2026 Sturgeon Symposium
The J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction is pleased to announce our 5th Annual Sturgeon Symposium, to be held October 15-16, 2025 at the KU Hall Center for the Humanities (900 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS). 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 look forward to hosting a guest of honor Ida Yoshinaga, while also showcasing work in SF by artists and scholars from around the world.
*Registration will remain open until October 16; however, t-shirts are only guaranteed to those who registered by October 1.
Event Details:
The symposium will take place over two days, featuring both virtual and in-person events to accommodate both international and local attendees. All in-person events will be held at the KU Hall Center for the Humanities (900 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS). All times CT.
Thursday (10/15)
- 8:00-9:10: Virtual Session: Global SF
- 9:20-10:30 Virtual Panel: The Cooperative Alien Space Agency: Plate Tectonics Through SF
- 10:40-12:10 Panel: Multicultural Gothic Roundtable
Lunch
- 1:00-2:10 Panel: Power and Resistance in SF
- 2:20-3:30 Roundtable: Crafting Resistance: Queer Narratives, Personhood, and Activism in SF Writing
- 3:30-5:30 Sturgeon Award Ceremony and Reception
- 7:30 – 9:30 KU Graduate Student Creative Reading (*At Albert’s Speakeasy, 1026 Massachusetts St, Lawrence, KS 66044)
Friday (10/16)
- 8:00-9:00 Virtual Panel: Time, Space, and Labor in Science Fiction
- 9:00-10:10 Panel: Technology and Nature
- 10:20-11:30 Panel: Latinx Gothic and the Afterlives of Colonial Violence
Lunch
- 12:30-1:30 Panel: Science, Technology, and the Person
- 1:40-2:50 Panel: Soviet-Era Science Fiction and Beyond in Literature, Film, and Media
- 3:00-4:10: Roundtable: Writing as or Toward Those Inheriting the World
- 4:15-5:15 Keynote by Dr. Ida Yoshinaga
Sponsors
We are grateful for contributions by these generous sponsors for our 2025 symposium.
- KU Office of Research
- KU Hall Center for the Humanities
and the following Departments, Programs, and Centers:
- English
- Slavic, German, and Eurasian Studies
- Spencer Museum of Art
- Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS)