Children’s & Young Adult Literature & Art (CYA)

Division Head: Sarah Canfield
Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia, USA
iafa.div.cya@fantastic-arts.org

Sarah Canfield is Associate Professor of English at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. Her research and teaching focus on Victorian literature, science fiction, gender studies, and the connections between literature and science, although she will happily extend this to Tolkien, Star Trek, or the occasional horror podcast. She has taught first-year seminar courses on dystopian fiction as social activism and the cultural influence of Frankenstein. At her first ICFA in 2002, she won the David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award for a paper applying cyborg theory to Frankenstein.

Fairy Tales and Folk Narratives (FTFN)

Division Head: Abigail Heiniger
Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee, USA
iafa.div.ftfn@fantastic-arts.org

Abigail Heiniger, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Literature and Languages and Department Chair. She teaches literature and writing at Lincoln Memorial University. Her research centers on the intersection of gender and race in nineteenth-century literature, particularly in fantastic literature and fairy tales. Her recent books include Jane Eyre’s Fairytale Descendants: Constructions and Deconstructions of National Identity (2016) and Fairy-Tale Revivals in the Long Nineteenth Century, volumes 1 and 2 (2024), which is the first collection of wonder tales that explicitly explores anticolonial and decolonial Anglophone narratives. When she is not exploring library archives, she enjoys kayaking on the Powell River by her house and watching the sunrise over the mountains. She is currently the acting chair of the Modern Language Association Executive Committee for Fairy Tales, Folklore, and Mythology.

Fantasy Literature (FL)

The Fantasy Literature division welcomes critical scholarship on all aspects of fantasy literature (broadly defined to mean anything from genre fantasy to magic realism) including, but not restricted to, criticism on works by fantasy authors writing in English, interdisciplinary approaches to the genre, and scholarship on fantasy theory.

Division Head: Brittani Ivan
Western Sydney University, Australia 
iafa.div.fl@fantastic-arts.org

 Brittani Ivan is a PhD candidate at Western Sydney University, AUS. She received an MA with distinction   from Kansas State University and an AB magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College. She has published   in Mythlore on the fantastic landscapes of Diana Wynne Jones and Garth Nix. Her research interests   include post-colonial theory, mapping, archival studies, book history, adaptation studies, and   anglophone fantasy literature. She has been a member of IAFA since 2017, and has served as a   conference assistant since 2022.

Film and Television (FTV)

Shadow Division Head: Stina Attebery

University of California, Riverside and California Polytechnic State University, Riverside, California, USA

iafa.div.ftv@fantastic-arts.org

Stina Attebery recently completed her PhD in English with a Designated Emphasis in Speculative Fiction and Cultures of Science from the University of California, Riverside with a dissertation entitled "Refuse Ecologies: Indigenous Posthumanism in Polluted Futures." This year she is working as a Lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Studies Department at California Polytechnic State University and in the Writing Program at UC Riverside. She is an external editorial board member for Studies in the Fantastic and has published articles on Indigenous futurisms, environmental humanities, and science fiction media in journals such as Extrapolation, American Quarterly, and Medical Humanities. She has attended ICFA regularly since 2013.

Gothic and Horror Literature (GaH)

Division Head: Jude Wright
Peru State College, Peru, Nebraska, USA
iafa.div.gah@fantastic-arts.org

Jude Wright is an Assistant Professor of English at Peru State College in Peru, Nebraska, where he teaches courses on writing, British literature, Science Fiction, and comic books. His research focuses on the relationship between realism and the fantastic in nineteenth-century British literature, the Gothic, and adaptation theory. He has recently published on Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, adaptations of Frankenstein, J. Sheridan LeFanu, and Walter Pater. His current project is a long-form extension of his work on Frankenstein adaptations, parts of which he has presented at ICFA.

International Fantastic (IF)

The International Fantastic division welcomes scholarship in all subgenres of the fantastic in world media. “International” means either non-anglophone or originating in a culture considered foreign within the anglophone world; this may include minority or Indigenous texts within an anglophone country. Projects in postcolonial and diaspora studies, area and language studies, translation theory and studies, comparative literature and media, non-anglophone epistemologies and technocultures, the role of the international division of labor and global finance in textual development, gender and queer studies especially in the Global South, international justice movements, global research methodologies and national archives, and Indigenous and Trans-Indigenous Studies are welcome.

Division Head: M. Elizabeth (Libby) Ginway
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
iafa.div.if@fantastic-arts.org

M. Elizabeth (Libby) Ginway is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Florida. She is the author of Brazilian Science Fiction: Cultural Myths and Nationhood in the Land of the Future (Bucknell UP, 2004). She co-edited a volume of essays, Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice (Palgrave, 2012) with J. Andrew Brown. She has published articles on Brazilian and Spanish-American science fiction in journals such as Extrapolation, Science Fiction Studies, Alambique, Hispania, Luso-Brazilian Review, Modern Language Studies and Revista Iberoamericana. Her second monograph Cyborgs, Sexuality, and the Undead: The Body in Mexican and Brazilian Speculative Fiction was published by Vanderbilt UP in 2020. She has attended ICFA regularly since 2003.

Science Fiction Literature (SF)

The Science Fiction Literature division welcomes critical scholarship on topics related to science fiction novels, short stories, poems, and other forms that can be considered literary as well as those focused on critical theories related to the SF genre. This division’s emphasis is textual as well as theoretical; papers considering science fiction in film, television, or comics are encouraged to apply to the Film and Television division or the Visual & Performing Arts and Audiences division instead.

Division Head: Keren Omry

University of Haifa, Israel

iafa.div.sf@fantastic-arts.org

Keren Omry is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Prof.) at the Department of English Language & Literature, at the University of Haifa. Her research and teaching interests include speculative fiction, music and literature, and alternate histories. She is co-editor of the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction, and of Palgrave’s Science Fiction: A New Canon book series.

Visual and Performing Arts and Audiences (VPAA)

Division Head: Leisa A. Clark

Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, FL

iafa.div.vpaa@fantastic-arts.org

Leisa Clark has been attending ICFA since 2007 and has presented papers, joined panel sessions, and worked volunteer at the Registration Desk for many years.

Leisa has an undergraduate degree in Anthropology, as well as graduate degrees in Women's and Gender Students and Humanities. She is currently an Instructor of Humanities at Hillsborough Community College. As a Humanities instructor, she is knowledgeable about The Visual and Performing Arts and Audiences. Starting in the 1980s, she has worked on over 50 different shows, on stage, as a director, and as a stage manager.

Leisa has co-edited four books for McFarland and Company, working with Mary F. Pharr and Amanda Firestone to create volumes on The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Post-Apocalyptic Media, and Resistance Narratives (in Media).

BIPOC Caucus Officers

The BIPOC caucus hosts both Counter Space and Brave Space events. Counter Space is an international and transracial Think Tank and creative haven where the BIPOC Caucus hosts events that may be of particular BIPOC interest, including conversations known as Brave Spaces. Anyone submitting a proposal of potential BIPOC relevance and interest is welcome to submit the proposal indicating a preference to present in the Counter Space.

Brave Space is a type of conversation intended to regulate and dignify an exchange of vulnerable questions and sensitive answers about racial bias and the pain of transforming traditions of privilege into shared opportunities, among other topics that have to do with race and ethnicity in historically colonized spaces and contexts. Brave Space conversations take place in the Counter Space under BIPOC Caucus supervision. Please review the Brace Space Rules of Engagement here: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Policies.

BIPOC Caucus PIO and Counter Space Scheduler

Sang-Keun Yoo

Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

iafa.div.bipoc@fantastic-arts.org