The British Science Fiction Association is pleased to present the 2021 BSFA lecture at ConFusion, this year’s online Eastercon. Dr. Ariella Elema will present a lecture on “Nothing is Inevitable, or How to Hold a Trial by Combat”. It will feature swords, manuscripts, and legal history.

The talk will be at 15:00 on Sunday, 4 April 2021. Membership in the Eastercon is required to attend.

Dr. Ariella Elema is a legal historian and archivist living in Toronto, Canada. Sometimes she gets to peer at mysterious manuscripts in dead languages. Periodically, she gets to say "Egad! I think I've found it!" It's not entirely unlike being a wizard. Right now, she's writing a history of trial by combat.

The BSFA Lecture is intended as a companion to the George Hay Lecture, which is presented at the Eastercon by the Science Fiction Foundation. Where the Hay Lecture invites scientists, the BSFA Lecture invites academics from the arts and humanities, because we recognise that science fiction fans aren’t only interested in science. The lecturers are given a remit to speak “on a subject that is likely to be of interest to science fiction fans” – i.e. on whatever they want! This is the 12th BSFA Lecture.