Anarres Project
By Anarres Project
Anarres ProjectNov 28, 2022
Guerilla to Grandmother: Katherine Ann Power
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Katherine Ann Power about her new memoir, "Surrender: My Journey from Guerilla to Grandmother". For over twenty years, Power was on the FBI Most Wanted List for her involvement in a revolutionary armed cell that sought the overthrown of the US government. After a bank robbery in which a police officer was killed, Power went into hiding and lived a secretive life. Eventually, she decided she needed to redefine her radical politics and she turned herself in. Upon her parole some years later, she began to study philosophy and to think about what social transformation involves if it is to be truly radical.
Star Trek's Radical Hope: Una McCormack
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we speak with New York Times Best Selling author, Dr. Una McCormack. She has written over twenty science fiction novels, many of which are franchise novels that tie into the Star Trek, Firefly, and Dr. Who universes. We talk about how she prepares for writing her work and why she appreciates science fiction.
Dr. McCormack, however, has a deep appreciation for the Star Trek Universe. We discuss what makes this franchise so important in terms of the values it holds up as important for the future of humanity. Star Trek has always portrayed a hopeful vision of the future grounded in diversity, cooperation, and reason. We talk about why these matter and how they help us to analyze the world in which we live today.
We also discuss how the third era of Star Trek, NuTrek, continues to uphold these kinds of values through the series of Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds.
DS9 and the Radical Imagination: David Seitz
In this Conversation on Anarres, we speak with Dr. David Seitz about his new book A Different Trek: Radical Geographies of Deep Space Nine.
We talk about how Star Trek came to be part of his academic research project and why Deep Space Nine captured his imagination as a way to talk about radical politics in the world today.
Our conversation touches on how DS9 is important for the way it is infused by themes from the US Black Freedom Struggle (partly as a result of the influence of Avery Brooks) and has lessons to teach us about colonialism, politics of occupation in the world today (particularly about the developments in Palestine), and queer identity.
Sex Work, Labor, Solidarity: Matilda Bickers
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Matilda Bickers, the co-editor of a new anthology, "Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex" (PM Press, 2023), which is a collection of reflections by sex workers on the nature of their labor. She explains how she got into this form of advocacy and what similarities sex work has to other forms of labor under capitalism. Given those overlaps, we then discuss what it means for sex workers to struggle for their rights and how others can demonstrate solidarity with sex workers as part of a labor movement focused on the rights and dignity of all workers. To find out more about Bickers' work, contact her organization StrollPDX: @strollpdx on Instagram.
Best SciFi & Fantasy 2023
In this episode of TrekWars@OSU, we consider the sci-fi, fantasy, and other speculative fiction that helped us to imagine futures free of domination, exploitation, war, and empire. Our discussion panel included: Joseph Orosco, co-director of the Anarres Project; Randall Millstein, Robyn Morris, and Kaja Gjelde. Each of them mentioned their favorite choices from 2023, their runner ups, and what they look forward to in 2024. Some themes that emerged: a lot of stories focused on collective struggle and liberation from empire, a lot of emphasis on the psychology of fascism and the distrust of institutions. How do we build solidarity when there is so much loss of faith in our governing bodies and institutions? Lots of great narratives suggested paths forward.
De-Modernizing Anarchism: Dr. Jesse Cohn
Really, Really Free Market-Corvallis
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk to Avery Jade, one of the organizers of the Really, Really Free Market in Corvallis, Oregon. The Really, Really Free Market movement is a global movement that creates space for mutual aid--making clothes, toiletries, literature, and other necessities available for free. We discuss the inspiration for the Market, how it has expanded, what role anarchism plays in the working of the group, and what obstacles the Market has faced in few years of organizing.
Anarchism and Star Trek: Picard
In this episode, Joseph Orosco talks with Maria Castro and Javier Castro, about their recent essay "Bibliophilia and Anarchism in Star Trek: Picard", published in October 2022 in Perspectives in Anarchist Theory.
Maria and Javier argue that throughout Season One of Star Trek: Picard several books are mentioned that echo the radical themes and anti-authoritarian perspectives of the main characters in the series. While the Federation and Star Fleet may not be anarchist utopias, Star Trek: Picard does hint at the importance of anarchist ideas and values for making the world a better place.
Music Track: What You Used To Be — Mauro Somm [Audio Library Release]
Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/gZc12QgEJLQ
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Remembering the Radical Imagination of Staughton Lynd (1929-2022)
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of Staughton Lynd, who passed away in 2022.
They talk about the important ways in which Staughton Lynd, along with his wife Alice, devoted themselves to providing historical resources to spark our imagination about forms of activism and organizing that we might use today, and how they modeled, in their relationship and their own lives, a kind of non-hierarchal leadership that can inspire social movements today.
Music Credit: –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Track: Bubble — KV [Audio Library Release]
Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/8JIojtPfpzo
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Remembering the Radical Imagination of Dave Forman (1946-2022)
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of Dave Forman, who passed away in 2022.
They talk about the importance of Forman's work in creating the radical environmental group, Earth First!, and the limitations of this approach to movement building.
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Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/8JIojtPfpzo
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Remembering the Radical Imagination of Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-2022)
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of Barbara Ehrenreich, who passed away in 2022.
They talk about the importance of Ehrenreich's works including Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch, and Witches, Midwives, and Nurses.
Music Credit: –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Track: Bubble — KV [Audio Library Release]
Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/8JIojtPfpzo
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Remembering the Radical Imagination of Mike Davis (1946-2022)
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of historian Mike Davis, who passed away in 2022.
They talk about the importance of Davis' books including City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear, and Magical Urbanism.
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The Word for World is Forest Symposium: Christian Matheis
Christian Matheis presents the keynote presentation for The Word for World is Forest Symposium, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula Le Guin's anti-war novella.
This talk was given in October 2022. It is entitled "Devious as Nerves: Teaching the Fine Balance of Reason and Dream."
Image: Eileen Dunn
The Word for World is Forest Symposium: Sean MacCracken
In this presentation from the October 2022 symposium honoring the 50th anniversary of Ursula K. Le Guin's novella, Sean MacCracken examines the way Le Guin depicts the colonialism of her intergalactic federation in the Hainish series and what lessons we might take for our political organizing today. He describes his talk:
In the six-part documentary , Capitalism, David Graeber reflects on the historical question of the colonial world-empire, and why Western Europe was the first to “achieve” it, contending that this is really the wrong question. Many societies, he reflects, such as China, could have done so, though it wouldn’t occur to them to, say, depopulate entire continents in search of gold and silver. Racial capitalism has a forerunner in colonial conquest, itself a form of high-stakes venture capitalism. Though within the wide framework of human possibility such colonial action is in fact the exception rather than the rule.
By what mental sickness is such colonial action permissible and even laudable by some, where it would be abhorrent to others? In the Word for World is Forest, Le Guin imparts one of her bleakest tales in the history of her richly imagined interstellar society, the League of All Worlds, as a remote colonial project brutalizes a planet’s indigenous inhabitants, with tragic results. A recurring theme in Le Guin’s rich anthropology-infused imaginings is that of an unsettling encounter between mutually incommensurate forms of social organization. What my presentation teases out from that theme is the varied channels of communication portrayed in LeGuin’s novella, and some of their explanatory potency for present day work in direction action and dual power movement-building.
Within the intimate scale of political action at a local, municipalist level, I argue that present-day reactionary extremism, toxic masculinity, and violence are as much the product of communication’s lack as they are the product of active recruitment. LeGuin’s lines of communication here serve as fictive symbols for that precarious lack—whether communication by dreams, by radio, or by ansible.
The Word for World is Forest Symposium: Ben Nadler
Highlights from our symposium in October 2022, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's anti-war novella, The Word for World is Forest.
In this episode, Ben Nadler discusses the possibility of dreaming as a radical and collective act of liberation. He says:
"I am interested in exploring the ways in which dreaming can be understood as a collective act, rather than an individual one. In these explorations, I will draw on Robin D.G. Kelley’s concept of “freedom dreaming,” Saidiya Hartman’s concept of “critical fabulation,” and Abraham J. Heschel’s understanding of “prophecy.” Further, I will connect the practice of dreaming in The Word for World Is Forest to the practice of speculative fiction writing, as expressed by authors such as Nalo Hopkinson, Margaret Killjoy, and Le Guin herself. Ultimately, I hope to advocate for dreaming, imagining, and storytelling as forms of mutual aid."
The Word for World is Forest Symposium: Christopher Loughlin
Highlights from our symposium in October 2022, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's anti-war novella, The Word for World is Forest.
In this episode, Christopher Loughlin discusses Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, in conjunction with Jacques Ranciere's aesthetic and political philosophy, to discuss the meaning of solidarity and visibility. How might art be thought of as a tool of class struggle?
The Word for World is Forest Symposium: Sheryl Medlicott
The Word for World is Forest Symposium: Sheryl Medlicott
Highlights from our symposium in October 2022, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's anti-war novella, The Word for World is Forest.
In this episode, Sheryl Medlicott helps us to understand the book as an ecofeminist and utopian text with lessons about how to think about language in the struggle for a better future.
The Anarchist Ethics of Ricardo Flores Magon
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Dr. Sergio Gallegos, who teaches philosophy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the City University of New York, about the anarchist ethics of Ricardo Flores Magon.
A key figure in the development of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Flores Magon was deeply inspired by anarchist thought and worked to organize workers on both sides of the Mexican/U.S. border. He fled from Mexico into the United States during the revolution and inspired labor struggles among Mexican American workers. Flores Magon died in a US prison in 1921.
Gallegos focuses his work on the ethical theory of Flores Magon, which we reconstructs from numerous sources, including Flores Magon's political writing, journalism, and plays. Gallegos argues that Flores Magon offers a unique ethical outlook that urges us to take action against poverty and pervasive structural inequality that robs the majority of people of liberty. He believes that these ethical lessons have a lot to tell us about how to frame social movements today.
Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy Part Two
The popularity of the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons has skyrocketed recently. Partly because of the COVID 19 pandemic and also because of the its prominent portrayal in the hit show "Stranger Things", more and more people have started to play this classic fantasy game where players imagine themselves as characters in far away mystical realms.
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we continue our discussion with two philosophers who are fans of Dungeons and Dragons. Both of them grew up playing the game, but in recent years they have started to reflect on the potential that the game has for developing philosophical skills, civic capacities, and imaginative abilities. We meet Dr. Terrance MacMullan, who teaches philosophy at Eastern Washington University, and Dr. Albert "Randy" Spencer who teaches philosophy at Portland State University.
In this part two, we talk about the specific philosophical lessons they think we can learn from Dungeons and Dragons. Dr. Spencer talks about the connections he sees between Dungeons and Dragons and the work of Michel Foucault, on the "technologies of the self". Dr. MacMullan encourages us to think about the game and the work of John Dewey in encouraging cooperation in democratic spaces. We then talk about ways in which the habits of role playing might be used to confront political authoritarianism, while at the same time recognizing that role playing might be behind the prevalence of conspiracy thinking today.
Music for the episode: Omega by Scott Buckley https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckleyCr... Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/omega-scott-buckleyMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ZRBsgI8PD1Y
Cover Image: Image by upklyak on Freepik
Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy Part One
The popularity of the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons has skyrocketed recently. Partly because of the COVID 19 pandemic and also because of the its prominent portrayal in the hit show "Stranger Things", more and more people have started to play this classic fantasy game where players imagine themselves as characters in far away mystical realms.
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with two philosophers who are fans of Dungeons and Dragons. Both of them grew up playing the game, but in recent years they have started to reflect on the potential that the game has for developing philosophical skills, civic capacities, and imaginative abilities. We meet Dr. Terrance MacMullan, who teaches philosophy at Eastern Washington University, and Dr. Albert "Randy" Spencer who teaches philosophy at Portland State University.
In this first part of a two part episode, we talk about how they first learned about Dungeons and Dragons and what they first got out of it when they started playing. We also learn about how they are currently engaged in playing the game and thinking about it philosophically. In part two, we talk about the specific philosophical lessons they think we can learn from Dungeons and Dragons.
