KU News Release

Campbell Conference offers teachers a lesson on science fiction

LAWRENCE — Secondary school teachers who want to teach a science fiction course or incorporate science fiction concepts into their courses can have their questions answered at this year’s Campbell Conference at the University of Kansas. They also will have the opportunity to attend the Science Fiction Research Association’s annual meeting, which will be held July 10-13 in Lawrence.

The Campbell Conference’s teaching program will cover why science fiction should be taught, how to teach it, how to get a course approved and what resources are available to teachers and librarians. The program will run five hours on July 12 in the Kansas Union with slideshow examples and panel discussion. Registrants will receive a certificate of attendance and a teaching packet.

Writer and teacher James Van Pelt will be the keynote speaker for the Campbell Conference. Van Pelt teaches high school and college English in western Colorado. He has been publishing fiction since 1990, with numerous appearances in most of the major science fiction and fantasy magazines, including Talebones, Realms of Fantasy, Analog, Asimov’s, Weird Tales and SCIFI.COM. He has been a finalist for the Nebula Award, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Theodore Sturgeon Award. His first collection of stories, “Strangers and Beggars,” was released in 2002 and was recognized as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. His second collection, “The Last of the O-Forms and Other Stories,” which includes the Nebula finalist title story, was released in August 2005 and was a finalist for the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award. His novel, “Summer of the Apocalypse,” was released in November 2006.

Other participants will include James Gunn, director of KU’s Center for the Study of Science Fiction; Chris McKitterick and Kij Johnson, associate directors of the KU center; Nathaniel Williams, coordinator of the AboutSF project; and many other experienced writers and teachers.

Teachers and librarians may register for the conference online at the KU Continuing Education Web site. The registration fee of $40 includes lunch, handouts, DVDs and a tour of Spencer Research Library’s science fiction collections. They also have a choice of registering for the Science Fiction Research Association meeting.

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