From the SFRA Executive Committee
From the President
Hugh O’Connell
The strange rhythms of the academic “summer break” seem to compel me to continuously turn in these Janus-faced reports: at once looking back to the last conference, now fading into the past, while simultaneously looking ahead to the new academic year and the next conference on the horizon.
First up, looking backwards.
It’s hard to believe that the “Transitions” SFRA 2024 conference in Tartu, Estonia was nearly three months ago. It was great to see so many of our sf colleagues online and in-person, and it’s a tribute to the hosts, presenters, and special guests that I still feel like I’m living in the ideas that we workshopped and discussed together. With that in mind, I’d like to take this opportunity to once again thank Jaak Tomberg, Lisanna Lajal, the students that ran the tech, and the university administration for all of their support and for making us feel so welcome, digitally and personally, in Tartu. The conference brought together over 175 participants from all over the globe in a series of a highly successful, fully hybrid panels and presentations. It was a stunning example of the global reach that sf studies fosters and the recent tech developments that help bring such a global undertaking to fruition. While I didn’t envy some of my more far-flung colleagues joining panels at 4am their local time, it was remarkable how well integrated the hybrid panelists and attendees were.
I also want to offer my congratulations to this year’s award winners: Lisa Yaszek, Rebekah Sheldon, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Mingwei Song, David Welch, and Vicky Brewster. I hope that everyone will take a couple of minutes to look at the awards sections of this issue of the SFRA Review.
Next up, looking ahead.
If you were at the conference, or paying attention to SFRA social media accounts, you probably caught wind that we announced that the SFRA conference will be returning to North America for 2025 (somewhat unbelievably for the first time, practically speaking, since 2018!). I have some bad news and some good news on this front. Unfortunately, due to administrative issues beyond their control, our organizers at the University of Delaware recently learned that they would have to pull the plug on the previously announced “Material Futures” conference for SFRA 2025. Given the amount of planning that they had already put into the conference, the Ex Com want to thank Ed and Siobhán for all of their hard work on the SFRA’s behalf.
On a brighter note, we were lucky that a new host was able to come in at the last minute and make sure that we have a location for the conference. SFRA 2025 will now be hosted and organized by Stefanie Dunning, the Director of the Susan B. Anthony Institute: The program for Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies at the University of Rochester in New York. More details will be coming soon, but the theme is set to be: “‘Trans People are (in) the Future’: Queer and Trans Futurity in Science Fiction,” with the conference to take place in late July or early August 2025. We are very excited for this theme, which we know resonates powerfully for our membership. Indeed, Stefanie remarked that one of the reasons that she was so keen on hosting the conference is because sf studies is at the forefront of many of these issues.
Finally, if you have an event that you’d like to bring to rest of the SFRA membership’s attention through its email lists or social media sites, or you have other ideas or concerns about the work the organization is doing, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at hugh.oconnell@umb.edu or our new Outreach Officer, Anastasia Klimchynskaya (anaklimchynskaya@gmail.com). We’d love to hear from you.
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