Preliminary Program
(subject to change)

Abstracts of papers accepted for presentation

 

Friday, May 16, 2008

Registration opens at  9:00 am
Exhibitors' Hall (UCR Commons Room 335) will be open 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

Opening remarks and Welcome to the Conference: 10:00 a.m.

Session I: 10:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 
“Mars from War to War: The Early International Mars 1860-1945”

George Slusser (University of California, Riverside): “J.H. Rosny’s Mars.”

Terry Harpold (University of Florida): “Where Is Verne’s Mars?”

Ekaterina Yudina (University of California, Riverside): "Dibs on the Red Star! The Bolsheviks and Mars in the Russian Literature of the Early Twentieth Century.”

Break (15 min.)

Mark Bould (University of the West of England UK): “Screening Mars: Desire and Denial in Aelita and Just Imagine.”

Lisa Raphals (University of California, Riverside): “A Chinese Martian Dystopia.”

Lunch break ON YOUR OWN: 12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m.

Session II: 2:00 p.m.-3:15 p.m.
“Martian Ways: Scientific and Mythical Uses of Mars”

John Huntington (University of Illinois, Chicago): “The (In)significance of Mars in the 1930s.”

Howard Hendrix (California State University, Fresno): "Beyond Matthew Arnold and Goldilocks: Extremophilia and the Outer Limits of Life in the Inner Solar System."

Joseph D. Miller (University of Southern California Medical School): “Life on Mars: Seeing Through the Eyes of Science and Science Fiction."

Break (15 min.)

3:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Featured Speakers:

Eric Rabkin: "Is Mars Heaven?: The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, and Ray Bradbury’s Landscape of Longing."

Frederik Pohl: "A Grand Master Reflects"

Break  (15 min.)

4:45 p.m.-5:00 p.m.  A Tribute to Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Gregory Benford

5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. "Killer Bs" Panel:
“Musings on the Science and Fiction of Mars.”

6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Reception

7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. "Mars in the Movies"

Last trolley to hotels will leave flagpole area at 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 17

Registration opens at 9:00 am.
Exhibitors' Hall (Room 335) will be open 10:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.

Session III: 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
"Post-War and Golden Age Mars"

Bradford Lyau (independent scholar):“Descendants of Micromégas: Anticipation's Views of Mars in France During the 1950's.”

Robert Crossley (University of Massachusetts, Boston): “Retrograde Visions: Martian Fictions in the Early Space Age.”

Dianne Newell (University of British Columbia) and Victoria Lamont (Waterloo University, Ontario): “Savagery on Mars: the American Imperialist Hero in Brackett and Burroughs."

Lunch break ON YOUR OWN: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. 

Session IV: 1:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m.
“Ray Bradbury’s Mars in Context”

David Hartwell (Tor/Forge Books): “The Non-Scientific Mars from Burroughs, Brackett & Bradbury to Today.”     

Philip Nichols (School of Design, University of Wolverhampton, UK): “Re-Presenting Mars: Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles in Media Adaptation.”

Eric Palfreyman (Collin College): “Mars is Heaven: Ray Bradbury’s Martian Landscape as a Mythological Setting for his Philosophical and Religious ideas”

Break (15 min.)

3:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Featured Speaker:

3:30-4:00 Set-up for Bradbury lecture.

4:00 p.m-5:00 p-m: Plenary Lecture:

5:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Book signing by Mr. Bradbury.
(One book per person, please.)

5:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m: Science Fiction Heritage Panel:

6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m: Book signing by conference speakers.

7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m: Presentation of the Science Fiction Poetry Association Archives to the Eaton Collection by Richard Gombert, Publication Archivist, followed by Poetry Reading and Open Mic.

Last trolley to hotels will leave flagpole area at 9:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 18

Exhibitors' Hall (Room 335) will be open 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Session V: 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
“The New Mars.”  

Jorge Martins Rosa (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal): “Business as Usual: Philip K. Dick’s Mars.”

Sha La Bare (University of California, Santa Cruz): “Chronicling Martians.”

Chris Palmer (La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia): “Kim Stanley Robinson: Icehenge to Blue Mars”

Break (15 min.)

11:15 am.-11-30 a.m. Presentation of the awards in Student Short Story Contest.

11:30 a.m-12:30 p.m: Concluding Panel:
“Millennial Mars: Twenty-First Century Possibilities for Fiction.”

Last trolley to hotels will leave flagpole area at 1:30 p.m..