To Boldly Go: what Star Trek tells us about the world

LSE Literary Festival discussion

Speakers: Professor Michèle Barrett, Duncan Barrett, Professor Barry Buzan, Professor Steven French
Chair: Dr Bryan Roberts

Celebrating Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, our panel will explore what this enduring science fiction series can tell us about attitudes to international relations, science and society.

Michèle Barrett is Professor of Modern Literary and Cultural Theory at Queen Mary University, London and author, with her son Duncan Barrett of Star Trek: the Human Frontier.  Her recent work has focused on the literature and art of the First World War period.

Duncan Barrett (@WW1Stories) is a best-selling author.  In 2010 he edited the First World War memoirs of pacifist saboteur Ronald Skirth, published as The Reluctant Tommy, and in 2014 his book Men of Letters: The Post Office Heroes Who Fought the Great War was nominated for the People’s Book Prize. His is author (with Nuala Calvi) of The Sugar Girls, G. I. Brides  and The Girls Who Went to War.

Barry Buzan is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the LSE (formerly Montague Burton Professor), Honorary Professor at Copenhagen Jilin, and China Foreign Affairs Universities, a Senior Fellow at LSE Ideas, and a Fellow of the British Academy.  He has written, co-authored or edited over twenty-five books. He is author of an article America in Space: The International Relations of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica and his most recent book, with George Lawson, is The Global Transformation: History, Modernity and the Making of International Relations.

Steven French is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds. Steven is Co-Editor-in-Chief (with Michela Massimi of the University of Edinburgh) of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, one of the most highly regarded journals in the field. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Palgrave-Macmillan series, New Directions in Philosophy of Science.  His books include The Structure of the World: Metaphysics and Representation.

Bryan Roberts (@SoulPhysics) is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.

This event forms part of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2016, taking place from Monday 22 – Saturday 27 February 2016, with the theme ‘Utopias’.

Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #LSELitFest