Contemporary Authors

• Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CT), 2014
• The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2015
• Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre Peter Lang (London, England), 2016
• Octavia E. Butler University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 2016

1. Octavia E. Butler LCCN 2016950188 Type of material Book Personal name Canavan, Gerry, author. Main title Octavia E. Butler / Gerry Canavan. Published/Produced Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2016] ©2016 Description xviii, 225 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm. ISBN 9780252040665 (hardback) 025204066X (hardback) 9780252082160 (paperback) 0252082168 (paperback) 9780252099106 (ebook) 0252099109 (ebook) CALL NUMBER Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms 2. Metamorphoses of science fiction : on the poetics and history of a literary genre LCCN 2015958990 Type of material Book Personal name Suvin, Darko, 1930- author. Main title Metamorphoses of science fiction : on the poetics and history of a literary genre / Darko Suvin ; edited by Gerry Canavan. Published/Produced Oxford : Peter Lang, [2016] ©2016 Description l, 465 pages : black and white illustrations ; 23 cm. ISBN 9783034319485 (pbk.) 3034319487 (pbk.) CALL NUMBER PN3433.5 .S95 2016 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms 3. The Cambridge companion to American science fiction LCCN 2014032788 Type of material Book Main title The Cambridge companion to American science fiction / edited by Eric Carl Link, University of Memphis, Gerry Canavan, Marquette University. Published/Produced New York : Cambridge University Press, 2015. Description xxx, 254 pages ; 24 cm. ISBN 9781107052468 (hardback) Shelf Location FLM2015 147708 CALL NUMBER PS374.S35 C36 2015 OVERFLOWJ34 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms (FLM2) Shelf Location FLM2015 158220 CALL NUMBER PS374.S35 C36 2015 OVERFLOWJ34 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms (FLM2) 4. Green planets : ecology and science fiction LCCN 2014001764 Type of material Book Main title Green planets : ecology and science fiction / Edited by Gerry Canavan and Kim Stanley Robinson. Published/Produced Middletown, Connecticut : Wesleyan University Press, [2014] Description xii, 295 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm ISBN 9780819574268 (Hardcover) 9780819574275 (paper) Shelf Location FLM2014 156035 CALL NUMBER PN3433.6 .G74 2014 OVERFLOWA5S Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms (FLM1)

• Marquette University - http://www.marquette.edu/english/canavan.shtml

  Gerry Canavan
  English:Faculty:Gerry Canavan
  Canavan

  OFFICE LOCATION & CONTACT
  Marquette Hall 244
  (414) 288-6860
  gerry.canavan@marquette.edu
  Assistant Professor
  I primarily teach courses in contemporary American literature and popular culture, exploring the ways that authors, filmmakers, and other artists have explored and critiqued the conditions of contemporary life through their creative work. My courses are centered around vigorous class discussion and frequent short written responses, culminating in a final research project on a subject of each student’s choosing. I find that this approach to learning encourages my students to seek interdisciplinary connections between the subjects of my courses and their own work in other classes and majors, fostering their development as independent thinkers and scholars. I have always been struck by Kenneth Burke’s characterization of academic discourse in “The Philosophy of Literary Form” as a discussion at a party to which we arrive late and from which we must also depart early. I feel the most important work we can do as educators in the humanities is to position our students to enter such conversations across the academy and across society at large: to provide students with access to what has already been said, to help them express themselves knowledgeably with eloquence and poise, and to instill within them the confidence that what they have to say genuinely matters.

  My research and publication has primarily focused on one of the most culturally important and globally influential genres of the postwar United States: science fiction. In my work I seek to establish science fiction as a cornerstone for literary study and critical theory, as well as speak to larger questions about the role of the imagination in political and cultural life. My study of science fiction reveals a paradigm that fundamentally structures the way we think about the world; where once the hegemonic language of the future was religious eschatology, I believe it is now predominantly the speculations of science fiction that frame our collective imagination of our possible futures. In our moment, it is science fiction that attempts to articulate the sorts of massive social changes that are imminent, or already happening, and begins to imagine what life on a transformed globe might be like for those who will come to live on it.

  I am currently at work on two book projects, the first a critical monograph on science fiction and totality and the second an in-depth consideration of the career of Octavia Butler for the Modern Masters of Science Fiction series at University of Illinois Press. Among other recent publications, I have recently published an article on the apocalyptic imaginary in Margaret Atwood’s environmental disaster novel Oryx and Crake, a chapter on Huntington's disease for Disability in Science Fiction: Representations of Technology as Cure, and an article on superhero fantasy in Butler's Patternist series in Paradoxa's special issue on African SF. Forthcoming articles concern science fiction's relationship to energy politics, the Anthropocene, the military-industrial complex, computerized financial speculation, and geriatric medicine."

  I am the co-editor of special issues of American Literature and Polygraph on “speculative fiction” and “ecology and ideology,” respectively. My edited critical anthology, Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction (co-edited with Kim Stanley Robinson) was published in spring 2014 by Wesleyan University Press and The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction which I co-edited with Eric Carl Link was just recently published in 2015 by Cambridge University Press

  I regularly offer courses in 20th and 21st century literature, science fiction, comic books, and the fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien. In spring 2013 and spring 2014, I will offer a special topics course in cultural preservation that I have developed through an "Enduring Questions" grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

  Teaching Fields

  Twentieth- and twenty-first-century American literature and culture
  Popular culture
  Contemporary world literature
  Literary and critical theory

  Office Hours
  Fall 2017

  MWF 12:55-1:55 pm

  Teaching Schedule
  Fall 2017

  1953H/911 Fri 2:00-3:15 Lalumiere Hall 310
  Honors First Year Seminar
  4610/101 MWF 12:00-12:50 Cudahy Hall 108
  Individual Authors: J.R.R. Tolkien
  6700/101 MW 2:00-3:15 Johnston Hall 416
  Studies in 20th Century American Literature: Utopia in America

  Research Interests

  Science fiction
  Literature and popular culture
  Critical theory
  Transnational American studies
  Ecological humanities

  Selected Publications
  Octavia E. Butler, University of Illinois Press, 2016
  Co-edited a special issue of the journal Paradoxa (issue 28) titled "Global Weirding." (2016)
  "Death Immortalized." The New Inquiry (October 2016). http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/death-immortalized
  "We Have Never Been Star Trek." British Sight & Sound (September 2016): http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/star-trek-50-we-have-never-been-star-trek
  “Quiet, Too Quiet: Review of Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest.” Los Angeles Review of Books (February 2016): https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/quiet-too-quiet.
  "From 'A New Hope' to No Hope at All: 'Star Wars,' Tolkien, and the Sinister and Depressing Reality of Expanded Universes." Salon.com (December 2015): http://www.salon.com/2015/12/24/from_a_new_hope_to_no_hope_at_all_
  star_wars_tolkien_and_the_sinister_and_depressing_reality_of_expanded_universes/
  "Capital as Artificial Intelligence.” Journal of American Studies: “Fictions of Speculation” (October 2015), eds. Annie McClanahan and Hamilton Carroll: 1-25.
  “Anything Could Happen (And We Would Believe It).” New Orleans Review 41 (2015): 223-226.
  “The Warm Equations.” Los Angeles Review of Books. June 2015.
  Co-Editor with Eric Carl Link, The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
  Editor, Science Fiction Film and Television (Liverpool University Press, 2014-).
  Editor, Extrapolation (Liverpool University Press, 2014-).
  Co-Editor with Kim Stanley Robinson, Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction(Wesleyan University Press, 2014).
  “Knowing No One’s Listening: Octavia Butler’s Unexpected Stories” and “‘There’s Nothing New / Under The Sun, / But There Are New Suns’: Recovering Octavia E. Butler’s Lost Parables.” Los Angeles Review of Books (Summer 2014).
  "I'd Rather Be in Afghanistan: Antinomies of Battle: Los Angeles." Democratic Communique 26.2: "Media, Technology, and the Culture of Militarism: Watching, Playing and Struggling in the War Society." Eds. Robin Andersen and Tanner Mirrlees (Fall 2014): 39-54.
  "If the Engine Ever Stops, We'd All Die': Snowpiercer and Necrofuturism." Paradoxa 26: "SF Now." Eds. Mark Bould and A. Rhys Williams (Fall 2014): 41-66.
  “Bred to Be Superhuman: Comic Books and Afrofuturism in Octavia Butler's Patternist Series.” Paradoxa 25 (Fall 2013): 253-287.
  “Life Without Hope? Huntington’s Disease and Genetic Futurity.” Disability in Science Fiction: Representations of Technology as Cure. Ed. Kathryn Allan. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013: 169-187.
  “Hope, But Not for Us: Ecological Science Fiction and the End of the World in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx & Crake and The Year of the Flood." Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory 23.2 (Summer 2012): 138-159.
  “Fighting a War You’ve Already Lost: Zombies and Zombis in Firefly and Dollhouse.” Science Fiction Film and Television 4.2 (Fall 2011): 173-204.
  Co-Editor with Priscilla Wald, American Literature 83.2: “Speculative Fictions” (2011).
  “‘We Are the Walking Dead’: Race, Time, and Survival in Zombie Narrative.” Extrapolation 51.3 (Fall 2010): 431-453.
  Co-Editor with Lisa Klarr and Ryan Vu, Polygraph 22: “Ecology and Ideology” (2010).

  Butler book american science fiction green planets

  Honors/Awards
  Won the Way-Klingler Young Scholar Award, 2016.
  NEH course development grant: "Enduring Questions: What Is Worth Preserving?"
  Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Fellowship for Undergraduate Instruction, Duke University (2011-2012)
  R.D. Mullen Research Fellowship, Eaton Collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Utopian Literature, University of California, Riverside (2010-2011)
  Travel Grants to the Nagoya American Studies Summer Seminar at Nanzan University, Japan, and the Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland (2010, 2011)
  Jacob K. Javits Fellowship for Graduate Study in the Humanities (2002-2004)

• Author C.V. - http://academic.mu.edu/canavan/canavancv.pdf

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  1GERRY CANAVANEmail: gerry.canavan@marquette.eduWebsite: http://www.gerrycanavan.comTwitter: @gerrycanavanOffice Phone: (414) 288-6860Department of EnglishMarquette University1217 W. Wisconsin Ave.Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881Academic EmploymentEnglish Department, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WIAssistant Professor of 20thand 21stCentury Literature(2012-)EducationDuke University, Durham, NC Ph.D. in Literature (2012)Dissertation:Theories of Everything: Science Fiction, Totality, and Empire in the Twentieth CenturyDissertation Directors: Fredric Jameson and Priscilla WaldUniversity of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NCM.F.A. in Creative Writing (2004)Thesis:Happy Few: Short StoriesThesis Directors: Lee Zacharias, Michael Parker, and Fred ChappellCase Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OHB.A. summa cum laude in English (with departmental honors) and Philosophy (2002)Teaching and Research AreasAmerican and British literature and culture, transnational American studies, literary and critical theory, popular culture and cultural studies, film and television, comics and graphic narrative, science fiction, fantasy, horror, genre theory, ecological humanities, animal studies, disability studies, empire studies, contemporary world literature, new media, game studies, utopian studies.Publications (in print)MonographsModern Masters of Science Fiction: Octavia E. Butler. Champaign: Univ. of Illinois Press, 2016.Edited CollectionsCo-Editor with Eric Carl Link, TheCambridge Companion to American Science Fiction(2015). Cambridge University Press.Co-Editor with Kim Stanley Robinson, Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction(2014). Wesleyan University Press.Special EditionEditor, 40thanniversary reissue of Darko Suvin’s Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (2016; original publication 1979). Ralahine Classics.Journal EditorMUCo-Editor, Extrapolation(2014-). Liverpool University Press.Co-Editor, Science Fiction Film and Television (2014-). Liverpool University Press.
  2Guest Editor for aSpecial IssueMUSpecial Issue Co-Editor with AndrewHageman, Paradoxa 28: “Global Weirding” (2016).Pre-MUSpecial Issue Co-Editor with Priscilla Wald, American Literature83.2: “Speculative Fictions”(2011). Duke University Press.Special Issue Co-Editorwith Lisa Klarr and Ryan Vu,Polygraph22: “Ecology and Ideology” (2010). Duke University Program in Literature.Peer-Reviewed ArticlesMU“Unless Someone Like You Cares a Whole Awful Lot: Apocalypse as Children’s Entertainment.” Science Fiction Film and Television10.1 (Winter 2017): 81-104.“After Humanity: Science Fiction after Extinction in Kurt Vonnegut and Clifford D. Simak.” Paradoxa 28 (2016): 135-156.“‘A Dread Mystery, Compelling Adoration’: Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker,and Totality.” Science Fiction Studies43.2 (Summer 2016): 310-330.“The Octavia E. Butler Papers.” The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction3.1 (Fall2015): 42-53.“Capital as Artificial Intelligence.” Journal of American Studies 49.4: “Fictions of Speculation.” Eds. Annie McClanahan and Hamilton Carroll (Fall 2015): 685-709.“I’d Rather Be in Afghanistan: Antinomies of Battle: Los Angeles.” Democratic Communiqué26.2:“Media, Technology, and the Culture of Militarism: Watching, Playing and Struggling in the War Society.” Eds. Robin Andersen and Tanner Mirrlees (Fall 2014): 39-54. “‘If the Engine Ever Stops, We’d All Die’: Snowpiercer and Necrofuturism.” Paradoxa 26: “SF Now.” Eds. Mark Bould and A. Rhys Williams (Fall2014): 41-66.“‘Something Nightmares Are From’: Metacommentary in Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods.” Slayage: The Journal of the Whedon Studies Association10.2/11.1 (Winter 2014). http://slayageonline.com/Numbers/slayage36.htm.“Bred to Be Superhuman: Comic Books and Afrofuturism in Octavia Butler's Patternist Series.”Paradoxa 25 (Fall 2013): 253-287.Pre-MU“Hope, But Not for Us: Ecological Science Fiction and the End of the World in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx & Crake and The Year of the Flood.” Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory 23.2 (Summer 2012): 138-159.“Fighting a War You’ve Already Lost: Zombies and Zombis in Fireflyand Dollhouse.”Science Fiction Film and Television 4.2 (Fall 2011): 173-204.“‘We Arethe Walking Dead’: Race, Time, and Survival in Zombie Narrative.” Extrapolation51.3(Fall 2010): 431-453.Book ChaptersMU“Don’t Point That Gun at My Mum: Geriatric Zombies.” The Walking Med: Zombies and the Medical Image.Eds. Sherryl Vint and Lorenzo Servitje. State College, PA: Penn State University Press, 2016.17-38.
  3“You Think You Know the Story: Novelty and Repetition in The Cabin in the Woods.” The Politics of Adaptation: Media Convergence and Ideology. Eds. Dan Hassler-Forest and Pascal Nicklas. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 201-213.“Retrofutures and Petrofutures: Oil, Scarcity, Limit.” Oil Culture. Ed. Daniel Worden and Ross Barrett. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.331-349.“Far Beyond the Star Pit: Samuel R. Delany.” Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction. Ed. Isiah Lavender III. Jackson, MS: UniversityPress of Mississippi, 2014.48-64.“Science Fiction.” The American Novel: 1870-1940.Eds. Priscilla Wald and Michael A. Elliott. The Oxford History of the Novel in English, Vol. 6.New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.370-385.“Life Without Hope? Huntington’s Disease and Genetic Futurity.” Disability in Science Fiction: Representations of Technology as Cure. Ed. Kathryn Allan. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013.169-187.“Debt, Theft, Permaculture: Justice and Ecological Scale.” Debt:Ethics, the Environment, and the Economy. Eds. Merry Wiesner-Hanks and Peter Y. Paik. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2013.210-224.“‘You Can't Change Anything’: Freedom and Control in Twelve Monkeys.” TheCinema of Terry Gilliam: It’s a Mad World.Eds. Anna Froula, Karen Randell, and Jeff Birkenstein.New York: Wallflower Press/Columbia University Press, 2013.92-103.Pre-MU“Zombies, Reavers, Butchers, and Actuals in Joss Whedon’s Work.” Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion. London: Titan Books, 2012.285-297.“Terror and Mismemory: Resignifying 9/11 in World Trade Centerand United 93.” Portraying 9/11: Essays on Representations in Comics, Literature, Film and Theater. Eds. Véronique Bragard, Christophe Dony, and Warren Rosenberg. McFarland & Co., 2011.118-133.“Person of the Year: Barack Obama, the Joker, Capitalism, and Schizophrenia.” Politics and Popular Culture. Ed. Leah A. Murray. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010.2-13.Review EssaysMU“Death Immortalized: Review of Cixin Liu’s Death’s End” (October 2016): http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/death-immortalized/“We Have Never Been Star Trek.” Sight & Sound(September 2016): http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/star-trek-50-we-have-never-been-star-trek“Doktorvater.” Reviews in Cultural Theory 6.2 (August 2016): http://reviewsinculture.com/2016/08/01/doktorvater/“The Discovered Country: Star Trek Beyond.”Los Angeles Review of Books (July 2016):https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-discovered-country-star-trek-beyond/“From ‘A New Hope’ to no hope at all: Star Wars,Tolkien and the sinister and depressing reality of expanded universes.” Salon.com (24 December 2015): http://www.salon.com/2015/12/24/from_a_new_hope_to_no_hope_at_all_star_wars_tolkien_and_the_sinister_and_depressing_reality_of_expanded_universes/“The Warm Equations.” Los Angeles Review ofBooks (June 2015): https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-warm-equations/“Knowing No One’s Listening: Octavia Butler’s Unexpected Stories”and“‘There’s Nothing New /
  4Under The Sun, / But There Are New Suns’: Recovering Octavia E. Butler’s Lost Parables.”Los Angeles Review of Books (Summer 2014):http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/knowing-ones-listening-octavia-e-butlers-unexpected-stories and http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/theres-nothing-new-sun-new-suns-recovering-octavia-e-butlers-lost-parables “Review of Darko Suvin’s Defined by a Hollow: Essays on Utopia, Science Fiction and Political Epistemology.” Historical Materialism 21.1 (Summer 2013): 209-216.“Decolonizing the Future: Review of Jessica Langer’s Postcolonialism and Science Fictionand Ericka Hoagland and Reema Sarwal’s Science Fiction, Imperialism and the Third World.” Science Fiction Studies39.3 (November 2012): 494-499.Pre-MU“Review of Henry A. Giroux’s Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalismand David McNally’s Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism.” Science Fiction Film and Television 5.1 (Spring 2012): 143-147.“Marxism as Science Fiction: Review ofMark Bould and China Miéville’s Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction.” Reviews in Cultural Theory1.1 (Winter 2010): 46-51.“Review of Marc Bousquet’s How the University Works.” Polygraph 21 (Fall 2009): 205-213.ReviewsMU“You Can’t Trust Planets:Review of Chris Pak’s Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations and Environmentalism in Science Fiction.” Science Fiction Studies44.1 (March2017): 180-183.“Science Fiction and/as Theology: Review of Alan P.R. Gregory’s Science Fiction Theology: Beauty and the Transformation of the Sublime.” Science Fiction Studies43.4 (Fall2016): 582-584.“Review of Kingsman: The Secret Service.”Science Fiction Film and Television 9.2(Fall2016): 305-308.“Quiet, Too Quiet: Review of Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest.” Los Angeles Review of Books (February 2016): https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/quiet-too-quiet.“Review of Steven Hrotic’sReligionin Science Fiction: The Evolution of an Idea and the Extinction of a Genre.”Science Fiction Studies 42.2(Summer 2015): 378-380.“Review of Jad Smith’s John Brunner.”Journal for the Fantastic in the Arts 25.2-3 (Spring 2015): 409-411.“Review of Arjun Appadurai’s The Future as Cultural Fact: Essays on the Global Condition.” Postmodern Culture 24.1(September 2013). https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/postmodern_culture/v024/24.1.canavan.html“Review of Rebecca J. Holden and Nisi Shawl’s Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler.” Science Fiction Studies41.1 (March 2014): 223-225.“Review of Eric Otto’s Green Speculations: Science Fiction and Transformative Environmentalism.” Science Fiction Studies 40.2(July 2013):387-389.“Lost in the Labyrinth: Review of Laurence A. Rickels’s I Think I Am: Philip K. Dick.” Novel46.1 (2013): 175-178.“No Dads: Review of Dan Hassler-Forest’s Capitalist Superheroes.” Los Angeles Review of Books(2013). http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=1613“Review of Graham J. Murphy and Sherryl Vint’s Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives.” Science Fiction Studies 40.1 (March 2013): 169-172.
  5“Review of Seo-Young Chu’s Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep: A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation.” Comparative Literature Studies 49.4 (Fall 2012): 616-619.Pre-MU“Struggle Forever: Review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312.” Los Angeles Review of Books (June 2012). http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=697&fulltext=1“Reviewof Robert Charles Wilson’s Julian Comstock: A Story of 22ndCentury America.” American Book Review (June 2012): 11.“Review of John Clute’s Pardon This Intrusion: Fantastika in the World Storm.”Science Fiction Studies 39.1 (March 2012).“Review of Elizabeth Young’s Black Frankenstein, John Rieder’s Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, and Matthew J. Costello’s Secret Identity Crisis.” American Literature82.2 (June 2010): 427-429.Symposia, Proceedings, and Editor-Reviewed ArticlesMU“Addiction.” Fueling Culture: Energy, History, Politics. Eds. Imre Szeman, Jennifer Wenzel, Patricia Yaeger. New York: Fordham University Press, 2017. 25-27.“Ecology 101.” SFRA Review314 (Winter 2015): 16-25.“Anything Could Happen (And We Would Believe It).” New Orleans Review41 (2015): 223-226. “History 1, 2, 3.” Symposium on Globalization and Science Fiction. Science Fiction Studies 39.3(November 2012): 375-376.InterviewsPre-MU“Embodied Materialism in Action: An Interview with Ariel Salleh.” WithLisa Klarr and Ryan Vu.Polygraph 22 (Fall 2010): 183-200.“Science, Justice, Science Fiction: A Conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson.” With Lisa Klarr and Ryan Vu.Polygraph 22 (Fall 2010): 201-218.“William Gibson Discusses Memory, Twitter and His Latest Novel.” Independent Weekly (15 September 2010).Selected Media Appearances, Profiles,and PodcastsMU“Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy #234: Octavia E. Butler.” December 17, 2016.https://www.wired.com/2016/12/geeks-guide-gerry-canavan/“Marquette scholar delivers a smart book about Octavia E. Butler.” MilwaukeeJournal-Sentinel.Dec. 16, 2016.http://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/books/2016/12/16/marquette-scholar-delivers-smart-book-octavia-e-butler/95377068/“The Inner Light.” Random Trek. December 9, 2016. https://www.theincomparable.com/randomtrek/126/"Star Warsand The Evolution of Space Fiction." On Point Radio with Tom Ashbrook.NPR. December 18, 2015. “Archival Research in the Field of the Fantastic.” The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction3.1 (November 2015): 3-28.“Working Out What's True and What Isn't: An Interview with Gerry Canavan.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal. Undergraduate Writing Center, University of Texas at Austin. August 4, 2015. http://www.praxisuwc.com/praxis-blog/interviewwithgerrycanavanpartone
  6Alumni Interview. Case Western Reserve University Department of English. March 30, 2015. https://sites.google.com/a/case.edu/department-of-english-the-annex/alumni/canavan-interview “Our Lives: Science Fiction.” Research@Marquette. July 2014. https://medium.com/research-at-marquette/our-lives-science-fiction-d680126ab203Guest Appearance. The Old Mole Variety Hour. KBOO Community Radio. August 12, 2013.“Beware of MOOCs.” ASQ Higher Education Brief6.2 (March 2013). http://rube.asq.org/edu/2013/03/innovation/beware-of-moocs.pdfPre-MU“The End of the World.” The State of Things. 91.5 WUNC—North Carolina Public Radio (Durham, NC). 27 January 2012.Guest Appearances. Poli-Sci-Fi Radiowith Bill Simmon and Steve Benen.105.9 WOMM-LP—The Radiator (Burlington, Vermont). 2008-2012.Freelance Writing and Alternative Media, 2002-present.Outlets have included Salon.com, The New Inquiry,SF Signal, InsideHigher Ed,PopMatters.com, In Medias Res, Independent Weekly, and the Cambridge University Press blog.Works in PressBook Chapters“When It Changed: 1973.” Timelines of American Literature. Eds. Cody Marrs and Christopher Hager.Forthcoming 2017.“OBEY, CONSUME: Class Struggle as Revenge Fantasy in They Live.”The Lives and Deaths of the Yuppie. Ed. Daniel Lindvall and Saer Maty Ba. Forthcoming 2017.“Peak Oil after Hydrofracking.” Marxism and Energy. Eds. Brent Bellamy and Jeff Diamanti.“Utopia in the Time of Trump: Review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140.” Los Angeles Review of Books.Encyclopedia Articles“Science Fiction.” The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.Forthcoming 2017.ReviewsReviewof Moana. Science Fiction Film and Television.Works Accepted for PublicationBook Chapters“Science Fiction and Utopia in the Anthropocene.” The Next Generation: Emerging Voices in Utopian Studies (Ralahine Utopian Studies). Ed.Philip Wegner. Forthcoming 2017.Works in ProgressBook ProjectsTheories of Everything: Science Fiction and Totality. Manuscript currently under revision.Animal Planet: Science Fiction and the AnimalRights Movement.Manuscriptbeing drafted.Edited CollectionCo-Editor with Eric Carl Link. The Cambridge History of Science Fiction. Under contract with Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming 2018.
  7Special IssuesCo-Editor with Ben Robertson, Extrapolation:“Guilty Pleasures: Mere Genre and Late Capitalism.” Forthcoming 2017.Peer-Reviewed Articlesand Book ChaptersSolicited“Science Fiction Since 2001.” Science Fiction: A Literary History. Ed. Roger Luckhurst.“Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid onEarth.” The Handbook of Comics and Graphic Novels.Submitted“Hokey Religions: STAR WARSand STAR TREKin the Age of Reboots.” Extrapolationspecial issue on “Mere Genre.” Eds.Gerry Canavan and BenRobertson.Forthcoming 2017.Not Yet Submitted(with Aaron Bady, University of Texas at Austin)“Ruling in Hell: Kirk, Khan, Star Trek.”Editor-Reviewed Articles“Teaching Lolitain Milwaukee.”Reviews“Review of BFI ‘Science Fiction Film Classics’ Series.”Science Fiction Film and Television.Encyclopedia ArticlesSolicited“Utopia.” The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx. Forthcoming 2018. Eds. Jeff Diamanti,Andrew Pendakis and Imre Szeman.Awards and HonorsMUWay-Klingler Young Scholar Award, Marquette University (2016)Finalist, ASLE Ecocriticism Book Award for Green Planets(2015)Faculty Development Awards, Marquette University (2012-2016)Departmental Nomination for the 2013 ACLA Charles Bernheimer Dissertation Prize, Duke University(2012)Pre-MUDepartmental Nomination for Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Duke University (2012)Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Fellowship for Undergraduate Instruction, Duke University (2011-2012)James B. Duke Fellowship in Literature, Duke University (2006-2010)Jacob K. Javits Fellowship for Graduate Study in the Humanities (2002-2004)The John Schoff Millis Award for a Graduating Senior, Case Western Reserve University (2002)The Harriet Pelton Perkins Award to a Student Majoring in English, CWRU (2002)The Kennedy Prize for Creative Work in English, CWRU (2002)Edith Garber Krotinger Award for Excellence in Creative Writing, CWRU (2002)Clemens Award for Talent and Accomplishment in Writing, CWRU (2002, 2001)Election to Phi Beta Kappa (2001)Trustee’s Scholarship, CWRU (1998-2002)
  8Research, Teaching, and Travel GrantsMUSummer Faculty Fellowship, Marquette University (Summer 2013, Summer 2014, Summer 2016)($5,500)Regular Research Grant, Marquette University (Summer 2013, Summer 2016) ($4,000;$1,500)Summer Stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities (2015) ($6,000)John Brockway Huntington Foundation Fellow, Huntington Library (2014-2015) ($3,000)Enduring Questions Course Development Grant for “What Is Worth Preserving?”National Endowment for the Humanities (2013-2015)($25,000)Pre-MUTravel Grant to Nagoya American Studies Summer Seminar, Nanzan University, Japan (2011)R.D. Mullen Research Fellowship, Eaton Collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Utopian Literature, University of California, Riverside (2010-2011)Franklin Humanities Institute Dissertation Working Group Grant, Duke University (2010-2011)Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC) Fellowship, Duke University (2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012)Duke University Fellowship to Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland (2010)Dissertation Research Travel Award, Duke University (2010)Summer Research Fellowship for Ph.D. Students in the Humanities and Social Science Programs, Duke University (2010)Duke University Conference Travel Fellowship (2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012)Invited TalksInternationalWorkshop Leader: “SF & the Environment.” SF/F Now. University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom, August 2014.“‘Something Nightmares Are From’: Metacommentary in Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods.”Politics of Adaptation Conference, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany, September 2012.National“Unexpected Questions.” “Octavia E. Butler Studies: Convergence of an Expanding Field” Conference, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, June 2017.On Octavia E. Butler.Working Group in Critical Theory, Stanford University, February 2017.“After Humanity: Science Fiction after Extinction.” The Robert W. Hamblin Lecture Series, Southeast Missouri State University, April 2016.“Resolved: Technology Will Take All Our Jobs.” New America Foundation/FutureTense,Washington,DC,June 2015.“Science Fiction and Utopia in the Anthropocene.” Mellon Foundation Environments & Societies Workshop. University of California,Davis, April 2015.“Lost Stories of Octavia Butler.” University of California,Riverside, November 2014.“Science Fiction and/asPhilosophy.”Case Western Reserve University, April 2014.“Debt, Theft, Permaculture: Justice and Ecological Scale.” Debt Conference, Center for 21stCentury Studies, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, April 2010.
  9Regional“Three Ways of Looking at Apocalypse: 150 Years of H.G. Wells in Milwaukee.” Milwaukee Public Library, September 24, 2016.“‘Shipwrecked Passengers on a Doomed Planet’: Ecology and Science Fiction at the End of the World.”My Favorite Lecture Series, Greenfield Public Library, Greenfield, WI, March 2016.“Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred.” Milwaukee High School of the Arts guest lecture, Milwaukee, WI, October 2015.(with Brittany Pladek, Marquette University)“On Dracula.”Milwaukee Ballet Literary Classics series, Milwaukee, WI, October 2015.“Cruel Optimism, MaddAddam,Hope.” Atwood Symposium, Indiana University, January 2015.Conference PresentationsInternational“Anti-Kantian SF: Space, Time, and Universal Reason.” American Comparative Literature Association, Toronto, Canada, April 2013.“Hope, but Not for Us: Ecological Science Fiction and the End of the World.” Society for Literature, Science and the Arts Conference, Kitchener, Canada, September 2011.“Petroleum Futures: Oil, Addiction, and the Ontology of Limit.” Nagoya American Studies Summer Seminar, Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan, July 2011.“‘The Ultimate Horizon of Thought in Our Time’: Twenty-First Century Science Fiction and Utopia.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference, Vancouver, Canada, April 2011.National“No Year of Glad: Infinite Jestafter 9/13/2008.” “Infinite Jestat Twenty” Special Session. Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA, January 2017.“Literary Studies after Blackfish.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Atlanta, GA, November 2016.“Reading Clifford D. Simak’s Cityin the Anthropocene.” Science Fiction Research Association, Liverpool, UK, June 2016.“Hokey Religions: STAR WARSand STAR TREKin the Age of Reboots.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2016.“Extinction and Utopia in Richard McGuire’s Here.” Modern Language AssociationAnnual Convention, Austin, TX, January 2016.“Science as Leftism in Leo Szilard’s ‘The Voice of the Dolphins.’” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Houston, TX, November 2015.“Reproductive Afrofuturism in the Work of Octavia E. Butler.” Science Fiction Research Association, Stony Brook University, June 2015.“Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312and the Technological Sublime.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2015.“‘There’s Nothing New / Under The Sun, / But There Are New Suns’: Recovering Octavia E. Butler’s Lost Parables.” Science Fiction Research Association / WisCon, Madison, WI, May 2014.“Science Fiction and/as Totality.”International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2014.

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  2Guest Editor for aSpecial IssueMUSpecial Issue Co-Editor with AndrewHageman, Paradoxa 28: “Global Weirding” (2016).Pre-MUSpecial Issue Co-Editor with Priscilla Wald, American Literature83.2: “Speculative Fictions”(2011). Duke University Press.Special Issue Co-Editorwith Lisa Klarr and Ryan Vu,Polygraph22: “Ecology and Ideology” (2010). Duke University Program in Literature.Peer-Reviewed ArticlesMU“Unless Someone Like You Cares a Whole Awful Lot: Apocalypse as Children’s Entertainment.” Science Fiction Film and Television10.1 (Winter 2017): 81-104.“After Humanity: Science Fiction after Extinction in Kurt Vonnegut and Clifford D. Simak.” Paradoxa 28 (2016): 135-156.“‘A Dread Mystery, Compelling Adoration’: Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker,and Totality.” Science Fiction Studies43.2 (Summer 2016): 310-330.“The Octavia E. Butler Papers.” The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction3.1 (Fall2015): 42-53.“Capital as Artificial Intelligence.” Journal of American Studies 49.4: “Fictions of Speculation.” Eds. Annie McClanahan and Hamilton Carroll (Fall 2015): 685-709.“I’d Rather Be in Afghanistan: Antinomies of Battle: Los Angeles.” Democratic Communiqué26.2:“Media, Technology, and the Culture of Militarism: Watching, Playing and Struggling in the War Society.” Eds. Robin Andersen and Tanner Mirrlees (Fall 2014): 39-54. “‘If the Engine Ever Stops, We’d All Die’: Snowpiercer and Necrofuturism.” Paradoxa 26: “SF Now.” Eds. Mark Bould and A. Rhys Williams (Fall2014): 41-66.“‘Something Nightmares Are From’: Metacommentary in Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods.” Slayage: The Journal of the Whedon Studies Association10.2/11.1 (Winter 2014). http://slayageonline.com/Numbers/slayage36.htm.“Bred to Be Superhuman: Comic Books and Afrofuturism in Octavia Butler's Patternist Series.”Paradoxa 25 (Fall 2013): 253-287.Pre-MU“Hope, But Not for Us: Ecological Science Fiction and the End of the World in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx & Crake and The Year of the Flood.” Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory 23.2 (Summer 2012): 138-159.“Fighting a War You’ve Already Lost: Zombies and Zombis in Fireflyand Dollhouse.”Science Fiction Film and Television 4.2 (Fall 2011): 173-204.“‘We Arethe Walking Dead’: Race, Time, and Survival in Zombie Narrative.” Extrapolation51.3(Fall 2010): 431-453.Book ChaptersMU“Don’t Point That Gun at My Mum: Geriatric Zombies.” The Walking Med: Zombies and the Medical Image.Eds. Sherryl Vint and Lorenzo Servitje. State College, PA: Penn State University Press, 2016.17-38.
  3“You Think You Know the Story: Novelty and Repetition in The Cabin in the Woods.” The Politics of Adaptation: Media Convergence and Ideology. Eds. Dan Hassler-Forest and Pascal Nicklas. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 201-213.“Retrofutures and Petrofutures: Oil, Scarcity, Limit.” Oil Culture. Ed. Daniel Worden and Ross Barrett. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.331-349.“Far Beyond the Star Pit: Samuel R. Delany.” Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction. Ed. Isiah Lavender III. Jackson, MS: UniversityPress of Mississippi, 2014.48-64.“Science Fiction.” The American Novel: 1870-1940.Eds. Priscilla Wald and Michael A. Elliott. The Oxford History of the Novel in English, Vol. 6.New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.370-385.“Life Without Hope? Huntington’s Disease and Genetic Futurity.” Disability in Science Fiction: Representations of Technology as Cure. Ed. Kathryn Allan. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013.169-187.“Debt, Theft, Permaculture: Justice and Ecological Scale.” Debt:Ethics, the Environment, and the Economy. Eds. Merry Wiesner-Hanks and Peter Y. Paik. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2013.210-224.“‘You Can't Change Anything’: Freedom and Control in Twelve Monkeys.” TheCinema of Terry Gilliam: It’s a Mad World.Eds. Anna Froula, Karen Randell, and Jeff Birkenstein.New York: Wallflower Press/Columbia University Press, 2013.92-103.Pre-MU“Zombies, Reavers, Butchers, and Actuals in Joss Whedon’s Work.” Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion. London: Titan Books, 2012.285-297.“Terror and Mismemory: Resignifying 9/11 in World Trade Centerand United 93.” Portraying 9/11: Essays on Representations in Comics, Literature, Film and Theater. Eds. Véronique Bragard, Christophe Dony, and Warren Rosenberg. McFarland & Co., 2011.118-133.“Person of the Year: Barack Obama, the Joker, Capitalism, and Schizophrenia.” Politics and Popular Culture. Ed. Leah A. Murray. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010.2-13.Review EssaysMU“Death Immortalized: Review of Cixin Liu’s Death’s End” (October 2016): http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/death-immortalized/“We Have Never Been Star Trek.” Sight & Sound(September 2016): http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/star-trek-50-we-have-never-been-star-trek“Doktorvater.” Reviews in Cultural Theory 6.2 (August 2016): http://reviewsinculture.com/2016/08/01/doktorvater/“The Discovered Country: Star Trek Beyond.”Los Angeles Review of Books (July 2016):https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-discovered-country-star-trek-beyond/“From ‘A New Hope’ to no hope at all: Star Wars,Tolkien and the sinister and depressing reality of expanded universes.” Salon.com (24 December 2015): http://www.salon.com/2015/12/24/from_a_new_hope_to_no_hope_at_all_star_wars_tolkien_and_the_sinister_and_depressing_reality_of_expanded_universes/“The Warm Equations.” Los Angeles Review ofBooks (June 2015): https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-warm-equations/“Knowing No One’s Listening: Octavia Butler’s Unexpected Stories”and“‘There’s Nothing New /
  4Under The Sun, / But There Are New Suns’: Recovering Octavia E. Butler’s Lost Parables.”Los Angeles Review of Books (Summer 2014):http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/knowing-ones-listening-octavia-e-butlers-unexpected-stories and http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/theres-nothing-new-sun-new-suns-recovering-octavia-e-butlers-lost-parables “Review of Darko Suvin’s Defined by a Hollow: Essays on Utopia, Science Fiction and Political Epistemology.” Historical Materialism 21.1 (Summer 2013): 209-216.“Decolonizing the Future: Review of Jessica Langer’s Postcolonialism and Science Fictionand Ericka Hoagland and Reema Sarwal’s Science Fiction, Imperialism and the Third World.” Science Fiction Studies39.3 (November 2012): 494-499.Pre-MU“Review of Henry A. Giroux’s Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalismand David McNally’s Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism.” Science Fiction Film and Television 5.1 (Spring 2012): 143-147.“Marxism as Science Fiction: Review ofMark Bould and China Miéville’s Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction.” Reviews in Cultural Theory1.1 (Winter 2010): 46-51.“Review of Marc Bousquet’s How the University Works.” Polygraph 21 (Fall 2009): 205-213.ReviewsMU“You Can’t Trust Planets:Review of Chris Pak’s Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations and Environmentalism in Science Fiction.” Science Fiction Studies44.1 (March2017): 180-183.“Science Fiction and/as Theology: Review of Alan P.R. Gregory’s Science Fiction Theology: Beauty and the Transformation of the Sublime.” Science Fiction Studies43.4 (Fall2016): 582-584.“Review of Kingsman: The Secret Service.”Science Fiction Film and Television 9.2(Fall2016): 305-308.“Quiet, Too Quiet: Review of Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest.” Los Angeles Review of Books (February 2016): https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/quiet-too-quiet.“Review of Steven Hrotic’sReligionin Science Fiction: The Evolution of an Idea and the Extinction of a Genre.”Science Fiction Studies 42.2(Summer 2015): 378-380.“Review of Jad Smith’s John Brunner.”Journal for the Fantastic in the Arts 25.2-3 (Spring 2015): 409-411.“Review of Arjun Appadurai’s The Future as Cultural Fact: Essays on the Global Condition.” Postmodern Culture 24.1(September 2013). https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/postmodern_culture/v024/24.1.canavan.html“Review of Rebecca J. Holden and Nisi Shawl’s Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler.” Science Fiction Studies41.1 (March 2014): 223-225.“Review of Eric Otto’s Green Speculations: Science Fiction and Transformative Environmentalism.” Science Fiction Studies 40.2(July 2013):387-389.“Lost in the Labyrinth: Review of Laurence A. Rickels’s I Think I Am: Philip K. Dick.” Novel46.1 (2013): 175-178.“No Dads: Review of Dan Hassler-Forest’s Capitalist Superheroes.” Los Angeles Review of Books(2013). http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=1613“Review of Graham J. Murphy and Sherryl Vint’s Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives.” Science Fiction Studies 40.1 (March 2013): 169-172.
  5“Review of Seo-Young Chu’s Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep: A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation.” Comparative Literature Studies 49.4 (Fall 2012): 616-619.Pre-MU“Struggle Forever: Review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312.” Los Angeles Review of Books (June 2012). http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=697&fulltext=1“Reviewof Robert Charles Wilson’s Julian Comstock: A Story of 22ndCentury America.” American Book Review (June 2012): 11.“Review of John Clute’s Pardon This Intrusion: Fantastika in the World Storm.”Science Fiction Studies 39.1 (March 2012).“Review of Elizabeth Young’s Black Frankenstein, John Rieder’s Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, and Matthew J. Costello’s Secret Identity Crisis.” American Literature82.2 (June 2010): 427-429.Symposia, Proceedings, and Editor-Reviewed ArticlesMU“Addiction.” Fueling Culture: Energy, History, Politics. Eds. Imre Szeman, Jennifer Wenzel, Patricia Yaeger. New York: Fordham University Press, 2017. 25-27.“Ecology 101.” SFRA Review314 (Winter 2015): 16-25.“Anything Could Happen (And We Would Believe It).” New Orleans Review41 (2015): 223-226. “History 1, 2, 3.” Symposium on Globalization and Science Fiction. Science Fiction Studies 39.3(November 2012): 375-376.InterviewsPre-MU“Embodied Materialism in Action: An Interview with Ariel Salleh.” WithLisa Klarr and Ryan Vu.Polygraph 22 (Fall 2010): 183-200.“Science, Justice, Science Fiction: A Conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson.” With Lisa Klarr and Ryan Vu.Polygraph 22 (Fall 2010): 201-218.“William Gibson Discusses Memory, Twitter and His Latest Novel.” Independent Weekly (15 September 2010).Selected Media Appearances, Profiles,and PodcastsMU“Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy #234: Octavia E. Butler.” December 17, 2016.https://www.wired.com/2016/12/geeks-guide-gerry-canavan/“Marquette scholar delivers a smart book about Octavia E. Butler.” MilwaukeeJournal-Sentinel.Dec. 16, 2016.http://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/books/2016/12/16/marquette-scholar-delivers-smart-book-octavia-e-butler/95377068/“The Inner Light.” Random Trek. December 9, 2016. https://www.theincomparable.com/randomtrek/126/"Star Warsand The Evolution of Space Fiction." On Point Radio with Tom Ashbrook.NPR. December 18, 2015. “Archival Research in the Field of the Fantastic.” The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction3.1 (November 2015): 3-28.“Working Out What's True and What Isn't: An Interview with Gerry Canavan.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal. Undergraduate Writing Center, University of Texas at Austin. August 4, 2015. http://www.praxisuwc.com/praxis-blog/interviewwithgerrycanavanpartone
  6Alumni Interview. Case Western Reserve University Department of English. March 30, 2015. https://sites.google.com/a/case.edu/department-of-english-the-annex/alumni/canavan-interview “Our Lives: Science Fiction.” Research@Marquette. July 2014. https://medium.com/research-at-marquette/our-lives-science-fiction-d680126ab203Guest Appearance. The Old Mole Variety Hour. KBOO Community Radio. August 12, 2013.“Beware of MOOCs.” ASQ Higher Education Brief6.2 (March 2013). http://rube.asq.org/edu/2013/03/innovation/beware-of-moocs.pdfPre-MU“The End of the World.” The State of Things. 91.5 WUNC—North Carolina Public Radio (Durham, NC). 27 January 2012.Guest Appearances. Poli-Sci-Fi Radiowith Bill Simmon and Steve Benen.105.9 WOMM-LP—The Radiator (Burlington, Vermont). 2008-2012.Freelance Writing and Alternative Media, 2002-present.Outlets have included Salon.com, The New Inquiry,SF Signal, InsideHigher Ed,PopMatters.com, In Medias Res, Independent Weekly, and the Cambridge University Press blog.Works in PressBook Chapters“When It Changed: 1973.” Timelines of American Literature. Eds. Cody Marrs and Christopher Hager.Forthcoming 2017.“OBEY, CONSUME: Class Struggle as Revenge Fantasy in They Live.”The Lives and Deaths of the Yuppie. Ed. Daniel Lindvall and Saer Maty Ba. Forthcoming 2017.“Peak Oil after Hydrofracking.” Marxism and Energy. Eds. Brent Bellamy and Jeff Diamanti.“Utopia in the Time of Trump: Review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140.” Los Angeles Review of Books.Encyclopedia Articles“Science Fiction.” The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.Forthcoming 2017.ReviewsReviewof Moana. Science Fiction Film and Television.Works Accepted for PublicationBook Chapters“Science Fiction and Utopia in the Anthropocene.” The Next Generation: Emerging Voices in Utopian Studies (Ralahine Utopian Studies). Ed.Philip Wegner. Forthcoming 2017.Works in ProgressBook ProjectsTheories of Everything: Science Fiction and Totality. Manuscript currently under revision.Animal Planet: Science Fiction and the AnimalRights Movement.Manuscriptbeing drafted.Edited CollectionCo-Editor with Eric Carl Link. The Cambridge History of Science Fiction. Under contract with Cambridge University Press. Forthcoming 2018.
  7Special IssuesCo-Editor with Ben Robertson, Extrapolation:“Guilty Pleasures: Mere Genre and Late Capitalism.” Forthcoming 2017.Peer-Reviewed Articlesand Book ChaptersSolicited“Science Fiction Since 2001.” Science Fiction: A Literary History. Ed. Roger Luckhurst.“Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid onEarth.” The Handbook of Comics and Graphic Novels.Submitted“Hokey Religions: STAR WARSand STAR TREKin the Age of Reboots.” Extrapolationspecial issue on “Mere Genre.” Eds.Gerry Canavan and BenRobertson.Forthcoming 2017.Not Yet Submitted(with Aaron Bady, University of Texas at Austin)“Ruling in Hell: Kirk, Khan, Star Trek.”Editor-Reviewed Articles“Teaching Lolitain Milwaukee.”Reviews“Review of BFI ‘Science Fiction Film Classics’ Series.”Science Fiction Film and Television.Encyclopedia ArticlesSolicited“Utopia.” The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx. Forthcoming 2018. Eds. Jeff Diamanti,Andrew Pendakis and Imre Szeman.Awards and HonorsMUWay-Klingler Young Scholar Award, Marquette University (2016)Finalist, ASLE Ecocriticism Book Award for Green Planets(2015)Faculty Development Awards, Marquette University (2012-2016)Departmental Nomination for the 2013 ACLA Charles Bernheimer Dissertation Prize, Duke University(2012)Pre-MUDepartmental Nomination for Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Duke University (2012)Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Fellowship for Undergraduate Instruction, Duke University (2011-2012)James B. Duke Fellowship in Literature, Duke University (2006-2010)Jacob K. Javits Fellowship for Graduate Study in the Humanities (2002-2004)The John Schoff Millis Award for a Graduating Senior, Case Western Reserve University (2002)The Harriet Pelton Perkins Award to a Student Majoring in English, CWRU (2002)The Kennedy Prize for Creative Work in English, CWRU (2002)Edith Garber Krotinger Award for Excellence in Creative Writing, CWRU (2002)Clemens Award for Talent and Accomplishment in Writing, CWRU (2002, 2001)Election to Phi Beta Kappa (2001)Trustee’s Scholarship, CWRU (1998-2002)
  8Research, Teaching, and Travel GrantsMUSummer Faculty Fellowship, Marquette University (Summer 2013, Summer 2014, Summer 2016)($5,500)Regular Research Grant, Marquette University (Summer 2013, Summer 2016) ($4,000;$1,500)Summer Stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities (2015) ($6,000)John Brockway Huntington Foundation Fellow, Huntington Library (2014-2015) ($3,000)Enduring Questions Course Development Grant for “What Is Worth Preserving?”National Endowment for the Humanities (2013-2015)($25,000)Pre-MUTravel Grant to Nagoya American Studies Summer Seminar, Nanzan University, Japan (2011)R.D. Mullen Research Fellowship, Eaton Collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Utopian Literature, University of California, Riverside (2010-2011)Franklin Humanities Institute Dissertation Working Group Grant, Duke University (2010-2011)Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC) Fellowship, Duke University (2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012)Duke University Fellowship to Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland (2010)Dissertation Research Travel Award, Duke University (2010)Summer Research Fellowship for Ph.D. Students in the Humanities and Social Science Programs, Duke University (2010)Duke University Conference Travel Fellowship (2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012)Invited TalksInternationalWorkshop Leader: “SF & the Environment.” SF/F Now. University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom, August 2014.“‘Something Nightmares Are From’: Metacommentary in Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods.”Politics of Adaptation Conference, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany, September 2012.National“Unexpected Questions.” “Octavia E. Butler Studies: Convergence of an Expanding Field” Conference, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, June 2017.On Octavia E. Butler.Working Group in Critical Theory, Stanford University, February 2017.“After Humanity: Science Fiction after Extinction.” The Robert W. Hamblin Lecture Series, Southeast Missouri State University, April 2016.“Resolved: Technology Will Take All Our Jobs.” New America Foundation/FutureTense,Washington,DC,June 2015.“Science Fiction and Utopia in the Anthropocene.” Mellon Foundation Environments & Societies Workshop. University of California,Davis, April 2015.“Lost Stories of Octavia Butler.” University of California,Riverside, November 2014.“Science Fiction and/asPhilosophy.”Case Western Reserve University, April 2014.“Debt, Theft, Permaculture: Justice and Ecological Scale.” Debt Conference, Center for 21stCentury Studies, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, April 2010.
  9Regional“Three Ways of Looking at Apocalypse: 150 Years of H.G. Wells in Milwaukee.” Milwaukee Public Library, September 24, 2016.“‘Shipwrecked Passengers on a Doomed Planet’: Ecology and Science Fiction at the End of the World.”My Favorite Lecture Series, Greenfield Public Library, Greenfield, WI, March 2016.“Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred.” Milwaukee High School of the Arts guest lecture, Milwaukee, WI, October 2015.(with Brittany Pladek, Marquette University)“On Dracula.”Milwaukee Ballet Literary Classics series, Milwaukee, WI, October 2015.“Cruel Optimism, MaddAddam,Hope.” Atwood Symposium, Indiana University, January 2015.Conference PresentationsInternational“Anti-Kantian SF: Space, Time, and Universal Reason.” American Comparative Literature Association, Toronto, Canada, April 2013.“Hope, but Not for Us: Ecological Science Fiction and the End of the World.” Society for Literature, Science and the Arts Conference, Kitchener, Canada, September 2011.“Petroleum Futures: Oil, Addiction, and the Ontology of Limit.” Nagoya American Studies Summer Seminar, Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan, July 2011.“‘The Ultimate Horizon of Thought in Our Time’: Twenty-First Century Science Fiction and Utopia.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference, Vancouver, Canada, April 2011.National“No Year of Glad: Infinite Jestafter 9/13/2008.” “Infinite Jestat Twenty” Special Session. Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA, January 2017.“Literary Studies after Blackfish.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Atlanta, GA, November 2016.“Reading Clifford D. Simak’s Cityin the Anthropocene.” Science Fiction Research Association, Liverpool, UK, June 2016.“Hokey Religions: STAR WARSand STAR TREKin the Age of Reboots.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2016.“Extinction and Utopia in Richard McGuire’s Here.” Modern Language AssociationAnnual Convention, Austin, TX, January 2016.“Science as Leftism in Leo Szilard’s ‘The Voice of the Dolphins.’” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Houston, TX, November 2015.“Reproductive Afrofuturism in the Work of Octavia E. Butler.” Science Fiction Research Association, Stony Brook University, June 2015.“Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312and the Technological Sublime.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2015.“‘There’s Nothing New / Under The Sun, / But There Are New Suns’: Recovering Octavia E. Butler’s Lost Parables.” Science Fiction Research Association / WisCon, Madison, WI, May 2014.“Science Fiction and/as Totality.”International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2014.
  10“If This Goes On: Science Fiction, Planetary Crisis, and the Ecological Humanities.” Science Fiction and Utopian and Fantastic Literature Discussion Group, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, January 2014.Roundtable on Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy. Margaret Atwood Society, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, January 2014.“Unless Someone Like You Cares a Whole Awful Lot: Ecological Apocalypse as Children’s Entertainment.” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, Nov.2013.“Vile Offspring of the Long Postmodern: Capital as Artificial Intelligence.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Notre Dame, IN, October 2013.“‘You’ve Ruined Everything!’ Superboy-Prime and the Fan-as-Villain.” AnnualMeeting of the Reception StudySociety, MarquetteUniversity, Milwaukee, WI, September 2013.“I Wanted To Live Forever and BreedPeople: Afrofuturism and Mutant Superheroes in Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed and Mind of My Mind.” Science Fiction Research Association / Eaton Science Fiction Conference, Riverside, CA, April 2013.“Haven’t Hit Bottom Yet: Antinomies of Utopia in Octavia Butler’s Parables.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2013.“I’d Rather Be in Afghanistan: Antinomies of Battle: Los Angeles.”Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, IL, March 2013.“Life without Hope? Huntington’s Disease and Genetic Futurity.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Milwaukee, WI, September 2012.“Spatializing Segregation: Samuel R. Delany’s ‘The Star Pit’.” Science Fiction Research Association Annual Meeting, Detroit, MI, June 2012.“Xenogenocide: The Oankali on Trial.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2012.“The Empire Never Ended: Philip K. Dick’s Cold War Science Fictions and the National Security State.” American Studies Association, Baltimore, MD, October 2011.“Roundtable: Science Fiction and Environmentalism.” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Bloomington, IN, June 2011.“Star Makerand Empire.” Eaton Science Fiction Conference, Riverside, CA, February 2011.“The Sky’s The Limit: The 1970s vs. The Future.” Climate Change I Panel, American Studies Association, San Antonio, TX, November 2010.“Ecology and Ideology: Ecocriticism Today.” With Lisa Klarr and Ryan Vu. Green Literature Seminar, American Comparative Literature Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 2010.“‘We AreTheWalking Dead’: Race, Time, and Survival in Zombie Narrative.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2010.“Progress, Disaster, Entropy, Permaculture: Towards an Ontology of Limit.” Oil Ontologies Panel, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA, December 2009.“Burn It Down and Start Again: Apocalyptic Futurity and the Break.” Society for Utopian Studies Annual Meeting, Wilmington, NC, October 2009.“‘You Can’t Change Anything’: Freedom and Control in Twelve Monkeys.” AnnualFilm & History Conference, Chicago, IL, October 2008.Regional“Roundtable: The Ethicsof Joss Whedon.” Joss Whedon Colloquium, DePaul University, Chicago,IL, May 2014.
  11“Roundtable: Doctor WhoandPhilosophy.” Doctor WhoColloquium, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, May 2013.“How to Read Science Fiction and Why.” Third Annual North Carolina State University Association of English Graduate Student Conference, Raleigh, NC, February 2012.“Towards Zombietopia.” Utopia/Dystopia Conference, Duke University, Durham, NC, September 2011.“Red Mars, Green Earth: Science Fiction and Ecological Futurity.” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 2009.“Person of the Year: Barack Obama, the Joker, Capitalism, and Schizophrenia.” The Politics of Superheroes Conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT, January 2009.“Tony Lives Next Door: Criminality and Marginality in The Sopranos.”Insiders and Outsiders Conference, Duke University,Durham, NC,September 2007.InvitedConferenceRoundtables“Roundtable: Edited Collections.” Science Fiction Research Association, Liverpool, UK, June 2016.“Roundtable: Archival Research.” International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2015.“Student Caucus Sponsored Panel: Navigating Academic Job Markets.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2014.“Roundtable: Metaphors of Climate Change.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Notre Dame, IN, October 2013.“Roundtable: What's the Matter with MOOCs?” Century for 21stCentury Studies, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, March 2013.Sessions Organized or ChairedInternationalCo-Organizer and Respondent, “Guilty Pleasures: Mere Genre and Late Capitalism.” Modern Language Association, Vancouver, Canada, January 2015.Co-Organizer, “Alterity Beyond Utopia.” American Comparative Literature Association, Toronto, CA, April 2013.Co-Organizer, “Utopia, Globalization, Film.” American Comparative Literature Association, Vancouver, Canada, April 2011.NationalOrganizer, “Infinite Jestat Twenty” Special Session. Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA, January 2017.Organizer, “Paradoxa:Global Weirding.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Atlanta, GA, November 2016.Organizer and Moderator, “Roundtable: Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2016.Chair, “Reproduction.” Science Fiction Research Association, Stony Brook University, June 2015.Organizerand Moderator, “Mere Genre”Roundtable.International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2015.Organizer, SF Theory Roundtable. International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2014.
  “If This Goes On: Science Fiction, Planetary Crisis, and the Ecological Humanities.” Science Fiction and Utopian and Fantastic Literature Discussion Group, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, January 2014.Roundtable on Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy. Margaret Atwood Society, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, January 2014.“Unless Someone Like You Cares a Whole Awful Lot: Ecological Apocalypse as Children’s Entertainment.” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, Nov.2013.“Vile Offspring of the Long Postmodern: Capital as Artificial Intelligence.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Notre Dame, IN, October 2013.“‘You’ve Ruined Everything!’ Superboy-Prime and the Fan-as-Villain.” AnnualMeeting of the Reception StudySociety, MarquetteUniversity, Milwaukee, WI, September 2013.“I Wanted To Live Forever and BreedPeople: Afrofuturism and Mutant Superheroes in Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed and Mind of My Mind.” Science Fiction Research Association / Eaton Science Fiction Conference, Riverside, CA, April 2013.“Haven’t Hit Bottom Yet: Antinomies of Utopia in Octavia Butler’s Parables.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2013.“I’d Rather Be in Afghanistan: Antinomies of Battle: Los Angeles.”Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, IL, March 2013.“Life without Hope? Huntington’s Disease and Genetic Futurity.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Milwaukee, WI, September 2012.“Spatializing Segregation: Samuel R. Delany’s ‘The Star Pit’.” Science Fiction Research Association Annual Meeting, Detroit, MI, June 2012.“Xenogenocide: The Oankali on Trial.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2012.“The Empire Never Ended: Philip K. Dick’s Cold War Science Fictions and the National Security State.” American Studies Association, Baltimore, MD, October 2011.“Roundtable: Science Fiction and Environmentalism.” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Bloomington, IN, June 2011.“Star Makerand Empire.” Eaton Science Fiction Conference, Riverside, CA, February 2011.“The Sky’s The Limit: The 1970s vs. The Future.” Climate Change I Panel, American Studies Association, San Antonio, TX, November 2010.“Ecology and Ideology: Ecocriticism Today.” With Lisa Klarr and Ryan Vu. Green Literature Seminar, American Comparative Literature Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 2010.“‘We AreTheWalking Dead’: Race, Time, and Survival in Zombie Narrative.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2010.“Progress, Disaster, Entropy, Permaculture: Towards an Ontology of Limit.” Oil Ontologies Panel, Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA, December 2009.“Burn It Down and Start Again: Apocalyptic Futurity and the Break.” Society for Utopian Studies Annual Meeting, Wilmington, NC, October 2009.“‘You Can’t Change Anything’: Freedom and Control in Twelve Monkeys.” AnnualFilm & History Conference, Chicago, IL, October 2008.Regional“Roundtable: The Ethicsof Joss Whedon.” Joss Whedon Colloquium, DePaul University, Chicago,IL, May 2014.
  11“Roundtable: Doctor WhoandPhilosophy.” Doctor WhoColloquium, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, May 2013.“How to Read Science Fiction and Why.” Third Annual North Carolina State University Association of English Graduate Student Conference, Raleigh, NC, February 2012.“Towards Zombietopia.” Utopia/Dystopia Conference, Duke University, Durham, NC, September 2011.“Red Mars, Green Earth: Science Fiction and Ecological Futurity.” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 2009.“Person of the Year: Barack Obama, the Joker, Capitalism, and Schizophrenia.” The Politics of Superheroes Conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT, January 2009.“Tony Lives Next Door: Criminality and Marginality in The Sopranos.”Insiders and Outsiders Conference, Duke University,Durham, NC,September 2007.
  InvitedConferenceRoundtables“Roundtable: Edited Collections.” Science Fiction Research Association, Liverpool, UK, June 2016.“Roundtable: Archival Research.” International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2015.“Student Caucus Sponsored Panel: Navigating Academic Job Markets.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2014.“Roundtable: Metaphors of Climate Change.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Notre Dame, IN, October 2013.“Roundtable: What's the Matter with MOOCs?” Century for 21stCentury Studies, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, March 2013.Sessions Organized or ChairedInternationalCo-Organizer and Respondent, “Guilty Pleasures: Mere Genre and Late Capitalism.” Modern Language Association, Vancouver, Canada, January 2015.Co-Organizer, “Alterity Beyond Utopia.” American Comparative Literature Association, Toronto, CA, April 2013.Co-Organizer, “Utopia, Globalization, Film.” American Comparative Literature Association, Vancouver, Canada, April 2011.NationalOrganizer, “Infinite Jestat Twenty” Special Session. Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, PA, January 2017.Organizer, “Paradoxa:Global Weirding.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Atlanta, GA, November 2016.Organizer and Moderator, “Roundtable: Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2016.Chair, “Reproduction.” Science Fiction Research Association, Stony Brook University, June 2015.Organizerand Moderator, “Mere Genre”Roundtable.International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2015.Organizer, SF Theory Roundtable. International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2014.
  Chair, “Octavia E. Butler.” Science Fiction Research Association / Eaton Science Fiction Conference, Riverside, CA, April 2013.Organizer, “Roundtable: Adaptation Beyond Fidelity.”International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2013.Chair, “Race and Science Fiction.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2013.Chair, “MonstrousPosthuman Imaginings.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2012.Chair, “Speculative California Landscapes In A Global Age.” Eaton Science Fiction Conference, Riverside, CA, February 2011.Chair, “Postmodern Paradigms.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, March 2010.Chair, “20thCentury Fiction I.” Society for UtopianStudies, Wilmington, NC, October 2009.RegionalChair, “Performing the Body.” Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference, Milwaukee, WI, February 2014.Chair, “Contemporary Popular Fiction.” Annual Meeting of the Reception StudySociety, Marquette University, September 2013.Chair, “Drones.” The Dark Side of the Digital. Center for 21stCentury Studies, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, April 2013.Chair, “Knowledge/Subject Production.” Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference,Milwaukee, WI,February 2013.Co-Organizer, “Marxism and New Media” Conference. Duke Univ.,Durham, NC,Spring 2012.Co-Organizer, “Ecology, Ideology, Politics: A Roundtable Discussion with Tim Morton, Kathy Rudy, and the Polygraph Collective.” Duke University, Durham, NC, April 2009.Co-Organizer, “Cultures of Recession” Conference.Duke University,Durham, NC, Nov.2009.Teaching ExperienceDetailed syllabi available upon request.Assistant ProfessorMarquette University—Graduate Level•ENGLISH 6700: Studies in Twentieth Century American LiteratureThematic Title: “Utopia in America”(Summer 2016)•ENGLISH 6700: Studies in Twentieth Century American Literature Thematic Title: “American Literature after the American Century”(Fall 2015)Marquette University—Undergraduate Level•ENGLISH 2010: Literature and GenreThematic Title:“Crafting the Short Story” (J-Session pilot 2016-2017)•ENGLISH 4615: Text in ContextThematic Title: “Infinite Jest”(Fall 2016)•ENGLISH 2010: Literature and GenreThematic Title:“Alternate History”(Fall 2016)•HONORS 1953: Honors First Year SeminarThematic Title: “Video Game Culture” (Fall 2016)•ENGLISH 4717: Comics and Graphic NarrativeThematic Title: “Comics as Literature”(Summer 2016)
  ENGLISH 4997/5997: Senior Capstone Thematic Title: “The Lives of Animals”(Spring 2016)•ENGLISH 4610/5610: Individual Authors Thematic Title: “J.R.R. Tolkien”(Fall 2015)•ENGLISH 2010: Literature and GenreThematic Title: “Science Fiction as Genre”(Summer 2015)•HONORS 2953: Honors Second Year SeminarThematic Title: “Video Game Culture”(Spring 2015)•ENGL 3000: Critical Practices and Processes in Literary StudiesThematic Title:“Magic and Literature” (Spring 2015, Spring 2016)•ENGL 4931: Topics in LiteratureThematic Title: “Cultural Preservation” (Spring 2014, Spring 2015)•ENGL 4560/5560: The Contemporary Period in American Literature: 1945-PresentThematic Title:“Postmodern American Fiction” (Fall 2013)•ENGL 4710/5710: Studies in Genre: Science FictionThematic Title: “21stCentury Science Fiction” (Fall 2013)•ENGL 2520: Introduction to American LiteratureThematic Title: “Thrill and Dread in the American Century” (Spring2013, Spring 2014)•ENGL 2710: Introduction to Literature: FictionThematic Title:“Contemporary American Fiction” (Fall 2012)•ENGL 4560/5560: The Contemporary Period in American Literature: 1945-PresentThematic Title:“Comics as Literature” (Fall 2012)Instructor Duke University•LIT 145S: Science Fiction and Ecology (Spring 2012)•LIT 145S: 21stCentury Science Fiction (Summer 2011)•LIT 120AS / VISUALST 183:Watching Television (Summer 2010)•WRITING 20: Writing the Future (Spring 2010)•LIT 151S / VISUALST 189S: Comics as Literature (Summer 2009)•LIT 20S: The Imagination of Disaster (Fall 2008)Duke Talent Identification Program•Apocalypse Soon (Summer 2008, Summer 2009)•Phantom Fiction (Summer 2007)LecturerUniversity of North Carolina at Greensboro•ENG 225: Writing Fiction: Introductory (Summer 2005, Spring 2006)•ENG 108: Special Topics in British and American Literature: Contemporary Fiction (Fall 2005)•ENG 105: Introduction to Narrative (Fall 2004, Spring 2005, Spring 2006, Summer 2006)•ENG 104: Introduction to Literature (Fall 2005)•ENG 101: Introduction to Composition (Fall 2004, Spring 2005, Spring 2006)
  14•FRESHMAN SEMINAR 115: Transformation, Identity, and Metaphor (Fall 2005)Teaching AssistantDuke University•to Michael Hardt, LIT 181A: Marxismand Society (Spring 2008)•to Negar Mottahedeh, LIT 110: Introduction to Film (Fall 2007)University of North Carolina at Greensboro•to Michael Parker, ENG 105: Introduction to Narrative (Spring 2004)•to Lee Zacharias, ENG 105: Introduction to Narrative (Fall 2003)•to Fred Chappell, ENG 236: Genre Fiction—Fantasy and Science Fiction (Fall 2003)TutorDuke University•Writing Studio Tutor (Spring 2009)•State Administration of Foreign Affairs Experts (SAFEA) Tutor (Fall 2008)Case Western Reserve University•Tutor in Latin and Philosophy (1999-2002)
  University and Professional ServiceGeneralVice President, Science FictionResearch Association (2017-2020)Pioneer Award Committee, Science Fiction Research Association (2014-2017, chair 2017)Executive Committee, Discussion Group on Science Fiction and Utopian and Fantastic Literature, Modern Language Association (2014-2018, chair 2018)Paradoxa,Board of Editors (2017-)Board of Consultants, Science Fiction Studies(2013-)Member, Fembot Collective, Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology (2013-)External Reviewer, Ph.D. Thesis, University of TasmaniaPeer Reviewer. Outlets have included Extrapolation(2010-), Intellect Press(2012), Routledge (2012-), The Journal of Communication Inquiry(2013-),Cambridge University Press (2013-), Mediations(2013), Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology (2013), PMLA (2013),Science Fiction Studies (2013-), The Journal for the Fantastic in the Arts(2014), Reception Studies(2014),Tulsa Studiesin Women’s Literature(2014), Women and Performance(2014), Springer Science and Business Media (2014), The Journal of Utopian Studies(2014),Borderlands(2014), The Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society(2015), Science as Culture(2015), Arizona Quarterly(2015),Liverpool University Press (2015-), McFarland (2015-), University of Mississippi Press (2016), Renascence(2016), I.B. Tauris (2016), Cengage Learning (2016),Imaginations(2016), Medical Humanities(2016),Obsidian(2016), Mosaic (2016), Trans Temporality (2016), Somatechnics(2016), Palimpsest(2016), and Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (2016).Marquette UniversityUniversitySmithFamilyFellowship Review Committee (2016-2017)University Committee on Academic Technology (2016-2019)
  15Mellon Development Group, Honors Humanities Program (Fall 2015-Spring 2017)Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Special Review Panel (Fall 2015)Book Discussion Leader, First-Year Reading Program (Summer 2013)Faculty Participant, Phi Beta Kappa, Zeta of Wisconsin Chapter (2012-)CollegeMarch on Milwaukee RetrospectivePlanning Committee(Spring 2018)Preview Freshman Advising (2015, 2016)Klingler College Pre-Major Advisor (2013-2014, 2015-2016)College Curriculum, “What If” Advising(Fall 2015)Organizer, One-Day Symposium, “Cultural Preservation Today” (Spring 2015) Panel Moderator, Marquette Graduate Student Humanities Conference (Spring 2014, Spring 2015)“Science Fiction in the Anthropocene,” Conversations Across the Humanities(April 2013)Major Departmental ServiceDissertation Committees (Fall 2014-)•Completed:Bonnie McLean, Katy Leedy•In Progress:Brian Kenna, Carolyne Hurlburt, Andrew Hoffman, Justice Hagen, Kathryn Hendrickson, Alison Sperling (UWM)Doctoral Qualifying ExamCommittees (Spring 2013-)•Completed: Bonnie McLean, Brian Kenna, Andrew Hoffman,Justice Hagen, Kathryn Hendrickson•In Progress:John Brick, Alex FrissellDepartmental Committee Service (2013-)•Graduate Studies Committee (2013-2014, Fall 2016)•FAME Committee (Spring 2015, 2015-2016, Fall 2016)•Executive Committee (2015-2016)•AnglophoneSearch Committee (2015-2016)•First Year English Committee (Spring 2015)•Master’s Exam Committee (2013-2014, 2014-2015)•Romanticism Screening Committee (Fall 2013)Academic Advising (2013-)Other Departmental ServiceOrganizer, English Department “Pop Culture Lunches” series (Spring 2013-present)Faculty Research Talk, “Science Fiction and Utopia in the Anthropocene” (Spring 2015)Department Representative, Explore the Majors, Discovery Days,and Blue & Gold Day (2014, 2015, 2016)Department Representative, Summer Preview Luncheon (2014, 2015)Departmental Workshop on the Academic Job Market (Spring 2014)Writing Internship Supervisor (Summer 2013, Spring 2016)English Department Architecture and Instructional Technology Committees (Spring 2013)“If This Goes On.” Association of English Graduate Students Faculty Research Talk, Marquette University (January 2013)RegionalUWM/Marquette Graduate Science Fiction Theory Reading Group (2015-2016)
  Duke UniversityCo-Organizer, “Periodizing Jameson.” Literature Graduate Student Seminar (April 2012)“Heroes, Villains, and the Dark Age of Comics.” Duke University Libraries (February 2012)“Shipwrecked Passengers on a Doomed Planet.” Literature Graduate Student Colloquium, Duke University (November 2011)Graduate Student Liaison, Program in Literature, Duke University (2010-2012)Member, Graduate and Professional Student Council, Duke University (2008, 2011)Conference Assistant, “Environmental Justice” Symposium, Duke University (January 2010)Co-Convener, "Ecology and the Humanities” Working Group, Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University (2009-2010)Conference Assistant, “Competing Cosmologies, Effecting Worlds: Intersectionsof Science and Religion” Symposium,Duke University (January 2010)Co-Convener, “Political Ecology” Graduate Seminar, Duke University Center for International Studies (2008-2009)Student Judge, Academic Integrity Board, Case Western Reserve University (2002)Professional Development“FacilitatinganOnline Course”(Fall 2016)Jesuit Education and Ignatian Pedagogy Blended Course for Faculty (Spring 2016)Diversity Advocate Training (Spring 2016)Manresa Ignatian Pedagogy Workshop, Marquette University (Spring 2013)Other Editorial ExperienceEditorial Assistant, American Studies Association (Summer 2011)Staff Member and Web Master, PolygraphCollective(2006-2012)Web Master, Institute for Critical Theory,Duke University (2007-2012)Co-Founder and Editor, Backwards City Review(2004-2007)Freelance Editing and Indexing (2004-2012)Editorial Assistant, The Greensboro Review(2003-2004)OtherResearch ExperienceResearcher, Philip K. Dick “Exegesis” Project, Penn State University (2011)Research Assistant, Dr. Priscilla Wald, Duke University (2011)Research Assistant, Dr. FredricJameson, Duke University (2009)Research Assistant, Dr. Alice Kaplan, Duke Universityand Yale University (2006-2011)Research Assistant, Dr. Marianna Torgovnik, Duke University(2007-2008)Professional MembershipsModern Language Association; American Literature Association; American Studies Association; American Comparative Literature Association; Society for Cinema and Media Studies; Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts; Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment; Modernist Studies Association; Science Fiction Research Association; International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts; Society for Utopian Studies.ReferencesAvailable upon request.

• Wired - https://www.wired.com/2016/12/geeks-guide-gerry-canavan/

  12.16.16
  TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:40 PM.
  7:40 PM
  SCI-FI TRIED TO WARN US ABOUT LEADERS WHO WANT TO ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN’

  UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
  OCTAVIA BUTLER, WHO died in 2006, was the author of such visionary science fiction novels as Kindred, The Parable of the Sower, and Dawn. Gerry Canavan, who just published a book-length study of Butler, describes her as one of the greatest writers of her era.

  “I think you’d put her up there with Philip K. Dick and Le Guin and Delany and these other people who really made an impact on the way that science fiction circulates,” Canavan says in Episode 234 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “Especially that mode of literary science fiction that’s somewhere in the middle between genre fiction and prize-winning novels, she has to be top two, top three in that list.”

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  Butler made headlines this year when fans noted that her 1998 novel The Parable of the Talents features a fascist politician who rises to power by promising to “make America great again.” The comparisons to Donald Trump are obvious, but Canavan says the character was actually inspired by Ronald Reagan.

  “That we would elect Reagan and then elect him a second time seemed to her to be almost confirmation that there was something fundamentally wrong with us,” he says. “And so she thought the system was always teetering at the brink of some kind of dictatorial nightmare.”

  It wasn’t unusual for public figures to inspire Butler’s imagination. Her personal notebooks, now housed at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, reveal that she also based characters on Newt Gingrich, George W. Bush, and fellow science fiction writers whose politics she disliked.

  “A lot of her heroic female characters start off as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, or other major figures from African-American history,” Canavan says. “And a lot of times the antagonists start out as right-wing politicians.”

  Butler had a singularly dark imagination, and often had to do multiple rewrites in order to tell her stories in a way that readers would find palatable. But Canavan says that in the current political climate, Butler’s dim view of humanity is starting to seem ever more relevant.

  “She often thought about how easy it would be for everything to just kind of go back to the way it was,” he says. “That the things that seemed like they were permanent progress were really just a kind of epiphenomenon of the wealth of the United States in the latter half of the 20th century, and that when that fell apart, all the bad days would come back again.”

  Listen to our complete interview with Gerry Canavan in Episode 234 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.

  Gerry Canavan on the Patternmaster series:

  “The Patternmasters are bad people—they’re slavers, they don’t really care about the normals, and they do effectively take over the world, as well as murder each other without a lot of compunction. So it’s this very dark take on the superhero stories that interested her when she was a child. … She really anticipates a lot of what happened to superhero stories in the decades since she wrote and was reading them, that in some sense these stories turn toxic—they all wind up murdering each other, and you can’t tell the heroes from the bad guys anymore. And she was there much earlier, I think, than the industry wound up being.”

  Gerry Canavan on race and science fiction:

  “Science fiction is a little bit afraid of getting too deep into the racial question, and often tries to turn it into a metaphor rather than ever deal with it concretely. … There’s this crazy idea she keeps hearing that it ruins a story somehow to bring race into it, and so just make them purple robot men from Planet 12, and then you can talk about race in this kind of slant way, but you don’t need to include characters of color, and she just thought that was so ridiculous. … We’re still kind of wrestling with this question of just how much of our science fiction first of all doesn’t want to think about race and then second of all how it’s so structured by ideas of race, by ideas of aliens who all look alike and all think the same way.”

  Gerry Canavan on the Parable series:

  “She thought that the essential thinking of Christianity was not well-suited to the world that we were making, both in the moment of high capitalism but also in this apocalyptic moment that she saw coming next, and that something else would be required. And so the religion she invents is called Earthseed, which is essentially a kind of Darwinist religion, almost worshiping evolution and change and constant adaptation, and to orient oneself toward the universe with maximum flexibility. And so the story that we have in the two Parable books is essentially the story of the founding of this religion by a young black woman.”

  Gerry Canavan on Butler’s shyness:

  “She said she was dyslexic. It wasn’t clear to me if there was ever a formal diagnosis with that, but she seems to have had certain kinds of repetitive spelling errors and things like that. It made her very worried about reading her own work aloud, and she actually refused to do it for most of her career—she would never read at a public ‘reading.’ She would talk and give lectures, and they were incredibly well-rehearsed, to the point where she was even rehearsing and writing down small talk, in case she needed to do it. So it was kind of an incredible moment for this incredibly shy person to become so famous and become so much the center of attention.”

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - http://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/books/2016/12/16/marquette-scholar-delivers-smart-book-octavia-e-butler/95377068/

  Marquette scholar delivers a smart book about Octavia E. Butler
  Jim Higgins , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 10:03 a.m. CT Dec. 16, 2016 | Updated 7:11 p.m. CT Dec. 16, 2016
  Octavia E. Butle
  (Photo: Associated Press)
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  Reading Gerry Canavan's "Octavia E. Butler" is like opening up a second screen on this great American writer. Not only does Canavan explicate the sources, patterns and preoccupations of Butler's speculative fiction, he also explores her early drafts, false starts and unpublished fiction — and her notes to herself and others about her work. It may both thrill and chill Butler fans to learn, via Canavan's voyages through her archives, that behind some of her dark, dystopian novels are even darker, more dystopian versions of those stories.

  Canavan, an assistant professor of English at Marquette University, writes with an enthusiasm that matches his command of the subject. I'll confess I had to look up an occasional word (hello, "alterity"), but I never minded doing so.

  Butler (1947-2006) is best known among casual readers for "Kindred" (1979), which she called a "grim fantasy": A contemporary African-American woman is continually pulled back in time to a slave plantation before the Civil War, eventually realizing that her existence depends on keeping a cruel white slaveowner alive, because he is one of her ancestors. When the Milwaukee Public Library chose "Kindred" as its Milwaukee Reads book in 2002, Butler spoke here about how she walked along Maryland highways while researching the novel "to understand what her modern-day black heroine would encounter when she traveled back in time," Geeta Sharma Jensen reported.

  Octavia E. Butler (Modern Masters of Science Fiction).
  Octavia E. Butler (Modern Masters of Science Fiction). By Gerry Canavan. University of Illinois Press. 224 pages. $22. (Photo: University of Illinois Press)
  In 1995, Butler became the first science fiction writer to win a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship, colloquially known as a "genius" grant. As a black woman SF novelist who made her bones when the field was often unfriendly, even hostile, to African-American writers, she continues to inspire people today.

  While discussion of Butler's distinctiveness often revolves around her race, Canavan points to a different fault line in her fiction: "One might say that Butler saw not race but men – masculinity, not just on the level of ideology but on the level of biology – as the real problem to be solved." Citing the relationship of Doro and Mary in "Mind of My Mind" (1997), Canavan writes, "Over and over again Butler imagines an intense, cold, powerful, and attractive man who is usually a borderline abusive gaslighter – and then imagines a powerful female survivor as his associate-prisoner-competitor-lover (and typically all of them at once)."

  RELATED:Jim Higgins' Best Books of 2016

  In her journals, Canavan reports, Butler wondered why she often wrote about mixed-race couples, such as Dana and Kevin in "Kindred." "She concluded," Canavan writes, "that she wrote about them for the same reason she wrote about sexually egalitarian societies: an effort to imagine 'not utopias, but societies in which women do as they please.' "

  Canavan first encountered Butler's fiction in college, reading "Parable of the Sower" (1993) as a freshman and then "Dawn" (1987) — his favorite of her novels — as a graduate student. He pitched this critical study of her work to the University of Illinois Press at roughly the same time the Butler archive opened at California's Huntington Library, making him one of the first scholars to spend extensive time with her papers.

  "Seeing her process ... was an amazing experience, particularly the way she rewrote and transformed ideas," Canavan said in a recent interview.

  During these archival dives, Canavan read two fairly different versions of Butler's unpublished novel "Blindsight," featuring a blind man with psychometric powers who learns things about people and objects by touching them. Canavan describes "Blindsight" as a supernatural thriller a la Stephen King; Butler "felt sure she could match (King's) tremendous successes if she could just find the right story...."

  While this is a critical study, not a biography, Canavan's book offers many details about her life, including her fandom. She loved original recipe "Star Trek" and had a serious fan crush on William Shatner; she also watched "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" with interest. But she disliked Lando Calrissian in "The Empire Strikes Back," seeing him as a cartoonish representation of black people. Canavan's book republishes Butler's smart essay "Lost Races of Science Fiction" (1980), which dryly notes that "Blacks find a certain lack of authenticity in a genre which postulates a universe largely populated by whites, in which the power is in white hands, and blacks are occasional oddities."

  Gerry Canavan
  Gerry Canavan (Photo: Marquette University)
  The Huntington archive gave Canavan a rich view of how Butler wrote her work, but it also presented him with ethical decisions. Butler died suddenly at age 58 following a fall, without the opportunity to prune private materials from the archive if she had wanted to. "There are places where she's very clearly depressed and writing about it," Canavan said. "I tried to have a light touch with some of that stuff," he said, explaining that he did not want to exploit her depression.

  Canavan understands that some may look askance at a white male scholar writing about this black female writer. "I could never tell somebody not to be irritated about that," he said. A good thing, he points out, is that other scholars are also doing great work on Butler, such as Ayana A.H. Jamieson, founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network.

  He began his critical work with the desire to read and understand Butler specifically as a science fiction writer. But as he burrowed in deeper, Canavan became aware of Butler's desire not to be siloed or limited to a single audience. Later in her career, she pushed her publisher to court the New Age audience, wanting to add them to the circles of SF fans, African-Americans and feminists already reading her. She wanted to write bestsellers.

  For readers new to Butler, Canavan suggests "Kindred," "Dawn" and "Parable of the Sower" as good entry points. For post-Butler reading, he recommends Nnedi Okorafor, Nalo Hopkinson and Nisi Shawl, three active writers "who take her trajectory and move it in different ways." He also likes "Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements" (AK Press), an anthology of stories whose writers, Canavan said, look to Butler "almost like a figure out of her own work."

• Praxis - http://www.praxisuwc.com/praxis-blog/interviewwithgerrycanavanpartone

  Working Out What's True and What Isn't: An Interview with Gerry Canavan
  August 04, 2015
  Elizabeth Haslam, "The Calm After the Storm" 2012
  As an open-access internationally peer-reviewed academic journal, it should come as no surprise that Praxis believes in the importance of scholarship generally, and of writing center scholarship in particular. We are dedicated to sharing our authors' contributions to the long effort involved in improving our grasp of the situation in which we find ourselves as scholars and as writing center staffers, and we believe that effort includes attention to the institutional and social landscape in which writing centers and scholars exist. Toward that end, today Praxis Managing Editor Thomas Spitzer-Hanks discusses how data, ignorance, and instruction traverse the divide between individual and institution with Gerry Canavan, assistant professor at Marquette University and editor of Science Fiction, Film and Television (Cambridge UP, 2015) and The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction (2015) with Eric Carl Link. In addition to his work on science fiction and critical theory, Canavan also works in transnational American studies, literature and popular culture, and ecological humanities, and has been recipient of the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Fellowship for Undergraduate Instruction awarded by Duke University. Praxis would like to thank Dr. Canavan for his time.

  1. Dr. Canavan, as a scholar interested in speculative fiction and as a public intellectual in the Internet age, you spend a fair amount of time thinking and writing about where we, meaning humans as a species but also academics as a profession, are going. Additionally, much of your work notes that there's a general pessimism about the future. Do you share that pessimism? Do you think we're locked into a technologically, environmentally and philosophically unsustainable future at an institutional level? Why?

  That’s a very hard question to answer. It’s certainly true, I think, that most attempts to imagine the future in our moment are fundamentally depressive; the dominant paradigm is a sense that the party seems to be winding down. (As Tony Soprano put it in the first episode of The Sopranos, we all seem to have the feeling that we’re coming in at the end of something, rather than at the beginning.) My position, following familiar names like Jameson, Zizek, Mark Fischer, and others, is that this is because we can all see that our current socio-economic order is propelling us towards environmental catastrophe, but we don’t believe the terms of capitalism can ever be modified or changed—so there’s nothing to do but hunker down and hope that the worst of the inevitable collapse happens after we and our children and maybe our grandchildren are all dead. To me, it’s this last part that’s the real tragedy, because the pervasive sense that we are hopelessly locked into a system we can all see is about to go over the cliff is itself the fantasy. We could very easily change the way we live to an ecologically rational, sustainable paradigm, and it wouldn’t even be that painful—we just don’t do it, and maybe won’t, even as the bottom falls out. The apocalypse is a choice that the obscenely rich people who rule us have deliberately and calculatedly made, and continue to make every day.

  2. I agree with your characterization of our response to the future as generalized fatalism, but I'm surprised by your description of easy and relatively painless change. Given the stakes of the game - human existence, first of all, and a continued unfolding of human potential as the concomitant of that - and the current ways in which capital circulates between institutions and the small number of people who have a measure of control over those institutions, I find myself reacting with suspicion to such a sunny assessment. What is the source of your confidence in the possibility of change, and what makes you think that characterizing that change as easy and not all that painful is reasonable?

  I think we’re talking about slightly different things. When I say that the change to a more ecologically rational lifestyle could be easy, I mean to say that if we took seriously the crisis and devoted our resources to addressing it it wouldn’t be that painful. (The estimates for what it would take to seriously combat climate change, for instance, are still on the order of a few percent of global GDP.) Our civilization has tremendous surplus capacity that it basically devotes entirely to waste, much of that to further enrich people who are already inconceivably wealthy and/or to perpetuate the security regimes that protect that wealth. If we devoted our resources instead to fixing the ecological crisis we would be able to make those changes while maintaining the global standard of living to which we are now accustomed (especially if we’d started that process of transition when the first indications of the coming disaster became recognizable decades ago – we’d practically be done!). The problem, as you suggest, is political: our institutions and the people who control them have no interest in making any of those changes, and in many cases refuse to even acknowledge that there is a problem at all. So nothing gets done.

  I’m an optimist, perhaps, about what technology can do to keep the project of human civilization going – what fills me with dread is the fact that the world’s governments are built out of constitutional orders that make no sense in a twenty-first century context, and which are completely bloated with gerrymandering and malapportionment, veto points, and opportunities for graft, which the obscenely rich have used to stymie all progress towards making our society either ecologically or economically rational. We need new institutions – democratic, academic, journalistic – that make sense for the world in which we actually live.

  3. In an introduction to a special issue on ecology and ideology you've written that "[I]gnorance has become the ground for our relationship with Nature," and you go on to detail some of the ways in which we don't know or fail to predict things about our effect on the planet. Many of your examples - the Deepwater oil spill on the Gulf Coast in 2010, perpetrated by British Petroleum, the Massey coal mine disaster that same year, and the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - don't seem so much like actual ignorance as they do examples of people in power choosing ignorance. Can you expand on the role of this chosen ignorance, both in the wider society and in academia? Is there something about your work that you hope is mediating or somehow counteracting this pattern of interested ignorance? Also, what is the role of this information everyone is ignoring, and the people that produce and publicize it, in this pattern?

