A post from blog member Eric Laursen:
The Conference of the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) is meeting in Detroit, June 28-July 1 2012. Their theme this year is “Urban Apocalypse, Urban Renaissance: Landscapes in Science Fiction and Fantasy.” I attended summer before last and had a wonderful experience, and I think it would be a great idea to create a Slavics presence at the conference next summer.
Would followers of this blog be interested in submitting papers and forming one or more panels? I’ll volunteer to collect abstracts and put together panels to submit. The deadline is April 23, so I’ll put out a more general call to SEELANGS before then, but I wanted to test the waters with you all first.
When I attended, they had a wide variety of panels, including one on teaching, where people presented courses they’d taught (successes, difficulties, etc.). They also had workshops at the beginning of the conference; I’m sure we could put one together if anyone has ideas. The SFRA Conference would be an amazing opportunity to meet face to face in the summer, when there are no classes and committees to rush back to, and discuss more joint ventures in lovely downtown Detroit! And it would let Science Fiction scholars know that there is more to Slavic Science Fiction than Solaris!
Anyway, check out the call for papers and the SFRA website, and let me know if you’re interested (eric.laursen@m.cc.utah.edu). I’ll start putting together a list of tentative papers and panels. See the websites below for more details on the conference and the Science Fiction Research Association.
I look forward to hearing from you! –Eric Laursen
Associate Professor, Russian and Comparative Literary & Cultural Studies
Department of Languages and Literatures
University of Utah
Snail on the Slope 