[Sfts-students] Fwd: CfP for TRANSITIONS: SFRA 2024 in Estonia

[Sherryl]

SFRA 2024
*TRANSITIONS*
May 7–11, 2024
University of Tartu, Estonia

Organizers: Jaak Tomberg and Lisanna Lajal
Co-organizers: Raili Marling, Francesca Arnavas, Marzia Beltrami, Mattia
Bellini
Conference Email: *sfra2024 at ut.ee <sfra2024 at ut.ee>*
Conference Website: sfra2024.ut.ee

*Please note! *The deadline for Call for Papers is earlier than usual:
*November
24, 2023*.


*“When things are changing too quickly, you don’t have any place to stand
from which to imagine a very elaborate future.” – William Gibson*

“Science Fiction is the literature of change,” Veronica Hollinger memorably
noted, “but change is exactly what now defines the present. It no longer
guarantees the future as the site of meaningful difference.” Indeed,
Heraclitus’ famous statement that change is the only constant in life can
nowadays be felt on a myriad of levels and scales, and with a special kind
of artificially enhanced intensity. Indeed, it looks like what we’ve come
to expect from the future is no longer a linear progression towards – or a
gradual fulfillment of – some ideals, but simply more and more
unprecedented change. Accelerated technological development, together with
large geopolitical conflicts and multiple crises on a global scale have
generated a permanent atmosphere of instability and unpredictability,
resulting in a strong sense of collective cognitive vertigo. In parallel,
there’s a strong yearning for utopian change, equally unsettling in its
apparent unimaginability and unattainability, and evidence of a deeper
standstill of capitalist realism lurking underneath the surface
acceleration. How to grapple with and make sense of all this change? How to
reduce the vertigo to be able to enact real change? One possible way,
suggested by SF as a form, is to take Heraclitus seriously and focus on the
moments and processes of change itself: that is, on *transitions*.

SF has long been a powerful medium for representing, envisioning,
exploring, and critically reflecting upon transitions of all kinds: from
mind-bending technological leaps to radical societal upheavals, from
personal transformations to global paradigm shifts. Some transitions are
visible and explicit, others implicit and recognized in retrospect. Some
are planned or desired, others accidental or enforced. And multiple
transitions can be related to each other in very complex ways. The genre
has developed its own distinct poetic, representational and metaphorical
capabilities to make our real-life transitions visible, to reflect upon and
make sense of them. But transitions can also happen *to* science fiction as
it traverses history, interacts with other forms, and shifts its position
in the contemporary genre system: from one ideological or discursive
formation to another, from national to global arena, from genre to
mainstream, and so on.

Thus, “Transitions” seeks to discuss all kinds of transitions as the
thematic, narrative, formal, historical, philosophical driving force behind
SF: both how SF envisions transitions, and how the representation of
transitions critically and metaphorically reflects upon our own. We invite
papers on all forms and genres of science fiction in relation to
transitions, including but not limited to literature, music, film, games,
design, and art. We strive for a diversity of voices and perspectives from
any and all disciplines and career stages. While papers on any subject in
SF are welcome, we especially encourage topics that resonate with the
overall conference theme, including but not limited to SF and:

•         Technological Evolution: how does SF frame the transitions
brought about by technological innovations? What impact do these
transitions have on society, ethics, and human identity?

•         Cultural Shifts: how does SF reflect upon and influences cultural
transitions, from changing norms and values to shifts in representation,
diversity, and inclusion (of e.g., BIPOCs/BAMEs, LGBTQIA2S+ peoples).

•         Political and Social Revolutions: the representation of
revolutions, political transitions, and social movements (especially, but
not only migrants and diasporic communities, working-class and other groups
seeking economic justice) in science fiction narratives.

•         Temporal and Spatial Transitions: time travel, alternate
histories, parallel universes, and spatial shifts in science fiction.

•         Bodies and Identities: transitions in bodily forms, genders,
identities, and abilities, including cyborgs, posthumans and non-human
entities, uncanny bodies.

•         Planetary and Environmental Changes: SF's engagement with
ecological transitions, climate change, terraforming, and the portrayal of
life on evolving worlds.

•         Futuristic Transitions: utopian and dystopian futures,
(post)apocalyptic transitions, alien contact, and integration.

•         Global Market Transitions:  from a niche genre to the globally
dominant mass cultural genre, including the expansion and demographic
shifts of its writers, readers, producers, and markets.

•         Poetics of Transition: narrative strategies to represent
transitions in SF, the poetics of transitional moments.

•         Narrative and Genre Evolution: how do SF’s genres, styles, and
storytelling techniques transition over time, and how these changes reflect
societal and cultural dynamics.

•         Transitions between Media and Platforms: the shifts in science
fiction across different media, such as literature, film, television,
comics, video games, and emerging digital platforms.

•         Changes in SF studies and teaching.


Confirmed keynote speakers: *Anindita Banerjee* (Cornell University), *Bogi
Takács* (The University of Kansas), *Meelis Friedenthal* (University of
Tartu)


Besides proposals for individual presentations and preformed panels,
non-traditional formats (roundtable, artistic research, participatory
formats, etc.) are welcome. For individual presentations, we ask for an
abstract of 300 words and a short bio (150 words). For preformed panels we
request a proposal (single file) that includes a 300-word summary of the
panel topic, abstracts of 200 words for each contribution, and bio notes
(150 words) for all participants.

Please send all submissions to *sfra2024 at ut.ee <sfra2024 at ut.ee>* by *November
24, 2023*.

We want to create active discussions during and between panels, and thus
strongly encourage an onsite presence. Nevertheless, hybrid access and
participation will be available in all panels.

All participants must be members of the Science Fiction Research
Association and pay the conference registration fee.

To provide thematic evening entertainment, “Transitions” will take place
simultaneously with Tartu International Literary Festival Prima Vista,
whose 2024 edition, titled “Futures Better and Worse”, is organized in
collaboration with European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024. For more
information, see https://kirjandusfestival.tartu.ee/en/.
<https://kirjandusfestival.tartu.ee/en/> Tartu is easily reached via bus
from Tallinn International Airport.

The SFRA awards a limited number of travel grants of up to $500 (US) for
SFRA members attending the conference in person. For more information on
these grants, see https://sfra.org/conference-travel-grant/.

For more information about the conference, see the conference website
at *sfra2024.ut.ee
<http://sfra2024.ut.ee>*.




-- 
Conference Team
*Disruptive Imaginations: 2023 Joint Annual Meeting of SFRA and GFF*
https://disruptiveimaginations.com

North American Literature and Critical Future Studies
<https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/slk/anglistik_amerikanistik/na-literatur>
Technische Universität Dresden
Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies
Institute of English and American Studies
01062 Dresden


-- 
Sherryl Vint (she/her)
Professor, UC Riverside
Editor, *Science Fiction Studies *
Editor, Palgrave *Science and Popular Culture *series

"Insisting on the value of what or whom you love is an ongoing act of
revolutionary refusal and creation."--Max Haven, *Revenge Capitalism*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/sfts-students/attachments/20231006/d71ad8f7/attachment.html>