From the Vice President
Ida Yoshinaga
Dear fellow Science Fiction Research Association members:
With your hearty responses to our call for papers and our registration deadline—adding up to 300+ participants!—“Disruptive Imaginations” looks to be one of the largest academic meetings of our organization ever [thanks also to our co-sponsor, German fantasy-studies research group GFF (https://fantastikforschung.de/en) , which agreed to share our two conferences’ venues and content].
In addition to the current themes covered by conference paper sessions as well as by the splendid German cultural studies events put together by dedicated TU Dresden organizers Julia Gatermann and Moritz Ingwersen (and team), several Executive Committee-sponsored events on speculative-fiction studies, can be attended by registrants virtually or in person (the following is all in Central European Time):
Wed. 8/16, 9:30-11 a.m. (Panel 7, ABS/E11 Auditorium & online): “Early Career Scholar Event: Diffrakt on Nourishing Imaginative SF/F Thought-Making, Artistry, Community” featuring members of thr German speculative-arts collective “diffrakt: centre for theoretical periphery” (http://diffrakt.space/en) Moritz Gansen and Hannah Wallenfels share how Diffrakt combines inventive pedagogy with sf theory and other intellectual discourses, to create a community-engaged arts practice. Thanks to SFU’s Ali Sperling for helping make the contact with this group and for suggesting their session in the first place!
Wed. 8/16, 16:30-18:00 (p.m.) (ABS/E11 Auditorium & online): “SFRA Business Meeting.”
Thur. 8/17, 15:30-17:00 (p.m.) (Panel 44, ABS/E08 & online): “SFRA: Equity/Diversity/ Inclusion Event: Indigenous Futurism in Latin America—The Case Study of the Aymara in El Alto, Bolivia” featuring Aymara Ph.D. student Ruben Darío Chambi Mayta of LMU Munich’s Indigeneities in the 21st Century Project, who’ll share his research on how a Native Bolivian group has responded to settler colonialism including the state’s “Buen Vivir” (“Living Well”) campaign which extracts culture from Aymara protest history and struggles (https://www.indigen.eu/projects/core-projects/indigeneity-beyond-buen-vivir-the-aymara-case-in-bolivia). Thanks to UFL’s Libby Ginway for serving as discussant!
Fri. 8/18, 09:30-11:00 a.m. (Panel 46, ABS/E11 Auditorium & online): “[SFRA Early Career Scholars Roundtable] SF on the Market: Advice from Early Career Researchers in Pursuing an SF Studies Career” will feature global Ph.D. students and postdocs participating in a vibrant conversation & audience Q&A about concerns, strategies, and issues about being on the academic job market, including Patrick Brock Nora Castle, Reem Mansour, Yilun Fan, Candice Thornton, Andrew Erickson, Rose Moreno, and Uchechi Anomachi. Their expertise collectively spans the breadth of today’s sf/fantasy studies, from Afrofuturism, to film and visual studies, to translation and literary studies, to ethnic and cultural speculative works (and so on!). Thanks to SFRA Secretary Sarah Lohmann for chairing and organizing!
These events evolved from feedback received from participants during last year’s Oslo (2022) EC-sponsored Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion session. We’ll similarly survey those who attend this year’s EC sessions; please provide feedback then to that instrument, or directly to Hugh (hugh.oconnell@umb.edu) or me (ida@hawaii.edu), on what you’d like to see in the future as well as how the sessions went.
Questions about the TU Dresden conference?: Please contact Moritz and Julia at disruptiveimaginations@tu-dresden.de.
SFRA Review 