Whether we believe in identities or deconstruct them, we live our lives within the politics of gender, race, class and sexual orientation. Our IAFA lives are no exception. In our environment, in the books we read and in the films we watch (whether we close our eyes to or open them up for such occurrences), we continuously come across questions of identities and politics in such varied texts as SF/F novels, horror films, comic books, and the LOTR visual adaptations.

Whether or not we are polemical in our intent, our basic intent is the same: to comment on, catalogue and analyze these events (evidenced by our frequent e-mail postings).

As a result, the Cultural Identities Caucus formed - providing an additional forum for IAFA members interested in various theories and methods associated with the fantastic in gender, ethnicity, race, class, sexual identities, disability issues, social minorities and the intersections among these areas.

The first meeting occurred on Thursday, 20 March, from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm at IAFA-24 to address:

* Organizing paper sessions and/or panel discussions for next year

* Identifying potential/future Guests of Honor and Guest Scholars for future conferences.

* Getting feedback on forming the caucus

* Providing the chance for people who have ideas on how the Cultural Identities Caucus could best develop projects within (and without) the scope of the conference to form study or work groups to pursue those ideas.

The Cultural Identities caucus is intended to add to the existing caucuses and divisions rather than to compete with them, to help those interested in writing on these issues to find a place, and to invite more participants into our already fantastic family. We welcome any chatter on the listserv (if it doesn't overwhelm the normal bandwidth). If you have specific ideas that you would like to discuss at the meeting, please notify the moderators. If you are interested but unable to make the meeting, send your name and contact information all the same. Thanks again and enjoy!

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