May 03, 2024  
2019-20 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
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2019-20 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

US 253 Science Fiction and Social Reality

This University Seminar will explore a few, select portions of the genre of contemporary science fiction focusing on several key themes that address the world outside the classroom primarily by reading several novels, and watching and discussing television and movie videos. We will examine how science fiction - at once entertaining, inspiring, serious, instructive, and funny - reflects and shapes our current and future culture, beliefs, behavior and selves. Students will read and watch texts in thematic units to gain an understanding of how science fiction frames questions about social issues and change. Students will also do research on a contemporary social issue and have a chance to create and present their own work of science and speculative fiction that addresses how they would like to reflect and/or shape the conversation and the world of their own future with regards to that social issue.