Current Research in Speculative Fiction 2026

16th Annual Conference

Systems and Entanglement

July 16th-17th 2026

University of Liverpool and Online

Nobody lives everywhere; everybody lives somewhere. Nothing is connected to everything; everything is connected to something.

(Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene)

Nothing happens in the “real” world unless it first happens in the images in our heads.

(Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza)

The 16th Annual CRSF conference on ‘Systems and Entanglement’ invites scholars and authors to explore the many intricate and co-constitutive relationships within speculative fiction. Moving beyond isolated analyses, this conference focuses on the complex networks that form the bedrock of speculative worlds. We will investigate how these systems entangle with characters, narratives and readers, and how this entanglement serves as a critical lens for understanding our own reality. We welcome interdisciplinary approaches that examine systems of power, agency and connection within speculative fiction. In embracing the theme of entanglement, we also encourage you to fully immerse yourselves and to become entangled with the alien ecosystems, alternate realities, paranormalities and profound futurities you might encounter out there.

We welcome papers on the theme of Systems and Entanglement from the fields of literary studies, creative writing, media studies, philosophy, art, anthropology, sociology, and political theory that speak to, but are not limited to:

• The oppressive or liberating structures of fictional societies;
• The non-human networks of mycelial networks, hive minds or cosmic horror;
• The blurred boundaries of consciousness in AI narratives;
• The way nature and culture inform each other in climate fiction;
• The interconnectedness, or disconnections, between reality and fiction in speculative fiction;
• The haunted house as a system;
• The entanglement between self and other in narratives on parasitism and symbiosis;
• How non-human actors, from AI to aliens, reshape narrative;
• How speculative texts use archives as systems that entangle with memory, power and history;
• How language can construct systems that directly entangle with and shape thought, perception and reality.

Submission Details

By submitting, the author agrees that they have not used generative AI in their abstract or proposal.

Individual Papers:

Papers should be 15 minutes long and will be placed onto a panel of three speakers, with 30 minutes for questions at the end. You can present your paper either in person at the University of Liverpool, or online using a pre-recorded presentation, with live Zoom Q&A. Please submit an abstract (max. 250 words), and a short biographical note (max. 100 words) through the online form by March 23rd, 2026: https://forms.gle/iWJpemdELmW68u256

Panel Proposals:

Panel Proposals should include 3 previously determined speakers who relate together on a certain theme. Each speaker’s papers should be 15 minutes long, with 30 minutes for questions at the end. Papers can be presented both in-person and online, through a pre-recorded presentation, and panels can be hybrid.

Roundtable Proposals:

Roundtables are discussions on a particular theme, from individuals within the field, often with opposing views, research, or from diverse backgrounds. Roundtables are 1 hour long, and facilitated by a chair who will ask the questions of other participants. The chair should be the lead organiser for Roundtable Proposals. All submissions will be reviewed independently, so there is no guarantee that all abstracts in the roundtable proposal will be accepted.

Note: Roundtables are NOT panels to present research in paper or presentation format. It is a more informal, ‘round the table’ discussion of a theme.

Workshop Proposals:

Workshops are led activities by solo or group organisers. The activity should only be 1 hour long, and be focused on practical involvement from the audience. Examples of workshops in CRSF past have been: creative writing prompt-based workshops, creative-writing discussion groups with writing activities and feedback, archive discussions, “How to” presentations and practical skills workshops, etc.

If you wish to propose a panel, a roundtable, or a workshop, please submit through the link below by February 16th, 2026: https://forms.gle/8iPbE5bjRDPyTT5H7 

All queries can be directed to crsf.team@gmail.com.

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