Conference Program – As If, But Differently: Meditations on the Realisms of Our Times

1 December 2023, Friday
New Conference Hall	Conference Hall 2
Registration: 9:00 – 9:15 Official opening: 9:15 – 9:30
9:30 – 11:00 Panel 1: Future Fictions of the Earth Chair: Alexandra Glavanakova Emilia Ganeva, Tackling the Apocalypse in the Cli-fi Novels ‘The Water Knife’ (Paolo Bacigalupi) and ‘New York 2140’ (Kim Stanley Robinson) Beatrice Masi, Irrealism and Uncanniness in ‘Is Stacey Pregnant? Notes from an Irish Dystopia’ by Tomás Mac Síomóin Alexandra Glavanakova, Reading Ustopias
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee break (New Conference Hall)
11:30 – 13:00 Chair: Alexandra Glavanakova Plenary Talk: Paweł Frelik, As If, But Doubly Differently: Science Fictions We Don’t (Usually) See
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch (New Conference Hall)
14:30 – 16:00 Panel 3: Realist (Anti-)Utopias in Georg Lukács and Andrei Platonov’s works Chair: Philip Stoilov Anna Schubertova, Georg Lukács: From Utopian Realism to Realist Utopias? Alexander Kiossev, Possible Future: Looking Backwards? Philip Stoilov, “Sweat, Mind, Machine”: Andrei Platonov’s Cosmological Utopia	14:30 – 16:00 Panel 4: U(s)topian Historicity Chair: Vesselin Budakov Adela Mirolevska, “Ordinary is what you are used to”: Re-discovering History in the Dystopian Future of Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Vesselin Budakov, (Un)Imaginary Eugenics and Late 19th-century Utopias Robert Emmons, ‘Game of Nim’, Film Screening
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break (New Conference Hall)
16:30 – 18:00 Panel 5: The Technology of Fiction Chair: Alexander Popov Angel Igov, All Fiction is Speculative Ana Kocić Stanković, States of Possibility: The Speculative Realism of Colson Whitehead’s ‘The Underground Railroad’ Alexander Popov, The Novel as Novum: Thomas Pynchon’s ‘Mason & Dixon’	16:30 – 18:00 Panel 6: Geo-socio-techno-fictional Interfaces Chair: Rayna Rossenova Federica Moscatelli, Pre-colonial Roots, Nomadism, and Community as Post-Apocalyptic Resistance in ‘Tejer la Oscuridad’ by Emiliano Monge Payal Dahiya, The Insidious Notes of Reality: Understanding Psycho-Pass as a Socio-Political Imagining Elena Mustakova, The Hero’s Journey in the 21st Century: The Radical Challenge of a Cultural Leap into Global Unitive Healing
18:30 – 20:00 Cocktail party (British and American Studies Resource Centre)

2 December 2023, Saturday
New Conference Hall	Conference Hall 2
9:00 – 10:30 Panel 7: Reality, Family and Psyche in the SF of Ursula Le Guin and Samuel Delany Chair: Alexander Popov Mihail Atanasov, Exploitation of the Subconscious: Utilitarianism and the Individual in Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Lathe of Heaven’ Lilia Nikolova, Family Representation in the Utopian Community Ognyan Tenev, Trauma, Taboo, and Tradition in Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘Solitude’
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break (New Conference Hall)
11:00 – 12:30 Chair: Alexander Popov Plenary Talk: Caroline Edwards, The Weird Eroticism of Elemental Aesthetics (New Conference Hall)
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch (New Conference Hall)
14:00 – 15:30 Panel 8: Human/Nonhuman Chair: Rob O’Connor Daniel Adsett, The Negative Theology of Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg Nikolay Genov, “What will they not in the end become?”: Towards a Typology of Machine Rebellion in Speculative Fiction Rob O’Connor, “There weren’t many Google hits for ‘telepathic octopus’”: The ‘Realism’ of the Non-Human in Ted Chiang’s ‘The Story of Your Life’, Nnedi Okorafor’s ‘Lagoon’ and Doug Johnstone’s ‘The Space Between Us’	14:00 – 15:30 Panel 9: Future Readings of the Past Chair: Enyo Stoyanov Dusty Keim, Technology and Nostalgia in Post-Soviet Eastern Bloc Literature Bryan Banker, ‘We Do Not Want to Live Under Anyone’s Boot’: Humanity, Identity, and Capital in ‘The Expanse’ Enyo Stoyanov, The Uses of Retrofuture
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break (New Conference Hall)
16:00 – 17:30 Panel 10: The Limits of the Thinkable Chair: Severina Stankeva Georgi Iliev, Signifying and Cognitive Limitations in the Novels ‘The City & the City’ and ‘Embassytown’ by China Miéville Darin Tenev, The Fantasy of Matter in the Work of China Miéville Severina Stankeva, Seriously Funny: ‘Disco Elysium’ and the Metamodern Condition	16:00 – 18:00 Panel 11: Ecological/Economic Dystopias Chair: Bozhidara Boneva-Kamenova Bogdan Groza, Anthropological Agency in the Ecological Futures Depicted in Philip K. Dick and Frank Herbert’s Dystopias Natalia Vysotska, AI Religion and Ethos in Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Klara and the Sun’: Cross-cultural Negotiations Bryan Yazell, The Post-Zany Novel: Dystopia and Work in Contemporary Fiction Bozhidara Boneva-Kamenova, Finding a Place of Belonging In and Outside a Dystopian Community: Octavia Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower’
18:00 – 19:00 Student Performance (University Theater Alma Alter)
20:00 – 22:00 Conference Dinner (TBA)