Representations of Women in American Science Fiction

Due to Covid-19 and campus closures, this group was unable to record. Instead, we present the script for their episode on women in science fiction. Introduction/Synopsis: The aim of this podcast is to explore and discuss the similar and different portrayals of women in a number of popular contemporary science fiction films. Caoimhe Battault presents […]

Young Adult Dystopian Fiction & Sci-Fi

Young Adult Dystopian fiction has extremely close links to both modern and original Science Fiction and could even be considered a subgenre of the broader Sci-Fi genre. This podcast aims to examine Dystopian Young Adult texts, its purpose, its links to science fiction and its criticism of modern social issues, politics and how it adapts […]

Monstrosity & Otherness in Science Fiction Cinema

This podcast explores constructions of Otherness in science fiction. Looking at a wide range of aliens, monsters and cyborgs, this episode discusses how difference is encoded thematically in popular sci-fi texts. The episode begins with an overview of historical ideas about the monstrous before moving on to discuss depictions of Otherness in films as diverse […]

Making Sense of the Twilight Zone

This episode will examine the various versions of The Twilight Zone and its cultural, social, and political context in terms of the five senses. Each one of us takes a different sense as our frame. Michael will talk about the sense of smell relating to themes of autonomy and sensory illusion in the episode […]

Science Fiction in Graphic Media

In this podcast, we will be looking at science fiction magazines, comic books and other graphic media during the mid-to-late- twentieth century, including works from Amazing Stories magazine and Galaxy Science Fiction, DC Comics, and Playboy Magazine. We will examine these texts in relation to the anxieties and issues in American society from the late […]

Bigger on the Inside: Critically Analysing Doctor Who

First produced by the BBC in 1963, Doctor Who remains one of the most popular science fiction series on television. During his time as showrunner (2005-2010), Russell T. Davies analysed several anxieties and political issues of the contemporary world. Silvia will analyse how this is achieved by connecting the 2007 Master Trilogy to certain fears […]

National Anxieties and Science-Fiction

This podcast will explore the ways in which national anxieties are manifest in science fiction. We will examine texts from Japan, Russia and Britain. The twentieth century was a tumultuous time for these countries, and greatly impacted the relationships between them. They endured two world wars, the Cold War, and the Korean and Vietnam wars. […]

The History and Development of American Science Fiction in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Our podcast will explore the history and development of American science fiction in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through literary analysis of both text and film, we examined what we considered to be important contributory factors to the establishment of science fiction as a distinct literary genre. We traced the development of science fiction conventions […]

The Representation of Female Superheroes in Film

In recent decades, in relation to the science fiction genre, there has been a rapid increase in popularity in the superhero film. However, along with many of these films, come gender issues in relation to their female superhero roles. In this podcast episode, we will discuss the lack of purpose, attention, and science/technology behind the […]

Exploring the Other in American Science Fiction

Today we’ll be talking about ‘the Other in American science-fiction’ and how it is portrayed in different aspects throughout the twentieth century. Emma will be looking at American science-fiction movies during the 1950s that reflect anxieties at the time of communism and the red scare and will focus mainly on the 1953 movie adaptation of […]