Annual Conference Cologne 2026

Annual Conference 2026 – Violence and the Fantastic

17th Annual Conference of the Society for Fantastic Research, September 17-19, 2026, at the University of Cologne

The program will follow shortly.

 

Call for Papers:

Violence is a central structural principle of fantastic narratives. Whether depicting intergalactic wars, epic battles, magical duels, monstrous creatures, heroic female warriors, dystopian surveillance regimes, apocalyptic landscapes, conquests and plunder, physical assaults, psychological transgressions, or more subtle forms of abused power: fantasy explores violence in all its facets—as a destructive force, as a threat to self and community, as an expression of crisis, as a tool of empowerment, as a metaphor and aesthetic device, and as a driving force of narrative dynamics. At the same time, the fantastic, like the speculative, opens up spaces in which violence can be exaggerated, alienated, displaced, or renegotiated. Fantastic media allow us to ask what is considered violence in which contexts, how and by whom violence is legitimized in which situations, and under what circumstances it is deemed unacceptable. Fantasy makes unequal power relations and structures that promote violence visible, clarifies social and moral conflicts, and offers an opportunity to imagine alternative forms of resistance, including those committed to nonviolence. The conference "Violence and Fantasy" addresses the question of how violence is depicted, glorified, critically reflected upon, aesthetically processed, and culturally negotiated in fantastic and speculative media. We invite contributions that deal with literary texts, comics, film and television, music, video and board games, as well as (live-action) role-playing games.

 

Presentations can be given in German or English.

 

An open track is available for submissions that deal with fantastic topics beyond the focus on "violence".

 

Possible topics:

• Depictions of physical, psychological, structural, epistemological and symbolic/cultural violence in fantasy, science fiction, gothic and horror.
• Violence in utopian, dystopian and (post-)apocalyptic works
• Violence in fantasy literature for children and young adults, as well as young adult fantasy
• Violence in radio plays, films and television: spectacles of sound design and visualization
• Violence mechanics in games, role-playing games and LARP, gamification of violence
• Violence and intimacy: Romantic fantasy, family, partnership, alliances
• Violence as a metaphor for social, ecological, or technological crises
• Violence as an aesthetic principle: staging, glorification, entertainment
• Violence in production and reception: fandom, market logic and voyeurism
• Violence and power: domination, control, repression, surveillance
• Violence and affect: physicality, vulnerability, anger, hatred, indifference
• Violence and trauma: memory, processing, narrativization, suppression
• Violence and monstrosity: bodily boundaries, transcorporeality, transformations, the Other
• Violence and gender/race/class/sexuality/disability in fantasy worlds
• Violence and nature: environmental destruction, slow violence and extractivism
• Violence and Politics: War, Colonialism, Imperialism, Biopolitics and Necropolitics
• Violence and resistance: rebellion, activism, empowerment
• Violence and Justice: Law, Punishment, Revenge and Vigilantism
• Violence as ritual: sacrificial practices, institutionalization, competition
• Violence and ethics: moral dilemmas, responsibility, agency
• Violence and Peace: Pacifism, Nonviolence, Overcoming Violence

 

Submission formats:

Individual presentations • Abstract (300 words) • Short biography (150 words)

 

Panels • Summary of the panel topic (300 words) • Abstracts of the individual contributions (300 words each) • Short biographies of the speakers (150 words each) Abstracts can be submitted in German or English.

 

Please send your proposals by Monday, June 1, 2026 to: american-studies@uni-koeln.de. You will be notified by the end of June whether your submission was successful.

 

Further information about the conference can be found at the following link: https://anglistik1.phil fak.uni-koeln.de/abteilungen-lehrende/literaturwissenschaft/juniorprofessur-amerikanistik-prof rauscher/research/gff-conference-violence-and-the-fantastic