ATTN Slashers: PLEASE submit a proposal to Prophecy and/or Sectus!

[emmagrant01]

In the past, slashers who've attended cons like The Witching Hour and Lumos have complained afterwards that there wasn't much slash-oriented programming at these events. Some have suggested that HPEF* (the organization behind many of these fandom events) is anti-slash and discriminates against slash-oriented panels, while others have insisted that the number of slash panels that are submitted is small, and so what ends up in the program is representative. I'm not going to speculate about the truth. However, I do know that I gave away 400 slashcast buttons at Lumos (and there were about 1000 attendees), so we must have represented a heck of a lot more than 5% of the fans there.

In case you haven't heard, submissions for Prophecy have been extended until February 15. The deadline to submit a proposal to Sectus is February 28. (Edit: More info about preparing your submission to Sectus is HERE.)

The point of this post is to encourage YOU to submit a slash-oriented roundtable, panel, workshop, or presentation for Prophecy or Sectus. The more people who do it, the better the chance that more slash-centric panels will show up in the programming. Our registration dollars support these cons, so we should make sure that the kind of programming we want to see is (at least) proposed. By sheer numbers alone, we could have quite an impact.

So what follows is my advice for writing a proposal for a fan conference, along with some things I think you should know about submitting to Prophecy in particular.

Disclaimer: This is all just my opinion, and yours may well be different. My intent here is to make it easier for people to think about submitting a proposal when they aren't sure where to begin. Please feel free to comment with alternate views and suggestions and your own experience.

There are several different types of programming at typical fan cons. Roundtables are small and focus on a specific topic, with a moderator leading the discussion with prepared questions. Panels are usually comprised of three of four people who are "experts" on a topic, with a moderator who asks the panelists questions and leads the discussion. Presentations are usually given by one or two people who speak on a particular topic, often with prepared slides. They typically have written an academic paper and base their presentation on it. A workshop is just what it sounds like: you lead a small group of people in a hands-on activity (lends itself well to art and drabbling, for example).

In my experience both with fan cons and academic cons, the key to writing a great proposal is to have an interesting, well-defined, and NEW topic. Take a look at the proposals accepted for TWH and Lumos (pdf of schedule here) to see what's been done before. If your topic is too vague ("Harry/Draco ship talk!"), it won't catch the reviewer's eye. If it's too similar to a panel that appeared at the previous cons, the odds of it getting accepted are lower. (Or at least, they ought to be.) Try to narrow the focus of your topic to something that will actually contribute a new discussion to the fandom, rather than rehash ideas that everyone has talked about for years ("Why do we slash?"). However, since Prophecy occurs two weeks after the release of book 7, another option would be to put a book 7 twist on an old topic.

When you write your proposal, it's a good idea to try to stick to the old five-paragraph essay format you learned about back in high school. You might end up editing it down to meet word-length limits, but I think this is a good place to start:

1. First paragraph (2-3 sentences): Tell them what you're going to tell them. Introduce the topic and give a brief explanation for why it is important. End the paragraph with "In this roundtable/panel/workshop, we will..."
   
2. Next three paragraphs (3-4 sentences each): In each paragraph, describe one important subtopic that will come up in your discussion. If you can't think of three things to write about, reconsider the topic. This is where you're building the case that this will be an interesting panel, and you're giving the reviewers an idea of the content of your panel. Sell them on it.
   
3. Last paragraph (2-3 sentences): Tell them what you told them. Reword the main topic of your panel and sum up what you said in the three body paragraphs.

Have someone beta-read your proposal and make sure it makes sense. For the love of Merlin, don't submit it with grammar and spelling errors!

Give your proposal a catchy, descriptive title. Most people at cons decide what programming to go to by looking at the title alone, so you need to catch their attention.

If you want to propose a panel discussion, you will also need to secure your panelists. Think of people in fandom whom you would consider knowledgeable about the subject and email them to ask if they would be willing to participate. Send them your proposal draft and ask for their input. Allow a week for this to happen. Don't be shy! Most people are honored to be asked.

Stuff you should know about submitting to Prophecy:

• There is no place on the form to submit your TITLE, so I would suggest including it in the proposal text box. Though it isn't clearly stated on the web site, there is a 500 WORD LIMIT for your proposal. Since that includes your title, you should be careful to count the words.

