In print and in movies, science fiction has long been dominated by visions of the future that center whiteness and replicate contemporary racial hierarchies. Outside of the mainstream, meanwhile, science fiction writers of color crafted their own visions of the future, drawing upon diverse cultural heritages and traditions, and in recent decades they have regularly garnered much-deserved attention and the most prestigious awards in the genre. In this class we’ll study science fiction as imagined by writers of marginalized identities, and in the process we’ll widen the possible futures we might imagine. Authors may include N.K. Jemisin, Rebecca Roanhorse, Ted Chiang, Lisa M. Bradley, Stephen Graham Jones, Tobias S. Buckell, Octavia Butler, Nnedi Okorafor, and others.

Offered Fall 2026