News and Announcements

Jan Bogstad

Janice Bogstad has been a member of SFRA since 1978 and served as Vice President for three years in the early 21st century. SFRA (as well as IAFA, Society for Utopian Studies and MLA) has been an important part of her intellectual and social life for over three decades, through two MAs a Ph.D. and 20+ years of academic librarianship. Her interest in the president's position is in expanding our international connections, as well as continuing our connections with related organizations such as MLA, IAFA, Popular Culture, Utopian Studies (UK, International and American), and non-in-house publications such as FemSpec, Foundation, JFA and New York Review of Science Fiction, to name a few. In Unity there is Strength. She vows to work with the vice president on recruitment and the public image of the organization.

Currently, she serves as Managing Editor of the SFRA review, with the support of her employer, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire McIntyre Library. She was one of the founders of WisCon, the only Feminist SF convention in the U.S. and a longtime fan of science fiction. She writes primarily for reference books and reviews books for 11 publications in science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction, women's studies, medieval studies and Children's Literature.

Lisa Yaszek

I am Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture at Georgia Tech, where I also serve as curator for the Bud Foote Science Fiction Collection. My research interests include science fiction, cultural history, science studies and gender studies. My most recent book, Galactic Suburbia: Recovering Women's Science Fiction, shows how women writing science fiction immediately after WWII developed a unique body of literature that critically engaged emergent technocultural institutions and prefigured the literature we now recognize as feminist science fiction. My current work examines the use of science fictional narrative strategies in mainstream literature, science and public policy. Essays on these subjects appear or are forthcoming in journals including Extrapolation, Rethinking History, and Genre: Forms of Discourse and Culture.

I have been involved in SFRA since 2003 as a conference presenter, panel organizer, Pioneer Award recipient, and Pioneer Award judge. I currently serve as SFRA Vice President. In this latter capacity, I have initiated a series of recruiting initiatives to make connections with like-minded scholarly organizations and have raised our membership by 25% over the past two years. If elected President, I will work with other individual SFRA members and executive committee to continue growing our organization, especially through outreach to the scientific, graduate, and international communities.

I would also like to ensure the SFRA's leadership in twenty-first century science fiction studies by highlighting the relevance of our work to the burgeoning field of new media studies. The SFRA has long been dedicated to cutting-edge research and pedagogy in the realms of literature and film. Recently we have begun to demonstrate how our methodologies pertain to new media in a variety of conference panels and SFRA Review pieces. I propose we can continue building upon our success with these initial endeavors by highlighting SFRA members' work in new media in the Review and on our website and by actively reaching out to scholars in digital media departments across the U.S. and across the globe.

Finally, if elected President I will strive to make our organization the science fiction information clearinghouse for scholars and journalists alike. I will do this by prioritizing the implementation of recent SFRA initiatives including the development of a more interactive organizational website, the publication of a new or updated SFRA Reader, and the designation of an SFRA public relations director. I will gladly entertain any and all other ideas about how we might continue to raise our visibility based on individual members ideas, expertise and experience.

Oscar De Los Santos

I would be honored to serve as SFRA Vice-President. An organization that brings together people with dovetailing interests in speculative fiction in order to give it serious study: I never would have believed that such a group existed when I was eating up science fiction, fantasy and horror as a kid. As an adult academic, I find SFRA inspiring, refreshing and necessary. I love also that SFRA creates annual physical meeting space and year-round virtual space (via the /Review/ and the list-serve) for our ongoing conversations and critiques.

As SFRA Vice-President, I would be willing to do whatever I can to spread the word that SFRA exists and recruit new members to our association. I know that many people -- especially young academics and writers -- are still unaware that such groups as SFRA exist. For many of us, SFRA is one of a few distinct havens that welcome serious criticism of fantastic literature, film and television programming. We need such organizations. Our conversations, meetings and writings become testaments to the fact that much more goes on in sf, fantasy and horror than the general public and most academic circles realize. There's also a selfish element that sweetens our SFRA membership: sure, we get to know the works better when we study them and speak with others about them, but truth be told, the act of critiquing this wonderful stuff becomes another richer way of enjoying it.

