BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Zoë Lehmann Imfeld: Talking About Mars and Beyond: Narrative Stra
 tegies in Science Writing - Zoë Lehmann Imfeld (Universität Bern\, Engli
 sh)
DTSTART:20250130T110000Z
DTEND:20250130T120000Z
UID:TALK221506@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Paul B. Rimmer
DESCRIPTION:**In Person**\n\nThe context in which new scientific knowledge
  is produced is fundamentally changing\, and crucially\, so too are the wa
 ys in which it is publicly communicated and understood. The discourses of 
 the planetary sciences in particular are being reframed and transformed\, 
 both in public rhetoric and in fictional depictions. As a literature and s
 cience scholar\, I am interested in examining the ways in which popular sc
 ience writing as well as fictional writing about planetary sciences is inf
 orming and is informed by imaginations of planetary exploration.\n\nDiscou
 rses surrounding Mars colonisation\, for instance\, are becoming reframed 
 not only as desirable\, but as inevitable and necessary – a ‘solution
 ’ to an unhabitable Earth. Jens Temmen has recently argued that even the
  NASA Mars rover missions are framed by a discourse that promotes the libe
 rating and moral quality of technology. The scientific sources of authorit
 y on space exploration are also changing\, as explorative activity is incr
 easingly performed by the private sector. Here too\, the discourses of hum
 an transcendence are reiterated. This points to a shift in the rhetoric of
  knowledge production\, as scientific activity becomes entangled in the lo
 aded narratives that are shaping it. I ask what these narratives and poeti
 cs might mean for planetary scientists and their scientific activity.\n\n\
 nPossible reading:\n\nSarah Stewart Johnson\, The Sirens of Mars\n\nSimon 
 Morden\, The Red Planet\n\nTracy K. Smith\, Life on Mars (poetry)\n\nKate 
 Greene\, Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars
LOCATION:Thirkill Room\, Old Court\, Clare College
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR