2023-2024 (Track A)
Support a New Scholar Awardee:
Nora Castle
Brief Bio
Nora Castle is an Early Career Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Warwick, UK. She recently passed her viva for her PhD thesis, “Food Futures: Food, Foodways, and Environmental Crisis in Contemporary Science Fiction.” Nora’s research interests include food futures, critical animal studies, critical plant studies, and utopian architecture and design in/as science fiction. Her recent publications include “In Vitro Meat and Science Fiction: Contemporary Narratives of Cultured Flesh” (Extrapolation, 2022), a co-edited Special Issue on “Food Futures” (2022) in Science Fiction Studies, and a forthcoming co-edited volume on Animals and Science Fiction (Palgrave).
Research Summary
Nora’s PhD project, “Food Futures: Food, Foodways, and Environmental Crisis in Contemporary Science Fiction”, advocates for a turn to science fiction as a crucial method of approaching the urgent question of the future of food. Situated at the interstices of science fiction studies, food
studies, and the environmental humanities, it focuses on meat, plants, kitchens, and farms as thematic streams in recent (2002-2022) sf, particularly in the shadow of climate change and environmental catastrophe. Her thesis incorporates not only the storyworlds of sf from across a
range of subgenres, modalities, and countries of origin, but also the future-oriented narratives that surround technoscientific food advancements in the real world. Taken together, this “food futures megatext” can help extrapolate what a future food system might look like—and reveals the social, cultural, political, and infrastructural pressures that shape and are shaped by the
world-food-system today.
Overview
The Executive Committee of the Science Fiction Research Association invites travel grant proposals to attend and present at the annual conference of the Science Fiction Research Association. Maximum awards of $500 may be given. (In the past the SFRA has considered distance traveled primarily in terms of domestic vs. international travel. Starting with travel awards for the 2019 conference, the geographic criterion has been based on the estimated cost of travel, as one factor among many.)
While you do not need to be a current member of the organization to apply for this grant, please remember that you must be a member of SFRA to present at the conference. Grant checks will be presented to awardees during the conference funded by the grant.
Deadline for this year's grants: March 31st (notifications of awards will be sent around April 30th)
Please organize your proposal as follows:
- A cover page that gives the name of the applicant (please do not identify yourself or your institution in the rest of the proposal), mailing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, distance from the conference; please note your willingness to accept partial funding. Submit your cover page as a separate document from the remainder of your proposal.
- The abstract for your paper (as submitted to the conference director).
- A grant proposal of no more than 300 words in which you explain:
- the financial difficulty you face in attempting to attend the annual SFRA conference and
- the professional growth you intend to receive by attending the conference.
- A realistic, detailed budget for your conference attendance. Be sure to list alternative funding resources you have already applied for and/or received money from.
Criteria for Selection
You may find the following criteria useful in preparing your proposal. The Executive Committee will use these to conduct reviews of all proposals.
- Need: The proposal demonstrates a significant need.
- Distance: The proposal demonstrates that the applicant will have to travel far distances to attend the conference.
- Contribution: The project being presented makes an original contribution to scholarship in the field.
- Professional Growth: The proposal articulates clear objectives for professional growth.
- Cost: Budget expenditures are reasonable and the applicant has also sought funding elsewhere.
- Dollars Available: The organization will attempt to award as many travel grants as possible while remaining fiscally responsible.
Restrictions
No individual or organization may submit more than one proposal for SFRA funding per calendar year (conference travel, research travel, or other grants); this does not prohibit an individual applying for conference travel funding from preparing a small grant application on behalf of a collective to which he or she belongs. The first consideration will go to those who have not received an award in the last three years.
Expectations of Award Recipients
Grant recipients will be expected to do the following:
- Present at the SFRA Conference they are being funded to attend.
- Submit a final written report of 1 to 2 pages to the secretary of the SFRA Executive Committee by September 30 of the calendar year in which they attend and present at the SFRA conference.
Questions should be directed to SFRA Secretary Sarah Lohmann.
Proposals should be submitted to the same, as Rich Text File or Portable Document Format attachments.