Division Heads and BIPOC Caucus Officers

Organization and refereeing of academic paper sessions at ICFA is under the direction of Division Heads, also appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Board. You can find the Executive Board here and the Other IAFA Officials here. Perquisites received by board members, other officers, and division heads are listed here.

Division Heads


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

The Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Art division welcomes critical scholarship that focuses on childhood, child characters, and literature aimed at younger readers. This includes picture books as well as middle-grade and young adult novels, short stories, and graphic novels that involve fantasy, horror, paranormal romance, science fiction, and any other aspect of the fantastic.

Division Head: Amanda Firestone
The University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida, USA
iafa.div.cya@fantastic-arts.org

Amanda Firestone, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Communication at The University of Tampa. There she teaches classes focused on media studies and digital identity. She is the co-editor of Harry Potter and Convergence Culture: Essays on Fandom and the Expanding Potterverse and The Last Midnight: Essays on Apocalyptic Narratives in Millennial Media. Amanda enjoys knitting, sewing, baking, and drinking margaritas. All in preparation for The End of Times.


Fairy Tales and Folk Narratives (FTFN)

The Fairy Tales and Folk Narratives division welcomes critical scholarship on all aspects of folk narrative and culture in all media. This includes but is not limited to oral and literary fairy tales, folk tales, wonder tales, legend, and myth, as well as adaptations and interconnections of oral and literary tales with other media.

Division Head: Christy Williams
Hawai`i Pacific University, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
iafa.div.ftfn@fantastic-arts.org

Christy Williams is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English and Applied Linguistics at Hawai`i Pacific University. She teaches courses in twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature, fantasy, and fairy tales. Her research focuses on contemporary fairy tales and retellings in literature and popular culture with an emphasis on gender and narrative. She co-edited Beyond Adaptation: Essays on Radical Transformations of Original Works and is co-review editor for Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies. Her recent book, Mapping Fairy-Tale Space, examines the metafictional use of fairy tales in texts ranging from the tv show Once Upon a Time to Kelly Link’s short fiction. 


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)

The Film and Television division welcomes critical scholarship, panels, and theory roundtables that deal with cinema and television and engage any genre of the Fantastic, including science fiction, fantasy, and horror. As with other narrative forms, the analysis of film and television can be taken up multiple ways and through varied critical lenses.

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)

The Gothic and Horror Literature division welcomes critical scholarship focused on the inter-related modes of Gothic literature and horror literature, as well as closely related modes such as the Weird and the Grotesque. Papers may explore any aspect of literary horror or the Gothic, including but not limited to the evolution, cultural significance, and theory of these modalities, as well as specific types and typologies, for example: body horror, psychological horror, and philosophical horror. Papers exploring related topics, such as the role of the supernatural, the sublime, monstrosity, or affects including horror, terror, dread or anxiety, as well as interconnections between Gothic and horror literature and other media, including film, comics and games, are also welcome.

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)

The Visual and Performing Arts and Audiences division welcomes critical scholarship and discussions on a transdisciplinary variety of visual media. Among these are comic books, comic strips and graphic novels; graphic arts, including photography, paintings, illustrations, design, and sculpture; architecture and the depiction of architecture in visual media; the performing arts, including music, choreography and (musical) theatre; (video) games and gaming culture; fandom studies in all media and communities; as well as transformative texts such as mashups and viral marketing and audience/reception studies concerning audiences for any medium or genre of the fantastic.


Division Head: Carrie J. Cole

University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, USA

iafa.div.vpaa@fantastic-arts.org


Carrie J. Cole (she/her) is Associate Professor, Assistant Chair, and Director of Production in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. After receiving her PhD from the University of Maryland in Theatre and Performance Studies focusing on turn-of-the-twentieth century American theatre and performance, she shifted her focus to the turn of the twenty-first century. Her scholarship now concentrates on current and future trends in US theatre, performance and popular culture, (specifically staging science fiction and the fantastic).

Dr. Cole has presented her scholarship at US and international conferences, including Stage the Future, The International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts, Science Fiction Research Association, The Network of Ensemble Theatres, and The Association of Theatre in Higher Education where she has served as the Dramaturgy Focus Group Representative. She is the lead conference planner for Science Fictions, Popular Cultures which occurs annually as part of  HawaiiCon


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

Novella Brooks de Vita

Houston Community College, Houston, Texas, USA

iafa.div.bipoc@fantastic-arts.org


Novella Brooks de Vita has adored her involvement with ICFA since she first attended the conference in 2008.  She is currently at the fairly-end-stages of her Ed.D. in Curriculum & Instruction and Higher Education Administration while adjunct teaching developmental reading and writing at Houston Community College.  Novella has made extensive presentations on literature including comics, film, theatre, literacy, and pedagogy.  Her published book scholarly chapter and essays include "Wiz Kids: An Exploration of Pedagogy in the World of Harry Potter” in Palgrave-Macmillan’s Teaching and Learning on Screen: Mediated Pedagogies, “Made into Nothing: Surviving Multifaceted Vulnerability” in The Maroon, “’You Have Forever Changed My Life’: The Need for Academic Rigor in Teaching Humanities in a Global Society” in Humanities Bulletin, and "African American College Preparation through Reading in Secondary Schools," "Beloved and Betrayed: Survival and Authority in Kindred" and "Abiku Babies: Spirit Children and Human Bonding” in The Griot.  In addition to scholarly publications, Novella has published poetry in the Guild Press anthologies Forced from the Garden: Poetry and Short Prose by Women, Full Circle Twenty-Two and Full Circle Twenty-Three. Her previously published short fiction includes the speculative "Cacie's Prism" in Love and Darker Passions and horror-sci fi "My Bogeyman" in Tales in Firelight and Shadow, anthologies published by Double Dragon.  In addition to administrative educational support roles as a graduate student for TSU’s Student Academic Support Services and the Thurgood Marshall School of Law’s Center for Legal Pedagogy and behind-the-scenes work in various creative productions throughout the years, Novella has engaged in research, planning, logistics, outreach, and event management for a range of scholarly and creative engagements, including Texas Southern University’s “Incarceration Patterns of African and Latino America” conference, “Addressing the Tex-Book Controversy” community forum with Texas State Representatives, “Identity Crisis/ Mission Statement: Are We an Urban Learning University?” faculty symposium, Before They Die! documentary screenings and panel, “A Discussion of the DREAM Act with Gaby Pacheco,” a Gloria Rolando film festival featuring the Cuban filmmaker at TSU, as well as planning and producing Mystery Monday Movies, Knit Wits, Kitchen Capers Readers’ Circle, River Park Riverside Shakespeare Workshop, Youth Arts Festival, Wabruda Hidden History Quiz Bowl, Dance Dance Revolution Branch Tournament, Dead Man’s Chest Pirate Party, a Fruits Basket program, and AniméAfternoon while working in a county library system.  Novella has worked on making experiences accessible and relevant to those she has served in previous roles and hopes to support such goals' success in her current role.




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