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2025 Sturgeon Symposium

The J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction is pleased to announce our 4th Annual Sturgeon Symposium, to be held October 9-10, 2025.

Register here (general)
Register here (KU Students)

4th Annual Sturgeon Symposium: 

"Expanding Speculative Horizons"

 

The J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction is pleased to announce our 4th Annual Sturgeon Symposium, to be held October 9-10, 2025.  In addition to presenting the annual Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best science fiction short story, which will include a reading from the winner, we are delighted to announce that Darcie Little Badger has accepted our invitation to speak at the symposium. 

 

Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. Elatsoe also won the Locus award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte, and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received a Nebula Award, an Ignyte Award, and a Newbery Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist. It is a breathtaking work of Indigenous futurism. Her third book, Sheine Lende, is the prequel to Elatsoe, which is centered on Ellie’s grandmother, deepens and expands Darcie’s one-of-a-kind world and introduces us to another cast of characters that will wend their way around readers’ hearts. She also writes short stories and has written comics for Marvel and DC (among others).

 
Event Details: 

The symposium will take place over two days, featuring both virtual and in-person events to accommodate both international and local attendees. Below is a preliminary schedule:

                                  
Thursday (10/9)      

  • 9:30   Virtual (Zoom link TBD) Panel: Gender and Technology
  • 11:00  Roundtable: Organizing Speculative Futures
  • 12:30  Lunch
  • 1:30   Roundtable: SF and Craft
  • 3:00   Authors Roundtable: Darcie Little Badger, Silvia Park, R.B. Lemberg                                        
  • 4:30   Sturgeon Award Ceremony and Reception
  • 8:00   Creative Readings (location TBD)

 

Friday (10/10)        

  • 9:00   Panel: Intersectional approaches to SF
  • 10:30  Panel: SF and Explorations in Form
  • 12:00  Lunch    
  • 1:00   Panel: Hispanic SF, beyond Anglo-Saxon lenses, presentations of futuristic scenarios in Spanish Speaking Worlds to Come                
  • 2:30   Roundtable: SF and Pedagogy           
  • 4:00   Darcie Little Badger Reading

 

Questions? Contact us at sfcenter@ku.edu. 

 

 

Links

Questions?

  • Contact us at sfcenter@ku.edu.