  I would perhaps draw the distinction between denial as a psychological coping mechanism and denialism as an ideology. We know from many different studies that human beings are very good at rejecting, minimizing, or outright refusing information that makes them unhappy or disconfirms their beliefs; we need better strategies for educating people that account for cognitive biases and maladaptive, motivated reasoning. But denialism is something different: that’s the pseudoscientific political-media ecology we live in that aggressively deprecates real knowledge in favor of faux-objective debate, infotainment, obscurantism, and deliberate lies. Presidential campaigns, for instance, focus essentially zero attention on the environment when by any rational measure it is a five-alarm fire, the most important political issue of any of our lives; the last election cycle had something like one question on the environment in dozens of debates, and it was asked as a novelty by a cartoon snowman. And when mainstream media and political sources do discuss the environment, it is almost always to introject doubt that climate and ecological sciences are accurate, typically through sources that they know or ought to know are illegitimate. (Erik M. Conway and Naomi Oreskes’s Merchants of Doubt is a really stunning examination of this point: they show that climate deniers don’t simply use the same techniques as those who disingenuously defended tobacco, in many cases they are literally the same individuals.)

  Colleges and universities, operating outside the traditional market economy, at least potentially pose a counterforce to this kind of denialism—though academia has been largely coopted by the same sorts of forces and in many cases has itself been transformed to promote the denial industry as well. The independence of the university, which is now under such fierce attack, is precious in no small part because it is one of the few entities we have with the institutional authority and material resources to combat the widespread ignorance that so much of the rest of our society inculcates.

  4. I find your distinction between denial as a psychological mechanism and denialism as an ideology very useful. It strikes me that there remains some overlap - people using denialism for their own purposes will probably be assisted by patterns of individual denial in audience members, especially in specific debates like those centering on identity or the environment - but it also seems that you're implying that denialism has become something more than a rhetorical technique. While there remain plenty of people knowingly using denialism for the purposes of avoiding regulation, for instance, there's a larger social problem that has to do with our relationship to information and learning. Do you think our ability to engage information, both individually and as a society, has atrophied as a result of a sort of paradigmatic denialism? If so, how can we look forward to change when the thing that ought to drive it - data - is so distrusted? Also, can you unpick what you mean when you say that academia and the university operate outside the traditional market economy? How is higher education divorced from capitalism when it serves such an important purpose as a gatekeeper for other, capitalist, institutions, and what does the independence you would preserve for the university look like in theory and in practice?

  This is a huge problem and I wish I knew how to solve it. It definitely seems that our major interaction with information has the form of (I love your phrasing) “paradigmatic denialism,” a tendency accelerated by media forms that promote it and by the open Internet, which allows people to confirm or disconfirm any proposition essentially as they choose. There is a need for a return to something like “expertise” – we need better ways to legitimate, promote, and confirm expert knowledge. But (as always) that doesn’t mean simply trusting the elect, either – we need a paradigm for knowledge production that is open and transparent and democratic but also responsive to academic ideals about good faith, honesty, confirmability, rationality, mutuality, and so forth. It’s difficult because the media and academic systems we have today are so perfectly maladaptive: our brains are prone to cognitive biases like wishful thinking, confirmation bias, and backlash effect already, and the information channels we use just makes these kinds of mistakes that much easier.

  It’s hard to know how to combat these tendencies or how to turn around the ship, especially when (as you say) the space that ought to be working against these bad tendencies is actually fully captured by capital. Academia, in an idealized form, really can be an actually existing anticapitalism: its knowledge workers are responsive, in theory, not to the market but to what is true and what is not. Part of the reason norms like academic freedom emerged was precisely to insulate academia from capitalism, and allow knowledge production to happen without interference from market pressures or rich benefactors. Academia never existed in such a pure form, of course, but that was the idea at least, and what we’ve seen in the last few decades of privatization and neoliberalism from the administrative classes at universities is the total destruction of that crucial (if only ever partial) independence. Now we’re told that the only purpose of the university system is job training and credentialism – whereas before this was only one of its goals, or even something more like the university system’s public alibi. The idea that knowledge is a good in and of itself is anathema in the current political climate.

  What I think we should do is divert resources away from police and prisons and tax cuts for billionaires and spend money on preserving and growing the university system as a producer of knowledge. Science can’t be done in the market; it has to be done in an enclave where, as best as we can manage it, knowledge can be produced independently of the desires of wealth.

  5. You write a lot about universities and colleges in transition, many of which you argue, as you're doing here, are becoming more corporate in response to various pressures including, but not limited to, budgetary strictures. You've also gone on record via Twitter as being deeply dubious about 'the Commons' as a value-neutral concept. What do you think 'the Commons' means, and what are its politics? More specifically, do you think that there are clear connections between the defunded university and this emerging interest in 'the Commons' and in Open Access to scholarly work, and how would you characterize those connections?

  I’m in favor of “the commons” as an ideal, certainly. My objection to the way this idea has been generally been promoted in the academy is the way that the attraction to the commons has been weaponized in the service of what amounts to an enclosure movement: junior scholars’ desire to spread and share their work gets turned into new norms that hurt their ability to work, usually for the financial benefit of some for-profit entity. I think you’re talking about some of my tweets about open-access dissertations.

  Obviously I support the ability of researchers to access each other’s work—but what we are actually talking about is universities using their authority over finishing graduate students to coerce them to sign one-way contracts so ProQuest can sell access to their work without their input and usually without them receiving any sort of benefit at all. That’s not the commons; that’s a fire sale at gunpoint. In many fields this is the work they will need to publish as a monograph, if they get on the tenure track—so they find themselves in a race with themselves, hoping to revise quickly enough that they can beat their own dissertation to press (and with only a one- or two-year embargo they almost certainly won’t). MA students who go on to get PhDs are now often told that they won’t be able to use their own master’s theses in their dissertations, because they are owned by ProQuest now. It’s obscene. And this supposed ethos of “openness” is spreading into other modes of academic publishing now too.

  If you want to transform academic publishing—and I do, as we all should—this is not the way to do it. Senior scholars could use their relative security to promote alternative, genuinely open-access publishing models—but for university systems to simply mandate that junior scholars sign their work away to for-profit corporations, for free and to their own detriment, bears no real relationship to “the commons.” The claim that it does is simply a way to moralistically shift attention away from what is obviously an unfair deal for the junior scholar by pretending it’s some utopian political ideal.

  6. Praxis certainly wants to transform academic publishing, and we put a fair amount of work into making sure we do so in a sustainable, reflexive way. As an open-access journal that allows authors to retain copyright to their work we're confident that we're not stealing anybody's intellectual property, but as editor I'm not always confident that we're doing everything we possibly can to transform academic publishing. Obviously it's more than an individual scholar or a single journal could hope for, but if you could change academic publishing in three ways tomorrow, what would they be and why? What are the biggest problems in our current system of knowledge-sharing aside from the forced population of the Commons?

  I think my three changes with respect to publishing specifically would be open-access (both with respect to the economics of the thing but also with the sense of being public-facing and popularly accessible); much faster; and multi-modal. The larger problem than any of these, though, is the fact that the crisis in academic employment has left junior scholars utterly panicked, and incentivizes the worst impulses towards “big impact” issues, rapid turnaround, cutting corners, and out-and-out dishonesty. This is part of what I was saying earlier about the market breaking the seal of the university and distorting its procedures; when your scholars don’t know if they’ll have a job in two years or two months, of course the scholarship they produce is going to suffer accordingly.

  7. I'm also interested in what you say about how education needs to change in response to denialism and the ways it has formed the "political-media ecology we live in." What might some of these better strategies for educating people be, and how can they account for the cognitive biases and maladaptive, motivated reasoning that come along with denialism? Do they involve a complete overhaul of our educational systems and of the ways we share information? Also, do you think there might be a possible downside to an educative process that overrides cognitive biases and motivated reasoning? It sounds like such a powerful pedagogy that there would be immense responsibility resting with the instructor, and the power relations in the classroom could be dubious.

  I can tell you that I’m terrified of sending my daughter to school in the current regime, where everything is directed towards accommodation to standardized tests (almost always produced by the state or by its designated for-profit agents). I think we can plainly do a much better job promoting curiosity, rationality, and independent thought by returning to the more diversified and more relaxed educational regimes of earlier decades, as well as by attempting to create “anti”-schooling structures that nurture independent learning, experimentation, and play.

  I’m not as nervous as some about power relations in the classroom. In some sense it’s baked into the cake: students are there to learn from a teacher who is there to teach. What we should be focused on is what is being taught and how it is being taught, and in preventing abusive practices from authority figures. It’s tragic, I think, that kids go into school so curious and eager to learn and quickly learn to hate the place – learning is one of life’s deepest and most abiding pleasures and the fact that our schools make their charges so miserable is strong evidence that our models are all wrong.

  8. As a literary critic you work closely with texts, and much of your work with fiction could be characterized as interpretative and qualitative. However, you also write about events happening in the world, both in your academic work and on your blog, and much of this work I would characterize as quantitative, or at least data-driven. What is your relationship to data? How do you use it in the multiple aspects of your work, and do you find that there are situations in which data isn't useful or even becomes an accession to a hostile or exploitative rhetorical situation?

  I like facts, I like data. I think you need these things to make good arguments, and would probably say that both “the left” and “the humanities” are sometimes anti-data to their peril. What’s bad about data is, first, how easy it is to manipulate and how hard it can be to detect the manipulation once you’ve done so; second, how seductive it is to leap from the mere presence of supposed “data” to huge conclusions that are not supported by that evidence; third, how the size and scope of “Big Data” is sometimes mistaken as a theoretical grounding for interpretation, when in fact you still need a theoretical basis to make sense of the data you have; and fourth, how the use of this kind of Big Data is closely linked to new norms of total surveillance that promote both state and corporate control of our lives. Perhaps especially because I don’t have formal training in mathematics or statistics beyond a undergraduate-level math minor, my role in looking at data seems to be in trying to promote what I see appropriate skepticism around the way these things are used. I guess I would say that data helps us think, but that it shouldn’t be mistaken for a completed thought.

  9. I absolutely agree with you that anti-data bias is common in the humanities and on 'the left.' In fact, my training as a feminist scholar involved a fair amount of using doubt as a heuristic device and asking of any given argument: where does this break down? How can I invalidate this argument? I think this has to do in part with the influence of specific philosophical traditions as they've influenced left-leaning scholarship, and I think the effects have been more generative of scholarship than activism. I also think some of what you're saying about the complexities of your engagement with data goes back to an earlier response you gave to a question about chosen ignorance, and the ways in which denialism marks our engagement with information. As a highly-educated university professor with some mathematical knowledge you remain deeply wary of data and feel that your primary role is to promote skepticism about the rhetorical uses of data; the 'completed thoughts' that data can generate seem to be the outcome of a hugely complex process with plenty of pitfalls; given all this, do you personally have a heuristic for dealing with data and data-driven arguments that goes beyond skepticism?

  What I try to do is not take things at face value, especially when it comes to the way science is reported by the media. I try to figure out what the studies are saying by reading the study and understanding it as best I can from the perspective from a non-expert, paying particular attention to the limitations of its applicability. (Oftentimes, of course, what you really need to be skeptical of is how news aggregator sites and clickbait journalists misreport and distort results.) It’s also important to remember that science doesn’t progress by single studies, but by multiple confirmations. The best we can do is to try to keep the multiplicity of science in mind and not fall into the trap of confirmation bias, and to not turn every breaking press release into ammunition for the forever war against our political enemies. As infuriatingly slow as academic publishing sometimes is, there’s still something to be said for going slow, and taking time to understand what is and isn’t being said. Working out what’s true and what isn’t takes time.

  Praxis would like to thank Dr Canavan again for his time and responses.

• CWRU Department of English - https://sites.google.com/a/case.edu/department-of-english-the-annex/alumni/canavan-interview

  Canavan Interview
  "Robert Heinlein famously said there were three science fiction stories: the what if, the if only, and the if this goes on. That is: speculation, utopia, and warning."
  1. How did this collection of essays examining the connection/interrelationship of ecology and science fiction and your co-editorship with Kim Stanley Robinson come about?

  I was lucky enough to meet Stan when he came to an event on the intersection between science, science fiction, and religion while I was a graduate student at Duke. One of my dissertation advisors was the host of the event, and the other had been Stan’s own dissertation advisor way back when, so I was able to introduce myself and spend a bit of time getting to know him. I’m a big fan of his novels, especially the Mars trilogy, so that was a real pleasure. Around that same time, my friend Mark Bould and the British science fiction writer China Miéville put out their edited collection, Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction. I was working a lot in the ecological humanities then, as I still do, and it occurred to me that you could easily do a similar collection about science fiction and the environment and call it Green Planets. So I pitched the idea to Stan as a project we could co-edit together, and to Wesleyan University Press as a kind of unofficial sequel to Red Planets, and they both went for it. Since then someone’s come out with Black and Brown Planets, about science fiction and race, and the same person is doing a Yellow Planets as well (if the publisher will let him call it that) on science fiction and Orientalism. And there’s still a lot of colors left! I’d really like someone to do Pink Planets on feminist SF at some point.

  2. In an interview that you conduct with Kim Stanley Robinson at the end of this collection, Robinson notes that John Brunner’s book Stand on Zanzibar, published in 1968, introduced ecology as an important element for science fiction. Before this time, what were the more usual elements/considerations of science fiction?

  You can always find exceptions, but generally speaking the science fiction of the so-called “Golden Age” period was very optimistic, especially about the promise of technology. Assuming humanity didn’t destroy itself with the nuclear bomb—admittedly a big if in those days—science fiction usually imagined that the human race would colonize the Moon, then the solar system, then the entire galaxy, developing ever more miraculous technological prowess as it went. Donald A. Wollheim called this idea the “consensus future”; I sometimes think of it more as the Star Trek future. And what happens in the 1960s and then especially in the 1970s is the breakdown of that fantasy of the future. Silent Spring (from 1962) essentially jumpstarted the environmental movement by arguing that all the things that were scary about the bomb—mass death, mass extinction of plants and animals, poisoning future generations—were already happening in the form of the widespread use of chemical poisons like DDT. Limits to Growth and The Population Bomb both argued that we were going to run out of resources to support the size and scale of our civilization; the oil shock showed us how radically dependent we actually were on oil. Nuclear fusion never really worked out; the robots never showed up to make it so we didn’t have to work anymore. And outer space colonization essentially proved a dead end: it’s too hard to get up there, and too hard to live there if you do. So science fiction in the 1970s and after really becomes much more pessimistic about the prospects for the future than science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s had been—in some sense it starts to seem like our civilization has no future, even if the bomb never goes off.

  3. Are there certain story lines or tropes that science fiction can be reduced to—in that “a stranger comes to town” kind of way?

  “Someone comes to town” and “someone leaves town” are pretty good micro-summaries of a lot of science fiction stories, actually: either the Weird Thing comes to us or we go to it. Robert Heinlein famously said there were three science fiction stories: the what if, the if only, and the if this goes on. That is: speculation, utopia, and warning. In my own work, I’ve followed a lot of other science fiction scholars by typically focusing on utopia, as both speculation and warning usually collapse into some overarching idea, however explicitly or implicitly articulated, that we should use our powers as a species to try to make the world better rather than than worse.

  The other really important strain of science fictional thematics is violence, which is often merged into the idea of the nation or “empire.” (Even those early Golden Age stories were typically about the formation of a Galactic Empire, rather than a Galactic Republic—and usually this was a particularly American sort of empire.) You see this as an especially important strain in film and video game SF, where the emergence of the Radically New Thing (whatever it is) usually just amounts to an excuse that finally makes it okay for you to murder other people. Zombies, bodysnatchers, aliens, robots, whatever It is—there’s a lot of different sorts of fantasies that people come up with but most of them amount to basically the same thing, a reason to kill your neighbors. I really see violence and utopia as being in interesting tension—what kind of people are human beings, really? Are we healers or are we killers?—especially when you realize how many utopias actually begin with some horrific event of maximum mass violence, as well as how utterly inexhaustible our desire for mass violence apparently turns out to be.

  4. In what new ways do you observe/expect/project that science fiction will address our futures? Will it retain its considerative, corrective stance?

  I think so. I really think science fiction is more important than ever; as I keep writing in articles, and as my co-editor keeps saying in his interviews, today we essentially find ourselves living in a massive science fiction story. We have all sorts of miracle devices that are completely normal to us—and it turns out we’re using them to hurt each other and to destroy the world. Our cell phone give us access to all the world’s knowledge at the touch of a button—but they’re also spying on us. The robots haven’t eliminated work, they’ve only eliminated our jobs. It would be my hope that thinking more science fictionally about our situation could help us find ways to intervene and take some control of this process, and inspire us to remake the world to better serve human beings’ genuine needs—rather than continue to allow things to slide into what in any other decade we would immediately recognize as a terrifying dystopia of ubiquitous surveillance, state violence, and ecological catastrophe.

  5. Is there something about your time at Case that helped to make this book possible?
  Absolutely. In addition to benefiting tremendously from the English, comp lit, and philosophy curricula, I learned so much about what I know about science at Case, both from professors and from other students. I still write some of my undergraduate classmates, now working as engineers and as professors, to ask them about this or that science fact for my work. But the real benefit was in my English classes and the tremendous faculty at Case, who really got me started on this path. Two classes stand out: one, the Great Books class on “utopias” that I took as a freshman in the Comp Lit department, and the combined undergraduate/graduate survey on literary theory I took with Professor Stonum as a senior. I’ve returned to those two classes in particular over and over again, both in the research I do and in the way I teach my own classes as a professor now.

  Those two were probably the most important, but even as I write this I start to think of others, from the Hemingway/Fitzgerald and literature of the 1960s classes I took with Professor Marling to Professor Koenigberger ‘s contemporary British literature course to the multiple, multiple creative writing workshops and independent studies I took with Professor Grimm. I still use a ton of what I learned in those classes in what I do now as an English professor—and I still have all the books!

  Gerry Canavan is an assistant professor of twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature in the Department of English at Marquette University. His research focuses on the relationship between science fiction and the political and cultural history of the post-war period, with special emphasis on ecology and the environment. He has been the co-editor of special issues of American Literature and Polygraph on "speculative fiction" and "ecology and ideology," respectively, and with author Kim Stanley Robinson he is the co-editor of Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction (Wesleyan University Press, 2014). Additional current projects include a critical monograph on science fiction and totality, and another on the work of African-American science fiction author Octavia E. Butler; he is also, with Eric Carl Link, the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction (2015). He also serves as an editor at Extrapolation and Science Fiction Film and Television.

