Student Caucus of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (SCIAFA)
Special Elections 2025 – Call for nominations
The Student Caucus invites passionate members to step up and lead as Representative and Undergraduate Representative for the term starting on 15 January 2026 to 30 September 2027. If you are eager to shape the future, now is the time to nominate yourself or someone who you think would be excellent for a Caucus leadership role.
Special elections have become necessary following the resignation of our outgoing Representative, Aylin Walder. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Aylin for her dedicated service, leadership, and contributions to the Student Caucus and the IAFA community. Her efforts have helped strengthen student engagement and build meaningful connections across our network. In addition, the position of Undergraduate Representative has remained vacant since the last elections, and will therefore also be open for nomination in this special election cycle.
The Student Caucus comprises all IAFA members who are registered as Students at the graduate and undergraduate level. Caucus leadership organizes a mentorship program, panels, and other social events at conferences and serves the membership and the Executive Board as the voice for student interests. A Representative, Vice Representative, and Undergraduate Representative constitute the Caucus leadership team and are elected every two years to a new term of office. All IAFA members who are registered as Students at the time of nomination and election are Student Caucus members and are eligible to serve; if your membership has lapsed, please renew in time to nominate and/or vote.
Nominations
Nominations open today, 22 October 2025 and close Wednesday, 19 November 2025. We welcome and encourage both nominations and self-nominations. We also invite supervisors to recommend students to stand for election. Nominated candidates will be contacted to confirm acceptance of the nomination and will be asked to provide a candidate statement that will be shared with membership in the call to vote. Members are required to be in good standing (no lapsed or pending membership renewals) in order to participate in the election.
Click the link below to nominate someone (it could be you)!
Click to nominate!
Voting
Voting will open Wednesday, 19 November 2025 and close Wednesday, 17 December 2025. All positions are elected by a simple majority vote of Student Caucus members; a quorum of 50% of the membership is required to legitimize the election. Members are required to be in good standing (no lapsed or pending membership renewals) in order to participate in the election.
Description of roles
Representative: The Student Caucus Representative chairs the Caucus leadership team; they set the agenda for all Caucus meetings and keep record of the business conducted. The Representative also reports to the Executive Board of the IAFA as a full voting member who represents Student interests and perspectives and who advocates for Caucus business. The Representative coordinates (with IAFA First and Second Vice-Presidents) and moderates Caucus sponsored programming at all IAFA conferences. The Representative manages (with IAFA Public Information Officer) communications and mailing lists with Caucus membership. The Representative continues as Immediate Past Representative for one additional year after completion of the regular term.
Perks of the position include compensated meal tickets for Thursday and Friday luncheons and the Saturday evening banquet at ICFA. Anyone who is interested to serve but whose position is precarious and/or underfunded should apply for a travel scholarship to assist with ICFA attendance costs; financial hardship should not preclude you from service!
Undergraduate Representative: The Undergraduate Representative brings to Caucus leadership the perspective and voice of Students who are not (or at least not yet) at the graduate/PhD phase. With the Vice Representative, they coordinate the Mentorship program and social events. With the Representative, they propose and may facilitate and/or moderate Caucus events. The Undergraduate Representative manages Caucus social media presence and supports the Representative with digital communications.
Please share questions about this process, the service workload, or anything else with current Interim Representative Yuheng Ko at yko025@ucr.edu. I look forward to hearing from you!
Past Caucus leaderships Samantha Baugus (dr.samantha.baugus@gmail.com) and Andrew Erickson (andrew.d.erickson@outlook.com) have offered to serve as sources of information for members interested to know more about the position(s).
