LonCon3 Panels

These are the LonCon3 panels I will be on, as of yesterday. The first two I am one of five panelists for each. The last one I am giving a presentation for.

Constructing Genre History
Friday 10:00 – 11:00
Whether through magazine features, popular history, or intense academic argument, what are the perils and pitfalls of constructing a history of SF? How much space is there to revise the history of SF in a journalistic – or blog – setting? What is the process by which ideas about genre theory actually move into and affect the popular understanding of the history of SF? To what extent do the books of the ‘canon’ represent the taste of successive generations?

I am a very interested in the topic of genres and their definitions, history in general, and I am going to be teaching the rhetorics of science fiction soon. I have also submitted an article on the history of women in American science fiction. … The book was not published, but I haven’t given up hope. (Remember I’ve had two different works published several years later by other publishers.)

Fantasy and Medievalism
Friday 11:00 – 12:00
High fantasy is almost invariably set in invented worlds inspired by medieval Europe. Can we put this down to the legacy of Tolkien and to genre works being in close conversation with each other? Or is there something about the place that medieval Europe occupies in our imagination that makes it a perfect companion for tales of epic striving and larger-than-life Good versus Evil? Either way, does this help or hinder the genre?

This is particularly relevant in terms of my own presentation (see below). I have written and presented on medievalism in fantasy at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo and at SWTX Popular Culture and published on medievalism in modern science fiction and fantasy in the Southwest Journal of Cultures.

Imagining Britain
Sunday 18:00 – 19:00
Two academics each give a 15 minute presentation followed by a 20 minute discussion with the audience.
Suanna Davis, “Reading the British Isles in 21st Century American Speculative Fiction”
Adam Welstead, “Imagining Intersubjectivities in Twenty-First Century British Dystopian Fiction: Maggie Gee’s The Flood”