Support a New Scholar Grant
The SFRA is now accepting applications for two Support a New Scholar Grant. The deadline for applying is May 31, 2016.
Further information can be found under the Awards tab on the SFRA site or by following this link here.
2016 Mullen Fellowships
The Mullen Fellowship offers stipends of up to $3000 per applicant to support research at any archive that has sf holdings pertinent to the dissertation topic. The program was instituted to honor Richard “Dale” Mullen, founder of Science Fiction Studies.
Qualified applicants will be Ph.D. students from any accredited doctoral program who are pursuing an approved dissertation topic in which science fiction (broadly defined) is a major emphasis. The research may involve science fiction of any nation or culture and of any era. Applications may propose research in—but need not limit themselves to—specialized SF archives such as the Eaton Collection at UCR, the Maison d’Ailleurs in Switzerland, the Judith Merril Collection in Toronto, or the SF Foundation Collection in Liverpool. Proposals for work in general archives with relevant SF holdings—authors’ papers, for example—are also welcome. For possible research locations, applicants may wish to consult the partial list of SF archives compiled in SFS 37.2 (July 2010): 161-90. This list is also available online at: <http://sfanthology.site.wesleyan.edu/files/2010/08/WASF-Teachers-Guide-2Archives.pdf>.
The application should be written in English and should describe the dissertation, clarifying the centrality of science fiction to the project’s overall design. It should show knowledge of the specific holdings and strengths of the archive in which the proposed research will be conducted, and it should provide a work plan and budget. Candidates should clarify why research in this particular archive is crucial to the proposed project. Students who receive awards must acknowledge the support provided by SFS’s Mullen Fellowship program in their completed dissertations and in any published work that makes use of research supported by the fellowship.
A complete application consists of a project description (approximately 500 words) with a specific plan of work, updated curriculum vitae, itemized budget, and two letters of reference, including one from the faculty supervisor of the dissertation.
Applications should be submitted electronically to the chair of the evaluation committee, Sherryl Vint, at sherryl.vint@gmail.com. Applications are due April 1, 2016, and awards will be announced May 1, 2016. The selection committee in 2016-17 consists of Neil Easterbrook and DeWitt Douglas Kilgore (SFS Advisory Board members) and Carol McGuirk and Sherryl Vint, SFS editors.
The New sfra.org
Just as 2015 ended, the SFRA website took a nosedive. This sometimes happens. Unfortunately, this time we were not easily able to recover the site from a recent backup and go about our business. As the Executive Committee and Matt Holtmeier (our SFRA Web Director) looked into it, it became clear that perhaps it was time to give up on our old model of website and look at new options. Like a lot of small organizations, SFRA has depended upon a handful of members with the technological knowledge necessary to keep us online, updated, and secure. Frankly, that’s just not a sustainable model anymore.
We were running a site built on Drupal, with a number of plugins that allowed us to do things like manage memberships, with a custom theme. The company that hosted our site had nothing to do with putting it together. The people who put it together were hired for a one-time job, not ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting. We needed to update our plugins and Drupal to be sure that we had the latest, most secure, and stable versions. Too big of a job for volunteers. And a few months down the road we’d likely need that again. And again.
So we’re moving to a 2016-style solution that will combine all of the technological infrastructures of the organization (well, almost all) in one place. The new site is built around a Member Management System, so we’ll be able to do a number of things we haven’t done before. The jobs of the SFRA Treasurer and Secretary will be made more manageable (that’s an incentive for those of you who might consider holding those positions), and the new site will facilitate putting some things behind a member login. It is very much still a work in progress, as we reconstruct what was on the old site and build new features. A few new things we hope members will like:
A searchable Member Directory. If you fill out your member profile, your fellow members can search for you by shared interest or geographical proximity. Not all of the information you share with the association will be public, though. We want your fellow members to know what city and country you live in, and what your scholarly interests are, not your phone number and street address. The only contact information available will be the email address you list. You can upload a photo to help people recognize you when you finally meet in person.
Member discussion forums. Not meant to take the place of the listserv, but discussion forums provide a more stable and durable way to communicate. You can subscribe to a forum if you want to be notified of new entries. We’ve created a few categories that we think members might find useful, and more can be created as needed. It’ll be a good place to hang a CFP or look for a roommate for a conference.
Research and teaching resources. We had some of these on the old website, but we’re rebuilding to provide members with curated and annotated lists of the most helpful resources for scholarship and teaching.
The new site has tremendous potential, but like any such site, it will only become a community hub if SFRA members make it one. We know that will take some time. We’re all used to an SFRA website that’s fairly static, but the Executive Committee hopes that members will come to think of the site as a place to share information will fellow members, find opportunities for publication and participation, and connect with colleagues from across the globe.
David Hartwell’s Passing
On January 20, 2016, we lost David Hartwell, a longtime friend of SFRA. In 1999 David won SFRA’s Clareson Award, which recognizes service to the field. It is difficult to imagine anyone more deserving, as David was an important figure in science fiction publishing and criticism.
To me, David was unfailingly generous, and I will miss his encyclopedic knowledge, keen insight, good humor, and kindness.
Writer Andy Duncan’s farewell can be read here.
David’s wife Kathryn Cramer writes of his passing here.