Greetings all,
I sincerely hope that each of you made a New Year's resolution to send
a paper proposal for the 40th annual Science Fiction Research
Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia with the dual themes:
Engineering the Future, and Southern-Fried Science Fiction and
Fantasy. Don't fret if you haven't yet, because proposals are due by
April 1, 2009 (no kidding!). The conference is not far behind that
date on June 11-14. And if you are mulling over your SFRA 2009
attendance, please read over the CFP with authors listed below and
consider the fact that Atlanta is a great city for scholarship and fun
in hard economic times with affordably diverse restaurants, bars,
sights, and shows. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me
by email at [log in to unmask], and send your paper
proposals to [log in to unmask] per the instructions included below.
Thanks, and I look forward to meeting you in Atlanta in five months!
-Jason
SFRA 2009: Engineering the Future and Southern-Fried Science Fiction and Fantasy
June 11-14, Atlanta, GA (Wyndham Midtown Hotel)
Guest of Honor: Michael Bishop
Special Guest Authors: F. Brett Cox, Paul di Filippo, Andy Duncan,
Kathleen Ann Goonan, and Jack McDevitt
SFRA is currently accepting individual abstracts and panel proposal
for its 2009 conference. We welcome paper and panel submissions that
explore any aspect of science fiction across history and media and are
particularly interested in those that engage one or both of the
conference themes, "Engineering the Future" and "Southern-Fried
Science Fiction and Fantasy," or the work of one or more of the
conference's guest authors.
The 2009 conference's two themes and its selection of guest authors
are inspired by the conference's location in Atlanta and its
co-sponsorship by Georgia Tech's School of Literature, Communication,
and Culture. Atlanta, a storied locale in American history, is also in
many ways an international city of the future, home to 21st century
information, entertainment, technological and military industries,
peopled with 21st century demographics, and prone to 21st century
situations.
How is the future engineered in science fiction and how has science
fiction already engineered our present? The American south has long
been well known for its gothic fiction, but it has increasingly
figured in works of science fiction and fantasy too. So it is equally
fitting to ask, how has the south been an inspiration of science
fiction and fantasy and what will its global future in speculative
arts and letters be?
The deadline for proposals is April 1, 2009 at midnight EST. Please
submit paper and panel proposals by email to [log in to unmask] .
Include all text of the proposal in the body of the email (not as an
attachment). Please be sure to include full contact information for
all panel members and to make all AV requests within each proposal.
For more information, email <[log in to unmask]>. And be sure to check
out www.sfra2009.com for more details!
--
Jason W. Ellis
PhD Student, Kent State University
Publicity Director, Science Fiction Research Association
Visit my Science Fiction Studies blog at http://dynamicsubspace.net/
|