Higher education is at a pivotal point of reflection due to the forces of neoliberalism, anti-Blackness, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the past, higher education has overlooked the university's far future, opting to focus on readily conspicuous change. Along with this disregarded conversation, these crises present higher education faculty,…

Although there is a great deal of available material on using nontraditional resources for teaching sociology, the pedagogical uses of science fiction have not been examined for 20 years. This essay first asserts the need for an update based on changes in society and in science fiction over the past two decades. The paper then focuses on the uses…

It has been argued that in higher education academic disciplines can be seen as communities of practices. This implies a focus on what constitutes identities in academic culture. In this article I argue that the transition from newcomer to a full participant in a community of practice of physicists entails a focus on how identities emerge in…

This paper is designed to accompany an appearance by the author as a panelist during a session on science fiction and teaching methods at the I-CON 28 Science Fiction Convention held April 3-5, 2009, on Long Island (near New York City). The author describes how he employs social science fiction in an honors course at the university level to…

Notes that African American literature has always had science fiction elements in its focus on narratives of the alienated and marginalized "other." Contends that Octavia Butler and Virginia Hamilton are two African American writers of science fiction who examine the connections between the stories of a culture and the genre of science…

Explains how college level teachers of geography can use works of science fiction to help students understand geographical settings and create impressionistic pictures of a given region in their minds. Particular areas in which science fiction is useful include invented terrestrial landscapes, specialized extraterrestrial landscapes, disaster…

Suggests that the excitement of 20th century science has had its truly important influence on the forms of literature--as a rich new source of metaphor, analogy, and style--and even on the structure of fiction. (Author/EB)

The author notes the growing use of scientific concepts in contemporary experimental novels, as well as the development of structuralism, a method of literary criticism drawing heavily upon the sciences. He suggests that these are valuable trends toward strengthening the bridge between the sciences and the humanities. (Author/SJL)

Asserts that not all science fiction is great. Discusses ways to tell the difference between the good and the bad. Encourages even those teachers who are most leery of a genre with which they are unfamiliar to jump in and try science fiction as a way of opening up student minds and imaginations. (PRA)

The articles collected in this volume focus on the literary genre science fiction. Part one, "Backgrounds," includes "Starting Points" (Kingsley Amis), "Science Fiction and Literature" (Robert Conquest), and "The Roots of Science Fiction" (Robert Scholes). Part two, "Theory," contains "On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre" (Darko Suvin),…

Describes the use of popular science fiction films in high school and college science courses. Holds that young persons' fascination with science fiction can serve as a takeoff point for serious discussion of principles of physics and biology, in particular. (GC)

The founder of future studies was the English novelist, popularizer, and journalist H. G. Wells. In Wells all the tendencies in earlier futurist thought coalesced, and in his abundant writings, models may be found for nearly all that is best in present day futures inquiry. (RM)

Describes an undergraduate physics course for nonscience majors which combines physics with science fiction films. Includes course format, sample module on the concept of momentum, and an appendix with a listing of science fiction films used in this course. (DS)

Presents an autobiographical sketch of a science fiction writer's relationship with the Information Technology revolution, from the Commodore PET to Microsoft 2000: a creator of imaginary futures privileged to observe an "imaginary future" in the act of becoming present reality. Touches on the nature of narrative and technology, the changing…

Many students come to college with little knowledge of or interest in traditional humanities topics; however, a college teacher of humanities can use science fiction as a "door in," a tool to take students from the known to the unknown. Literary elements such as characterization, plot, setting, theme, and point of view are present in science…