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WisCon has a single track of academic programming that is open to undergraduate, postgraduate and independent scholars. One of the benefits of this track is that it strengthens the links between the wider feminist science fiction community and students and other scholars working on feminist SF and fantasy and related fields. The track operates very much like a conventional academic conference, with presentations based on extensive research. However, scholarly work on all aspects of feminist science fiction reaches an audience at WisCon that gives a kind of passionate and informed feedback that is rare at academic conferences. Over the years, people have presented papers on fantasy, horror, and science fiction literature, media and fandom, examining issues of feminism, gender, sexuality, "race", and class amongst many others.
We invite individual papers and panel presentations on science fiction and fantasy, with an emphasis on issues of feminism, gender, "race", and class. Work on fandom is also actively encouraged. We especially welcome papers on the work of this year's guests of honor, Mary Anne Mohanraj and Nnedi Okorafor. The use of PowerPoint presentations, the screening of DVDs, or more performance-oriented presentations are encouraged, subject to the limitations of time available and the demand on the academic programming room.
If you have a paper or presentation that you would like to be considered for the academic programming track, email your proposal to academic34@wiscon.info. Your proposal should consist of the following information: the full paper title and one abstract of 300 words, along with a short title (60 characters maximum) and a brief abstract (100 words maximum)for inclusion in the program book. If you would like your paper to be considered as part of a panel group (usually consisting of three related papers), the papers can be submitted as a group, but panel proposals must include abstracts and titles of all three papers. The deadline for both individual and panel proposals is Monday, February 15, 2010.
Please note that academic panels have a total duration of 75 minutes. Individual speakers should therefore expect a maximum allotted speaking time of 20 minutes with 5 minutes for questions. However, if you would like to suggest a more extensive presentation and/or a participatory session, please do consider submitting your ideas to the WisCon programming committee at program34@wiscon.info or by submitting your idea through the WisCon34 program idea suggestion form.
Inquiries concerning academic programming at WisCon34 should be sent via email to academic34@wiscon.info.