Music for the episode: Omega by Scott Buckley https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckleyCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/omega-scott-buckleyMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ZRBsgI8PD1Y
Cover Image: "Greet the Final Battle Alone" War game photo created by liuzishan - www.freepik.com
TrekWars@OSU V: Refugees
In this episode, we celebrate five years of TrekWars@OSU by considering the issue of refugees and displaced persons. In 2021, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees estimated that there were 82 million people displaced because of war, conflict, and human rights violations around the world. Some 30% of those are children. Starting in 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine produced another 7 million refugees, with almost half of them fleeing to neighboring Poland.
The TrekWars@OSU collective decided to consider whether the major science fiction franchises of Star Wars and Star Trek have any lessons to help us to think about dealing with the crises of refugees and displaced migrants today.
Joining Dr Joseph Orosco are longtime members of the TrekWars@OSU Collective:
Dr. Randall Milstein is the Sandy and Elva Eminent Professor of the University Honors College at OSU. He is Senior Instructor in the Physics department in the College of Science at OSU.
Dr. Diana Rohlman is Associate Research Professor in the School of Biological and Population Health Sciences at OSU
Mohammed Shakibnia is an alumnus of Oregon State. He graduated in 2020 with bachelor's degrees in both Political Science and Philosophy. He is currently a graduate student in the School of Public Policy at OSU.
You can find the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Let us know your thoughts.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Track: Sphere — KV [Audio Library Release] Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/ysnjlSicPVEFree Download / Stream: https://alplus.io/sphere––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Race and Mental Health Representation in Picard Season 2
In this episode of TrekWars@OSU, Joseph Orosco, co director of the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures, and Dr. Jason Scully (Urban and Regional Planning, Eastern Washington University) discuss the ways in which race and mental health are represented in Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. They talk about how the show depicts Black and Latinx characters through the story arcs of Raffi and Rios and in particular, the way mental health crises are represented in the story of Picard's mother. Would the Federation ever allow mental health issues to go unaddressed in the way the Season illustrates, or is the story really a representation of the way in which we, the audience, have to manage mental issue issues in a society that fails to create adequate support services for people in crisis?
CW: In addition to spoilers for Season 2, this episode also involves discussion of mental health crises and suicide.
Track: Sphere — KV [Audio Library Release] Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/ysnjlSicPVEFree Download / Stream: https://alplus.io/sphere––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
FutureState Focus: Children of the Northern Lights
In this episode of FutureStates Focus, two philosophy professors, Joseph Orosco and Robyn Morris, review the sci-fi short film "Children of the Northern Lights" (2013). This short film is written and directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, who is now an Assistant Professor of Arts at New York University. His previous film "On the Ice" (2011) explores Inuit culture in Alaska and is a film festival award winner.
In "Children of the Northern Lights", two astronauts on an energy searching expedition crash land on a desolate planet. They encounter a mysterious entity that is connected to a potential fuel source that can get the ship back to earth. But will the expedition choose to exploit the entity or let it's secret die with them.
You can watch the film here
What is Celtic Futurism?
On this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Irish historian, Dr. Christopher J.V. Loughlin, who has been examining ancient Irish tales of sea voyages, the immrama,-- which literally means tales of "rowing about". He finds within them the seeds of a unique brand of speculative thinking he calls Celtic Futurism.
Many of these immrama stories date back to the 7th and 8th centuries CE and detail journeys to far away spiritual lands with mystical elements and fantastic creatures. Dr. Loughlin argues that these stories help us to talk about Irish speculative fiction and the history of Ireland, particularly about its experience with colonialism, empire, and racism. He also thinks the way these stories frame time traveling help us to learn what it means to think critically about power and global solidarity with other liberation struggles.
Dr. Loughlin has been a contributor to the Anarres Project for many years, writing on our blog about Irish politics and solidarity with global liberation struggles. He is a labour historian of modern Britain and Ireland. He was employed as lecturer in history at Newcastle University, 2018-21, and obtained his training at Queen’s University, Belfast. His first monograph, "Labour and the Politics of Disloyalty in Belfast, 1921-39", was published in 2018. He has also published work on civil rights, loyalty and the foundation of Northern Ireland, gender, sexualities and industrial relations. His work has recently appeared in the "Routledge Handbook of Literature and Class", and the SFRA Review.
