Nine Worlds: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Academia

Contact email: sffacademic@nineworlds.co.uk

Confirmed Speakers:

Edmund Weiner, Beth Tovey, Professor Marion Gibson, Dr Andrew Crome

Papers are invited for the first Nine Worlds conference. Nine Worlds is a convention for fans of science fiction, fantasy and related areas taking place at The Renaissance Hotel, Heathrow, from the 9th - 11th August. As part of this, an academic conference is being organised to allow academic study and layperson interest in this field to overlap. The conference itself will be from 10am on the 10th through to the evening of the 11th.

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in the areas of science fiction and fantasy in general, and within the fan communities themselves an interest in studying works in this domain more closely. We therefore intend the conference to be accessible to the well informed non-academic, whilst still remaining valuable for those within the field.

We welcome contributions from any field that intersects with science fiction or fantasy, including the following:

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Academia

Just why is it important to study Science Fiction and Fantasy in an academic setting? What can different disciplines tell us about these genres? We’d like to look at just why academia is important, and can help us appreciate these genres even more.

The Role of Science In Science Fiction

Science Fiction and Fantasy allow us to create worlds unlike our own, but they need to be based in something. Here, we invite you to discuss anything to do with the the role of science, and it’s affect on science fiction - or vice versa, if you’re so inclined.

The Scientific Plausibility of Science Fiction

How likely is it that AI life will appear, and how will we deal with it if it does? Are sci fi’s ideas for FTL travel feasible, or simply fiction? What major mistakes do most modern movies make when portraying scientific ideas? Just how like science fiction is our universe - or is the truth even more interesting? The plausibility of science fiction is often debated, and here we hope to look at it from an academic perspective.

We are looking for a broad variety of topics, and therefore welcome proposals for individual papers and panels from any discipline and theoretical perspective, from academics and students alike. Talks will be 20-25 minutes each.

Please send a title, a 300 word abstract, your name and affiliation (university) to sffacademic@nineworlds.co.uk

The deadline for submissions is March 31st, 2013.

Registration will be done through the purchase of a ticket to the convention as a whole, available until the end of May for £75 via the website and at an increased price thereafter (details at the links below). Accommodation is available at the hotels, but will be booked separately by individual participants. All profits from the conference/convention will go to PEN. Please do email if you have questions.

Other tickets:

http://www.nineworlds.co.uk/tickets

PEN:

http://www.englishpen.org/