If you wish for me to serve as VP, I'll be glad to do so and give my best.

Ritch Calvin

I am currently a Professor of Women's Studies at SUNY Stony Brook, on Long Island. While my interests are varied, I am very much interested in representations of gender and sexuality within science fiction, and I regularly teach courses in Women and Science Fiction and in Science Fiction and Reproductive Technologies. I have had several essays appear in Extrapolation, as well as a number of entries published in the Encyclopedia of Third Wave Feminism and in The Encyclopedia of Hispanic Literature.

To date, I have been involved in the SFRA in a number of ways. Apart from presenting at conferences, I have been writing reviews for the SFRA Review for a number of years. For the past two years, I have been on the Mary Kay Bray Award committee, which I will chair in the coming year (2009). For the past year, I have been the Media Reviews Editor of the SFRA Review, a new position that was created with the new editors in 2008. Most recently, I served as the Conference Director for the 2008 SFRA Conference in Lawrence, Kansas. When the conference was shifted from Dublin to Lawrence, a new Director was needed; I volunteered to step in and fill the position.

One of the primary functions of the vice president is build membership through recruitment strategies. And, indeed, the SFRA has grown in the past year, both in numbers and in vitality. Since the Kansas City conference in 2007, I have been in conversation with a number of SFRA members about the future of the SFRA, about changes that we might implement. I believe that the expansion of the mission and scope of the SFRA into media apart from the written word will continue to be important in expanding the interest in the organization. And while the SFRA's connection with the IAFA is quite clear, I believe that we can reach out to the various MLA branches and the various APA and PCA branches. The SFRA is also in the process of implementing new web software; I would also like to see an expanded presence in social networking spaces, including myspace.com, facebook.com, and Second Life. By expanding our scope to new media, and by establishing a presence within these new media, I hope that the SFRA can continue to interest and attract scholars and writers.

Donald "Mack" Hassler

I am now in my second term as treasurer, and our bylaws permit only three consecutive terms. Thus I would like to complete the work I began several years ago - our finances are healthy and membership is growing -- as well as to participate in the exciting new changes that more electronic capability promises. I enjoy very much this work at the core of my favorite Association.

Patrick Sharp

Mack Hassler is an outstanding Treasurer, and I have every confidence he will continue to be excel if re-elected. My financial experience in academic settings has come from working on grants and assisting with department-level management. If elected, I will work with Mack and those who have held this office before to ensure continuity in the handling of the SFRA's finances. I will also work with SFRA leadership to expand the use of electronic methods for gathering membership dues and managing accounts.

Rochelle "Shelley" Rodrigo

If you elected me to a second term as SFRA Secretary, I will continue to work on growing our various scholar and travel grant programs that we revised this past term. I will also happily participate in helping migrate and automate much of SFRA's logistics with an online content management system and open source conference organization software.

Ed Carmien

As the ancients say when in my position: Commodo operor non suffragium mihi. The current slate of officers has done excellent work, and I can think of no more at this time to say than their work should go forward. The organization's records and public communications are in great shape, recruitment is ticking along famously, and despite last-minute change of plans, our Lawrence conference was a huge success and Atlanta looks to be even better. I thank Dave Mead for putting my name in the hat for this position. It is heartening to know one's colleagues trust one to run for office in our stellar association. Thank you all for your time and consideration.

Andy Sawyer(L) receiving the Clareson Award from Doug Davis. [Photo credit: Edward Carmien]

The Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) held its thirty-ninth annual conference on, "Creating, Reading, and Teaching Science Fiction," in Lawrence, Kansas at the Holiday Inn Holidome and Kansas University campus on July 10-13, 2008. Originally planned for Dublin, Ireland, the conference's landing coordinates were recalibrated and reassigned to the States due to economic forces exceeding control by the most accomplished Science Fiction (SF) and Fantasy scholars among us. However, this necessary decision apparently didn't leave lasting disappointment, because conference attendance rose 30% over last year's meeting in Kansas City, Missouri.

