[Sfts-faculty] Fwd: IAFA General List: Digest for iafa-general at googlegroups.com - 1 update in 1 topic

[andré carrington]

The CFP for this year's virtual edition of the International Conference on
the Fantastic in the Arts is live!



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   - CFP: Speculative Visions of Care and Hope (VICFA 2026)
   <#m_-5375821679713015581_group_thread_0> - 1 Update

CFP: Speculative Visions of Care and Hope (VICFA 2026)
<http://groups.google.com/group/iafa-general/t/d58c27d0ca80728c?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email>
David Higgins <dmhiggin at gmail.com>: Jun 10 12:55PM -0400

Please share widely! The deadline for proposals for this fully virtual
conference is *July 15*.


**


CFP: The Virtual Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (VICFA) 2026

*Speculative Visions of Care and Hope*

Organized by the IAFA <https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/> and CoFutures
<https://cofutures.org/>



*Guests of Honor:* Zoha Kazemi (Iran) and Ahmed Naji (Egypt)

*Date: *17-19 September 2026



Visions of care and hope are central to contemporary speculative fiction
across media, even in, and perhaps especially in, postapocalyptic and
dystopian narratives. Against the fundamental brokenness of the
technofascist structures of the contemporary world system, speculative
fiction is perhaps the most realistic of our genres that demand the
impossible: alternative futures of what can be, and alternative pasts of
what might have been: worlds with their own economic, social, and
technological structures.



>From the standpoint of speculative fiction, three primary strands of these
new speculative visions may be immediately observed: a) Contemporary
CoFuturisms, including Indigenous Futurisms, Afrofuturisms, Arab- and
Gulf-Futurisms, Latinx Futurisms, Crip Futurisms, and Xenofuturisms offer
their own challenges to prior speculative thinking; b) emergent genres of
hope, care, and restoration and renewal, for instance solarpunk, hopepunk,
healthpunk, and; c) shifts in the generic form itself as it renews itself
through new social and political sensibilities. These three strands unite
established voices who have always been at the forefront of thinking with
the radical potentials for speculative thinking, as well as a new
generation of creatives invested in pushing the boundaries of (and even
embodying) speculation itself as an act of care of hope. What is
fundamental to these new visions is that these speculative worlds not only
exist in fiction, they also seek to transform the world itself by building
and organizing new communities of practice.



This edition of the VICFA is open to speculative visions of care and hope
from around the world. Our Guests of Honor are Zoha Kazemi
<https://zohakazemi.com/> and Ahmed Naji <https://ahmednaji.net/ahmed-naji/
>,
leading contemporary voices who have redefined these visions through
experimental speculative fiction with bold social and political critique.



Proposals on speculative visions across media and communities of practice
on - but not limited to – the following topics are welcome:



- Speculative ethics and philosophies of care, hope, community building

- Speculative storytelling, worldbuilding, and futuring as methods of care

- Archival practices of care, remembrance/commemoration practices, caring
for ruins, historical repair

- More-than-human communities and forms of care

- Rethinking kinship, connection to past and future ancestors, reproductive
care, family, love

- Caring in the end times, post-apocalyptic care: visions of survival,
rebuilding community



We are open to presentations in different languages, as well as more
creative approaches to these themes.



Proposals on topics transcending this year’s theme are welcome.



Please submit abstracts of 300-500 words along with a brief bio statement
by *July 15, 2026* through this portal:
https://form.jotform.com/261554977711163.



Questions about the conference theme can be directed to the CoFutures
organizing team at vicfacon at proton.me.



Questions regarding registration can be directed to the IAFA Membership and
Registration Coordinator: iafareg at gmail.com




-- 
David M. Higgins, Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Humanities and Communication
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Worldwide

President, International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts
Senior Editor, *Los Angeles Review of Books*

“Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which
the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never
fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing
for you."
-- Merlin, *The Once and Future King* by T.H. White
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