Suspicious Minds: trust and mistrust in sci-fi narratives

Join celebrated feminist theorist Professor Donna Haraway FBA, author of the 'Cyborg Manifesto', British Academy Funded Researcher Dr Anna McFarlane and celebrated sci-fi author and screenwriter Temi Oh, as they explore the themes of trust and mistrust in science-fiction.

They will be sharing and discussing examples from the worlds of film, television and books that have resonated with their own work. Dystopian stories of alien invasions and climate apocalypse dominate our screens and bookshelves, and our panel will dig into why these stories continue to fascinate us, but they will also be dissecting works that cultivate hope and inspire us to imagine better futures.

Speakers:

Professor Donna Haraway FBA (remote presenter)

Donna Haraway is Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her pioneering work brings together the fields of science, technology, feminist theory, and animal studies. Her books include 'Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene' (2016); 'When Species Meet' (2008); 'The Haraway Reader' (2004); 'The Companion Species Manifesto' (2003); and 'Simians, Cyborgs', and 'Women' (1991). She was elected an international Fellow of the British Academy in 2019.

Dr Anna McFarlane

Anna McFarlane is a Lecturer in Fantasy Literature at the University of Glasgow. Her research on traumatic pregnancy in fantastika was awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, and she is a Visiting Collaborator on the Wellcome Trust-funded Future of Human Reproduction project. She is co-editor of The Edinburgh Companion to Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities.

Temi Oh

Temi Oh is a novelist and screenwriter. She wrote her first novel, 'Do You Dream of Terra-Two?', while studying for a BSc in Neuroscience. It won the American Library Association’s Alex Award in 2020 and was an NPR Best Book of the year in 2019. Her second novel, 'More Perfect' was published in 2023 by Simon & Schuster to critical acclaim. She has written stories for Marvel's Black Panther, Dr Who and Overwatch. Temi has written on the Netflix TV series Castlevania: Nocturne and the CBBC series Silverpoint. Her first short film, Murmur (Sky Arts and BFI) won the Broadcast Digital Award for Best Short-Form Scripted.

Chair:

Dr Glyn Morgan

Glyn Morgan is Curatorial Lead for Exhibitions at the Science Museum, London, and an academic researching science fiction and society. He previously curated the Science Museum's blockbuster exhibition 'Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination' and has published academic work on alternate history narratives.