Music: Video excerpt is from "M'ANUM" by M'ANUM, composed by Michael McGlynn.
Star Trek's Philosophy of Peace and Justice Book Launch
In coordination with the Concerned Philosophers for Peace, the Anarres Project presents a discussion with the author (and co-director of the Anarres Project) Jose-Antonio Orosco about his new book "Star Trek and the Philosophy of Peace and Justice: A Global, Anti-Racist Approach". (London: Bloomsbury, 2022)
The dialogue is moderated by Dr. Greg Moses (Texas State University), editor of The Acorn Journal: Philosophical Studies in Pacifism and Nonviolence and Communications Director for the Concerned Philosophers for Peace.
They are joined by panelists from CPP including Dr. Andrew Fiala (California Sate University, Fresno) and Dr. Jennifer Kling (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs).
Thanks to Dr. Court Lewis for technical assistance and hosting on Zoom.
Insights from Anarres: Susan DeFreitas
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we speak to writer Susan DeFreitas.
She recently edited a collection of speculative fiction stories written in honor of Ursula K. Le Guin entitled: "Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin". While she worked on the project, she also read all of Le Guin's novels. We sat down with her to ask her what insights she gained from this deep dive, particularly for thinking about social transformation and building imaginative bridges toward a more hopeful future.
DeFreitas shared with us her favorite Le Guin stories and how she admired the way Le Guin was able to find inspiration in non-Western European cultures for thinking about human resilience.
You can find out more about her book, "Dispatches from Anarres" here: http://www.forestavenuepress.com/disp.... To find out more about Susan DeFeitas and her work, visit her page: https://susandefreitas.com/.
Sci-Fi and Philosophy Illustrated: Helen De Cruz
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Dr. Helen De Cruz about science fiction, the radical imagination and the power of art to express philosophy.
She is a philosopher, science fiction/fantasy author, and artist. Currently, she is the Danforth Chair of Philosophy and Humanities at St. Louis University where she teaches philosophy of religion, experimental philosophy, and philosophy of mind.
In our interview, we begin by talking about the work she did in the volume "Philosophy Through Science Fiction"--thinking about science fiction as one way to express philosophical wisdom. We then talk about her new book, "Philosophy Illustrated", which presents a variety of classic philosophical thought experiments along with illustrations done by her.
(cover art is from the illustration of the Original Position. Used by permission of the author)
25 Years of the Institute for Anarchist Studies
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we sat down with Chuck Morse and Lara Messersmith-Glavin to talk about the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Institute for Anarchist Studies. The IAS operates as a nonprofit organization that funds artists, writers and organizers to produce materials that explore anarchism as a social and political ideal.
Chuck Morse founded the Institute for Anarchist Studies in 1996. His goal was to establish an anarchist think tank, an intellectual hub in which anarchist analyses of the world could be produced and disseminated. Chuck is a movement author, writing extensively about his formative experiences at the Institute for Social Ecology with Murray Bookchin. He has translated the classic biography of Buenaventura Durruti: “Durruti in the Spanish Revolution" (AK Press 2007) and "Paradoxes of Utopia: Anarchist Culture and Politics in Buenos Aires 1889-1910" (AK Press 2010).
Lara Messersmith Glavin is an activist/organizer and current Board member of the Institute for Anarchist Studies. She has been with the organization for over 10 years and has helped to edit some important collections including "Angels with Dirty Faces", by Walidah Imarisha and "Life During Wartime, Resisting Counterinsurgency". She regularly teaches reading and writing classes at a community college in Portland, Oregon. Her forthcoming book is "Spirit Things"- a collection of reflections on growing up in Alaska. For more information about the Institute for Anarchist Studies, check here.
Are Police Forces Inherently Oppressive? Dr. Amelia M. Wirts
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Dr. Amelia M. Wirts who teaches philosophy at the University of Washington.
In addition to being a philosopher, she is also a J.D., and has experience as a judicial clerk. We talk about her research into the idea of police as a kind of systemic oppression in the United States. Wirts examines different perspectives that try to explain police brutality as the result of a few bad individuals within police forces, or as a problem that can be reformed with a few policy changes. Instead, she suggests that the mission of police forces in the United States is the problem and that we need to consider seriously the voice of activists calling for defunding and abolition. You can read Dr. Wirts' argument from the APA Blog here.
