16th Annual Meeting of the Society for Fantasy Research
Bestiaries of the Imaginary – Animals and Other Forms of Non-Human Alterity
in speculative literature
University of Giessen, August 28-30.08.2025, XNUMX
The world of speculative literature is a fascinating universe in which fantastic creatures and non-
human alterities live and act. Fantastic beasts populate the universe of speculative
Literature not only since JK Rowling's newer story or film series Fantastic Beasts (2016-2022).
From the early modern beginnings of modern fantasy literature to its current forms, animals play
and human alterities, mythical creatures and technical modifications of the human
body or its substitution by robots and machines of all kinds plays a characteristic role in the
different narratives.
Animals have as companion animals, as companions and crucial helper figures, as soul mates or
sometimes as powerful opponents play a constitutive role for the course of action, the development of the
Characters and the differentiation of worldbuilding. Their presence as significant forms of non-
human alterity is an indispensable part of genre-specific texts. In the variants of Science
Fiction and modern dystopia, extraterrestrial or alien biological forms appear alongside
Often technomorphic species take their place, which can take on similar functions. Not infrequently
Ethical and moral questions regarding the human-technology relationship are also discussed.
In the field of horror and other types of speculative literature, various
manifestations of non-human figures.
The conference aims not only to present the wide range of fantastic animal species and
technomorphic species, but also their different roles and functions as
to analyse independent actors alongside the human protagonists and their respective philosophical
or to explore its dimension in the history of ideas. This usually involves nothing less than a
human or anthropological self-location, which is determined by the design of the human-animal relationship
or the relationship of the human characters to the non-human Other is implicitly carried out.
In addition to literary and cultural studies approaches to the topic complex outlined here,
Contributions from other disciplines such as religious studies, social sciences, psychology and
towards the combination of scientific and humanities research approaches
welcome.
In addition to the thematic focus on the bestialities of the imaginary, the conference also offers an open
Track for contributions of all kinds related to fanaticism research.
Please submit your paper (350 words) with a short biography (150 words) to
by January 31.01.2025, 2025 at the following email address: gffXNUMX@uni-giessen.de
This year, the GfF is again awarding travel scholarships for students (BA, MA, PhD, etc.). If you
would like to apply for a travel grant of 200€, please indicate this when submitting your
papers.
If you have any questions, please contact our team:
Prof. Dr. Annette Simonis and Dr. Laura Zinn: gff2025@uni-giessen.de
- Annual Conference of the Society for Fantasy Research
| Thursday, 28.08.2025 | ||
| Time of day | Panel I: Conference Room (GCSC II) | Panel II: Seminar Room 109 (GCSC II) |
| 10: 00-11: 00 pm | Registration (F | oyer, GCSC II) |
| 11: 00-11: 30 pm | Welcome (Conference | ference area, GCSC II) |
| 11: 30-12: 30 pm | Keynote: Theological Exegesis of Creation or Minnekasuistics: The Late Antique “Physiolo” by Prof. Dr. Cora Dietl, JLU Gi
Chair: Prof. Dr. |
gus” and Richard de Fournival’s “Bestiaire d' Amours” in Middle High German translations
dining (conference room, GCSC II) Annette Simonis |
| 12: 30-14: 00 pm | Lunch break ( | Foyer, GCSC II) |
| 14: 00-16: 00 pm | Queer Altertities (hybrid)
Chair: Sarah Faber |
The legacy of the bestiaries
Chair: Kirsten von Hagen |
| Rheanna Mathews: “Non/human Alterity and Queer Kinship in Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts “ (Remotely) | Madita Tambor: “sÿ went vf allen fieren, als sÿ wer ein ber – animalistic interpretation and functional potentials of wild men and women in text and image of the late Middle Ages” | |
| René Reinhold Schallegger: "'Be As You Want to Be. Be As You Are.' – Loving Encounters, Baleful
Contaminations, and Healing Transformations between the Human, Non-Human, and More-than-Human in Jared Pechaček's The West Passage (2024)“ |
Joel Feldkamp: “Something with Animals. The Legacy of the Bestiary for an Archive of the Animal World Using the Example of
Natural Customers" |
|
| Athira Mohan: “It is not in their Natures: Gendering the Non-Human in the Harry Potter Narratives" | Daniel Hercenberger: “Dinosaurs as Monsters and Characters: From Prehistoric Bestiaries to Loving Companions” | |
| Christian Lenz: “Fuck, Marry"Kill: The Uprising of the Companion Robot" | Markus Reitzenstein: “'The Manticore And Other Horrors', or: 'Cruelty And The Beast' – Beasts and the
Bestial-human in the lyrics and audiovisual art of the British black metal band Cradle of Filth " |
|
| 16: 00-16: 30 pm | Coffee break ( | Foyer, GCSC II) |
| 16: 30-18: 00 pm | Alterities in the human-sea relationship
Chair: Laura Zinn |
Weirdness and Fantastic Beasts
Chair: Murat Sezi |
| Klaudia Seibel: “Tentacular Fiction: Narrating the Other” | Georg Dickmann: "Bestiaries of the Weird: Slime Molds, Radiotrophic Organisms, and Other Strange Creatures in Speculative Literature" | |
| Nikolas Immer: "Beasts of the Sea: Cinematic Imaginations of the White Whale in the 20th and 21st Centuries" | Kai Löser: “Slime molds as a metaphor for adaptation: Dictyostelium discoideum and evolution (non-
)human societies" |
|
| Nan Makarova: “Giant Sea Monsters Caught by Fishermen!' On imagined and generated
Deep-sea monstrosities" |
Sontjeschulenburg: "'I'm just an animal. What could I possibly know?' – Non-Human Beings and Interspecies
“Relationships in the Works of Jeff VanderMeer” |
|
| 18:15 p.m. | Awarding of the Dissertation Prize of the Society for Fantasy Research (Conference Room, GCSC II) | |
| in connection | evening activities together in nearby restaurants | |
| Friday, 29.08.2025 | ||
| Time of day | Panel I: Conference Room (GCSC II) | Panel II: Seminar Room 109 (GCSC II) |
| 9: 30-11: 30 pm | Dinosaurs, Phoenix & Co. – Functions of Fantastic Beasts
Chair: Markus Reitzenstein |
Alterities in Human-Animal-Beast Relations
Chair: Christian Lenz |
| Janin Pisarek: "Destruction and Renewal: The Phoenix Motif in Natural History, Fairy Tales, and Pop Culture" | Pascal Ehrlich: “Hybridization. The renegotiation of the human-animal relationship in Scavengers Reign " | |
| Magdalena Leichter: “Beast Versus Fact: Fantastic Alternate History Beyond the Human” | Christian Knöppler: “A Beautiful Nightmare of Non-human Life: Scavengers Reign and Body Horror" | |
| Kirsten von Hagen: Fantastic Beasts in French Literature | Aylin Dilek Walder: “The Monster and the Mortal: How Affinity with the Other Let’s Your Self Breathe” | |
| René Porschen: “Actor Network Iguanodon – Max Dauthendeys The Iguanodon as a textual manifestation of panpsychist agency" | ||
| 11:30-12:00 | Coffee break (Foyer, GCSC II) | |
| 12: 00-13: 00 pm | Anthropomorphology and Monstrosities
Chair: Verena von Bargen |
Alterity in Horror to Romance
Chair: Nikolas Immer |
| David Lilienbecker: “Morality in dealing with the monstrous? The potential impact of human-like
Species for the literary direction of sympathy” |
Julia Grillmayr: “The Vampire Bestiary – an attempt” | |
| Daniel Scott: “Childless Cat Ladies in a World of Sinful Empathy: Following the Witch's Familiar from