SFRA was fortunate to hold its meeting in conjunction with the Campbell Conference for the second consecutive year. This melding brought about a shared Friday night awards ceremony with Hugo and Nebula Award winner Frederik Pohl and James Gunn, SF author and founder of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at Kansas University, in attendance and presenting. Kathleen Ann Goonan, this year's recipient of the Campbell Award for her novel, In War Times (2007), arrived with only minutes to spare before the ceremony began, but her WWII veteran father and inspiration for In War Times, Tom Goonan, had the situation well in hand. Andy Sawyer, representing the University of Liverpool and the Science Fiction Foundation, jumped the pond to receive SFRA's Clareson Award for outstanding service activities. Unfortunately, Gwyneth Jones, the 2008 recipient of the Pilgrim Award for lifelong contributions to SF and Fantasy scholarship, was duly missed, but SFRA President Adam Frisch read her entertaining and true-to-form acceptance speech.

L to R: Brian Attebery, Adam Frisch, Marleen Barr, James Gunn, James Van Pelt, and Karen Joy Fowler. [Photo credit: Edward Carmien]

The Lawrence SFRA meeting brought together a number of new faces and many old friends, hopefully all of whom will reassemble next year in Atlanta, Georgia for some "Southern-Fried Science Fiction and Fantasy" and "Engineering the Future" on June 11-14, 2009!

This year's academic program was jam-packed with three book launches, six roundtables, 24 panels, and 80 presentations, which encouraged insightful discussion as well as entertaining banter. Furthermore, the guests of honor were active participants throughout the conference. Karen Joy Fowler, author of Sarah Canary (1991) and the best-selling The Jane Austen Book Club (2004), was on a number of panels and good-naturedly responded to critiques of her work including that by another guest of honor, Maureen Kincaid Speller, academic, blogger, and well-regarded SF award judge. Paul Kincaid, SF critic and author of What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction (2008), reported on some of his recent scholarship and was always around, apparently with the aid of a "Time-Turner." Joan Slonczewski, professor of biology at Kenyon College and author of A Door Into Ocean (1986), presented twice--once on the microbial world and once on the digital world of Second Life--and she knew how to shake panels up with on-the-mark questions. Finally, James Van Pelt, high school and college English teacher and widely published SF author, brought things back around to the pedagogical concerns of the conference.

Contact:
Jason W. Ellis
Public Relations Director
Science Fiction Research Association
404.401.0342
dynamicsubspace AT googlemail.com

The Mary Kay Bray Award for best essay, interview, or extended review to appear in the SFRA Review in a given year is Jason Ellis for his reviews of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers (SFRA Review #280) and of Ian McDonald's Brasyl (SFRA Review #281).

The Graduate Student Paper Award for best paper presented at SFRA in 2007 goes to Joseph Brown for "Heinlein and the Cold War: Epistemology and Politics in The Puppet Masters and Double Star."

The awardee for 2008's Pioneer Award, given to the writer of the best critical essay-length work of the year, is Sherryl Vint for her essay, "Speciesism and Species Being in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," published in Mosaic: a Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 40, no. 1 (March 2007): 111~V26.

Thomas D. Clareson Award for Distinguished Service goes to Andy Sawyer, since 1993 Science Fiction Librarian, Special Collections and Archives, University of Liverpool Library.

The Pilgrim Award was created in 1970 by the SFRA to honor lifetime contributions to SF and fantasy scholarship. The award was named for J. O. Bailey's pioneering book, Pilgrims through Space and Time. 2008's awardee is Gwyneth Jones (UK).

The SFRA is currently seeking a Web Director and a DRUPAL Tech. The former is an excellent line on the vita, and the latter is an excellent way to make some money. Please consider applying for one or both of these jobs if you have the appropriate skill sets, and please do pass this information along to any and all interested parties.

