Speculative Fiction Workshops and STEM Imaginaries: Exploring More-Than-Human Sympathy Through Literary Texts

• In Event: 45.071 - Literature for Learners K–12 and Beyond: Texts as Spaces for Inquiry and Engagement

Abstract

This paper draws from a research project that examined the power of speculative fiction to engender new STEM imaginaries and altered ways of sympathetic ‘worldly’ belonging. We focus on speculative fiction texts that utilize literary devices involving biochemical metamorphic transitions and altered forms of coupling and reproduction between humans and more-than-human entities (including aliens, bacteria, concepts). The research project used these texts in youth workshops in an urban LGBTQ youth center over a period of three months. Project findings show how speculative fiction allows us to develop a more expansive and even cosmic sympathy with the non-human, and how close readings of these texts allow youth to think creatively about STEM futures.

Authors

• Sarah E. Truman, University of Melbourne

• Elizabeth De Freitas, Manchester Metropolitan University