About
Our Mission
At Sirens, our all-volunteer team donates their time and expertise to create a space where our community can cultivate the examination of gender through the framework of progressive speculative fiction. Like the characters in our favorite stories, we dream big and bold and bright—and our dreams are of better worlds for people of all genders.
At Sirens, you are welcome and you belong. We are committed to building spaces that are not only bold and brilliant, but hopeful and joyful, cozy and full of warmth. We are committed to showcasing work, including speakers and books, by marginalized creators. We are committed to helping the moral arc of the universe bend toward justice, while remembering that caretaking our community on that journey is vitally important.
Our History
We first presented Sirens in 2009, in Vail, Colorado, and then held the conference annually until 2021. Then, we paused. To rest. To read. To reimagine what Sirens could be—and we wanted it to be bigger and bolder and brighter.
Our Inclusivity Commitment
At Sirens, just like in the stories we read, we dream of better worlds for people of all genders—and we know that that can begin with us. We have read the books and done the research, but more importantly, we have the consistent, relentless lived experience of traversing spaces that were not designed for us and only reluctantly include us. We recognize that, even as we focus on gender, we cannot ignore marginalizations that occur along other axes of oppression.
We are committed, firmly, to creating warm, cozy spaces where people of marginalized genders feel welcome and valued. We are committed, firmly, to reading widely and progressively. We are committed, firmly, to showcasing diverse faculty and diverse work, including in areas such as literature, research, and activism. We are committed, firmly, to creating learning experiences for all, for even as we are marginalized in some instances, we are privileged in others. We are committed to the caretaking and community building required in our present world. We are committed to hope, joy, justice, and revolution.
If you, too, read widely and progressively, you are welcome at Sirens. If you, too, wish to learn from luminous, brilliant, diverse faculty, you are welcome at Sirens. If you, too, wish to learn new patterns of hope and joy to balance your calls for justice and revolution, you are welcome at Sirens. If you, too, simply want to spend time with a community that dreams of better worlds for marginalized people, you are welcome at Sirens. We are committed, firmly, to welcoming you.
Meet Our Leadership Team
Sirens would not be possible without the hard work of its many volunteers. Get to know the members of our all-volunteer leadership team below!
