Visions of the Self: in Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, and Cyberculture: (Edited Email)

This is the first in an annual programme of conferences exploring what it is to be human and the nature of human community in science fiction, cyberpunk, and cyberculture.

Friday 28th April - Monday 1st May 2000
Elmhurst College,
Chicago

CALL FOR PAPERS

Papers, short papers, and workshops are invited on issues related to any of the following themes;

• forms of technological embodiment
• science fiction and cyberpunk as a medium for exploring the nature of persons
• bodies, gender, and reproduction
• from apes to androids - electronic evolution
• cyberspace, cybercommunities, virtual worlds, and home worlds
• nationality, species, the state, and power
• representations of culture in science fiction and cyberpunk
• the relationship between science fiction and cyberculture
• electronic persons and communities
• nature, enhancing nature, and artificial intelligence
• organisations, structures, and power
• the other, the stranger, and the alien
• utopias and dystopias
• the significance of science fiction as a cultural phenomenon

Papers will be considered on any related theme and on any specific book, film or television series. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by 1st March 2000. Full draft papers should be submitted by 27th March 2000.

Papers selected for the conference will be published in themed volumes.

For further details and information please contact:

Dr Rob Fisher
Westminster College
School of Humanities
Oxford
rob@fishwest.demon.co.uk