Teaching Science Fiction is the first text in thirty years to explore the pedagogic potential of that most intellectually stimulating and provocative form of popular literature: science fiction. Innovative and academically lively, it offers valuable insights into how SF can be taught historically, culturally and practically at university level.

Literary Nonfiction. Essays. Memoir. CLOSING THE BOOK: TRAVELS IN LIFE, LOSS, AND LITERATURE explores the intersection of literature and life in personal essays about traveling, teaching, reading, writing, living, and dying. Each essay's narrative arc is formed and informed by the act of reading literature that makes a reader feel like the book she's reading was somehow written specifically for her to read in that exact moment. Renstrom relies on science fiction as a catalyst for grief, as well as a means of pushing past grim realities to begin envisioning life reconstructed and to embrace the idea that "there's nothing wrong with rebuilding forever."

First published in 1979. This volume presents Science Fiction as a coherent system, not as a collection of facts or random sequence of individual voices. The contributors are concerned with less with surveying the bare facts of the genre than with interpretating their significance. They attempt to establish the common properties of Science Fiction writing whether in the treatment of a theme or in SF of a given period or nationality.

Use an interactive approach to keep students engaged and excited about learning science with 25 teaching modules that cover ten major science areas. • One-of-a-kind tool that covers all areas of science with films • Make learning fun while meeting science and information literacy standards

Drawn from the Science Fiction Research Association conference held in Lawrence, Kansas, in 2008, the essays in this volume address intersections among the reading, writing, and teaching of science fiction. Part 1 studies the teaching of SF, placing analytical and pedagogical research next to each other to reveal how SF can be both an object of study as well as a teaching tool for other disciplines. Part 2 examines SF as a genre of mediation between the sciences and the humanities, using close readings and analyses of the literary-scientific nexus. Part 3 examines SF in the media, using specific television programs, graphic novels, and films as examples of how SF successfully transcends the medium of transmission. Finally, Part 4 features close readings of SF texts by women, including Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia E. Butler.

Octavia E. Butler's works of science fiction invite readers to consider the structures of power in society and to ask what it means to be human. Butler addresses social justice issues such as poverty, racism, and violence against women and connects the history of slavery in the United States with speculation on a biologically altered future world. The first section of this volume, "Materials," lists secondary sources and interviews with Butler and suggests texts that instructors might pair with her works. Essays in the second section, "Approaches," situate Butler in science fiction, modernism, and Afrofuturism and provide interdisciplinary approaches from political science, philosophy, art, and digital humanities. The contributors present strategies for teaching Butler in literature courses as well as courses designed for adult learners, preservice teachers, and students at historically black colleges and universities.

Popular media has become a common means by which students understand both the present and the past. Consequently, more teachers are using various forms of popular culture as pedagogical tools in the history classroom. Science fiction is one of the most popular genres of contemporary film, a genre that permeates much of the current culture. In order to facilitate the use of science fiction films as learning tools, teachers of history need a dependable resource. Teaching History with Science Fiction Films is a guide for teaching U.S. and world history. In addition to covering key themes and concepts, the volume provides • an era-by-era overview of significant issues and related films, • a tutorial in using film in historical methodology, • user guides for 10 key science fiction films, and • sample exercises and assignments for direct classroom use. Among the films covered in this book are staples of American cultural literacy, including Things to Come, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Soylent Green, and Independence Day. Covering conceptual topics such as geopolitics, environmental consciousness, imperialism, immigration, gender roles, and technological innovation across the decades, Teaching History with Science Fiction Films will enable classroom teachers to effectively use movies to examine key social and cultural issues, concepts, and influences in their historical context. With a list of more than 90 recommended films, this volume will be an invaluable asset to any teacher of history.