chrispak@hotmail.co.uk

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PhD (Ongoing at the University of Liverpool)
MA Science Fiction Studies (University of Liverpool)
BA English Literature and Language (University of Liverpool)

Member of the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA)
Member of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment -- UK and Ireland (ASLE-UKI)

Official SFRA-ASLE UKI Affiliation Liaison



Last Updated: 01.05.2012

Current Events and Projects

Lunchtime Literary Classics: On Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker
12pm Saturday 2nd June 2012, Liverpool Waterstone's One, 12 College Lane, L1 3DL

CRSF 2012: Current Research in Speculative Fictions 2012
Call for Papers.
June 18th 2012, University of Liverpool.

Composting Culture: Literature, Nature, Popular Culture, Science
Wednesday 5th - Friday 7th September, 2012, Worcester, Worcestershire, United Kingdom

Managing the Centre for Poetry and Science website, University of Liverpool.

Updating articles in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (SFE Online).

Videos

'Science and Nature in Science Fiction', ASLE-UKI Emergent Environments Conference, 2012. Video available at Youtube.


Other Sites

AlterFutures

CRSF: Current Research in Speculative Fictions Conference Page

Centre for Poetry and Science, University of Liverpool

http://www.brief.umcs.eu/

Twisted Tales / Nightmare Reviews

The Venetian Vase

The Dark Mountain Project

Networks

http://liverpool.academia.edu/ChrisPak

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/chris-pak/41/51b/b26

Thesis Title

Environmental Philosophy and Socio-Politics in Science Fictional Explorations of Terraforming

Research Interests

I specialise in science fiction but maintain a broad interest in fantastic and other contemporary literatures. My PhD thesis considers the eco-philosophical and eco-political engagement of science fictional narratives of global planetary adaptation, or terraforming. This thesis focuses on the environmental philosophical notion of nature’s otherness and respect for the non-human, the cognitive and physical processes involved in landscaping, and the use of the pastoral, ecology and science in terraforming narratives. I am particularly drawn to ecocriticism, global politics and the relationship between the sciences, philosophy and the arts.

Awards and Scholarships

Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction Essay Prize (2011)
John Lennon Memorial Scholarship
School of English Graduate Conference Fund (Travel Grant 2009, 2011, 2011, 2012)
Allott Graduate Scholarship
The University of Liverpool Studentship
James Cross Prize
Elizabeth James University Undergraduate Scholarship

Publications

Articles in Books

Entries in 100 American Crime Writers, ed. Steven Powell. (Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, Forthcoming).
On authors Leigh Brackett, Fredric Brown, Howard Browne, Harlan Coben, Richard Condon, Norbert Davis, Roy Huggins, Frederick Nebel, William F. Nolan, Donald Westlake and Raoul Whitfield.

'Discovering a Higher Plane: Dimensionality and Enlightenment in Flatland and Diaspora'. Mathematics in Popular Culture: Essays on Appearances in Film, Fiction, Games, Television and Other Media, ed. Jessica Sklar. (North Carolina: Macfarland, 2012).

'The Language of Postnationality: Cultural Identity via Science Fictional Trajectories.' Postnational Fantasy: Essays in Postcolonialsim, Cosmopolitics and Science Fiction, ed. Masood Ashraf Raja, Jason W. Ellis, and Swaralipi Nandi. (North Carolina: McFarland, 2011).

'Computers in Science Fiction: Anxiety and Anticipation.' Science Fiction and Computing: Essays on Interlinked Domains, ed. David Ferro and Eric Swedin. (North Carolina: Macfarland, 2011).

Journal Articles

'"A Fantastic Reflex of Itself, An Echo, A Symbol, A Myth, A Crazy Dream": Terraforming as Landscaping Nature's Otherness in H.G. Wells's The Shape of Things to Come and Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men and Star Maker' (Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 111: 40 2012), 14-31.

'Environmental Philosophy and Space in Literature: Landscaping and the Chronotope.' (Brief: Online Journal of Snippets 1: American Literature), 5-6. http://www.brief.umcs.eu/amlit/brief-1_american-literature.pdf (opens in a new window).

'Stories of the Future.' (Dark Mountain 1 2010), 62-73.

'Ecocriticism and Terraforming: Building Critical Spaces.' (Forum: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts 10 2010). http://www.forumjournal.org/site/issue/10/chris-pak (opens in a new window).

'Confronting or Sidestepping Race in SF Film Adaptations: I, Robot and I Am Legend.' (US China Foreign Language 8: 1 2010), 59-64. http://www.linguist.org.cn/doc/uc201001/uc20100108.pdf (opens a pdf of the issue in a new window).

'The Dialogic Science Fiction Megatext: Vivisection in H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr Moreau and Genetic Engineering in Gene Wolfe's "The Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus".' (Green Letters: Representing Animals 12 2010), 27-35.

