Annual Sturgeon Symposium

2022: Celebrating Speculative Communities

The program committee invited abstracts and proposals in English (250 words or less) on any topic related to the Gunn Center's new mission of showcasing international speculative literatures, including creative work from Indian Nations, such as the Kaw, Osage, and others on whose homelands KU stands. We especially welcome thematic panels and papers that touch upon how community informs the speculative arts and vice versa.

At CSSF, we celebrate the interconnected global communities of students, scholars, creators, and fans whose engagement with speculative modes enriches our understanding of the world we share and challenges our notions of what is possible. We hope to illuminate the array of SF-related work being done across disciplines, genres, media, and identities. For example, in her groundbreaking essay “Poetry Is Not a Luxury,” Audre Lorde identifies poetry as “not only dream and vision,” but as something that “lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before” (Lorde, 38). In this way, poetry takes on a clearly speculative, generative aspect. Where/how else might we find other points of connection that broaden our conceptions of the field?

Full schedule to be posted in mid-September!

Questions? Contact sfcenter@ku.edu.