My Arisia 2016 Schedule

I've got some awesome panels this year, though I did have to drop one.  If you're attending Arisia hope to see you around.

Lovecraftian Intimacy: Body Horror & Mind Melds (Sat 2:30 PM, Mariana 2)
Can you have noneuclidean love triangles? In this panel, we'll discuss telepathic bonds & body horror & how they play upon themes of separation, alienation & intimacy. These two tropes present with very different connotations and judgments placed upon them. Telepathic bonds are often portrayed in positive terms, where body horror has its connotation in its name. Are there instances where the horror of telepathy comes forward or where change and melding of the physical body are seen as positive?

 The Drowning World (Sat 8:30PM, Mariana 1)
From The Water Knife to Hurricane Fever, how are science fiction and fantasy taking on climate change, and what second order consequences are we missing?

The Future of Disability in Literature (Sun 8:30PM, Mariana 2)
ST:TNG was famously critiqued for having a bald captain. "Won't the cure for baldness be discovered by then?" Roddenberry replied, "By the 24th century, no one will care." Most SF novels, if they include disabled characters at all, focus on a cure narrative. For the most part, the disabled seem not to exist. Let's talk about SF with universal access, visible disabled characters, and societies that don't force a cure and choose instead to accommodate everyone, regardless of disability.

I'm looking forwards to all three of these, but particularly the Lovecraft and Disability panels.  I have a side project that I hope to some day turn into a conference paper that I can pull on for Lovecraftian Intimacy, and there's a good chance I'll come away with more material to fold into my research.  As for the Future of Disability in Literature, I'm super excited to be the moderator for this, and I'm already starting to look for local conferences where I might be able to talk about this topic more.  I'm having a problem where I'm finding the scope too limiting, I want to include fantasy and the present of representation, I want to talk about coding and stigma, and everything.  Various bits and pieces will likely start making their appearances on my blog, time allowing.  Most of it exists in long hand notes scattered over my desk.

Now back to reading books for the disability panel. 

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