Monday, December 01, 2014

Call for Papers: 2015 Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy


The 2015 Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy will be held Friday and Saturday, June 5-6, 2015, in Toronto, Ontario, at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy, one of the most important collections of fantastic literature in the world. 

 

We invite proposals for papers in any area of Canadian science fiction and fantasy, including:

 

    -studies of individual works and authors;
    -comparative studies;
    -studies that place works in their literary and/or
     cultural contexts.


Papers may be about Canadian works in any medium: literature, film, graphic novels and comic books, and so on.  For studies of the audio-visual media, preference will be given to discussions of works produced in Canada or involving substantial Canadian creative contributions.


Papers should be no more than 20 minutes long, and geared toward a general as well as an academic audience.  Please submit proposals (max. 2 pages), preferably by email, to:

 

Dr. Allan Weiss
Department of English
York University
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, ON  M3H 3N4
aweiss@yorku.ca


Deadline: February 15, 2015

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

From Maison d'Ailleurs

A new exhibition at the Maison D'Ailleurs, Switzerland. Once at the website, Anglophones may scroll down  for the English version . . .

http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=144cc28761a07ca37684b66f7&id=e03d218205&e=82500f37a5

From Jean-Claude Dunyach:
 
A new – unprecedented – anthology of French SF, Dreaming 2074, has been released November the 3rd both in French and English. And it’s free (electronic version only)…

It was a project of the French luxury industry that decided to explore what the year 2074 could be, and to imagine a possible common utopia. 

It was an exciting project, that will be officially launched in New York the 10th of December at the French Bookstore l’Albertine.

 

You can download it in various formats (ePub 2 and 3, Mobi, pdf) here : http://www.dreaming2074.com/?_ga=1.63077871.1779208177.1415173961  or on Amazon, etc. (http://www.amazon.fr/Dreaming-2074-Created-collective-Colbert-ebook/dp/B00P7RHDY2/) 

Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Volume 2 issue 1 of the Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction is now online, featuring articles by Pavel Frelik, Gregory Benford, Gary K. Wolfe and David Hartwell, Tracy B. Grimm, and Joan Haran.

http://eatonjournal.ucr.edu/

Monday, October 20, 2014



Sideways in Time: Alternate History and Counterfactual Narratives – March 30-31, 2015



"Sideways in Time is an Alternate History Conference to be held at the University of Liverpool – in association with Lancaster University. This interdisciplinary conferences will bring together scholarship in science fiction, fantasy, historical and literary fictions, as well as historians and counterfactual thought-experiments, to discuss those fictional narratives that deals with alternate histories and parallel worlds."

For more info, go to http://sidewaysintime.wordpress.com/

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

An Arvon Science Fiction writing week this October, tutored by Liz Jensen and Simon Ings .
http://www.arvon.org/course/science-fiction/
Nicola Griffith is talking about HILD at KIngs College London on 07/10/2014 (18:00-20:00).
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/ahri/eventrecords/2014-2015/CLAMS/nicolagriffith.aspx

Monday, September 01, 2014

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Forthcoming event from Sindbad Sci-Fi who organised such a good panel at the recent Worldcon.


Spurring innovation through Arab Science Fiction

What is the link between technological innovation and artistic imagination? Science Fiction is the ultimate bridge between science and the arts so could exploring this symbiotic relationship enable the next generation to envision an alternative future of the Middle East?

Can inventive forms of art, film and literature help to inspire new waves of scientific development in the Arab world today and beyond?

Samira Ahmed will chair a stellar panel of visionary thinkers who will offer new perspectives on whether nurturing creativity through Science Fiction might be more crucial to our global progress than we might realise.

This event is produced in partnership with Nour Festival of Arts.


Saturday 15 November 2014 | 19:00-21:00

Science Museum IMAX theatre

£10 | £8 Concessions

Booking opens soon

E:
SindbadSciFi@gmail.com to register interest

Details www.SindbadSciFi.com

Monday, March 10, 2014

Embattled Heavens: The Militarization of Space in Science, Fiction, and Politics

For much of the twentieth century, outer space has been envisioned as not only a site of heavenly utopias, but also the ultimate battlefield. Concentrating on weapons, warfare, and violence, this conference explores the military dimensions of astroculture in the period between 1942 and 1990. By highlighting the militarization of extraterrestrial frontiers and conquest in politics and popular culture alike, ‘Embattled Heavens’ addresses the complex processes that oscillate between peaceful and aggressive characteristics of human endeavors in outer space. While the Space Age is usually associated with Cold War history, this conference complicates established narratives by integrating Western European and global perspectives. Examining astropolitics, technoscientific practices, and science fiction, the goal of this conference is to reconceptualize the history of outer space with a view towards its military dimensions.

Conference speakers include David Edgerton (King's College London), Bernd Greiner (Hamburger Institut fĆ¼r Sozialforschung), Michael J. Neufeld (National Air and Space Museum), Alex Roland (Duke University) and Michael Sheehan (Swansea University).

