ACCSFF '24 June 8-9, 2024	Program History Home
	In 2024, we made the difficult but necessary decision to end our relationship with the Merril Collection and move the conference to York University. We are extremely grateful for all the help and support we got from the Merril Collection for all those years; thanks to the generosity and hard work of Lorna Toolis, the late Head of the Collection, current Head Sephora Henderson, and staff members like Annette Mocek and Ames Geddes, we enjoyed great facilities and warm hospitality. We were able to offer both academics and members of the general public a chance to hear fascinating studies of Canadian fantastic fiction, film, comics and graphic novels, music, and more, and all at a low registration price while we were given the space without charge. Thanks to all those at the library who made ACCSFF so successful and affordable from 1997 to 2022. One of the challenges presented by holding the conference at the Merril is that the library is not open on Sundays. With our move to York University, we have been able to shift the days of the conference from Friday and Saturday to Saturday and Sunday, making it far easier for people to attend. Also, York is now accessible by subway--something that was not the case for the first two decades or so of ACCSFF's history--and so reaching the conference by transit is much more convenient. We're very grateful for the generosity of the Department of English and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and hope we are at the beginning of a long, mutually beneficial relationship. In 2024, we again offered eight sessions of scholarly papers and were able to avoid running concurrent sessions. There were two full sessions on Margaret Atwood, two on science fiction, one on fantasy, and sessions on media, the Indigenous fantastic, and gender in the fantastic. We had our first remote participants, including a team of scholars preenting from India during the first session on Atwood. Other topics covered included William Gibson, Peter Watts, Quebecois utopian literature, Larissa Lai's fiction, the work of Fonda Lee, and Nelvana comics. Feminist fiction and publishing were dealt with in the "Gender and the Canadian Fantastic" session. For details, follow the link above to see the full program. Speaking of Larissa Lai, she was our Author Keynote Address Speaker, and gave a wonderful talk on issues of marginalization in fantastic literature. She attended the entire conference and contributed greatly to the Q&A sessions after the academic papers were delivered. Also in regular attendance was our Scholar Keynote Address Speaker, Nicholas Ruddic of the University of Regina, who presented a delightful paper on his lifelong involvement in the world of the fantastic. Both talks were entertaining, personal, and engaging. We would like to thank Andy Weaver, Chair of the Department of English, and Rose Crawford, the Department's Administrative Coordinator, for their help. The Department offered financial assistance at a time of tight budgets, and Rose and other administrative personnel at the university lent their assistance in booking a room and with refreshments. Special thanks go to our student volunteers: Clare Wall, Annie Luong, George Kaldis, and Bettina Juzsak. Brian Curran at the York Bookstore ensured books by featured authors and Keynotes were available for purchase.