Academic Program

Renovation will be running an Academic Program through the middle three days of the Convention, from Thursday August 18 to Saturday August 20, 2011. The subject of this special conference reflects Renovation's overall theme of The New Frontiers.

Our call for papers is presented below. This call is open to all members of Renovation. (There is no extra fee for participating in the conference but you will need to be an attending member of the Convention).

A PDF version of the call for papers, containing the same information, can be downloaded here.

Call for Papers: Renovation World Science Fiction Convention Academic Programming

Speculative Frontiers: Reading, Seeing, Being, Going

Renovation's Academic Program invites papers reflecting on real and imagined frontiers whether physical, social, or technological.

Approaches of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Historic and current use of the frontier as metaphor and device in speculative fiction
• First contact speculation, both fictional and scientific
• Speculative fiction's consideration of the relationship between exploration and exploitation, and between settlement and displacement
• Fictional and real boundaries and exploration in space, technology, and society
• The effects and side-effects of such exploration
• Speculative concepts of historical and future frontiers
• Consideration of current edge and boundary work in speculative fiction, including cross-genre work and cross-format delivery/distribution.

We are interested in how these themes are reflected in fandom, publishing, art, media, gaming, social media, and other new technology. Other topics related to sf, fantasy, and horror are also welcome, particularly those exploring the work of any our Guests of Honor (Tim Powers, Ellen Asher, Boris Vallejo, Charles N. Brown) or Special Guests (Bill Willingham, Tricky Pixie).

The Renovation Academic Program is an interdisciplinary conference; papers are invited from all disciplines including the sciences, education and psychology. Short papers (approximately 15 minutes to allow time for discussion) are encouraged, and authors are reminded to consider not only an audience of their peers, but an educated and motivated general audience.

Submission Arrangements

Please send abstracts by February 15, 2011. Accepted authors will be notified by March 31, 2011.

Submissions and inquiries should be directed to Kim G. Kofmel, at academicprogram@renovationsf.org.

Submissions should include:

• Title of paper
• Name and affiliation
• Email address;
• 150-word abstract
• Short biographical statement
• AV requirements

We are exploring options for our proceedings; more information (including the date for submitting final papers for inclusion in the proceedings) will be forthcoming in due course.

We hope to announce a separate call for a student poster session; more information will be forthcoming in due course.