Two academic talks:
Laura Osur: Alt-Histories Against Technological Determinism.
For All Mankind (Apple TV+, 2019-) and Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut series (2018, 2020) present alternative histories of the space race. Read in conversation with each other and as part of a global debate around ethical technology and the commercialization of space, these two properties argue against the theory of technological determinism and for a more active, nuanced, and gendered discussion of the history and future of technological development.
Jenna N. Hanchey: Africanfuturism as Developmental Rebellion.
I examine how Africanfuturism pushes back against Western visions of development through what Nyerere calls developmental rebellion. Examining the work of Nnedi Okorafor, Tade Thompson, Wanuri Kahiu, Suyi Davis Okungbowa, & Tendai Huchu, I trace four ways that Africanfuturism decolonizes development. Africanfuturism: (1) releases radical desire; (2) recreates ecological contexts; (3) uses alien technology in decolonial ways; and (4) limns alternative possibilities for life itself.