Call for Papers: 12th Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI)

 

Panel Chair:

Description/Call for Papers:

Science fiction exemplifies a tradition of dialogue between science and literature.  This genre shows the crucial interdependence of science and literature through the free rearrangement of our perceptual thought in language, most notably in exploring the meaning of human being.  Science fiction provides a forum for thought experiments that probe alternate realities, counterfactual histories and fantastical worlds.  But unlike fantasy per se, science fiction draws upon and expands the insights of the scientific imagination and technical advances; e.g., W. Gibson’s cyberpunk novels and P. Hamilton’s space operas.  Contemporary novels in this genre speak to socio-cultural and technological issues from multidisciplinary perspectives: physics, psychology, sociology, religion, philosophy, etc. are pushed to their limits, made to engage views that leap across the boundaries of human imagination.  This is a call for papers that critically examine (via philosophy, literary theory, religious studies) this crossing of boundaries in terms of ethics, politics, religion, the being of the human, etc. as found in 21st century science fiction. 

Please send abstracts (200 words) and rough drafts of papers (~2000 words) by January 15, 2010, to:

Michael P. Berman, Ph.D. (panel chair)
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
Brock University
St. Catharines
Ontario L2S 3A1
Canada
Email: mberman@BrockU.CA
Fax: (+1) 905.688.0625

Paper Submission Name: Science Fiction

Deadline for Submission: 1/15/2010

http://www.apaonline.org/resources/CFP's/ISSEI.aspx