LCC symposium brings out the " monstrous " in all of us

Last week, the School of Literature, Communication and Culture (LCC) held a symposium entitled " Monstrous Bodies in Science, Fiction and Culture: Celebrating 25 years of the fantastic in the arts at Georgia Tech. "

The two-day event featured a variety of events, including panelists, lectures, exhibits and readings.

" Thursday was our kind of ' Tech ' day, " explained Amelia Shackelford, a Science, Technology and Culture major and the conference assistant. Students presented both fiction and academic works. There was also a lunch and a session with sci-fi author and guest of honor Paul di Filippo.

Friday ' s events focused more on the local Atlanta science fiction scene. Popular culture expert Rhonda Wilcox spoke about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, editors and producers from Cartoon Network ' s Adult Swim participated in an open Q & amp;A discussion, and there was a session on how to get into the fiction, comics and movie industry as a professional writer.

The idea for a " Monstrous Bodies " symposium emerged in part from the ashes of the Frankenstein exhibit that visited Tech last year.

" Everyone wanted to follow that up, because it was such a big success, " Shackelford said. The department contemplated holding a Dracula-themed event, but found the topic to be somewhat narrow.

" We found that very few of us were really doing any research or work with vampires, " Shackelford said, " So through a lot of brainstorming and looking at what everyone was working on, we just really expanded it out to ' monstrous bodies. ' "

Lisa Yaszek, an assistant professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture (LCC), was responsible for bringing in speakers for the Frankenstein event and, as the conference coordinator, for " Monstrous Bodies " as well.

According to Yaszek, planning for " Monstrous Bodies " began about a year ago.

One reason for the symposium was to celebrate 25 years of science fiction at Tech, beginning with LCC professor emeritus Irving ' Bud ' Foote ' s pioneering work in science fiction studies.

Foote started putting science fiction classes together for university credit and taught the first one in 1971. Throughout his career, he brought science fiction authors to Tech, and when he retired in 1999, he donated a large science fiction collection to the library.

" People weren ' t really teaching science fiction studies at the university level much before the late 1960s and early ' 70s, " Yaszek said.

" We wanted to celebrate Bud ' s work, and show the community what we ' re doing here...that you can study science fiction and that we have undergraduate research in the School of LCC, " Shackelford said.

The primary reason for the event, besides celebrating Foote ' s contribution to the Institute, was to share student and faculty work in LCC and STaC.

" We really just wanted to showcase that work and bring together some of the science fiction community around Atlanta and...celebrate the fantastic, " Shackelford said.

Yaszek, who teaches a science fiction class in LCC, said, " We wanted people to see the sort of fun classes that we ' re doing where we ' re doing serious study of popular culture. "

In fact, she has been teaching Paul di Filippo ' s short stories for a number of years. " I always find that students get really excited about [di Filippo ' s books]. The first time I taught him, in fact, students asked for more stories, and I ' ve never seen a Georgia Tech student ask for more homework before. "

That enthusiasm prompted Yaszek to bring di Filippo to campus.

His session was one of the highlights of the symposium, according to Shackelford.

" He ' s kind of one step below rock star in the writing world, " she said. " We really lucked out with that one, because people, especially in the science fiction world, actually know his name - but he ' s not so well known that he ' s enormously expensive. And he was excited to come. "

Di Filippo ' s work also meshed perfectly with the symposium ' s theme. " [He] really does write stories about monstrous bodies, about humans and animals and machines all spliced together, " Yaszek said.

Dave Lillethun, a Computer Science graduate student and one of the symposium attendees, found out about the event from a former STaC alumna.

" I wasn ' t quite sure what to expect, but I figured it would be worth checking out. [It] did not disappoint, " he said. " I think the talk by Rhonda Wilcox on ' Word as Flesh ' in Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my favorite part. It was an insightful discussion of the meaning of ' the flesh ' - the monstrous body - in Buffy, and a contrast between it and ' the word, ' representing the intangible aspect of the world. "

Jason Ellis, a STaC senior and secretary of the STaC society, organized the academic panels for the symposium, and appreciated the opportunity to present his and other students ' research to an audience of interested peers.

" I enjoyed the original fiction that was read at the Literary Slam, and I thought that all of the papers presented in the Academic Panels were top notch, " Ellis said.

At an average of 30 students per event, both Shackelford and Yaszek were pleased with the symposium ' s turnout, and felt the symposium to be a success.

They also said they hope to hold similar events in the future, perhaps with a different theme.

" I ' d love to do it again next year, " Yaszek said. " I say that with the enthusiasm of having just finished the symposium, but...at this point we ' re optimistic it would be something we ' d really like to explore in the future. "

" I really hope to see Monstrous Bodies back again next year, " Lillethun agreed.

The symposium also made a more general statement on liberal arts at Tech. " I think it ' s good press for both LCC and for Tech in general, " Shackelford said. " It shows we have more rounded people than just science and engineering. "

Yaszek agreed. " It ' s only recently, within the last five or six years, that we ' ve even begun to talk about the liberal arts at Georgia Tech, and to do an arts festival like this [shows] that we do a lot of creative work [here], " she said. " As far as I can tell, it ' s one of the first arts festivals we ' ve ever had at Georgia Tech...it was a lot of fun. "

Videos of all the events will be available online at www.monstrousbodies.lcc.gatech.edu within a month.