[Sfts-students] participate in online workshop series?

[Sherryl Vint]

Hello students,

I'm writing to see if any of you are interested in participating in a
series of 4 online workshops (details below) that andré and I will be
involved in, related to a grant secured by the University of Queensland.
This grant is about exploring how sf can be used to help us respond to and
navigate real-world process through sf thinking and worldbuilding. The
workshops are 2 hours each (from noon to 2 pm our time on the dates below);
two are in the summer, and then two in Fall.

If you are interested, please let me know. We have limited space and so
I'll allocate the available 'seats' on a first-come basis.

Thanks!
Sherryl

Workshop Dates and Keynotes

June 23 - Envision, with Nick Harkaway

Nick Harkaway is a British novelist and commentator who is best known for
his novels: The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, and Gnomon, which take
place in modern fantasy and science fiction settings. His works are a
determined attempt to re-frame current concerns over artificial
intelligence– an issue he suggests would be “staggeringly irresponsible”
for fiction writers to ignore. He intricately details the heroism of
ordinary people in extraordinary situations in his novels. He will be
speaking on the theme, Envision, and will focus particularly on how
storytelling can help researchers envision the future and improve their
decision-making.

July 7 - Engage, with Karin Tidbeck

Karin Tidbeck is a Swedish author who writes fantasy, speculative fiction
and weird fiction in Swedish and English. Their English debut, the 2012
collection Jagannath, received the Crawford Award and was shortlisted for
the World Fantasy Award. Their first novel, Amatka, was shortlisted for the
Locus Award in 2018. They have been described by Gary K. Wolfe as “one of
the most distinctive new voices in short fiction since Margo Lanagan”. The
intersections of their work between fiction, method acting and experimental
role-playing are particularly intriguing, and they will be speaking on the
theme, Engage, which focuses on how storytelling and role-playing can help
engage researchers to think about new environments and adopt new mindsets.

Oct 6 - Inhabit, with Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stan Robinson is an American science fiction novelist who is best known
for his Mars trilogy. Many of his novels and stories have ecological,
cultural, and political themes that feature scientists as heroes, and his
work has been described as “humanist science fiction” and “literary science
fiction”. He has taught at the University of California where he earned his
B.A. and PhD, and regards science fiction as one of the most powerful
literary forms. He has won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award
for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. For our What If? consortium, he
will be speaking on the theme, Inhabit, which looks at how worldbuilding
techniques can help researchers imagine the impacts of their research in
the future.

Oct 20 - Empathise, with Nisi Shawl

Nisi Shawl is an African-American writer, editor, and journalist, best
known for authoring science fiction and fantasy short stories. They write
and teach about how fantastic fiction might reflect real-world diversity of
gender, sexual orientation, race, colonialism, physical ability, age, and
other sociocultural factors. As co-author of Writing the Other: Bridging
Cultural Differences for Successful Fiction, they explore techniques for
writers to write credible characters outside their own cultural experience.
They will be speaking on the theme, Empathise, which explores the skills
used by SFF writers that might allow researchers to empathise with those
impacted by their research as well as specific tools that can help with
intercultural communication.


Sherryl Vint (she/her)
Professor
Director, Speculative Fiction and Cultures of Science
Editor, *Science Fiction Studies*
Editor, *Science and Popular Culture* book series
<https://www.palgrave.com/in/series/15760>
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