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)