2026 Fall Issue: Science Fiction and the American Imagination
Journal of American Studies of Turkey (JAST)
2026 Fall Issue: Science Fiction and the American Imagination
Guest Editor: Firuze Güzel, Ege University, Izmir, Türkiye
Deadline for Full-Text Submissions: July 15, 2026
Ever since the earliest examples in the 19th century, the science fiction genre has been an impelling force in the scene of the American imagination. It was, however, the 20th century that marked the Golden Age of science fiction in the US. When Hugo Gernsback coined the term “science fiction” in 1929, the future of the genre was only beginning to be shaped as a distinct and reputable tradition. More than any other genre, science fiction provides enough space to reflect the anxieties, fears, hopes, and desires of the American people. From the pulp magazines of the Golden Age period to the New Wave of the 1960s, or the cyberpunk of the 1980s, American science fiction authors produced several canonical works that still occupy the literary scene. It would not be too presumptuous to claim that it was and still is the American imagination that contributes to the improvement and popularization of science fiction literature.
The genre of science fiction indeed has become a site of negotiation that reproduces cultural, social, political, ideological, and technological critiques of the current order in futuristic settings. The cognitive estrangement (suggested by DarkoSuvin) and, furthermore, the structural fabulation (proposed by Robert Scholes) offered by this genre actualize the defamiliarization of the present and unwrap innovative fictitious worlds that allow alternative temporalities and universes. Particularly the recent developments in science, technology, and the world at large have expanded the genre’s horizons and “what if” scenarios. Several sub-genres of SF, such as Climate Fiction (Cli-fi), Hopepunk, Ecopunk/Greenpunk/Solarpunk, Indigenous Futurisms, Afrofuturism, Algorithmic/Platform SF, Mundane SF, Bureaucratic SF, Military SF, or the New Weird, as well as the renowned Hard SF, Soft SF, Utopias/ Dystopias, Cyberpunk, or Space Opera increasingly reflect the ongoing experiences, entanglements, and challenges of not only Americans but also humanity in general in these speculative narrations.
Other than literature, the US has been the central place for the development of science fiction media. Particularly, American science fiction films and TV series dominate the screens and shape the characteristics of contemporary SF visuality. In addition, graphic novels, comics, and games have also been very popular among science fiction fans. This popularity has also met a valid interest among academic circles, thereby raising the number of such studies within SF scholarship. Akin to literary texts, contemporary issues and concerns such as viruses, pandemics, environmental crises, artificial intelligence, posthuman/transhuman embodiments, thresholds of being human, bioengineering, automation, and surveillance, as well as dystopian techno-scientific futurisms, are conveyed by these cultural products of SF.
In this regard, the guest editor of this themed issue of the Journal of American Studies of Turkey seeks original, previously unpublished manuscripts that examine science fiction novels, short stories, collections, films, TV series, as well as games, comics, and graphic novels, within the American context. Aside from the keywords given below, interdisciplinary and comparative studies of SF literature and media alongside analyses by sub-genre, era, or author are also welcome to be included in this issue.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Theoretical and Critical Discussions of the SF Genre
- Posthumanist, Transhumanist, Metahumanist, and Antihumanist Discourses
- Artificial Intelligence and Human-Machine Interactions
- Techno-Scientific Dystopias/Utopias
- Gender and Body Politics
- Representations of Race and Ethnicity
- Afrofuturism, Indigenous Futurisms, and Latinx Futurism
- Constructions of Religion and Belief Systems
- Philosophical Dimensions / Thought Experiments
- Moral and Ethical Quandaries
- Envisioning the Other: Robots, Aliens, Monsters, etc.
- Ideology, Politics, and Governmental Control
- Postapocalyptic Narrations and Precarity
- Cyberpunk and Its Offshoots
- Space Opera, Space as Frontier, and Space Colonization
- Climate Fiction and Environmental Concerns
- Space, Architecture, and Urbanism
- History as Future / Future as Present
Full-text manuscripts should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words in MLA style (with parenthetical internal citations, a Works Cited page, minimal endnotes, and in Calibri 11-point font). Please include an abstract (150 words), keywords, and a one-paragraph bio (150 words, written in the third-person) with all manuscripts. Topic inquiries are welcome prior to full-text submission. The deadline for submissions is July 15, 2026.
*All the submissions should be made via DergiPark system. Please see the submission page: https://dergipark.org.tr/en/journal/3009/submission/step/manuscript/new
*Please see the Author Guidelines, and Ethical Principles and Publication Policy before making a submission.
Author Guidelines: https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/jast/writing-rules
Ethical Principles and Publication Policy: https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/jast/policy
*For more information about the journal:
http://www.asat-jast.org/index.php/jast
https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/jast
* Correspondence should be directed to: Dr. Firuze Güzel, Guest Editor
( firuzeguzel@yahoo.com, firuze.guzel@ege.edu.tr)
* For general questions or problems about JAST, please contact Dr. Nisa Harika Güzel Köşker, Editor-in-Chief