Interested attendees are encouraged to register in advance, so that adequate seating can be provided. Please contact Daniel Brandau and Tilmann Siebeneichner at astrofuturismus@fu-berlin.de.

http://www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/fmi/astrofuturismus/veranstaltungen/C_Heavens/index.html

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Forthcoming event highlighting Leeds University Brotherton Library's sf collections.

 
http://library.leeds.ac.uk/events/410/event/195/

Date: Saturday 29 Mar 2014
Location: The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery
Time: 11:00 - 12:00
Cost: Free Event

To coincide with our new display, Dreams of a Low Carbon Future (10 February- 31 March 2014), this discussion will highlight works from the Science Fiction Collection, held in the Library's Special Collections.
There will be opportunity to see early pulp magazines, illustrated volumes and rare editions of highly influential works of SF literature. Come along to learn more about these futures past and the history of the collections. A short presentation will be followed by questions and discussion.
Find out more about the University of Leeds' Special Collections on their website pages: http://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections

Tuesday, February 25, 2014




A mini-con in Liverpool, 31 May 1st June 2014: The View Foundation Suite, 73 Everton Road, Liverpool L6 2EH. For sufther details, http://si-phi-entertainment.wix.com/si-phi

The New Wave at 50


The Science Fiction 'New Wave' At Fifty conference

Keynote: Professor Rob Latham (UC, Riverside): Senior Editor, Science Fiction Studies; editorial board member, The Journal of Science Fiction Film and Television and The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.

 

Saturday 31 May - Sunday 1 June 2014

University of East Anglia, Norwich

 

Conference Organisers: Dr Mark P. Williams | Dr Jacob Huntley | Dr Matthew Taunton

 

*****

In May 1964 New Worlds #142 hits the newsstands. It is the first edition edited by Michael Moorcock and ushers in a creative, and much debated, reinterpretation of the aesthetics of Science Fiction. The "New Wave" has begun. This period of aesthetic innovation connected a great many of the pressing concerns of the day, from the apocalyptic threat of the Cold War to the potential of the Space Age, but it also preceded the concerns of subsequent generations including postmodernism, questions of identity and subjectivity, and the nature of history.

Fifty years after that landmark issue the ripples continue to be felt, washing through various modes of fantastic literature from slipstream to the New Weird, from cyberpunk to steampunk.

As a way of celebrating and acknowledging the influence of Moorcock’s tenure as editor of New Worlds starting with that seminal May/June issue, the University of East Anglia will be hosting a conference, The Science Fiction New Wave at Fifty over the weekend of 31st May – 1st June 2014.

*****

Professor Rob Latham is a senior editor of Science Fiction Studies and member of the editorial boards of The Journal of Science Fiction Film and Television and The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.  He is currently completing a book on New Wave Science Fiction focusing on its connections to counterculture movements and debates of the 1960s and '70s. 

Submissions Extended

Submissions by Monday 10th March 2014

Papers are invited on any aspect of "New Wave" Science Fiction related to New Worlds, from key writers such as J G Ballard, Hilary Baily and M. John Harrison, to Moorcock himself, or comparisons between the British and American versions of "New Wave" and their relationships with Science Fiction as a mode.  We also welcome panel proposals of up to four papers with a unifying theme. 

This conference emphasises the international and culturally dialogic qualities of “New Wave” SF and is particularly interested in papers exploring how the themes and concepts which drive the 'movement' have been transformed in the intervening decades, and how they manifest in contemporary fiction today.

Topics for discussion might include but are not limited to:

·        Inner Space versus Outer Space

·        The “New Wave” and the “New Weird”

·        New Worlds as inspiration for Steampunk and/or Cyberpunk

·        Time Travel and Subjectivity

·        Synthesis of the avant-garde and populism in the “New Wave”

·        Apocalypse and ecological catastrophe

·        “New Wave” and transgression

 

Writers for discussion might include:

Hilary Bailey

J.G. Ballard

Samuel R. Delany

M. John Harrison

Michael Moorcock

Pamela Zoline     

Alongside other writers and artists connected with or inspired by the "New Wave"


Abstracts

Papers

Please send abstracts of up to 500 words, together with author’s bio of 50 words.

Panels

Full panel proposals should either have individual paper abstracts of 250 words with a brief statement of 150 words to describe the panel, or be one abstract of around 750 words.  These should be accompanied by a 50 word biographical statement for each panellist. 

*****

Submissions to: Dr Mark P. Williams (Mark.Williams@uea.ac.uk); Dr Jacob Huntley (Jacob.huntley@uea.ac.uk); Dr Matthew Taunton (M.Taunton@uea.ac.uk).

*****

Conference registration will be live from Monday 17th March 2014 onwards (see below). 

 

*****

Organiser Profiles




 

Information

Further information and updates will be posted to the UEA Events page —

Copy and paste the URL from below:

Monday, February 24, 2014

SFF Science Fiction Masterclass

http://www.sf-foundation.org/masterclass
Eighth SFF Criticism Masterclass

The Eighth Science Fiction Foundation Masterclass in Science Fiction Criticism will be held from Monday 11 August 2014 to Wednesday 13 August, immediately before Loncon 3, the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention.

We are pleased to announce that the venue will be the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, founded by Charles II ...in 1675, and the home of the Prime Meridian. This is across the Thames from the Excel site where Loncon3 will take place. Price: £200.

The tutors for 2014 will be:
Andy Duncan, Professor of English at Frostburg State University, Frostburg MD, winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Award and two World Fantasy Awards, and winner of the 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novelette.
Neil Easterbrook, Professor of English at the Texas Christian University, and a prolific reviewer and critic, whose monograph on China MiƩville is due to be published in 2014.
K.V. Johansen, a Canadian writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's fiction, who has also published three books on the history of children's fantasy. Her adult novel Blackdog was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award in 2012.

Please apply to farah.sf@gmail.com. Send a short piece of critical writing, and a one page cv. Deadline for Applications: February 28th 2014