daughters. Twain constantly interacted with all these developing fields and more, frequently in very public, mercurial ways.

With all this in mind, this symposium will work to understand the “broader cultural history” Rieder mentions by placing Twain and his contemporaries within the cultural transformations of science and technology, and within the broad literary boundaries of science fiction. What do we learn if we look at science fiction through the lens of Mark Twain, or Mark Twain through the lens of science fiction? 

We welcome a range of papers on this theme, including any of the following topics and more: 

• Portrayals of science and technology in fiction by Mark Twain and/or his contemporaries
• Scientific and pseudo-scientific ideas that influenced literature during Twain’s lifetime (1835-1910)
• Critical interrogations of nineteenth-century scientific rhetoric, knowledge-making, and science-related art and letters
• Critical examinations of the writing surrounding nineteenth-century invention and science, including patents, copyrights, planning documents, promotional materials, and more
• Research on inventors in Twain’s circle of acquaintances, including James Paige, Nikola Tesla, Jan Szczepanik, or larger concerns such as Hartford’s Colt Arms Factory, and their portrayals by Twain or by other writers in “heroic” biographies, magazine features, etc.
• Science fiction in nineteenth-century humor, including frontier narratives, tall tales, scientific romances, and satires
• Twain’s place in the evolving definition of science fiction, including perceptions of him among writers of the Gernsback era, the “Golden Age,” the New Wave, Afrofuturists, and other movements
• Modern technologies and their role in reproducing Twain in online editions, in memes, in repurposed quotations on Facebook, et al.
• Studies of appropriations of Twain’s image or work in science fiction, including steampunk, space opera, or other sub-genres

Please send 300-word abstracts and either a CV or biographical statement, preferably in PDF format, to Nathaniel Williams (ntlwilliams@ucdavis.edu) by February 10, 2023.



Last updated December 4, 2022

CFP Futuristic Epistemology and Scientific Dimensions: Neo-perspectives in Science Fiction (Spec Issue) (2/5/2023)

Futuristic Epistemology and Scientific Dimensions: Neo-perspectives in Science Fiction”

deadline for submissions:
February 5, 2023

full name / name of organization:
The Golden Line: A Magazine of English Literature

contact email:
guested.goldenline@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/01/10/futuristic-epistemology-and-scientific-dimensions-neo-perspectives-in-science-fiction

Call for Papers: Volume 5, Number 1, 2023

Themed Issue on

“Futuristic Epistemology and Scientific Dimensions: Neo-perspectives in Science Fiction”

To be edited by

Niladri Mahapatra & Akasdip Dey

PG Department of English, Bhatter College, Dantan



The Golden Line, a peer-reviewed magazine, is inviting scholarly papers on “Neo-perspectives in Science Fiction”. Science fiction, as a prose narrative form, allows social explorations and experimentations. Adding science to fiction is making it more interesting as science affirms that fiction can also negotiate with truth. So, the discourse of SF creates an interdisciplinary space for many new themes to be focused on and discussed in this issue.

The issue intends to focus on the following thematic areas; however, they are suggestive and not restrictive:

Suggested Topics:

• Truth and SF
• Postmodernism and SF
• Postcolonialism and SF
• Posthumanism and SF
• Aestheticism and SF
• Psychoanalysis and SF
• New Romanticism and SF
• Popular Culture and SF
• Punk Culture and SF
• Ecology, Climate Change and SF
• Politics and SF
• Translation Studies and SF
• Science and SF
• Religion and SF
• Utopia and Dystopia
• Alternate Reality
• Parallel Universe, Multiverse and Time Travel
• Aliens in SF
• Animals in SF
• Space and SF
• Gender and SF
• Robotics
• Science Fiction Film
• Science Fiction Comics
• Science Fiction Magazine

Important Dates:

Submission of abstract: January 15, 2023

Notification of acceptance: January 17, 2023

Submission of full paper: February 05, 2023

[N. B. It is not obligatory to send the abstract within that day, author can also send the full paper (without sending the abstract) within 5th February.]

Author’s Guidelines:

Kindly submit the abstract of your paper in about 100-150 words (Times New Roman, 12) with 4-5 Keywords.

After the selection of your abstract, you are asked to submit your full-length article/ paper.

Articles should be written in an MS Word file following the 8th edition of MLA style.

Word Limits for the full paper: 2500-5000 words.

Authors’ bio-note of around 100 words should be added at the end of the paper.

Submission:

Submit your paper at guested.goldenline@gmail.com [add a CC to the Chief Editor, Mir Ahammad Ali at mir.goldenline@gmail.com]

Further Details:

Visit Our Magazine site: http://goldenline.bhattercollege.ac.in




Last updated January 11, 2023

CFP Science Fiction from the Margins (Spec Issue of Panic at the Discourse; 5/1/2022)

Science Fiction from the Margins

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/04/04/science-fiction-from-the-margins

deadline for submissions:
May 1, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Panic at the Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal

contact email:
panicatthediscourse@gmail.com



We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

- Ursula LeGuin, 2014

Science fiction includes a myriad of thematics from futurism, technology, transhumanism, apocalypse, other-worldliness, interspeciality, alterity and to history. As a result, its’ texts and images bear more of a ‘family resemblance’ than a generic codification. However, at the core of science fiction is an imagining of the world as other than it is­—whether that be by space travel, super-powers, or magic. This special issue of Panic at the Discourse, “Science Fiction From the Margins,” seeks to think and imagine the world otherwise with care and focus to marginalized understandings, ontologies, and epistemologies.