JOB 1: WEB DIRECTOR (ONGOING)
The Science Fiction Research Association (http://sfra.org/) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to research and scholarship in the field of science fiction and fantasy in literature and media, is upgrading its Web site. SFRA seeks a Web Director, who will report to the SFRA Vice President. The Web Director will be in charge of the following tasks:

• Ensuring content is up to date and relevant.
• Soliciting content.
• Updating the software to keep it current.
• Ensuring that all parts of the Web site are standards compliant.
• Backing up the site once a month.
• Dealing with site-related correspondence.
• Maintaining e-mail addresses and forwards for SFRA officers and related personnel.
• Periodically assessing the Web site to see if further functionality needs to be added.
• Putting up content as needed, with a 2-day turnaround time from receipt of request from Board member.
• Writing monthly status reports, including reports of usage and hits, to the Vice President.

The following skills are required:

• Ability to direct the work of others and follow through.
• Knowledge of CSS and HTML.
• Ability to use FTP software to upload files.
• Ability to update template-driven Web pages by altering the PHP template's code.
• Ability to install and skin out-of-the-box software.

The following skills are recommended:

• Knowledge of PHP and MySQL.
• Knowledge of shell systems.

This job is unpaid, and priority will be given to current SFRA members. The SFRA Web Director must be a member of SFRA. Please submit an e-mail outlining your qualifications to Lisa Yaszek, SFRA Vice President (lisa.yaszek@lcc.gatech.edu), along with URLs of sites you maintain. The deadline is August 15, 2008.

JOB 2: DRUPAL TECH (ONE-TIME JOB)

The Science Fiction Research Association , a nonprofit organization dedicated to research and scholarship in the field of science fiction and fantasy in literature and media, is upgrading its Web site. We require an expert in Drupal who can install and configure the program; install the zen_classic theme and modify it to add our logo; and add in existing modules to provide the desired functionality. An example of a Drupal-based site that does what we want is here: http://wpacouncil.org/. We require the following: membership management; mass e-mail capability to all paid members; online polls, including secure elections; e-commerce/ubercart membership fee payment linked to PayPal, with the ability to subscribe to optional publications; ability to parse and output membership information in a variety of ways, such as by geographical location, interest, and publications to receive; main blog for news and calls for papers; public informational SF wiki; private organizational wiki locked to a specific subset of users; and pages for organization-specific informational content. In addition, we would like Open Conference Systems (http://pkp.sfu.ca/?q=ocs), a freeware conference-management utility, installed in a subdomain and skinned to match the Drupal site. Interested developers should submit a bid to Lisa Yaszek, SFRA Vice President (lisa.yaszek@lcc.gatech.edu), along with URLs of previously developed sites and contact information for several references. The deadline is August 15, 2008.

SFRA 2009: Engineering the Future and Southern-Fried Science Fiction and Fantasy
June 11-14, Atlanta, GA (Wyndham Midtown Hotel)
Guest of Honor: Michael Bishop
Special Guest Authors: F. Brett Cox, Paul di Filippo, Andy Duncan, Kathleen Ann Goonan, and Jack McDevitt
Hosted by: Lisa Yaszek and Doug Davis

SFRA is currently accepting individual abstracts and panel proposal for its 2009 conference. We welcome paper and panel submissions that explore any aspect of science fiction across history and media and are particularly interested in those that engage one or both of the conference themes, "Engineering the Future" and "Southern-Fried Science Fiction and Fantasy," or the work of one or more of the conference's guest authors.

The 2009 conference's two themes and its selection of guest authors are inspired by the conference's location in Atlanta and its co-sponsorship by Georgia Tech's School of Literature, Communication, and Culture. Atlanta, a storied locale in American history, is also in many ways an international city of the future, home to 21st century information, entertainment, technological and military industries, peopled with 21st century demographics, and prone to 21st century situations.

How is the future engineered in science fiction and how has science fiction already engineered our present? The American south has long been well known for its gothic fiction, but it has increasingly figured in works of science fiction and fantasy too. So it is equally fitting to ask, how has the south been an inspiration of science fiction and fantasy and what will its global future in speculative arts and letters be?

The deadline for proposals is April 1, 2009 at midnight EST. Please submit paper and panel proposals by email to sfra2009@gmail.com . Include all text of the proposal in the body of the email (not as an attachment). Please be sure to include full contact information for all panel members and to make all AV requests within each proposal.

For more information, email sfra2009@gmail.com. And as of September 1, 2008, be sure to check out www.sfra2009.com for more details!