From the SFRA Executive Committee
From the President
Hugh O’Connell
As we head into the late fall, this is just a reminder that the SFRA website goes into hibernation mode, and we shut down new memberships and membership renewals until January 1st. However, while the site goes into hibernation, much of the organization’s work kicks into high gear: committees will be starting up work to consider the best student presentation at the last conference; most innovative essay, best review in the SFRA Review, and best first sf-related monograph published in the last year; and lifetime awards for service to the field and to research for this year’s conference awards banquet. There’s also plenty of behind the scenes planning for the upcoming conference and talks with potential hosts for future conferences. So, while we may a little quiet in terms of communications with the membership, we are all working away on the things that keep us running!
Speaking of keeping us running, we also have elections coming up we have for the Vice President and Treasurer. You can see their statements in this issue or on the website. Voting will open on December 1st and close on December 30th (members in good standing will receive a reminder email when the voting officially opens). Finally in related news, I’m very excited to announce that we have a new Web Director: David Shipko. So we’re almost back up to full operational status!
Upcoming Events:
Looking ahead, the 2025 conference in Rochester, New York hosted organized by Stefanie Dunning and Hosted by the Susan B. Anthony Institute: The Program for Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies is shaping up to be a fantastic return to North America for the SFRA. It’s hard to believe that the last conference in North America was in 2019 (Hawai’i) and the last conference in the continental US was 2018 (Milwaukee). Stefanie is planning some pretty unique events for this conference, including a student sf film competition focused on the conference theme, a keynote by Ryka Aoki and another exciting keynote that we’ll hopefully be able to announce soon, a student sf short film contest, and a masquerade/costume/LARP ball for the penultimate night of the conference. So plan for a pretty unique conference as we return stateside for the first time in five years! On a similar note, the Executive Committee will soon start work on organizing the SFRA-sponsored early career and DEI panels; please feel free to contact us with any suggestions for things that you’d like to see in these panels. Looking even further ahead, we’re hoping to be in the US for 2026 as well (we’ve had productive conversations with 2026 hosts), and to return to a more stable three year cycle of two North American conferences followed by a non-North American conference.
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(ish) Outreach Officer, Anastasia Klimchynskaya (anaklimchynskaya@gmail.com). We’d love to hear from you.
SFRA Review 