The guest editors invite submissions on topics including, but not limited to:

• Science fiction as minority pedagogy and methodology
• Troubling the history of science fiction as a genre/mode of film, literature, politics, etc.
• Instrumentalization of science fiction as theory and politics
• Engaging science fiction as ‘cult’ or ‘low’ art in film, television, literature, comics, art, and other mediums, thinking about how they challenge the boundaries of their respective media
• Imagining alternative histories and/or futures of racial formations
• Exploring real life science fictional phenomena (cloning, speculations about alien life, advanced forms of AI) and the anxieties produced by these phenomena
• Examining how dystopian fiction has engaged/failed to engage with forms of political domination
• Connections between form and minority politics including but not limited to dispossession, exile, displacement, and racialization

We welcome submissions from a range of disciplines including, but not limited to: Philosophy, Literary Studies, Film and Media Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Critical Disability Studies, Black Studies, Cultural Studies, and Indigenous Studies. All submissions should be written for an interdisciplinary audience.

Additionally, we accept a wide range of submissions from poetry, visual art, creative writing, reviews, and traditional scholarship. Traditional articles must be between 4000-6000 words and reviews a maximum of 750 words.

All submissions will undergo a review process by the publication editorial team. Works selected for publication will receive editorial queries for revision. Publication will be contingent on satisfactorily resolving all queries. Included images must be high resolution and have accessible descriptions. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain image permissions. Use Chicago style endnotes for any citations. Please include a brief author bio of no more than 50 words. Authors retain all rights to their work. Email the publication if you have a work you are unsure about.

Send all submissions to panicatthediscourse@gmail.com with the subject line “Submission: Article Title” by May 1st, 2022.





Last updated April 7, 2022

CFP Geographies of the Fantastic and the Quotidian (5/15/2022; PAMLA Los Angeles 11/11-13/2022)

CFP - Geographies of the Fantastic and the Quotidian - PAMLA Conference

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/02/17/cfp-geographies-of-the-fantastic-and-the-quotidian-pamla-conference

deadline for submissions:
May 15, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association

contact email:
andrkirb@gmail.com



This is a call for papers for the anual PAMLA conference to be held in Los Angeles, California at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center and Hotel between Friday, November 11 and Sunday, November 13, 2022.

The Film Studies session is open to all papers that explore some aspect of film or Film Studies, but we are particularly interested in papers attuned to some facet of the conference theme, "Geographies of the Fantastic and the Quotidian.” For example:

-The role of space and place in genre filmmaking

-World-building in fantasy film and television

-Cinematic cityscapes

-Road movies

-Representations of localized ecologies

-Settler colonialism in film

-Geographical otherness

-Films limited to one setting

-Representations of claustrophobia or agoraphobia

-Landscape in film

-Otherworldy spaces

-Outer space

-Theme parks and the carnival

-The role of satire in constructing places

-Impact of space in residential life

-Transcending real and unreal spaces

Please visit https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/ in order to submit proposals by May 15. The session specifiic information is available at https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/18471.




Last updated March 5, 2022

CFP Peter Nicholls Essay Prize 2023 (12/5/2022)

Peter Nicholls Essay Prize 2023

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/03/03/peter-nicholls-essay-prize-2023

deadline for submissions:
December 5, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction

contact email:
paulmarchrussell@gmail.com



We are pleased to announce our next essay-writing competition. The award is open to all post-graduate research students and to all early career researchers (up to five years after the completion of your PhD) who have yet to find a full-time or tenured position. The prize is guaranteed publication in Foundation (summer 2023).

To be considered for the competition, please submit an original article on any topic, period, theme, author, film or other media within the field of science fiction and its academic study. Approximate length should be 6000 words. All submitted articles should comply with the guidelines to contributors as set out on the journal pages of the SF Foundation website. Only one article per contributor may be submitted.

The deadline for submission is Monday, 5th December 2022. All competition entries, with a short (50 word) biography, should be sent to the journal editor at paulmarchrussell@gmail.com The entries will be judged by the editorial team and the winner will be announced in the spring 2023 issue of Foundation.




Last updated March 8, 2022

CFP SAMLA 2022: Speculative Fiction (5/31/2022; SAMLA Jacksonville 11/11-13/2022)

SAMLA 2022: Speculative Fiction

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/03/14/samla-2022-speculative-fiction

deadline for submissions: May 31, 2022

full name / name of organization: Mary Ann Gareis / Middle Georgia State University

contact email: mary.gareis@mga.edu



Speculative fiction covers a broad range of narrative styles and genres. The cohesive element that pulls works together under the category is that there is some “unrealistic” element, whether it’s magical, supernatural, or a futuristic/technological development: works that fall into the category stray from conventional realism in some way. For this reason, speculative fiction can be quite broad, including everything from fantasy and magical realism to horror and science fiction—from China Miéville to Margaret Atwood to Philip K. Dick. This panel aims to explore those unrealistic elements and all their varied implications about society, politics, economics, and more.



