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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Kathleen GoonanAward winning science fiction writer and Professor of the Practice in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Kathleen Ann Goonan recently wrote a guest editorial on teaching science fiction at Tech for Asimov's Science Fiction, one of the leading venues for contemporary science fiction.
Her piece, entitled Teaching Science Fiction, or Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, explores her particular pedagogy in regards to science fiction as well as the subject matter itself. Goonan believes that science fiction is a very relevant genre and indicates much about the human consciousness.
"Everyone has a hunger for science fiction—astronauts, elementary school children and university students, girls and boys, women and men—people of every age, background, and occupation throughout the world."
She subscribes to Isaac Asimov's science fiction theory that science fiction is a human reaction to change in science and technology. Specifically, she believes that teaching science fiction at Georgia Tech is especially relevant due to the community of innovation.
"Perhaps it is because they are, in no small measure, learning, creating, and living SF in the Aerospace Systems Design Lab, a renowned robotics lab, through weekly nanotech research talks, and by investigating the history of science and technology—not in isolation, but seen as arising from and concurrently driving culture. It is no wonder that they seek to learn how to read and analyze science fiction, to write science fiction, and to see the history of science and technology through a science fictional lens. "
Goonan loves to see the fascinating theories and ideas that her students produce through class discussions and creative writing. Together, they explore the underlying depths of science fiction.
In addition to writing science fiction, Goonan also writes on the impact of nanotechnology, medicine, and education on the future. Read more of what Goonan has written here.
Kathleen Ann Goonan has been at the vanguard of literary science fiction since the publication of her New York Times Notable Book QUEEN CITY JAZZ in 1994. A Visiting Professor, she teaches Creative Writing, Literature, and Science as well as Technology and Ideology. She is passionate about topics such as gender, inequality, and social justice.