Reviews

'Chained to the Alien: The Best of ASFR (Second Series) and Skiffy and Mimesis: More Best of ASFR, Australian Science Fiction Review (Second Series)' (SFRA Review 298: 2012),18-21. http://sfra.org/sfra-review/298.pdf (opens a pdf of the issue in a new window).

'CrimeCulture and Crimewave present a new Twisted Tales event: "The Killer Inside You: Horror in Crime Fiction".' (CrimeCulture 2012), http://www.crimeculture.com/wordpress/?page_id=2321.

'The Black Mirror and Other Stories: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Germany and Austria: edited by Franz Rottensteiner, trans. by Mike Mitchell.' (Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 109: 39 2011), 96-99.

'The Mist.' (Nightmare Visions 2011), http://twistedtalesevents.blogspot.com/2011/01/mist-reviewed-by-chris-pak.html.

'Urbis Morpheos by Stephen Palmer.' (Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 107: 38 2010), 119-122.

'Graham Greene's Brighton Rock.' (The Venetian Vase 2010 ), http://venetianvase.co.uk/2010/11/29/graham-greenes-brighton-rock/.

'Zombieland [film].' (SFRA Review 291: 2010), 23. http://www.sfra.org/sfra-review/291.pdf (opens a pdf of the issue in a new window).

'Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film by Adilifu Nama.' (Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 105: 38 2010), 118-121.

'Bender's Big Score and The Beast with a Billion Backs.' (SFRA Review 288: 2009), 23-24. http://www.sfra.org/sfra-review/288.pdf (opens a pdf of the issue in a new window).

'Recommended Reads: Writing Liverpool by Deryn Rees-Jones and Michael Murphy.' (The Reader Online 2008). http://thereaderonline.co.uk/2008/12/recommended-reads-writing-liverpool-by-michael-murphy-and-deryn-rees-jones/ (opens in a new window).

'Recommended Reads: Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan.' (The Reader Online 2008). http://thereaderonline.co.uk/2008/10/recommended-reads-goulds-book-of-fish-by-richard-flanagan/ (opens in a new window).

'Recommended Reads: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.' (The Reader Online 2008). http://thereaderonline.co.uk/2008/06/review-solaris-by-stanislaw-lem/ (opens in a new window).

Conferences and Talks

'Terraforming/Terrorforming.' AlterFutures: Designing Alternative Futures, Sense Loft, Soho, London (Thursday 26th April 2012).

'Science and Nature in Science Fiction.' Emergent Critical Environments: Where Next for Ecology and the Humanites?, ASLE-UKI Postgraduate Conference, Queen Mary, University of London (September 2011). See a video of this talk.

'"A Fantastic Reflex of Itself, An Echo, A Symbol, A Myth, A Crazy Dream": Gaian Anticipations and Terraforming as Landscaping Nature's Otherness in Pre-1960s Scientific Romance and Solaris.' Dreams Not Only American: Science Fiction's Transatlantic Transactions, SFRA Annual Conference, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland (July 2011).

Science Fiction Foundation Masterclass 2011, Middlesex University, London; and 2009, Liverpool University.

'Current Research in Speculative Fictions Conference (CRSF 2011)'
I was one of the organisers for a conference at The University of Liverpool that took place on the 18th June 2011. Apart from organising the event I chaired two panels and also presented a paper. You can read the 2011 cfp here, or click on the title link to visit the CRSF homepage to read more about the success of this conference and plans for CRSF 2012.

'Visions of the Future: The Art of Science Fiction' Roundtable discussion on science fiction for an exhibition held at The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, The University of Leeds. The exhibition itself was open from Monday 4th April - Saturday 11th June 2011 (2011).

'Science and Nature in Science Fiction.' Annual Postgraduate Conference, University of Liverpool (2011).

'Environmental Philosophy in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy: Fragility and Nature's Other.' Annual Postgraduate Conference, University of Liverpool (2010).

'Science Fiction and Gaia Theory/ Gaia Theory in Science Fiction.' Staff-Student Seminar, University of Liverpool (2010).

'Confronting or Sidestepping Race in SF Film Adaptation?: I, Robot and I Am Legend.' Lost in Translation: Mediation, Adaptation and Translation, Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference, University of Leicester (2009).

'Ecopolitics and Terraforming: Building Critical Spaces.' Critical Theory: The Text and the World, Postgraduate Conference, University of Exeter (2009).

'Time as Diverse Experience in Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life".' The Future Ain't What It Used to Be: Interactions of Past, Present and Future in Literature and Visual Media, 7th Annual English Postgraduate Conference, University of Dundee (2009).

'Creating Spaces Where Many Worlds Meet: Science Fiction as Interdisciplinary.' Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Forum (IDF), University of Liverpool (2009).

'Sounding Vivisection and Genetic Engineering in Science Fiction: Gene Wolfe's "The Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus" in dialogue with H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau.' Annual Postgraduate Conference, University of Liverpool (2009).