Submissions to VICFA 3: Pantheology in World-Building and Magic Systems
Scholarly and creative proposals are welcome and are handled through the same process.
This season, Academic and Creative Proposals will submit via the same portal.
https://form.jotform.com/240766277050154
We are pleased to present the VICFA 3 theme, call for papers, and special guests for 2024! This year, “VICFA 3: Pantheology in World-Building and Magic Systems” will run from Wednesday, October 9, through Saturday, October 12. We are thrilled to share that this year’s VICFA features Guests of Honor P. Djeli Clark and R.R. Virdi and Guest Scholars Grace Dillon and Rabbi A.D. Lobel. We look forward to sharing their insights as well as your assembled art and expertise with the global fantastic community.
Please note that the submission form for VICFA gives participants the opportunity to elect to monitor one of VICFA’s 3 Spaces, moderate sessions during the conference, and to be mentors for students in SCIAFA. While presentations will not be separated by division, applicants will be able to identify those interest areas and divisions that represent their work. These tags will be listed for each session in the program. Be aware that the VICFA application requests a scholarly or creative logline for your presentation in addition to your abstract. If you have any difficulty submitting your proposal through the online portal, you are welcome to email this completed form to both VCC@fantastic-arts.org and IAFA.1VP@fantastic-arts.org. All academic and creative proposals will use the same form for VICFA 3 submissions. Invited Creatives will be sent an additional, separate invitation to attend VICFA 3 with that designation.
In order to most effectively schedule VICFA programming, VICFA organizers will request the time zone in which you will be during the conference. This helps VICFA planning to make sure that all presenters are scheduled within reasonable presentation windows. You will have the opportunity to further identify scheduling conflicts, but please be aware that the first tier of scheduling will be according to your time zone. Similarly, if you volunteer to monitor one of the VICFA’s Zoom streams—Counter Space, Deep Space, and Interstellar Space, you will be offered a slot that works with the universal time zone you indicate.
If you are not presenting at VICFA 3 but would like to monitor one of these Spaces, please reach out to VCC@fantastic-arts.org to let us know that you would like to be scheduled. Scholars, creatives, students, and other community volunteers are encouraged to be involved as Space monitors and session moderators. Please make sure to reach out and state that you would like to be a Space monitor by September 15, 2024. Specific login information and stream monitoring guidelines will be sent to confirmed monitors by October 1, 2024.
We invite analysis of real-world pantheologies rebirthed in literature as well as in some of the most influential games and films of the technical era, including not only the interminable trials of Loki and the recognizable Greek Pantheon fighting Kratos in God of War and each other in Son of Zeus, but what of Zagreus, prince of the Underworld, fighting his way out of his own kingdom in Hades, and cultists striving to birth an Anti-Christ not only in “The Call of Cthulhu” but also in Castlevania, Good Omens, Omen, and Rosemary’s Baby? You are invited to build your presentation on studies from existing scholarship from leaders in the field including Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Grace Dillon, Elaine Pagels, Carol B. Duncan, Helen De Cruz, Joseph Campbell, and Rabbi A.D. Lobel, to name only a few. Ben Okri’s The Famished Road and Amos Tutuola’s The Palmwine Drinkard show how inextricable these pantheologies are from what we perceive as the physical world, as in popular media such as Marvel’s interpretations and the mythological worldbuilding of Rick Riordan and Neil Gaiman. Multiple levels of being and reality intertwine in tales such as P. Djeli Clark’s Dead Djinn Universe, R.R. Virdi’s The Tales of Tremaine, Aparna Verma’s The Ravence Trilogy, and Sheree Renee Thomas’s Dark Matter: Reading the Bones. There are cosmologies to explore in the works of Kwame Mbalia, Claire Coleman, Lee Maracle, Eden Robinson, and Alexis Wright. You are invited to submit perspectives on the unexpected rivalry between ancient and modern deities in American Gods, analysis of the role of Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight, and the Gods of Anor Londo in Dark Souls, the three goddesses and the Triforce virtues of Power, Courage and Wisdom leagued against the demon king Ganon in The Legend of Zelda, relations between the Old One, the Slayer of Demons, and the Maiden in Black in Demon’s Souls, the Camerata of Transistor, or not only the Ancient Ones, Sephiroth, or Kefka but any of the teeming demi-gods waking from dreams or striving for supremacy in the realms of Lovecraft or Final Fantasy. This is just a sampling of the vast worlds of topics you may choose to explore as a presenter or attendee at VICFA 3. As always, participants are encouraged to submit proposals on any topic of interest and specialization whether part of the conference theme or independent of it.
Please be aware of the following timeline for VICFA 3:
- June 3 - CFP opens
- June 29 - submissions portal opens
- July 31 - deadline for abstracts and submissions portal closes
- July 15 - registration opens
- August 15 - acceptances
- August 25 - 1st public version of the program
- Sept 15 - registration closes
- Sept 20 - final version of the program
- Oct 9-12 - VICFA
We look forward to your proposals and seeing you this October at “VICFA 3: Pantheology in World-Building and Magic Systems”!
Sincerely,
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
Virtual Conference Coordinator
We recognize that this year's VICFA coincides with Yom Kippur. All scheduling requests made for religious observance will be adhered to.
We sincerely look forward to receiving your brilliant and creative submissions. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to iafa.1vp@fantastic-arts.org