Does the Billionaire Space Race Benefit Humanity?
On this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talked with Dr. Randall Milstein. He is the Astronomer in Residence for Oregon’s NASA space Grant consortium, housed at Oregon State University. He is not a NASA employee, but he works regularly to further NASA’s mission.
We sat down to talk to him about whether there are any benefits to humanity from the billionaire space race. Dr. Milstein believes there are some pure scientific benefits that can come from this—though he acknowledges the criticisms that say if these billionaires wanted to spend more money to alleviate problems on earth they certainly have enough money to do so as well as fund space travel. He doesn’t see it as an either or, and in fact, we talk about what benefits space science has for bettering life on earth. We also talk about the difference between space exploration and space colonization and here Dr. Milstein thinks that the aspirations for living in space need to be tempered by some reality. There is no planet B and the hope to escaping a dying planet are pure science fiction fantasy. So how can we continue to think about space science while acknowledging the very real problems of a deeply inequitable and unjust world?
TrekWars@OSU: Why the Science of Star Trek Matters with Dr. Mohamed Noor
Star Trek has always portrayed science and technology as positive tools for human progress, contrary to the way they are depicted in many modern science fiction stories. We're more likely to see technology creating a dystopia in many contemporary films or TV series. But we also live in an era in which many people are now skeptical of scientific developments and of scientists. So why does the way that Star Trek portray science matter today?
In this episode of TrekWars@OSU, Anarres Project co-director Dr. Joseph Orosco interviews Dr. Mohamed Noor. Dr. Noor is a Professor of Biology at Duke University and uses Star Trek to teach science. He is the author of "Live Long and Evolve: What Star Trek Can Teach Us About Evolution, Genetics and Life on Other Worlds." Noor also hosts a popular YouTube series "BioTrekkie Explains" and regularly speaks at Star Trek conventions and comic cons.
Orosco and Noor talk about way why Star Trek is useful for teaching science, but also what Star Trek says about human beings and their relationship to science and technology that is important for thinking about progress and the transformation of society for the better.
TrekWars@OSU: Is Star Trek a Communist Utopia?
The political economy of the Star Trek Universe is obviously very different from our current capitalist, free market system. Is it a communist Utopia? Is the world of the Federation a fantasy or a realistic goal for human beings to work toward building?
In this episode of TrekWars@OSU, Anarres Project co-director Dr. Joseph Orosco talks with Will Nguyen, the Star Trek Communist, who is both a Star Trek fan and a socialist organizer. We examine how Will uses the Star Trek Universe as a way to talk to people about the possibilities of socialist politics, and to imagine a future for humanity in which poverty, inequality, and want have been eradicated. We will also discuss the limitations of the Star Trek universe for informing a radical politics.
For more information on Will's work, you can find him on Twitter as the Star Trek Communist.
His political organizations are: the US section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT): www.socialistrevolution.org
International website of the IMT: www.marxist.com.
Dance as a Revolutionary Tool in the Struggle for Climate Justice
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we sat down with dancer and filmmaker Shane Scopatz to talk about his new work "Steps and Strikes". Shane is a recent graduate of the Master’s Program in Environmental Humanities at Oregon State University. His film hopes to address the provocative question: Why did the environmental movement fail to protect us from ecological crisis?
We sat down with Shane to discuss his answer to this question. We talk about the way in which global capitalism has dispossessed billions of people and created the conditions for climate catastrophe. But we also talk about the ways in which people resist--using the labor movement to build organized people power against corporate control of the environment. The big issue today is: How do we bridge the labor movement and the environmental movement?
An answer to this involves the way Shane has chosen to resist: that involves dance. Invoking the legacy of a radical dance movement from the 1930s, the Worker’s Dance League, Shane has decided to explore how dance can be a way to expand the radical imagination and get us to think about the ways to build connection between social movements. Art in general, but dance in particular can help to develop emotions like joy and ecstasy and sustain a guiding vision toward a more collective, just, ecologically attuned future.
