dr hab. Paweł Frelik, prof. ucz.

Paweł Frelik’s teaching and research interests include science fiction, audiovisual media (film, television, video games, music video), and unpopular culture. He has published widely in these fields, serves on the boards of Science Fiction Studies (USA), Extrapolation (USA/UK), and Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds (UK), and is the co- editor of the New Dimensions in Science Fiction book series at the University of Wales Press. In 2013-2014, he was President of the Science Fiction Research Association (USA), the first in the organization’s history from outside North America. He now serves as President of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (USA). In 2017, he was the first non-Anglophone recipient of the Thomas D. Clareson Award.

Role at the ASC

ASC Director
Speculative Texts and Media Research Group – Lead
MA Program Coursework Coordinator
Remote Teaching Coordinator

Achievements

Innovative Research Award, Science Fiction Research Association (USA), 2023

President, International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (USA), 2022-25

N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature – 2nd Place, Electronic Literature Organization (USA), 2017

Thomas D. Clareson Award, Science Fiction Research Association (USA), 2017

Vice-President, European Association for American Studies, 2014-18

President, Science Fiction Research Association (USA), 2012-2014

Senior Fulbright Fellow, University of California, Riverside, 2011-12

Publications

“Representation and Performances of Gender in Speculative Video Games and Game Mods,” Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction, eds. Lisa Yaszek, Sonja Fritzsche, Keren Omry, Wendy Gay Pearson. New York: Routledge, 2023, 210-217.

“Power Games: Towards the Rhetoric of Energy in Speculative Video Games,” Er(r)go 1/2022, 75-94.

“NeoCYBERLiberalPUNKism – polityka i ideologia cyberpunka,” Teksty Drugie 6/2021, 32-51.

“‘I’ve Heard Things You People Wouldn’t Imagine’: Blade Runner’s Aural Lives.” Science Fiction Film and Television 13, no. 1 (March 2020): 113–18.

“Cyberpunk Video Games.” In Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture, edited by Graham J. Murphy and Lars Schmeink, 88–99. New York: Routledge, 2020.

“Videogames and Virtual Lives: Science Fiction Gaming from the 1980s to the 2010s,” Cambridge History of Science Fiction, eds. Gerry Canavan and Eric Carl Link. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2019, 632-646.

“‘Silhouetes of Strange Illuminated Mannequins’: Cyberpunk’s Incarnation of Light.” In Cyberpunk and Visual Culture, edited by Anna McFarlane, Graham Murphy and Lars Schmeink, 145–82. New York: Routledge, 2018.

“The Master’s Digital Tools: Cognitive Capitalism and Non-Normative Gaming Practices.” Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 8, no. 2 (June 2016): 163–76.

“Famous for Fifteen Minutes: Permutations of Science Fiction Short Film.” In Simultaneous Worlds: Global Science Fiction Cinema, edited by Jennifer Feeley and Sarah Ann Wells, 47–61. University of Minnesota Press, 2015.

Courses (selected)

American Cinema (lecture)

American Science Fiction Cinema

American Television Series after 2000

Audiovisual Culture and Media in the United States (lecture)

Clips, Shorts, Videos: Short Form in Audiovisual Culture

Comics and Graphic Novels in the United States

Videogames: Culture, Texts, Issues

Hobbies/non-academic interests

Mojave Desert
music (Autechre / black metal / Coil / drone / ____)
video games (oh, wait – that’s research!)