Spring 2018 Schedule

We’re excited to announce our programming for the remainder of spring quarter. Meetings are held 4:30-5:30 in Classics 110 on alternating Mondays.

April 16th: Narrativizing the Anthropocene: David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas as an Environmental Novel

Karen Siu, MAPH

April 30th: A Surprise Party for Félix Guattari’s 88th Birthday/ Hexennacht: A Discussion of Cosmic Horror, Chaosmosis, and SF

(NB: Due to a prior commitment, Félix Guattari will not be able to attend. However, there will be witches.)

Party Planners: Samantha Pelligrino, Ph.D. student, Islamic Studies & Cody Jones, Ph.D. student, Comparative Literature and R.L.V.C.

May 14th: Guided reading of Anna Kavan’s Ice.

Rebecca Raphael, Professor of Religious Studies and Philosophy, Texas State University

TUESDAY, May 29th: Fantasies of American Masculinity in Shapeshifter Romance Novels [official title forthcoming]

Hannah Burnett, Ph.D. student, Anthropology & Isabeau Dasho, MAPH

Next Monday: Spec Fic & EEA Joint Reading of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars

NEXT MONDAY, the Speculative Fiction study group will team up with the Environment, Energy, and the Anthropocene reading group to read and discuss a section of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars. We will be looking at the issue of terraforming and ecological transformation in Robinson’s work through the lens of an ongoing polemic between two of his characters.

The meeting will take place at our usual time and location, but with an additional 20 minutes of discussion, 4:30-5:50 in Classics 110 on April 2nd.

The prior reading can be found here.

An ebook of the text can be found here.

If you prefer reading the ebook (or your own copy), the relevant sections are:

• epub 347-368; paperback 135-143

• epub 376-384; paperback 146-149 (starting with “It was 7 am…” up to the section break)

• epub 434-465; paperback 168-179

If people are feeling ambitious they can just read 347-465 (paperback 135-179).

Light refreshments will be provided.

We look forward to seeing you there.

We are still looking for one or two more presenters for this quarter. If you don’t have a paper to share, guided readings are a casual way of getting comfortable presenting your research to others, and are generally a lot of fun. If you’re interested, email Cody Jones.

A final schedule will be sent out next week.

Subscribe to our mailing list here.

 

This event is free and open to the public. Anyone who believes they will need assistance in order to attend or participate in the study group (including a discussion of safe spaces and trigger warnings), should contact Cody Jones (codyjones@uchicago.edu).

Monday, February 26th, Nell Pach on “Reeling for the Empire” by Karen Russell

Monday, the Speculative Fiction Study Group will welcome Nell Pach, Ph.D. Candidate in English, who will be giving a guided reading of Karen Russell’s short story, “Reeling for the Empire.” The meeting will take place at our usual time and location, 4:30-5:30 in Classics 110 on February 26th.

The prior reading can be found here.

Light refreshments will be provided.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Subscribe to our mailing list here.

This event is free and open to the public. Anyone who believes they will need assistance in order to attend or participate in the study group (including a discussion of safe spaces and trigger warnings), should contact Cody Jones (codyjones@uchicago.edu)

Monday, January 29: Brian White on TOBI Hirotaka’s “Autogenic Dreaming”

Next Monday, the Speculative Fiction Study Group will welcome Brian White, Ph.D. Candidate in East Asian Studies, who will be giving “a (barely) guided reading of TOBI Hirotaka’s ‘Autogenic Dreaming: Interview with the Column of Clouds,’ focusing on issues of narrative voice, ambiguous embodiment, and (if we can find an in) some of the same issues of nationality and SF” that are being raised in Brian’s dissertation. The meeting will take place at our usual time and location, 4:30-5:30 in Classics 110 on January 29th. 

The prior reading can be found here.

Light refreshments will be provided.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Subscribe to our mailing list here.

This event is free and open to the public. Anyone who believes they will need assistance in order to attend or participate in the study group (including a discussion of safe spaces and trigger warnings), should contact Cody Jones (codyjones@uchicago.edu)

CFP: Winter Quarter

The CAS study group on Speculative Fiction invites proposals for workshop papers and presentations from students and faculty for the 2018 winter academic quarter.

Our inaugural first quarter has been a resounding success, and we hope to continue refining the our critical praxis, exploring, disturbing, critiquing, and wondering about the category of art, architecture, music, philosophy, literature, and film loosely termed ‘speculative.’

We welcome any and all members of our community to attend, submit, and participate in our meetings, though we are particularly excited to welcome PhD and early-career faculty. While we are interested generally in projects that focus broadly on science fiction/sf/sci-fi, speculative fiction, fantasy, and the interrelation of science and literature, we are particularly keen on discussing and workshopping projects engaging topics and keywords including, but not limited to:

• Historically underrepresented, repressed, or marginalized identities and voices in science fiction & fantasy

• Proposals for guided readings of short texts pertinent to the history or study of speculative fiction (including stories)

• Futurism and future studies

• Speculative design in computer science, architecture, ergonomics, and cybernetics

• Video games, augmented reality, or transmedia storytelling

• (Mis)representations of science and technology in art, film, and literature.

• Representations of alien, nonhuman, posthuman, quasihuman, antihuman, and transhuman forms of (non-)life.

• Speculative realism and speculative philosophy (including object-oriented ontology and new materialism)

• Ecological and ‘green’ science fiction & fantasy

• The radical (and reactionary) politics of science fiction & fantasy

• Experimental and hybrid literatures and texts (theory-fiction, deep media, cybertexts, electronic lit., etc.)

• The space of ‘speculation’ in the academy and society

• Philosophies and texts resisting or troubling concepts of the cosmic, the universal, the anthropocene, or the chthulucene

• Basically anything to do with Mars

• Solutions to the Fermi paradox

As the situation calls for, texts will be distributed in advance through our mailing list, and will also be available here on our blog.

The study group’s faculty sponsor is Hilary Strang, Deputy Director of the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities and Lecturer in the Department of English.

Those interested should submit a brief proposal (maximum 500 words) to Cody Jones (codyjones@uchicago.edu) by January 5th.

Subscribe to our mailing list here.

This study group is free and open to the public. Anyone who believes they will need assistance in order to attend or participate in the study group (including a discussion of safe spaces and trigger warnings), should contact Cody Jones (codyjones@uchicago.edu)

Inaugural Meeting of Speculative Fiction Study Group

We are pleased to announce that the first ever meeting of the Speculative Fiction study group will take place on Monday, October 2nd, from 4:30 to 5:20 in a location to be yet determined.
The first meeting will be an open discussion around the question “What is speculative fiction?” All are welcome to attend. There is no prior reading required
Refreshments will be served.
A final schedule is still being composed, and there is still space available to present. Those interested should submit a brief proposal (maximum 500 words) to Cody Jones (codyjones@uchicago.edu) by October 15th.

Subscribe to our mailing list here.

This event is free and open to the public. Anyone who believes they will need assistance in order to attend or participate in the study group (including a discussion of safe spaces and trigger warnings), should contact Cody Jones (codyjones@uchicago.edu)