Otherworldly Conduit to Empathy Support Animal” |
Anna Lena Rückert: “Monster Romance – Classic or Erotic Literature from/for the Niche?” | |
| 13: 00-14: 30 pm | Lunch break (individual arrangement) | |
| 14: 30-16: 00 pm | Tech-Human Alternatives
Chair: Murat Sezi |
Changes in Perspectivity (hybrid) Chair: Klaudia Seibel |
| Sarah Faber: “Our Giant Selves: Mechas and Their Pilots in the Works of Xiran Jay Zhao” | Anne D. Peiter: “The Fly as Protagonist in Bestiaries of Caricature, Literature, and Film” (remote) | |
| Milena Wein: “'My Home Is Your Home': Negotiating Nonhuman Coexistence in The Wild Robot " | Stefan Lampadius: “It's a Dog's Life – Human Society from a Canine Perspective” | |
| Peter Seyferth: “Science Fiction and Class Consciousness” | Friedhelm Schneidewind: “Talking Animals as Acting Persons” | |
| 16: 00-16: 30 pm | Coffee break (Foyer, GCSC II) | |
| 16: 30-17: 30 pm | GfF General Meeting (Conference Room, GCSC II) | |
| 17:30 p.m. - 19:XNUMX p.m. | Break (individual arrangement) | |
| 19:00 p.m. | Reading with Florian Schäfer: Almost Extinct Mythical Creatures: The Legendary Expedition of Konstantin O. Boldt (Conference Room, GCSC II) followed by a joint transfer (Foyer, GCSC II) | |
| Saturday, 30.08.2025 | ||
| Time of day | Panel I: Conference Room (GCSC II) | Panel II: Seminar Room 109 (GCSC II) |
| 9: 00-10: 30 pm | Human alterity in technology and AI
Chair: Christian Knöppler |
Cultural Perspectives on Beasts
Chair: Sarah Faber |
| Pascal Klenke: AI – The Alien Being? Between Technical Reality and Cultural Imagination | Roberta Fiorina: “Understanding Cultural Perceptions of the Non-Human through an Anthropology of the Fantastic” | |
| Jennifer Preuß: Forms of non-human alterity in Star Trek | Kristin Aubel: "Pythons and Pelicans. Animal Creator Deities in Freshwater and Raybearer " | |
| Aleta-Amirée von Holzen, Zurich: How robots in current children's books should and want to be people | Francesco Villari: Categorical Beasts: Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels as a Philosophical Anti-Bestiary” | |
| 10: 30-10: 45 pm | Coffee break (Foyer, GCSC II) | |
| 10: 45-12: 15 pm | Trauma and Wonder
Chair: Aleta-Amirée von Holzen |
Fantastic Beasts in Games
Chair: Pascal Klenke |
| Peter Immanuel Eich: Milk as a central symbol of a significant otherness in Johanna Spyris Heidi
novel |
Xaver Boxhammer: Cataloguing the Monstrous: Bestiaries in Digital Games | |
| Pia Nöfer: Max Kruse's Junker Hollowhead – Monstrous doppelganger as a coded consequence of trauma? | Stephanie Lotzow, Peter Podrez: Ludic Animal Horror – On Disturbances of the Human-Animal Relationship in
Computer games |
|
| Maria-Ana Tupan: Constructing the Human: Kazuo Ishiguro's Androids in Light of Trauma Studies | Alena Cicholewski: Enemy, Family, Savior: Representations of Polar Bears in Indie Video Games | |
| 12: 15-12: 45 pm | Lunch break (Foyer, GCSC II) | |
| 12: 45-13: 45 pm | Keynote: (Pseudo-)Medieval Bestials in Fantasy by Florian Schäfer (Conference Room, GCSC II)
Chair: Laura Zinn |
|
| 13: 45-14: 00 pm | Conference closing and farewell (Conference Room, GCSC II) | |
Overview:
- Annual conference Hamburg 2010
- Annual conference Salzburg 2011
- Annual conference Zurich 2012
- Annual conference Giessen/Wetzlar 2013
- Annual conference in Klagenfurt 2014
- Annual Conference Tübingen 2015
- Annual Conference Munster 2016
- Annual Conference Vienna 2017
- Annual conference Friborg 2018
- Annual Conference Berlin 2019
- Annual conference Augsburg 2020
- Annual conference Cologne / Bamberg 2021
- Annual Conference Dortmund 2022
- Annual Conference Dresden 2023
- Annual meeting Kassel 2024
- Annual Conference Gießen 2025
- Annual Conference Cologne 2026