English professor Brian Attebery gives keynote address at international conference

Professor Brian Attebery recently traveled to Brno, Czech Republic, to give a keynote address at a conference sponsored by Masaryk University on “Fantasy and Myth in the Anthropocene.” The idea of the Anthropocene, proposed several decades ago by chemist Paul Crutzen, reflects the transformation of the global environment by human activity and has become an important perspective in many disciplines.

This is the first conference to focus specifically on the role of fantastic and mythic stories in shaping attitudes and practices. Attendees came from the U.S., Canada, Britain, and many countries in Europe.

Attebery’s credentials as a scholar of fantasy and science fiction led to the invitation from conference organizers. The event provided a chance for Attebery to connect with the other keynote speaker, Dr. Marek Oziewicz, who was at ISU as a visiting scholar in the Department of English and Philosophy in 2011-12 and who now holds an endowed Chair at the University of Minnesota.