• Marquette University Research - https://medium.com/research-at-marquette/our-lives-science-fiction-d680126ab203

  Our lives: science fiction
  Gerry Canavan explores the archives of Octavia E. Butler and explains how we live in a science fiction world
  Before he could traverse thousands of miles in a single morning, the man walked through a machine with an eye that could see right through him.
  Later that day he appeared just east of Hollywood, a city where stories of future wars and robots, disasters and destruction strike it big. In his pocket, he carried the history of the world on a device smaller than a deck of cards. The device buzzed, notifying him of a message from across that world that was sent to space then beamed instantly back to earth and into his hand.
  If this account was written 25 years ago, Gerry Canavan, assistant professor of English, might be presumed to be a spaceman.
  If written 50 years ago, perhaps it would be the making of a Twilight Zone episode. Looking 100 years in the past, this story would be inconceivable.
  At the time, it would’ve seemed like science fiction. But this is our reality. Smart phones, speedy travel and detection machines in airports are mainstays today — not the distant future.
  And now, Canavan is time-traveling himself. How? Not with the mythical time machine.
  Instead, Canavan is transporting himself to a different time and place the old-fashioned way — by reading.
  “I’m a fifty-three-year-old writer who can remember being a ten-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an eighty-year-old writer.”
  ― Octavia E. Butler

  Canavan has research interests in ecological humanities, science fiction and critical theory.
  In December of 2013, Canavan received a grant to analyze the archives of Octavia E. Butler, an award-winning science fiction writer famous for using the genre to discuss themes of race, sexuality and religion. For a month he pored over the archives in Huntington Library, located in San Marino, Calif.
  Butler used her writing as social criticism and was the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship, a prestigious creative writing award. However, in 2006 Butler died suddenly at age 58, leaving her stories with hanging questions and her fans wanting more.
  All of her papers, letters, notes and diaries made their way to the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif. Around the same time, Canavan made a pitch to the University of Illinois Press to write a book on Octavia Butler for their series Modern Masters of Science Fiction.
  After receiving the publisher’s approval, Canavan submitted a second proposal to Marquette’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for a grant that would allow him to travel to the archives. Coincidently, the archives become open to the public just a few weeks before Canavan arrived.
  He was one of the first people to see these private documents.
  Many Butler fans believed that all of her work had been published. But when Canavan searched the archives, box after box of files told a different story.
  “Every day was a new text and a new moment in her career,” he said.

  Flickr photo by Cody Erekson
  Uncovering these texts provided new insight into Butler’s mind. Reading someone else’s words is a form of mental telepathy, as Stephen King noted in his memoir On Writing. Her books provided a “portable magic.”
  In reading her work, Canavan learned that Butler was a “brutal self-critic.” She created multiple drafts of her work and trashing many ideas and stories because she thought they weren’t good enough or ready to be published. The archives contain several unfinished novels, many alternative versions of her published novels and a multitude of unreleased short stories.
  “She deliberately left these things to be uncovered,” Canavan said.
  Two of those short stories have been published in the recent e-book Unexpected Stories. Canavan expects more of these works to be published.
  The future publications will draw from Butler’s massive bank of writing. The archives contain stories written when she was 12 years old all the way to her death. Alongside the unfinished books are alternate endings and deleted scenes. To give a sense of the archive’s enormity, Canavan likes to point out that the finding aid that describes all the contents of the collection is 500 pages long by itself.

  Flickr photo by CHRIS DRUMM
  During his month researching, Canavan focused primarily on Butler’s unfinished works and the alternate twists of her famous stories.
  He was originally drawn to Butler’s story structure. It was typical for her conclusions to leave readers hanging in troubling ambiguity. As is the case in many classrooms around the country, Canavan teaches using Butler’s work.
  The Huntington experience has provided Canavan with a unique perspective of Butler; one that not many scholars have had and one that Canavan hopes to embed into his writing and teaching.
  “Listen, no part of me is more definitive of who I am than my brain.”
  ― Octavia Butler, Imago
  Canavan was intrigued by how Butler struggled through issues of self-confidence, often writing journal entries in a self-interview style and experimenting with daily affirmations and self-hypnosis. He noted the importance of this intimate perspective.
  “Seeing her as a human being rather than a titan of science fiction is a real privilege,” Canavan said.
  He stated that his teaching style will evolve to show the new perspective of Butler. Students will be able to see extra material, new connections between stories and where stories would’ve gone had Butler finished them.
  “It’s helpful for the students because they get to see literature as something created, rather than inscrutable divinely inspired genius,” Canavan said.

  Octavia Butler’s archives are located in the Huntington Library, located in San Marino, Calif. (Flickr photo by Joe Flood)
  Canavan plans to return to Butler’s archives in December (2014, for those reading this in the distant future). He will continue to scour the boxes, this time working on the book for University of Illinois Press. He will look at new documents to create a bio-critical approach for the book.
  Often scholars will critique single works by an author or the works of a short time period. This book series is different, seeking to provide a long-term critique of an author’s work over a lifetime.
  “To focus on one person intensely in this way is rare,” he said.
  Due to Butler’s reserved nature, not much was known about her personal life. By examining the many documents of the archive, Canavan is excited to add a new perspective about the writer and her work. To see how Butler dealt with problems of social anxiety and depression gives readers a new way to view her stories and the heroes she created.
  While given another month in the archives, Canavan wants to gather as much information as possible. He knows it will be difficult though, given its size.
  “People will be searching this thing forever,” Canavan said. “There will always be more and more.”
  “There are so many interesting times we could have visited.”
  ― Octavia Butler, Kindred
  This opportunity — the entirety of the trip and all that Canavan hopes to do with it— stems from his literary passion: science fiction.
  Our entire world is science fiction. Each one of us, without realizing it or agreeing to it, is living in a science fiction story.
  In Canavan’s pocket is the history of the world, his smartphone — a device that can connect him to anywhere in the world from anywhere in the world. In the blink of an eye this technology will be out of date, archaic compared to the latest and greatest model.
  (Best Buy parodied this reality in a commercial for its Buy Back program for outdated technology. Ironically, the program itself is now defunct.)

  “You got the wrong TV, silly head!” Best Buy’s humorous take on the fast-moving technology world
  Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock is a story about the inability to conceive the world because there is too much change in too little time. Despite having been written in 1970, Canavan notes this is still the case today, and perhaps more.
  “There are all sorts of things that are happening that would be inconceivable not 150 years ago, but would’ve been inconceivable 15 years ago.”
  Our childhoods, when compared to those of children today stand it stark contrast to one another despite a small difference in years.
  “We’ve witnessed the world transforming,” Canavan said. “You’re born into a certain context that’s completely gone within a couple years.”

  Flickr photo by Héctor García
  Buzzfeed popularized a series of articles about the nostalgia for the 90s, a world that existed only 20 years ago but today seems foreign. In 1984, Terminator’s conception of robot soldiers seemed obscure, even outlandish, but just 30 years later autonomous drones are real.
  Science fiction gives us the capacity to imagine this future — with the potential benefits and dangers — before it’s a reality.
  “Science fiction has always been treated as a marginal literature, but in many ways it’s how we think about the future,” Canavan said.
  This is the premise of Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction, a book Canavan edited alongside Kim Stanley Robinson. Through a series of essays examining science fiction books and movies from the beginning of the 20th century to present, the book highlights the relationship between science fiction, environmentalism and ecology.

