Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies (IASFS) was established on the birthday of Isaac Asimov on January 02, 1998 at Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. It is relocated at Bangalore, Karnataka, India for administrative purposes. IASFS is a non-profitable registered association.
The motto of IASFS is to promote and develop research in the field of Science Fiction. It is trying to help the Ph.D researchers to get guidance and provide them a platform to present their scholastic works, to present scholarly papers in their areas of research and also in the allied fields. Provisions are also being made for reading self-authored science fiction short stories by respective authors during the conferences. It has organized annual and international conferences over the past 27 years.
Pioneers of IASFS:
(Left to Right: Dr. Panneer Selvam J, Chennai, TN, Dr. Srinarahari & Mr.Bhagwan Bhavnani, Bangalore, Karnataka, Dr. Purushothaman KS, Vellore, TN).
What is common among them?
Dr. Purushothaman was the first to earn in India the doctoral degree in the area of Science Fiction in the eighties; Later Dr. Panneer Selvam J and Dr.Srinarahari earned the doctoral degree in the same area.
In 1996, Dr. Srinarahari contacted American Studies Research Centre, Hyderabad, to get the list of scholars who have had visited the library to carry out research in the field of science fiction, the centre had promptly provided a list of scholars – Dr. Purushothaman, Dr. Panneer Selvan, Ms. Shalini Jacob from Jaipur, Ms. Lakshmi Thai from Tamil Nadu.
Without knowing one another, it is surprising to note that each one of the trio had chosen Isaac Asimov’s works for their doctoral degree research choosing different angles of study – Never they were overlapped!
After a series of correspondences among one another using postal services, ultimately the idea of establishing the association became practically possible.
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IASFS Founding Members:
(L-R – Mrs. Girija, Mrs. Bhavnani, Mrs. Suma B, Mrs. Kamala CK, Dr. Srinarahari, Dr. BD Joshi, Dr. Purushothaman KS, and Mr. Bhagwan).
Past conferences: List of Collaborators:
List of VVIPs, Guest Speakers, Distinguished Guests, Panelists, Moderators, Authors:
Record your Research Details:
When I was invited to take part in the Levitation24/Eastercon24 at Telford,UK from March 29th to April 1, 2024 as a Guest of Honour, I was asked to choose and take part in two more sessions among the list provided with.
In addition to my guest of honour speech (text of which I have appended under the menu “Library” in this webisite), I mailed an article on “The Impact of Science and Technology on the Innovative/Research of the Futuristic Science & Technology” and I was ready for presenting A PPT on “Science Fiction Scholarship Around the World from An Indian Perspective”. Perhaps due to the tight schedules minute by minute, both the programs could not find slots.
The association has a motto of developing and promoting research in the field of science fiction. Please click on the link below, fill the form and submit to us. We shall all share with one another the details of the research scholars, resource persons and supervisors so that we can interact with one another.
https://forms.gle/v4JquoFDgLSBGUsS8;
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A Few Hints helpful for organizing a Conference.
Just before the beginning of the pendamic era,- May 2018 – during the Asia-Pacific Science Fiction conference held at Beijing, China, an exclusive session was held entitled “How to Organize a successful science fiction conference?”. In which Mr. Francisco Verso, Mrs. Elizabeth Hull and Dr.Srinarahari were the Distinguished Invited Guest speakers. An Extract of a few of those suggestions have been recoded for the benefit for the prospective conference organizers as hints.: Please click the link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uOgwDZ29aHX5MQvtplTnBWjG7duVPU-_/view?usp=sharing;
e-certifcate file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q240nKzSZIiavIQETeNomK0GGHDU7kZG/view?usp=sharingl
A Few Hints for the Preparation of a pre-recorded video for the online conferences:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hAFj2GVUMtMt_RjbhyHoVCY68Xf5hsRs/view?usp=drivesdk;
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Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies® 