The inaugural Current Research in Speculative Fiction [CRSF] conference was held on Saturday and, let us shelve modesty for a moment, was a great success!
It was a conference full of interesting and thoughtful papers which were delivered by enthusiastic delegates. If anyone has any doubts about the quality of postgraduate research into speculative fiction then I would suggest they take a good long look at the names on the conference schedule because it seems to me that the future of the field is in solid hands.
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| End of day conference photo. Unfortunately, a number of people had to dash off before this was taken. Still, a great bunch of assembled academics I'm sure you'll agree. |
A massive thanks to all twenty-eight people who gave papers across eleven panels, thanks to those who chaired a panel over the course of the day, and to those who attended as delegates to learn more about speculative fiction and support others who were giving papers. Thanks to our two wonderful Keynote Speakers: Mr. Andy Sawyer and Prof. Adam Roberts who not only delivered enjoyable and fascinating papers, but who also attended papers all day and helped contribute to the fascinating and often insightful discussions that followed every panel. Thanks to everyone at the University of Liverpool, especially the staff in the School of English who helped us with all of the logistics and nitty-gritty elements of organisation. And a special thank you for my fellow team without whom the concept of a PG conference for science fiction, fantasy and horror, in Liverpool, would never have gotten off a page in my notebook and into the real world.
Feedback forms will be going out to everyone who's e-mail address is in our mailing list, but if you attended the conference please feel free to leave comments and suggestions for improvements on the blog or send them in via e-mail.
We always intended CRSF to be an annual event, but how the first one went was the deciding factor on whether such a concept was feasible. I think, given the overwhelming response from both the speculative fiction community, and the delegates who attended the conference, we can safely assume that CRSF will return in 2012!
So watch this this space....
[Glyn]
Congrats to the team on a well-run and interesting conference. I snuck away before the conference photo to catch a train, so I will have no option but to Photoshop myself in.
ReplyDeleteThe standard of papers and presentations was very good, I thought, and certainly on a par with what I have witnessed at one SFRA, one ICFA and two Eaton conferences.
Count me in for 2012.
Many congratulations indeed! I am so thrilled the inaugural conference was such a success - not least of all because I would love to offer a paper for the next one.
ReplyDeleteWill any of the conference papers be made available online (or are they already??)? I have recently come from my first inter-disciplinary.net conference, and I am exited by the options they offer for free, accessible publication of conference papers online.