cfp.english.upenn.edu

In “Reflections on Exile”, Edward Said writes that theoretical interventions need to engage with the “worldly situation”, the messy, unstable mosaic through which the long history of colonialism affects a diverse set of political affiliations, global disparities, international divisions of labor, regional rivalries, national identities, cosmopolitan ideologies, green, queer, and leftist movements. Science fiction, likewise, has seen a recent surge in interest and scrutiny devoted to postcolonial and global problematics including works by Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. (2003), John Reider (2008), and Patricia Kerslake (2011). This call for papers welcomes in submission interested in further exploring the role of the postcolonial and global in science fiction.
Areas may include but are by no means limited to:
• Colonialism, Anti-colonialism, and Postcolonialism
• Cosmopolitics and international relations
• Neoliberal and postmodern economic policy
• Technoculture and the Internet
• Representations of diaspora and immigration
• Financial markets, off-shore banking, and speculative capital
• Transnational corporations
• Anti-globalization movements
Science-fictional literature and media might include:
• Anglo-American fiction authors’ portrayal of the worldly situation.
• The emerging market of global science fiction
• Science fiction videogames and comics
• Science fiction film, music, and television
• The “science-fictionality” of the non-fictional discourses

Abstracts of 250-300 words should be submitted at www.disjunctions2013.org or mailed to disjunctions2013@gmail.com no later than February 11th, 2013.

This is a panel call for the 20th Annual (dis)junctions Humanities and Social Sciences Graduate Conference at the University of California, Riverside. This year’s general theme, “encountering with(in) texts,” examines the impact of situatedness, unexpectedness, and/or unpreparedness on “face to text” encounters with media objects, embodied encounters negotiated through or overdetermined by texts, and representations of “encountering” within texts. Please visit www.disjunctions2013.org for more information on this year’s theme, our other subject- and discipline-specific panel calls, and Keynote Speaker Dr. Nicholas Mirzeoff.