• For some reason, the Prophecy organizers want a ridiculous amount of personal information about you and all of your panelists. (This is cleverly hidden on the second page, with no advance warning.) If you don't provide it all, you can't submit the form. They want your real name, your fandom name, your mailing address, TWO phone numbers, TWO email address, and a short (150 words max) biography.

Some slashers will understandably balk at this -- I know I did. It's hard to trust that your RL identity won't be spread amongst strangers, and some folks have a lot to lose. I also felt uncomfortable asking my panelists to send me that information, since we really only know each other online. So I asked if my panelists could email their contact info directly to the organizers instead, and that turned out to be a workable solution. (And I checked the box for "presenting alone" on the form, entered only my own contact info, and then put a note to this effect in the "notes" section of the proposal.) If you take this route I suggest emailing the organizers to make sure this is okay. You might be able to submit your entire proposal this way. It wouldn't hurt to ask. Also, recall that you probably provided a lot of this information when you registered.

After the fact, it occurred to me that I could have just lied and made up all of that extra "contact info". I'm just sayin'...

• You should receive a confirmation email after your submission. I had to resend mine because the form cut it off for some reason, so be prepared to do that if necessary.

---

This is may sound difficult and intimidating, but PLEASE consider submitting a slash-oriented proposal if you are planning to attend Prophecy or Sectus! The organizers can only create a program out of the submissions they get. If we make up more than a third of the con attendees, then it would be reasonable to expect close to a third of the programming to be slash-friendly. The more proposals we submit, the greater our chances of getting a significant number of them accepted. And that would make the cons more fun for all of us, right?

If you submitted a slash-oriented proposal to Prophecy, could you comment here? I'd be curious to know how many were submitted vs. how many will be accepted.

* I should note that Sectus is not an HPEF event, and that most of the organizers are active slashers. AFAIK, the event is overtly slash-friendly. I don't mean to imply that HPEF events aren't slash-friendly, of course, but there is a not-insignificant chunk of the fandom that thinks that is the case, and I do recognize that may be one reason why slashers tend not to submit proposals as much as others do.

Edit: To be clear, this is NOT intended to be a slam against HPEF. I don't think HPEF is anti-slash at all, but I know there are people who do. I want to encourage those people to submit proposals anyway, regardless of how they feel, because these cons are for all of us. If you don't submit, you really can't complain, right?

Comments

[titti]

I can tell you that I submitted 2 slash proposals, one roundtable and one panel to Phoenix Rising and both got accepted. I also know other slash panels were accepted there as well.

One thing I would say in favor of Phoenix Rising, they went out of their way to get people to submit slash panels. They listed specific prompts, pairings, emailed people. I really love the work they have done.

I might sent the Snape roundtable to them, but if he dies, I'll be crying throughout it.

I sent a book 7 proposal to Prophecy and mine was cut off too. *g*

[glockgal.livejournal.com]

You know how much I love you, don't you? So much love.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Everything I've ever submitted to a fan con has been accepted, but I have heard many people complain that their slash-centric panel or roundtables were rejected from TWH and Lumos. The impression many slashers have is that these events are not slash-friendly. I doubt that's true, personally, but I know people feel that way.

I don't know if those proposals were not focused enough or if there was some sort of ceiling set for slash programming at those cons or what, but I think we can only benefit from having more high quality proposals submitted. My hope here is to encourage people to do that. :-)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pimping! :-D

[titti]

Lumos was much worse than TWH though. I still can't believe that the only proposals accepted were a Femmeslash and a Draco/Snape panel. And yes, I too have spoken with people who submitted slash panels and were rejected. We'll see what happens this time, but if there is no slash, it might be the last hpef even I go to.

[henpecked.livejournal.com]

My problem isn't so much coming up with an idea or writing a proposal (I've got a half-finished one kicking around somewhere), but the actual presentation of it. I hate being on the spot in a very public situation. I get nervous and say stupid things. I think that's what's prevented me from actually submitting a proposal. I'd hate to make a total ass out of myself at a con.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Well... seeing as I'm a Leo, and therefore a glutton for attention, I think I just might throw my lot in. Shall I try for Sectus and Prophecy? And... hmmm... call me, maybe, and we can toss some ideas back and forth? I'll call Kriken too.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I submitted two proposals to Lumos: the crack panel (which was implicitly about slash, though it wasn't obvious from the title or proposal itself) and a femmeslash roundtable focusing on minor characters (like Luna, Pansy, etc.). Both were accepted, though I was asked to make the latter about writing minor characters in general rather than focus on femmeslash, because "there was already a femmeslash panel on the program". (Which there was, though I didn't go to it in the end.) My co-presenter and I made the adjustments, but quietly agreed that femmeslash would still be a major part of the discussion.

I was also on a panel about what writers do when canon changes, and I talked about slash when it was my turn to speak. And I got some nasty looks from some people in the front row, which really surprised me! But it didn't deter me, LOL -- I talked about it more, just to see their reactions. ;-)

My impression at Lumos was that there were a tremendous number of slashers there, and that slash came up a LOT in discussions and panels, often in cases where it wasn't obviously the main topic. Was that true for you?

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I can see that. The nice thing about running a roundtable, though, is that all you're doing is asking questions and picking people who raise their hands to answer them. You just have to facilitate, and you don't necessarily need to do much "presenting" yourself. You can also submit in collaboration with someone else, and both of you can run the discussion. Would something like that sound more appealing to you?

I really want to encourage anyone who has an idea to submit it. It may not even get accepted, but the more slash-oriented submissions there are, the more slash-oriented sessions will end up in the program. It's a numbers thing, you know?

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Submit! You know you want to!

*giggles at the innuendo*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

There was Beth's Slash vs. Het panel too. Those were the main three that were obvious, though (as I said in my previous comment) there were other panels where the slash was implicit. It still wasn't a particularly large number, though. I'd love to see that change. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

(I'm going to do this anonymously. I hope that's okay. :p)

TWH didn't have any limits on slash programming at all. As far as I remember (I don't have records to refer to anymore), most of the slash proposals were accepted, though not all of the presenters turned up. I do remember a couple of the accepted proposals that ended up being dropped were really interesting, and I do remember that there were also not a lot of slash proposals compared to the overall submissions. Phoenix Rising had a lot more slash proposals, and more good proposals (in all areas, to be fair) than space can accommodate.

I wasn't involved with Lumos at all, but TWH and PR had vetting boards, so the makeup of the accepted proposals came from a committee representing different backgrounds and interests. I think you have some good advice that can help your chances of impressing the selection group for any conference, and I'd maybe add or agree with a couple of things.

1. Know your topic. What's already been presented, what's current, and what is going to make you sound like a crazy person. Make your proposal a discussion, a question, an exploration, rather than merely a soapbox. In other words, don't tell the selection board that people who don't have characters use condoms in fic are irresponsible fucking moronic bastards--tell them about how you're going to discuss the issue of safe sex in fanfic, reasons why people might not want to read or write about condoms, how fans create lines in fiction where fantasy is more important than reality, etc.

2. Remember that you might be submitting a very similar proposal to five or six other people, so do what you can to make your proposal stand out. Read the submissions requirements carefully so that your proposal adheres to the selection committee's standards and doesn't look pieced together. Make sure it's been edited carefully; spelling and grammar do count. If you're not sure how to make your submission, ask first, so that you don't have a bunch of incomplete submissions floating around.

3. I'd actually disagree a bit on the five paragraph essay format. Abstracts really don't need to be more than a paragraph or three, especially since the selection committee may have hundreds of proposals to read, and glazed-over eyes when they get to yours. (By all means, though, if five paragraphs are how you can best present what you're talking about, definitely do it.) Make sure you clearly state your topic and how you're going about it in a few sentences, provide a couple of examples, and most importantly--and most often forgotten--make sure you say why it's important. The last is the biggest mistake people make, I think. There are hundreds, thousands of different topics to focus on, so what does your proposal contribute to the whole? (I don't mean outright say "I want to represent X," but do support how your proposal is relevant *right now*.)

From there, it's up to other factors outside your control--how appealing your proposal is to the selection committee, the makeup of the total submissions, space, and stuff like that--but at least you gave it a whirl, yeah?

(Man, have I wanted to get that all off my chest for a while. Anonymously.)

[titti]

Yes, there was but I was thinking of specific slash panels.

I think we turned many panels into slash panels because we talked about it, but I didn't feel that the organizers and/or presenters were interested in making them slash panels, and I've gotten a few dirty looks myself.

After a while it was easier to skip the official panels and to to the meetups and the in promptu slash panels we had in people's rooms.

I'm one of those who truly hated the programming there.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Great advice! As someone who's organized panels, I know I've had to scramble to find replacements when panelists couldn't come at the last minute. I assume it's a problem in general, and I don't know what programming committees can do about it. Maybe have a waiting list for sessions?

You're absolutely right that a 5-paragraph essay might be a bit much! It's something that I thought people might at least be familiar with. But I do think that you ought to be able to write something like that, and then cut it down if you need to for the actual submission.

make sure you say why it's important. The last is the biggest mistake people make, I think.

Yes, great suggestion!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I think we turned many panels into slash panels because we talked about it

LOL, true -- and it just goes to show you how many of us there are. ;-)

By strength of numbers alone, I think we could have a bigger impact on programming if more people just submitted proposals. I mean really, even if half of them are crap, it would still make a difference if a third of the submitted proposals were clearly slash-friendly. And if it didn't increase the number accepted, that would say something, wouldn't it?

[titti]

But would we ever know? They could say that they had more het proposals this year, or that more were submitted and accepted before the deadline extension, or that they were simply more interesting.

I'm a suspicious bitch, sorry.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know about the missing people problem, either. The conferences I've worked with have required registration as confirmation, and didn't form any sort of waiting list. (I know why no waiting list--they had already let the selection committee take in everything it desired; program book and schedule out and difficult to change on the fly (incorrect materials are no help to attendees); next thing on the list might not fit available room space; presenter might have conflict with other presentation at the same time; presenter may not have time to make or change travel arrangements, etc.) Separately, the ones that I've worked with actually accepted a percentage more proposals than space allowed, knowing that some people would end up dropping out and then the accepted presenters would fit the time available. I don't know if there is any perfect approach.

I'm a bit horrified that you were asked to change your topic so drastically--I always assume that if someone submits on X, they want to present on X, not Y. It's one thing to say "could you please be sure to mention Q to round out your topic" if it seems something important is missing, but.

And I think I agree, actually. Starting with five paragraphs can help you see if you just haven't got a whole presentation, or if you've got so much that it needs to be focused. And also that *any* organization in your proposal/abstract is better than none! (Separately, if you've only got a couple of sentences...is that all you've got to say?)

I was having a brain fart earlier, and I've remembered another huge and all-too-common mistake: spoilers. It's a proposal, not a summary. Tell the people how it's going to end. Far too often someone says there is this thing, and this thing, and you wanna know why they're important? Come to my presentation and find out! The selection committee doesn't want to take the chance that your conclusion is going to turn out to be "Voldemort is made of cheese and toothpicks, so Harry should serve him at a party themed around defeating the Dark Lord through munchies."

I did also forget to mention that it's good to include a couple of sources in your summary if it might be relevant. For example, if you're talking about the history of slash fandom, you should mention that you're drawing on (and know about) Henry Jenkins and other major scholars. A lot of presentations don't require that sort of research, but sometimes people forget to support why they're the right and knowledgable person to present the topic.

Now I really will take my anonymous (but interested) butt off the soapbox now. Good luck with your proposals!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Emma, I think what you're doing in encouraging slashers to submit programming to the upcoming cons, but it hurts *a lot* to see this completely bogus and baseless "hpef is antislash" rumor.

I'm posting this without talking to any of the voting members of HPEF - I'm involved with the organization itself but I don't have a vote and I don't have an official role on the current/upcoming teams - I'm mostly there to write copyright and ToU stuff and renew domain names.

There is no anti-slash policy at HPEF. None at all on the org level, or on the con team level. There never has been and I can't imagine there ever will be. There has been slash-focused programming at every single event to date, and there have been slash readers/writers on the board and teams since we began. Our first president, folk has written slash, as has our current president, gwendolyngrace - they've been writing HP slash since 2000.

I have no idea where this insidious rumor began or why it spread or was ever repeated, but it is *not true*.

If anyone has any questions about it, they can ask me - I don't want to be spammity in your lj, though, so would it be better for me to designate a post in my lj in case anyone does? I can do that....

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I know, and I tried REALLY hard to make it clear that I honestly don't think there's any basis for that attitude in reality. But the fact is that there are a lot of people out there who think it's true. I don't mean to slight you or anyone else, and I do apologize for that.

However: this post is NOT about discussing that issue, but more about asking slashers to put their money where their mouth is, to use a silly metaphor. I've heard way too many slashers complain about the programming at these events, and I want to encourage them to stop complaining and participate instead.

[wildfyre.livejournal.com]

Word!

I would guess that slashers make up an even higher percentage of Sectus attendees than they do at other cons, yet so far we have shockingly few slash-related proposals.

Please don't complain to the organisers about the lack of slash-centric programming if you're not going to submit anything! We can only programme in what we're offered ;-)

The Sectus submissions process is incredibly easy - we do require real names for registration (as we have to perform ID checks) but that will never be passed on to anyone, and you're welcome to use any name you like for submitting proposals.

[wildfyre.livejournal.com]

BTW, I meant to add that, since the book is being released during Sectus, we're also welcoming more vague proposals for post-book spoiler zone programming.

For example, you're a Snape fan and, whatever happens, you're going to want to talk about how it pertains to the Greasy Git. Just submit a proposal for a round table called "I can't believe Snape is(n't) Evil!" Or something. Then say it will be an open forum to discuss the actions/death/relationships/whatever of Snape in Book 7 as appropriate, but you'll come up with a more specific agenda at the time.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Totally! Participation *is*, imho, the key to having a great time at cons - whether you present on your own, or speak your mind on something that's important to you at a round table.

And there's actually two other forms of participation I know about: at Sectus, FA is co-producing a live "radio play" at the event, and we're still taking submissions. While it has to be pg-13, we'd be happy with het, slash, gen or a combination of the above, so if someone wants to write one, they should!

And there's fanart - I know at Prophecy, and I think at Sectus too, they're still open for gallery submissions.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Please don't complain to the organisers about the lack of slash-centric programming if you're not going to submit anything! We can only programme in what we're offered ;-)

Abso-fucking-lutely yes. I've organized themed sessions at conferences in my field and have had to face 12 proposals for 10 slots -- and only 2 of them any good. The programming is only as good as the submissions. That seems obvious to me, but if you've not been involved in something like that before, maybe it isn't?

Thanks for making the submissions process so easy! Lumos was easy too, but I found the process for Prophecy to be not so well-organized. :-P

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Oooh, baby! Er... and who's going to dominate me, huh?
*waggles eyebrows*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I just got a couple of ideas from reading that...

:-D

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... what else could we put where our mouths are? To quote...

Draco: "You were shagging Cedric Diggory? No wonder you said you'd never had a girlfriend!"

Harry: "I... it... absolutely not sh-sha... Malfoy, stop putting words in my mouth!"

Draco: "What else have you had in that mouth?"

*giggles*
I'll put my money where my mouth is. And more.
*giggles again*

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Oooh, FictionAlley Radio Play? Where can I apply/submit something? *bounces* Squee? Squeesquee?

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

All the info is here - and to clarify, one doesn't have to attend sectus to submit a play!

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm attending Sectus anyway, so there's no problem regardless!
OotP movie, Sectus, Book 7 release, and Prophecy... DAMN, July is going to rock my slashy socks. I think I might just implode from the sheer squee-ness of it all!

Stimpy: "I'm so happy, I can hardly contain myself!"

[fiona-fawkes.livejournal.com]

Heh. I knew I was reading the comments for a reason. :D

[gossymer.livejournal.com]

Heya- just catching up on ol' RSS feeds and found this :)

I can't help thinking that it's not so much about the lack of ideas or interest in slash panels; slashers probably have some notion - however vague it might be at any given point of time - of what they'd like to see happen in a panel.

The problems seems to be with figuring out what to do if your proposal is actually accepted and approved. The responsibilities and tasks seem daunting to newbies, especially the averag person who may not be all that fond of public speaking or organizing events.

It'd be awesome if slashers had a place they could throw ideas at each other, generate interest in proposals and perhaps even get *volunteers* who'd be willing to help organize the event. It could also mean that rough ideas could be improved - making it that much more likely to be accepted.

Yes, this is me rambling...

Slash Proposals

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Emma,

Thank you for posting about this and trying to get people to submit proposals for Prophecy. As you so rightly said, the vetting panels can only select from proposals they receive. HPEF *absolutely does not* have a policy against any particular type of proposal - our mission is to present a variety of topics, and in fact we would strenuously object to any committee or organization that tried to censor topics within our decision-making whatsoever. We're all about the free speech.

As an example, at our first conference, Nimbus - 2003, two exhibitors objected to the slash panel they encountered (more specifically, to cross-generational porn). We allowed them to leave the conference rather than disrupt what we all viewed as a legitimate avenue of investigation into the text.

Slash is welcome and encouraged alongside any other reading of the text. I think what you say about making sure the topic is well-defined and *something new* is important - we received a bit of feedback at Lumos that many of the panels were "repeats" - though I'm not certain they were repeats of things at previous HPEF conferences (perhaps other conferences, such as Accio or Convention Alley, but that's a different matter). What we *don't* want to do is to present the same topics over and over. What we *do* want to do is encourage a diverse range of discussions for our attendees to choose among.

Gwendolyn Grace
President, HP Education Fanon, Inc.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

As always, the deadlines for submitting proposals is far too in advance of what I'm actually doing in my life. I can't submit a proposal because I don't know if I'm going to either conference (although I certainly am not going to the U.K., THAT I do know).

[fiona-fawkes.livejournal.com]

YOU are and evil enabler. Thanks for the kick in the butt. Your how-to guide here will help a lot with putting everything together.

Re: Slash Proposals

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for commenting! I think a lot of people don't know how much HPEF tries to be open and balanced. Little slights and rumors add up to a lot of misunderstandings, and it's really hard to straighten things like that out on the internet.

I do hope this post encourages more people to submit proposals of all kinds, because that raises the standard of content for everyone. :-)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Mwahaha! My work here is done. ;-)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

That's true for me at work too. Deadlines for conferences are 9 months to a year out, and that's a long time to plan in advance.

But if you have ideas for proposals that you wouldn't mind handing off to other people to develop, I hope you'll post them?

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

The Harry/Draco Roundtable was actually accepted at Lumos. The proposer ended up not going and failed to ask anyone to assume the panel for her.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I had forgotten about that, but yes, now that you mention it, that is what happened. When she said she wasn't going to be able to go, I was surprised that she didn't hand that roundtable off to someone else, because there were plenty of people who would have jumped at the chance to run it. I think some folks might not be aware that's an option, though.

[unsymbolic.livejournal.com]

So I'm gonna preface this comment by saying that I'm really really not intending to be wanky, that I mean all criticism as constructive, that I'm just trying to voice a perspective that I haven't heard anyone else voice before, that I know for many folks Lumos was a great con, and that my response isn't intended as a slight against anyone but just feedback about how/where I am inclined to spend my energies based on my personal experience. [/disclaimer]

As an academic specifically working on HP slash, I'm certainly one who has submitted slash-centric proposals to cons. Some of those proposals and papers have been more explicitly focused on slash than others-- the paper I presented at Patronus was, for example, focused on critiquing the heteronormativity of HP canon and was clearly informed by and sympathetic towards slash without being about slash per se.

Personally, I haven't sent a proposal to Prophecy for a couple of reasons. It is very soon after Sectus, for one, and would add another country to my travel plans. But also, my experience with Lumos left me less than eager to attend another con organized by the same folks. I did submit a specifically slash-centric proposal to Lumos; I was given a slot only in their poster session, which was neither the format I wanted nor a format that is in the least friendly to the abstract theoretical and textual analysis framework that I work with. In short, in order to create a poster (i.e. to make a presentation that was accessible in quick visuals), I had to change my topic and approach such that not only the slash, but all fan fic, content was taken out.

I couldn't help but notice two things at Lumos: there were not only very few presentations on slash, there were also very few "high theory" academic presentations, and there were no presentations that were both academic and focused on slash. In other words, it's not as if my proposal was drowned out by a glut of folks working on the same material in the same way as I do. Honestly (and I am really really not trying to toot my own horn here, but merely to do a "know thyself" kind of reflexivity) I think it's likely that the reason my proposal wasn't accepted outright was because it was perceived as being too abstractly theoretical and because it was slash based (as if either one would have been acceptable, but both together didn't fly).

Live and learn-- what I took from the experience is that I need to be careful of speaking too much critical theory lingo to fan con folks and to write a different style of proposal than I would write if I was going to bite the bullet and send something to, say, CSA or MLA. That might be a good lesson on the one hand, but on the other, from the perspective of an academic working on HP and "high" critical theory, Lumos was sadly lacking-- as in, the con did not (with a few exceptions) host the kind of academic work on HP that would be able to cross over and be compelling at a conference of academics. One could chalk this up to there not being enough academic proposals offered but... well, I only know from my own experience in this case.

I'm pointing this out here because it seems to me that whether it was a conscious move on the part of any conference organizer(s), the "be academic but not too academic" dovetails with the perception of a bias against slash on the part of HPEF. One of the reasons I decided so early on that I wanted to attend Phoenix Rising over Prophecy was that PR made public who is on their vetting boards and made me, as an academic, feel that I was going to be judged by folks who were already acquainted with the theoretical conversations of which my work is a part. Rightly or wrongly, that is not the impression I've so far gotten from HPEF-run cons. (And I should note here that I didn't attend TWH).

Anyway, I'm really tempted to submit a proposal to Prophecy because I'm interested to see their response, but I'm not sure I'd be able to attend even if my proposal was accepted and I don't like the idea of submitting just to "test" them. So as of right now, I've submitted to Sectus and to Phoenix Rising (and been accepted by the latter).

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

First, thank you SO MUCH for your comment here. I've been wondering where the academic presentations on slash were at these cons -- hell, where the very academic presentations were, period -- and I'd always assumed that such proposals just weren't submitted. So it is VERY interesting for me to hear about your experience. Wow.

I did submit a specifically slash-centric proposal to Lumos; I was given a slot only in their poster session, which was neither the format I wanted nor a format that is in the least friendly to the abstract theoretical and textual analysis framework that I work with.

I can't imagine how that happened. If I were you, I would have felt like I'd been slapped in the face, to be honest.

what I took from the experience is that I need to be careful of speaking too much critical theory lingo to fan con folks and to write a different style of proposal

And that is really too bad, because I know I'm not the only one who would love to see more applications of critical theory to fandom topics. That's one of the things I find fascinating about the academic side of fandom, actually. The snarky bit of my brain wants to suggest that your proposal may have been over the heads of those on the vetting board. But that wouldn't be very nice, of course. ;-)

I hope you do submit a proposal to Prophecy, because I'd love to hear more about your work, but also because I can't help but be curious to find how it would be received.

[unsymbolic.livejournal.com]

If I were you, I would have felt like I'd been slapped in the face, to be honest.

That would about sum up my feelings at the time, yeah.

The snarky part of my brain is inclined to agree with the snarky part of your brain.
I once read someone somewhere critiquing the move to de-jargonize disciplinary discourse when speaking to non-specialists audiences. The author argued (convincingly, I think) that the notion that non-specialists should be insulated from having to grapple with jargon really amounts to a de facto shrinking of what counts as a "commonly shared" lexicon. In other words, the more we compartmentalize particular styles of speaking (like critical theory-speak), the more we marginalize the knowledge projects associated with them, thus making the "everyday speech" of "everyday people" more and more banal, restricted, and hegemonic since the only words it can speak in (and thus the knowledge it can [re]produce) are the same words that don't challenge it.

All of which is to say that I agree with you completely that the "lesson learned" is a bit of a shame. But there's also a kernel of a good challenge hidden in there (always look on the bright side of death, right?)-- because to make really abstract critical theory accessible to an audience in a 200 word abstract, or a 20 minute talk, and apply it to something that is of interest to a fan audience... if a presenter can do that then they've got a skill that is invaluable to critical theory in general.

Are you going to Sectus, btw? Because assuming my Sectus proposal gets accepted, you'll get to hear me natter on about slash and critical/queer theory stuffs there. Either way, I'd love to talk shop it's so much less stressful than writing my thesis.

[titti]

I didn't know that, but even with that the feeling I got from most presenters and most organizers was one of antislash.

[glockgal.livejournal.com]

More than welcome; I know Prophecy is definitely looking for more slash panels!

Are you coming to Prophecy....? Perchance? *trembly wibbly*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! Prophecy and Sectus. :-D