Please check out Shane's film here.
People's Library ABQ:
In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, Dr. Joseph Orosco talks with Fiadh, the organizer of The People's Library ABQ, a radical lending library in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The library's growing collection contains radical history and theory, available for free to whomever wants it. The People’s Library ABQ describes itself as “a community project of leftist theory anarchist history and radial education. We have books about queer, feminist, antiracist theory, indigenous resistance, transformative justice, philosophy and revolutionary thought”.
The People's Library of ABQ's collection of books, e-books, and zines can be browsed here: https://radicalbooksabq.libib.com/
For more information about the project and how to support it, contact: thepeopleslibraryabq@gmail.com
TrekWars@OSU IV: Sagas of Hope for a Troubled World
The last year has been particularly traumatic for humanity as a whole. Millions of people have died globally as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the United States, we have had over a year of civil unrest as a result of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We also began the year with news of a violent insurrection at the US Capitol building. As climate catastrophe looms over us, many people turn to despair, or worse, nihilism, believing that there is nothing that can be done individually or collectively to change society for the better.
This episode is the fourth annual gathering of the TrekWars@OSU collective and the topic is "Sagas of Hope". Anarres Project co-director Dr. Joseph Orosco is joined by Dr. Randall Milstein and Mohammed Shakibnia, both of whom have been involved in putting on in our annual gathering of the TrekWars@OSU for four years now. Dr. Randall Milstein is a senior instructor at Oregon State in physics and astronomy. He is the Astronomer In Residence for the Oregon-NASA Space Grant Consortium. Mohammed Shakibnia is now an OSU alum, double majoring in philosophy and political science and was selected as one of the Outstanding Seniors for the College of Liberal Arts in 2020.
In our discussion today, we talk about how to distinguish hope from optimism and from faith, and how the Star Wars and Star Trek universes present us with stories that not only give us hopeful visions of a different world, but help us to understand how to become hopeful in the face of despair in a way that can strengthen our efforts to resist and overcome injustice.
TrekWars@OSU: Is the Federation in Star Trek an Empire?
Is the Federation in Star Trek really an empire any different from the Klingons, Romulans, or even the Mirror Universe Terran Empire?
As part of TrekWars@OSU, Anarres Project co-director Dr. Joseph Orosco interviews Dr. Leigh McKagan, who teaches history at Virginia Tech University. Dr. McKagan completed her dissertation examining the ways in which ST: Voyager repeats certain elements of classic European imperial narratives. We talk about how Star Trek may keep alive ideas, such as linear progress and the hero's journey, that maintain empire as a political and social system, and how Star Trek may also resist imperial ideology.
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Critical Race Theory Frenzy in US Schools: Interview with Dr. Mark Naison
Over the past few months, about a dozen states with Republican majority legislatures have passed laws banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory in public schools. Anarres Project co-director Dr. Joseph Orosco talked with Dr. Mark Naison to help us unpack what is going on with some of these bans.
Mark Naison is Professor of History and African American Studies at Fordham University in New York. His many books and articles cover African American polics, labor history, popular culture, and educational policy. He is also the founder of the Bronx African American History Project and he is frequent commentator on CNN, Fox, O’Reilly Factor, and Chappelle's Show. He has written a statement decrying these bans and talks about how we should approach the teaching of race in the US—advising us to focus both on the horrors of white supremacy but also the bravery and joy of communities of color resisting and struggling for human dignity.
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Bridge Toward Utopia: Kim Stanley Robinson
Before, we have only imagined utopia, the point now is to build it. The threat of looming climate catastrophe and the extinction of humanity demands that we use our radical imagination to find a bridge from the real to what is possible.
In this conversation, Anarres Project co-directors Dr. Joseph Orosco and Dr. Tony Vogt interview the acclaimed science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson about his new novel, "The Ministry for the Future". Topics include a discussion about the variety of utopian visions, the utopianism of Ursula K. Le Guin, conceptions of revolutionary social change, and the use/repurposing of science, technology, and the market economy to achieve the flourishing of human beings. For more information about the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures, please find us at @AnarresProject on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Please let us know what you think about this and all our discussions.