Please submit a 250-300 word abstract, a brief bio, and any A/V needs by May 31, 2022 to Mary Ann Gareis, Middle Georgia State University, at mary.gareis@mga.edu.

SAMLA’s 94th annual conference, Change, will be held at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel in Jacksonville, FL this year from November 11-13. Those accepted must be members of SAMLA to present.




Last updated March 14, 2022

CFP Chicon 8/Worldcon 80 Academic Track Call for Papers (4/29/2022)

Chicon 8/Worldcon 80 Academic Track Call for Papers

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/03/15/chicon-8worldcon-80-academic-track-call-for-papers. 

deadline for submissions: April 29, 2022

full name / name of organization: Chicon 8

contact email: academic@chicon.org



Science fiction (and its cousin genres, fantasy and horror) have long explored what it means to explore the unknown. In particular, some of SF’s familiar narratives have pondered life beyond our world, grappled with the vast expanse of the universe and the many things to be discovered there, and tackled complicated meetings with other beings and other ways of life. Beyond the SF bubble, fantasy has imagined entire worlds and wondered at a cosmos of gods and magic; meanwhile, horror has teased at the edges of its genre cousins, offering disturbing visions of space and other forms of travel and exploration in which the unknown is often waiting with jaws wide open. These are some of the things we can imagine when considering Chicon 8: The 80th World Science Fiction Convention’s theme: “Take to the Stars.”

Chicon’s Academic Track Committee welcomes proposals for scholarly presentations* about genre fiction in its myriad forms**, with particular interest in those which address our convention theme, “Take to the Stars,” which may include some of the following topics (this is not an exhaustive list):

• Themes of exploration and discovery, particularly interpretations of space and sea travel, discovery as a metaphysical and/or psychological concept, the ties between genre fiction and historical or scientific discovery, and other intersections
• New encounters, cultural clashes and resolutions, alien first encounters, and other types of encounters beyond the known
• Seeking new ideas and solutions to imagined or real issues, including (but not limited to) utopian and radical political perspectives on climate change, challenges to hegemonic power structures such as contemporary empires, and visions of decolonization or other ways of structure societies
• Ties between genre fiction and community building and expansion, whether regional, global, in zines or blogs, online or in in-person spaces, and other iterations

Additionally, we also want to see proposals—theme-specific or otherwise—in some of the following categories:

• Regional interest, including representations of Chicago in genre fiction, Chicago-area creators, the influence of the Jazz Age on genre, and Chicago fandom
• Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism, and related futurisms and movements
• Non-U.S. and non-Eurocentric genre fiction, including works in English and in translation
• Work by Guests of Honor and by attending authors

While we appreciate the classics of the genre, our goal will be to highlight lesser known works or to place the classics in conversation with newer works. We view genre as a constantly evolving entity, and we would like to see this reflected in scholarship.

Finally, we are also interested in proposals for roundtable discussions on subjects relevant to scholars, teachers, and related individuals. These roundtables will share knowledge with (especially emerging) scholars and educators, and they might address teaching methods across the humanities disciplines, tools for scholarly research, applying research to education, editing scholarly work, or open dialogues on specific SF/F/H topics of particular interested to the broad field of scholarship.

The deadline for submissions is April 29, 2022.

The Academic Track Committee will accept proposals for the following formats:

• Individual Presentations -- A 15-minute presentation (these will be grouped into 3-presentation panels by the academic committee)
• Group Presentations -- A group of 3 presentations linked together by content, topic, etc. Presentations should be no longer than 15-minutes each. Please provide contact information for all participants with your submission.
• Panels or Roundtables
• Discussions among 3-5 scholars on subjects relevant to the academic track. These should be conversational and informative events similar to a traditional convention panel. You may propose a panel you’d like to see OR a panel with the lineup and topic fully established.

All scholars are welcome to submit, whether formally affiliated with a university or operating as an independent. We also strongly encourage BIPOC and other scholars from minority backgrounds to submit, including scholars outside of the U.S.

Chicon 8’s Academic Track will run programming items through all five days of the event (Sept. 1-5) and will include virtual items to help make scholarship accessible to virtual participants and international scholars and students who wish to be part of the conversation. We look forward to hearing your presentation ideas!

To submit, please provide proposals, bios, and other relevant details using the application form on the Chicon website: https://chicon.org/home/whats-happening/program/academic-program/

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*By “presentation” we mean talks, ideally with visual support, rather than readings of academic work. Presentations should also be geared towards a general audience, as Worldcon attendees come from a myriad of academic and non-academic backgrounds.

**Proposals may address any genre media or genre-related content, including but not limited to fiction, poetry, film and television, comics and graphic novels, plays, fandom, genre history, and so on.




Last updated March 15, 2022