LSFRC is a research community, a place for people to share research ideas, explore new texts and perspectives on Science Fiction in a friendly and welcoming environment, regardless of background, institutional affiliation or educational status.
We actively support and encourage diversity in Science Fiction studies and fandom, not only in the range of approaches to the genre (including looking at the genre through the lenses of race, class, gender, sexuality, disability etc), but also in our commitment to providing a welcoming space for the intellectual engagement with Science Fiction for people of all backgrounds and experience.
LSFRC News
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Poetry on Drugs (Zine)
In 2025, LSFRC co-director Francis Gene-Rowe co-founded the Radical Dreams Network with Stephen Mooney and Richard Parker, the same trio that co-organised Corroding the Now: Poetry + Science|SF in 2019. Like Corroding the Now, the Network’s undertakings have seen overlap with the wider LSFRC crowd. Following a debut symposium in early 2026, Poetry on Drugs: Language, Dreaming and the…
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Compost Futures: As Zine, As More-Than-Human Practice
This is how we’ll remember That like mycelia, like the soil, like interconnected forests and seas We have always belonged to one another. This is how we’ll find unexpected pathways. This is how we’ll reconstitute the world. (Dias 2023) ‘Compost’ as a metaphor and a theoretical framework has been taken up by ecofeminists (Hamilton and…
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Gas in the Tank (zine)
We made a zine! We don’t have the energy for much at the moment, which is also what this zine is about: the things we don’t have energy for, the things that give us energy, the things we want to spend our energy on in the future. Download the zine as a PDF here (57.1…
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Monday, 16 December Reading Group
Location: Guy Debord Room at Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, E1 5QJTime: Monday, 16th December, 7pm (UK time) The London Science Fiction Research Community will host a reading group session to discuss Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin. As always, all are welcome. Afterwards, most likely some people will decamp to a nearby pub. Content warning:…
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Imagined Worlds
A month of events, screenings, and talks across Lewisham Libraries, celebrating science fiction and fantasy. We will be exploring world-building and utopian and dystopian futures. A season organised by Lewisham Libraries and supported with public funding from Arts Council England via the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Check out the full listings of events: Week 1…
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22/09/24: A Debut Virtual Festival Celebrating ESEA Speculative Fiction & Authors
Event Date: 22 September, 2024 Event Time: 11:00 am BST to 4:30 pm BST Join our co-directors Angela YT Chan and Dr Yen Ooi for the first edition of a virtual festival celebrating East and Southeast Asian speculative fiction and authors! Register here. Imaginarium will feature some of the most diverse and exciting British and international…
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The Seep Reading Group + Andor Event
For the first time since 2020 LSFRC will be hosting in-person reading group sessions. In an effort to manage our collective capacity, these will occur every 2-3 months, and will be in-person only for the time being. Wherever possible, we will aim to announce these at least four weeks in advance, though it has not…
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‘Sowing and Trekking Through Time: Science Fiction Imagines a Revolutionary 2024’
A roundtable discussion between creatives, theorists and activists, and will include readings from Octavia Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower’ and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Date: Monday, 24th June 204Time: 6.30pm – 8.30pm (UK time) Attendance is both in person and online.Location: Hong Kong Alumni Room and onlineBentham House, 4–8 Endsleigh Gardens, London, WC1H 0EG…
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August 2023 Reading Group – Re-Trace / Re-Wire
Dinesh Valke, Tunnel Sheet Spider’s Web (2012) Join our co-directors Cristina Diamant and Francis Gene-Rowe for the August 2023 reading group, taking place Monday 28 August, at 19:00 (London time) over Zoom. Contact us for a Zoom link, as well as if you need any assistance. Please note that Corroding the Now is available from…
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Reading Group Bibliography: Smart Cities in/as Science Fiction
With many thanks to Zoë Mantas for assistance provided in compiling references from the July 2023 LSFRC reading group session. Ornament and Crime by Adolf Loos (1913) Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia by Samuel R. Delany (1976) Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1854) Walden 2 by B. F. Skinner (1948) “Terraforming Earth”: Climate and…
Our Activities
Monthly Reading Group
Regular sessions bringing the community together
- Informal discussions about the month’s selected SF texts (short stories, novels, articles, essays, films)
- No prior experience or knowledge required – welcome to all
- Online via Zoom, usually 7-8:30pm UK time
- Video link delivered by our newsletter and Facebook group
Events
Sharing new perspectives in SF through participatory activities throughout the year
- Events beyond our Monthly Reading Group and Annual Conference offer activities to think more expansively about the annual theme and dive deeper into its subtopics
- Interdisciplinary and in multiple formats, we organise workshops and work-in-progress seminars for researchers, creatives and more
Annual Conference
A celebration of global and intersectional SF responding to our annual theme
- Culminating our year’s projects and collaborations, the LSFRC Annual Conference is a 2-day virtual, global event that demonstrates the plurality of critical and inspiring work being shaped with SF for more just futures. With contributions from fans, scholars, activist organisers, artists and more through:
- Keynote speakers
- Panel presentations
- Workshops
- Performances / screenings
