Lectures and Talks

Speculative Futures | Telling It Like It Is: Spec Fic Writes Worlds

Thu Apr 7, 2022 | 1 PM - 2 PM

Online

From left to right, top to bottom: Ken Liu, Photo: Lisa Tang Liu; Larissa Lai, Photo: Rob Newell; Nalo Hopkinson, Photo: David Findlay; and Dr. Kavita Philip; All Courtesy of the Speakers

with Ken Liu, Larissa Lai, Nalo Hopkinson and Dr. Kavita Philip

In this panel conversation, moderated by Dr. Kavita Philip, President’s Excellence Chair in Network Cultures at the University of British Columbia, authors Ken Liu, Larissa Lai and Nalo Hopkinson will discuss aspects and themes of artificial intelligence and speculative futures as they relate to their literary works.

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Presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Imitation Game: Visual Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, the Speculative Futures Symposium examines artificial intelligence and the specific uses of technology in its multifarious dimensions. Across four different panel conversations, leading thinkers of today will explore the ethical implications of technology and discuss how they are working to address these issues in cultural production. Find out more »

The Speculative Futures Symposium is presented in partnership with the University of British Columbia’s Public Humanities Hub, the UBC Library and the UBC School of Information, the English Language & Literatures Department, the President’s Excellence Chair in Network Cultures and the School of Creative Writing, with additional media support from Canadian Literature.

This talk will be presented on Zoom and streamed live to the Gallery’s Facebook account here »

Questions? Submit them during the Zoom presentation using the Q&A function. You can also engage with your fellow attendees and panelists during the event using the Chat function.

New to Zoom? Learn how to register and attend a webinar here »

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Nalo Hopkinson was born in Jamaica in 1960. She moved to Canada in 1977.  She was the 1997 recipient of the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest for Brown Girl in the Ring. She has published six novels and numerous short stories and has written comics in DC’s “Sandman” universe. She has received the Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award, the John W. Campbell and Locus Awards, the World Fantasy Award, Canada’s Aurora Award, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic and the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Award. In 2020, Science Fiction Writers of America made her its 37th Damon Knight Memorial “Grand Master,” a lifetime achievement award in recognition of her writing, teaching and mentorship. She currently lives in Vancouver, BC, where she is a professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.

Ken Liu is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, he has written the Dandelion Dynasty, a silkpunk epic fantasy series (starting with The Grace of Kings), as well as short story collections The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. He also authored the Star Wars novel The Legends of Luke Skywalker. kenliu.name

Larissa Lai is the author of The Tiger Flu, Salt Fish Girl, Iron Goddess of Mercy and five other books. Recipient of the Jim Duggins Novelist’s Prize, the Lambda Literary Award, the Astraea Award, the Otherwise Honor Book and a finalist for seven more prizes, Lai holds a Canada Research Chair at the University of Calgary and directs The Insurgent Architects’ House for Creative Writing there.

Dr. Kavita Philip is President’s Excellence Chair in Network Cultures and Professor in the Department of English Language and Literatures at the University of British Columbia. Her research and teaching in Global South histories and sociologies of science, computational technologies, environment, network cultures, media and politics crosses geographic boundaries and ranges across scholarly disciplines. For twenty-five years, Dr. Philip has been engaged not only in the intellectual task of forging methods to connect techno-scientific, social scientific and humanistic inquiry, but also in the institutional task of building these collaborative spaces.

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