  “It’s about what’s happened to our imagination about the future over the last 125 years alongside the emergence of science fiction,” Canavan said.
  Scientific advancements in the early 1900s shaped the perspectives of science fiction writers to imagine a utopian world. Science held a nearing promise of free energy and easier lives.
  However, the negative side of science appeared in the world wars. The technology believed to someday liberate mankind turned deadly.
  The ecological impacts of scientific advancements began to emerge. The cheap sources of energy that fueled technological marvels was revealed to be destroying the environment; chemicals like DDT were powerful against mosquitoes, but killed more benign lifeforms as well; and scientific investigations of the atom opened the door for a devastating nuclear bomb.
  Green Planets dives deeper into these literary trends, which in many ways foretell real-world ecological problems. Stories often use emerging environmental issues as storylines to predict an increasingly troubling future — water crises, nuclear warfare, ubiquitous surveillance, oil shortages, climate change and even human extinction.
  “After a few years of watching the human species make things unnecessarily difficult for itself I have little hope that it will do anything more than survive and continue its cycle of errors.” -Octavia Butler, Unexpected Stories
  The utopian ideal of science as progress has shifted to reflect this negative trend. Stories have grown pessimistic, reflecting how our technology threatens to eventually destroy the world and human potential.
  Nowhere is this clearer than with respect to ecology and environmentalism.
  “It seems like the human race is actively, if not gleefully, destroying the capacity for human civilization as we know it to survive beyond the next couple of decades,” Canavan said.
  So what can science fiction do to help? It goes back to time travel.
  Science fiction provides a lens to project ourselves into a future that appears either idealistic or nightmarish. This provides a context to examine our modern world — and where we’re headed.
  As Canavan and Robinson note, we’re currently living in a science fiction reality.
  And we’re writing the next chapter today.
  Research and reporting by Wyatt Massey, a junior studying writing-intensive English and advertising. Connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Octavia E. Butler
Publishers Weekly.
263.44 (Oct. 31, 2016): p65.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Octavia E. Butler
Gerry Canavan. Univ. of Illinois, $22 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-252-08216-0
Canavan supplies a cogent analysis of the works and career of legendary science fiction and fantasy author Octavia E.
Butler. Drawing upon Butler's vast archive at the Huntington Library, Canavan unearths a timeline of how Butler's
work fits together and how it evolved. The book begins with Butler's death from a fall (or possibly a stroke) at age 58
in 2006, and then goes back in time to examine how her writing and publishing career unfolded. Starting with her
earliest published stories, Canavan shows that virtually all Butler's work is conceptually linked together. He reveals that
one of the keys to understanding Butler's writing is seeing how the strands of one particular series, the Patternist novels,
thread their way through her other works. Butler eschewed utopias and challenged racial stereotypes in her fiction,
demonstrating, according to critic Greg Tate, how "black people live the estrangement that science fiction writers
imagine." An appendix includes Butler's groundbreaking essay on race and science fiction, "Lost Races of Science
Fiction." Though she herself died young, Butler's most complex and enduring characters are--like her novels--destined
to endure. This excellent, comprehensive study sheds new light on the process and philosophy of one of the most
important authors of our time. (Dec.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Octavia E. Butler." Publishers Weekly, 31 Oct. 2016, p. 65. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA470462559&it=r&asid=362bff67ac70b9c27ab7b95275bf5839.
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Canavan, Gerry: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 15, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Canavan, Gerry OCTAVIA E. BUTLER Univ. of Illinois (Adult Nonfiction) $22.00 12, 1 ISBN: 978-0-252-08216-0
A deep reading of the work of the late science-fiction master.If readers outside the realm of science fiction haven't
heard of Octavia Butler (1947-2006), Canavan (Literature/Marquette Univ.; co-editor: The Cambridge Companion to
American Science Fiction, 2015) suggests that they should have: "She was never, perhaps, quite the household name
she had once hoped to be--but she was widely and deeply beloved." Best known for her 1979 novel Kindred, she was "a
legend in her field, one of the best writers of her generation," and was the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship and a
PEN lifetime achievement award. This is no book for those needing an introduction to the futurist, anti-utopian vision
of a black female author in a field dominated by white males. Full appreciation for these analyses requires not only a
deep familiarity with her fiction, but also of the academic interpretations and arguments it has spawned. Here is a
representative sentence: "Against the tradition of Butler criticism that has emphasized a postcolonial politics of
cosmopolitan hybridity and that has consequently tended to view the [fictional] Oankali as legitimate benefactors to
humankind, then, I feel I must insist on the extent to which the Oankali turn out, in this reading, to be genuinely
monstrous after all." Such analysis is targeted at those for whom reading a text is a precursor to "unpacking" it.
Canavan provides plenty of plot description and analysis of fiction that has never been published since Butler's
published work (12 novels, one story collection) "is really only the very tip of a vast iceberg." There remains a "vast
intertextual hidden archive of alternative versions and lost tales that will, I hope, reinvigorate the study of her work."
Butler is a significant, influential author, but this study best serves those who already recognize her significance and
influence. Scholarship for science-fiction scholars.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Canavan, Gerry: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2016. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466329330&it=r&asid=da86f8307b1871e3d82372326a4b0e3b.
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Green Visions. Gerry Canavan and Kim Stanley
Robinson, eds. Green Planets: Ecology and
Science Fiction
Bill Dynes
Extrapolation.
57.3 (Fall 2016): p359.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3828/extr.2016.20
COPYRIGHT 2016 Liverpool University Press (UK)
http://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&catid=8
Full Text:
Green Visions. Gerry Canavan and Kim Stanley Robinson, eds. Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction.
Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2014. 260 pp. ISBN 978-0-81-957427-5. $27.95 pbk.
Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction is an important and timely book. Inspired by Red Planets: Marxism and
Science Fiction (2009), it gathers thirteen essays exploring the relationship between sf and ecological science, politics,
and criticism. The essays address topics as diverse as gardens and oceans, Ursula Le Guin's Daoism, the technologies
of spaceships, and the ethics of apocalypse. Co-editor Gerry Canavan contributes an analytical introduction and an
afterword interview with Kim Stanley Robinson. The collected authors talk about texts from South Africa and Australia
as well as Great Britain and the United States, and consider the novels of H. G. Wells as well as films like Avatar
(2009) and District 9 (2009). Taken as a whole, Green Planets asserts that sf has a meaningful role to play in what
Canavan calls "the emerging interdisciplinary conversation variously called ecocriticism, environmental philosophy,
and the ecological humanities" (ix).
In his introduction, Canavan articulates two basic metaphors for thinking about humanity's place in nature. Invoking
Samuel R. Delany's 1990 essay "On Triton and Other Matters," he distinguishes between a "technological super city"
and a pastoral green space (1), each of which carries an optimistic and a pessimistic option. The technological city may
promise luxury and indulgence, with machines standing by to cater to our every whim, or it may threaten a soulless,
polluted urban nightmare. The pastoral vision may offer an Eden in which we are one with the land, or it may warn of a
dystopia in which, following the collapse of civilization, survivors are trapped in Tennyson's dark vision of "Nature, red
in tooth and claw." These four images set the guiding principles for the first two sections of Green Worlds. Part One,
"Arcadias and New Jerusalems," looks at sf that imagines a promising future where humanity finds or builds a
sustaining and fulfilling relationship with nature. In Part Two, "Brave New Worlds and Lands of the Flies," essayists
explore sf that is less optimistic, confronting the limits of ecological abuse and the political and ethical implications of
our responses to catastrophe. "Quiet Earths, Junk Cities, and the Cultures of the Afternoon" is the title of Part Three,
which considers post-apocalyptic and non-human ecologies, frequently asking what these texts contribute, if anything,
to contemporary debates about the responsibilities we bear to the planet.
All of the essays collected in Green Planets are thoughtful, engaging, and carefully argued. Michael Page's "Evolution
and Apocalypse in the Golden Age," for instance, stresses that ecological concerns have always been important to sf, if
only because of their role in the task of world-building. He asserts that "ecocriticism and SF criticism have much
common ground [...] SF and SF criticism have much to offer the ecocritical movement" (41). Centering on selected
golden age masterworks, Page posits two broad categories of "ecological thought" in sf: the Evolutionary and the
Apocalyptic. Evolution can (but need not) suggest progress and mastery. Laurence Manning's The Man Who Awoke
(1933) takes its protagonist through almost 25,000 years to a point where human beings are experiencing an apotheosis
and evolving into pure energy. The stories of Clifford Simak's City series of the 1940s, however, emphasize pastoral
over technological imagery and imagine a world abandoned by humans in which dogs evolve to become the dominant
species. Page presents apocalypse as the alternative to evolution, subdividing this category into "pastoral-elegiac" and
"satiric-ironic" modes. The former, exemplified by Ward Moore's Greener Than You Think (1947), is characterized by
its bittersweet memories of a lost past modulated by the hope for a fresh beginning. The latter "ironically reflects on
human folly" (49), as demonstrated by George Stewart's Earth Abides (1949): the protagonist's efforts to restore the
political and ethical values of civilization are repeatedly frustrated by both natural disaster and human failings. Page
concludes that these golden age examples demonstrate not simply that sf has always had a significant concern for
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ecological issues at its core, but that the genre continues to have important things to say to modern readers and
audiences. He calls "for a more ecologically oriented literary criticism [...] a deeper engagement with the literature that
examines the human animal in the fullness of its environment" (53).
The essays of Part Two explore texts that take a more pessimistic outlook. In "Future Ecologies, Current Crisis," for
example, Elzette Steenkamp uses a novel, Souvenir by Jane Rosenthal, and a film, District 9, to explain how South
African writers have used alterity to comment on that country's deeply troubled history. Steenkamp admits that both
texts have some ecological concerns but their focus is on social and political themes. Rosenthal's novel depicts a cloned
woman who attempts to escape a discriminatory and exploitive life. District 9 imagines alien refugees imprisoned and
oppressed by humans. When a human, Wikus, inhales a mysterious fluid being collected by the aliens, he begins to
transform, "destabilizing distinctions between lawful and unlawful and self and other" (152). Steenkamp argues that
these texts, like other South African sf, share "the expression of an entanglement between self, other, and environment"
(155).
In Section Three, Canavan and Robinson broaden the discussion of our relationship with nature to include visions of
worlds without human beings, both alien and post-apocalyptic. Melody Jue discusses Stanislaw Lem's Solaris (1961)
and Greg Egan's novella "Oceanic" (1998), which are centrally concerned with human beings in relationship with
oceans. Jue argues that these texts complicate familiar ways of thinking about the actions of observing and knowing;
they "challenge our terrestrial senses of surface and depth" (226). Conventionally, surface implies a shallow awareness
while depth suggests full or complete knowledge. In Solaris, the protagonist, Kris Kelvin, initially experiences the
ocean world he is studying as a monstrous other. After the ocean harnesses his memories to manifest a projection of his
late wife Rheya, he begins to see the limits of his ability to know the other. At the end of the novel, Kelvin leaves his
orbital space station and descends to the ocean itself so that he can become part of the "experiment." The protagonist of
"Oceanic," Martin, lives on a world where human beings experience religious rapture when immersed in the depths of
the ocean. Martin discovers that this experience is the result of immersion in the excreta of microbes that evolved in
response to the arrival of genetically engineered humans on the planet. The discovery literally upends the characters'
perception of "depth": "that which had been symptomatically read (religious feeling, transcendence) is now accessible
for being read at the surface (level of observable scientific phenomena). That which was read as surface (the physical
traits of microbes) can now be experienced as depth (feeling of religious love)" (235).
Green Planets concludes with an afterword, "Still, I'm Reluctant to Call this Pessimism," a conversation between
Canavan and Robinson that foregrounds the interaction of ecology and politics in Robinson's fiction. They talk a good
deal about sf's capacity to articulate the consequences of global climate change and the kinds of narratives that
Robinson feels are appropriate and necessary. Exploring both utopian and dystopian forms, Robinson articulates a list
of novels that he describes as "a kind of canon of planetary science fiction [...] and ecological science fiction is either a
subset of that, or vice versa" (254). Robinson also elaborates on the kinds of "bad stories" that he feels "point us in a
completely wrong direction" (254), including stories imagining earth as humanity's "cradle" and stories of a Singularity
in which human consciousness is made eternal when it is uploaded into computers. In both cases, he objects to the
presumption that human beings can live independently of the Earth and their evolved physical realities. Furthermore,
Robinson talks about his efforts to politicize scientists and get them more involved in policymaking, believing that "the
scientific community is very self-regarding and reiterative, it is always trying to make a better scientific method, it is
explicitly an unfinished project at all times, and implicitly, maybe even unconsciously, it is a utopian project trying to
push history in directions that will reduce suffering and increase justice" (259).
Green Planets will be most useful to scholars interested in bringing an ecocritical sensibility to sf, but its range and
breadth makes it appropriate for an undergraduate course as well. Its authors draw generously from the history of the
field and engage a valuable range of voices and media. Canavan asserts that "[t]he ambition of Green Planets is to trace
key moments" of the "vital and ongoing conversation" within sf "where science, story, and political struggle can
converge and cross-pollinate" (xii). Rather than settling for an archive of those "key moments," however, this collection
offers provocative visions for future explorations of the ways we shape the worlds we inhabit and the ways those
worlds shape us.
doi: 10.3828/extr.2016.20
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Dynes, Bill. "Green Visions. Gerry Canavan and Kim Stanley Robinson, eds. Green Planets: Ecology and Science
Fiction." Extrapolation, vol. 57, no. 3, 2016, p. 359+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475125645&it=r&asid=6a0c293ae293e6b92c5bbfc1a59c9b0b.
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The Cambridge companion to American science
fiction
R.J. Baumann
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
52.11 (July 2015): p1826.
COPYRIGHT 2015 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
The Cambridge companion to American science fiction, ed. by Eric Carl Link and Gerry Canavan. Cambridge, 2015.
254p bibl index ISBN 9781107052468 cloth, $80.00; ISBN 9781107694279 pbk, $27.99; ISBN 9781316236499
ebook, $22.00
52-5685
PS374
2014-32788 CIP
This volume does not supersede The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, ed. by Edward James and Farah
Mendlesohn (2003), but rather provides a useful companion and in some cases updates to the earlier volume. Though
providing less theoretical depth than similar recent (and weightier) volumes--e.g., The Routledge Companion to
Science Fiction, ed. by Mark Bould et al. (CH, Sep'09, 47-0067), and The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction, ed. by
Rob Latham (2014). It is a more accessible (relatively jargon-free) entry point for students new to the genre, and it still
consolidates recent debates and points the way toward more complex studies for advanced readers. Link (Marquette
Univ.) and Canavan (Univ. of Memphis) take Gary Westphal's arguments--in The Mechanics of Wonder (CH, Jul'99,
36-6177)--about the consolidation of science fiction as a genre in the American pulps to heart, making a strong case for
the need for a separate volume on the American tradition. Taking a wide view of what constitutes SF, the editors
include chapters on film and digital games (the latter a long-overdue addition to any volume on SF). Chapters on post-
9/11 SF, fandom, and the overlapping genres of the weird tale and post-apocalyptic fiction are particularly outstanding
and much-needed entries in the ongoing conversation about this diverse, increasingly popular field. Summing Up: ***
Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.--R. J. Baumann, Lilly Library,
Indiana University
Baumann, R.J.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Baumann, R.J. "The Cambridge companion to American science fiction." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic
Libraries, July 2015, p. 1826. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA419532499&it=r&asid=b6720705ed4e28a7c0858af657df7cb8.
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Canavan, Gerry, and Kim Stanley Robinson, eds.:
Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction
Everett Hamner
Studies in the Novel.
46.4 (Winter 2014): p514.
COPYRIGHT 2014 Johns Hopkins University Press
http://www.press.jhu.edu
Full Text:
CANAVAN, GERRY, and KIM STANLEY ROBINSON, eds. Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction.
Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2014. xii + 295 pp. $27.95.
Green Planets is immediately one of the decade's most significant contributions to ecocriticism and science fiction
criticism. A product of an exemplary collaboration between a creative writer (Robinson) and a literary critic (Canavan),
it brims with insightful treatments of both famous and relatively unknown authors. There is a very sobering urgency
here; as Robinson observes in the concluding co-editorial conversation,
we use [climate change] now as a synecdoche to stand for the
totality of our damage to the biosphere, which is much bigger than
mere climate change, more like a potential mass extinction
event.... We're thinking in terms of thermostats, and how we turn
them up or down in a building. That image suggests 'climate change'
has the possibility of a fix, maybe even a silver bullet of a fix.
No such fix will be possible for a mass extinction event. (243)
At the same time, the volume's ultimate effect is to inspire hope, or at the least, to suggest that hope and realism are not
necessarily incompatible.
Juxtaposing work from graduate students and senior scholars and featuring a diverse array of methodologies, the book
provides a timely overview of the rapidly growing discussion around contemporary ecofiction, both the sort that is
obviously science fictional and that which wears the term more lightly. Organized by categories inherited from W. H.
Auden and more recently Samuel R. Delany, Canavan and Robinson reach beyond simple oppositions of urban and
rural ecologies to illuminate the positive and negative potential of each. The glorious city is the New Jerusalem, but its
flipside is the Brave New World; the idyllic countryside is Arcadia, its inversion the Land of the Flies. And even these
topoi subdivide with postmodemity into more nuanced possibilities: the New Jerusalem may fade into Junk City as
maintenance schedules fail, or it can mature into "an ecstatic vision of improvisational recombinative urban chaos."
Arcadia may of course become polluted, a ruined countryside, but it can also yield "an unexpectedly sublime vision of
decadent beauty" (3), the Culture of the Afternoon.
Those who know Robinson's fiction will appreciate that this critical project is similarly attentive to texts not only as
written forms, but as political, socioeconomically relevant actions. As Canavan notes, thinking especially of the films
Avatar and Daybreakers, the "active fantasy" of much ecological science fiction is "that the nightmare of exploitation,
and our own complicity in these practices, might somehow be stopped, despite our inability to change" (14). Many of
the included essays instead demonstrate that to care about the Earth is necessarily to wrestle personally with the forces
of global capitalism, recognizing that the ideology of endless expansion is incompatible with an attractive long-term
future for humanity. One of the most impressive chapters, for instance, is Gib Prettyman's effort to reinvigorate
discussion about Ursula K. Le Guin's interests in ecology and Taoism. Featuring the best evocation of her novel The
Telling that I've encountered, it challenges earlier readings by Fredric Jameson and Darko Suvin, arguing that "Le
Guin's world reduction is not just an effort to fantasize capitalism away, but a strategic response to the worldview of
capitalism" (63).
I especially appreciate the collection's willingness to engage less-known ecofictions. I'm much the richer for Melody
Jue's recommendation of Greg Egan's 1999 short story "Oceanic," for Andrew Milner's introduction to Australian
writer George Turner, and for Eric C. Otto sending me back to Paolo Bacigalupi's short stories, through which I'd
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rushed in my eagerness to read The Windup Girl. Others will no doubt find similar inspiration in Christina Alt's theoryrich
but jargon-free opening chapter comparing the early and late H. G. Wells and in Rob Latham's historical review of
ecological science fiction's engagement with colonial issues, which draws upon his broad expertise in New Wave
science fiction and features close looks at Thomas Disch's The Genocides and Le Guin's somewhat better-known The
Word for World is Forest.
This enthusiastic review should not suggest the book is entirely without weaknesses. A section of Christopher Palmer's
contribution that looks at Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake stands out as strangely vitriolic. I was so struck that I
went back and counted four uses of the descriptor "angry," two of "fierce," and for good measure, two more of
"loathing," all in four pages. Of course Atwood is an unyielding critic of environmental injustice, one who is unafraid
to confront perpetrators. But having twice taught this dystopian text (with rave reviews by students), I would contest
assertions that "Atwood's style is angrily offhand," of "the novel's fierce refusal of readerly pleasure," and that "this is
an adolescent, game-playing, immature culture that Atwood depicts and loathes" (167). Less objectionably, Brent
Bellamy and Imre Szeman's chapter makes intriguing claims about The World Without Us as "science faction," but they
may seem insufficient to readers who know the long history of attempts at defining science fiction. However, this does
not overshadow the essay's effective critique of how Weisman's bestseller avoids politics and functions as a form of
self-trickery, an attempt to convince ourselves that we care even as we regretfully decline to act.
Whether it is the promise of Timothy Morton describing Avatar as "naturalistic pastoral, but on acid" (220)--then
exposing the film's incapacity as megabudget superproduction to engage the film as ecological lament--or the chance to
hear Robinson reflect on how "science is already the best eco-religion" (256), Green Planets is likely to attract and
reward a wide range of readers. Complete with a well-selected appendix annotating key literary and filmic texts in
ecological science fiction, the book itself confirms the appealing possibility about which Canavan speculates in the
introduction: "perhaps even ecological critique as such can productively be thought of as a kind of science fiction, as it
uses the same tools of cognition and extrapolation to project the conditions of a possible future--whether good or bad,
ecotopian or apocalyptic--in hopes of transforming politics in the present" (17).
EVERETT HAMNER, Western Illinois University
Hamner, Everett
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Hamner, Everett. "Canavan, Gerry, and Kim Stanley Robinson, eds.: Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction."
Studies in the Novel, vol. 46, no. 4, 2014, p. 514+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA395165350&it=r&asid=aafef8b17674cb1dd6c06f8a5d56c4de.
Accessed 4 July 2017.
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Green planets: ecology and science fiction
L.L. Johnson
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
52.3 (Nov. 2014): p428.
COPYRIGHT 2014 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
Green planets: ecology and science fiction, ed. by Gerry Canavan and Kim Stanley Robinson. Wesleyan, 2014. 295p
bibl index afp ISBN 9780819574268 cloth, $85.00; ISBN 9780819574275 pbk, $27.95; ISBN 9780819574282 ebook,
$21.99
52-1200
PN3433
2014-1764 MARC
In this collection, Canavan (Marquette Univ.) and Robinson (prizewinning literary science fiction writer) demonstrate
that science fiction has special relevance in the 21st century, mainly because of its focus on possible worlds and futures.
Science or speculative fiction, they claim, is better named "SF" because much of it is neither "scientific" nor
"speculative." A useful and interesting annotated list of selected SF attests to the diversity and relevance of the genre in
its expression of ecological thinking and environmental politics. The earliest title listed is the 13th-century Arabic novel
Theologus Autodidactas, which foretells the end of the world by climate change. The list and the essays discuss not
only the full range of SF literature, but also SF in nonfiction, film, and television. Timothy Morton, for example,
contributes an eloquent description of the dark side of the planet Pandora (from Avatar), which despite its bucolic
veneer evidences all the worlds' evils, including hope. Contributors from Australia, Canada, the UK, South Africa,
Sweden, and the US write about ecology, apocalypse, invasions, spaceships, eternal summers, and ordinary
catastrophes. This fun anthology presents a new way of looking at where humans, the Earth, and the universe will be as
a consequence of where it has been. Summing Up: ** Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates
through faculty.--L. L. Johnson Lewis & Clark College
Johnson, L.L.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Johnson, L.L. "Green planets: ecology and science fiction." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Nov.
2014, p. 428. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA388824542&it=r&asid=f85de0edb5305ae60380767806a23576.
Accessed 4 July 2017.
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Canavan, Gerry. Octavia E. Butler
Misty Standage
Xpress Reviews.
(Dec. 16, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
[STAR]Canavan, Gerry. Octavia E. Butler. Univ. of Illinois. (Modern Masters of Science Fiction). Dec. 2016. 224p.
notes. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780252040665. $95; ISBN 9780252082160. pap. $22; ebk. ISBN 9780252099106. LIT
Canavan's (American literature & pop culture, Marquette Univ.; coeditor, The Cambridge Companion to American
Science Fiction) addition to this series is a welcome one indeed. A thorough exploration into Octavia E. Butler's (1947-
2006) entire collection of work, it is a much-needed volume of scholarship in sf. From "Childfinder (1947-1971)" to
"Paraclete (1999-2006)," Canavan's work carefully and thoughtfully delves into all things Butler--manuscripts from the
Huntington Library, pronunciation guides, abandoned drafts, false starts, and journal excerpts from the author herself.
A must-read for scholars of sf, Canavan's scholarship is both a work of sharply dedicated research and a loving tribute
to one of sf's most creative geniuses. This approach to Butler is like no other, making it an indispensable addition to any
library.
Verdict Highly recommended for university libraries and libraries with sf collections.--Misty Standage, Ivy Tech
Community Coll., Evansville, IN
Standage, Misty
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Standage, Misty. "Canavan, Gerry. Octavia E. Butler." Xpress Reviews, 16 Dec. 2016. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA476562938&it=r&asid=7531525b5646656765fad5404b8c4f6f.
Accessed 4 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A476562938

"Octavia E. Butler." Publishers Weekly, 31 Oct. 2016, p. 65. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA470462559&it=r. Accessed 4 July 2017. "Canavan, Gerry: OCTAVIA E. BUTLER." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466329330&it=r. Accessed 4 July 2017. Dynes, Bill. "Green Visions. Gerry Canavan and Kim Stanley Robinson, eds. Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction." Extrapolation, vol. 57, no. 3, 2016, p. 359+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475125645&it=r. Accessed 4 July 2017. Baumann, R.J. "The Cambridge companion to American science fiction." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, July 2015, p. 1826. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA419532499&it=r. Accessed 4 July 2017. Hamner, Everett. "Canavan, Gerry, and Kim Stanley Robinson, eds.: Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction." Studies in the Novel, vol. 46, no. 4, 2014, p. 514+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA395165350&it=r. Accessed 4 July 2017. Johnson, L.L. "Green planets: ecology and science fiction." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Nov. 2014, p. 428. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA388824542&it=r. Accessed 4 July 2017. Standage, Misty. "Canavan, Gerry. Octavia E. Butler." Xpress Reviews, 16 Dec. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA476562938&it=r. Accessed 4 July 2017.

• Enchanted Alley
  https://enchantedalley.com/2016/11/17/book-review-octavia-e-butler-by-gerry-canavan/
  Word count: 572

  Book Review: Octavia E. Butler by Gerry Canavan
  posted in Book Reviews, Uncategorized by Melissa
  51VBC4RoPsL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

  Enchanted Review

  I’ve recently become intrigued by Octavia E. Butler and her award-winning science fiction, so when Gerry Canavan, a professor of English at Marquette University, came out with this book about Butler, I knew I wanted to read it. Canavan has delved into the Octavia E. Butler archive at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, to illuminate her character and her works in an accessible way for the general public—not the academic one. He details a shy, depressed, and lonely African-American woman who grew up as an only child to a mother who worked as a cleaning lady for white people. Her father had died when she was only seven. She fell in love of reading at an early age, especially comic books, but certainly science fiction, and was an avid reader. She kept journals throughout her life and practiced a “positive obsession” in writing down her goals and dreams. She wanted to be a writer. She wanted to make good money at being a writer. This, however, would be something that she struggled to do throughout her life, performing odd jobs to make ends meet, and always teetering toward bankruptcy. That would change when she won the $295,000 MacArthur Fellowship (aka “Genius Award”) that allowed her to purchase a home and live more comfortably.

  Canavan does an excellent job of analyzing Butler’s various novels through the lenses of her journals and other drafts accessible at the Huntington Library. He shows how Butler focused on certain topics over her career: power, racism, sexism, slavery, procreation, and rape. Though her stories can be seen as “bleak,” she did not see a how the societies she explored could lead to a happy ending. She definitely did not write utopian fiction.

  This is a must-read book for any Octavia E. Butler fan, or for anyone who is interested in alternate views in science fiction. Canavan proves an excellent guide through Butler’s fiction, and you’ll want to take time with this book, exploring Butler’s books and stories as Canavan moves through them. There is absolutely so much to be explored here, and I’m sure much fruit will be born from the Huntington Library on Octavia E. Butler. I’ll be rereading and enjoying this book for some time to come.

  Reviewed by Christina

  About the Book

  I began writing about power because I had so little, Octavia E. Butler once said. Butler’s life as an African American woman–an alien in American society and among science fiction writers–informed the powerful works that earned her an ardent readership and acclaim both inside and outside science fiction. Gerry Canavan offers a critical and holistic consideration of Butler’s career. Drawing on Butler’s personal papers, Canavan tracks the false starts, abandoned drafts, tireless rewrites, and real-life obstacles that fed Butler’s frustrations and launched her triumphs. Canavan departs from other studies to approach Butler first and foremost as a science fiction writer working within, responding to, and reacting against the genre’s particular canon. The result is an illuminating study of how an essential SF figure shaped themes, unconventional ideas, and an unflagging creative urge into brilliant works of fiction.

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