Isiah Lavender at Louisiana State University teaching a cli-fi class this fall semester

Education:

Ph.D., English, University of Iowa, July 2004
M.A., English, Louisiana State University, May 1998
B.A., English (honors), Southern University and A & M College, July 1996

Isiah  Lavender  III 

Assistant Professor

Science Fiction Studies
Cli-Fi or Environmental
Science Fictions

 

FALL SEMESTER LSU

Humanity has polluted the oceans, altered the atmosphere, and caused both plant and animal species mass extinctions,
among other impacts on the environment. Have we permanently altered/changed/damaged our planet? The term
Anthropocene denotes our current geological era in which human activities have become a telling factor in global
environmental change. Has the human epoch doomed us? When science fiction consequently goes green, it produces
fascinating climate fictions or cli-fi. We will consider types of ecological degradation in  this course as we explore the close
relationship between science fiction, ecology, and environmentalism.      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biography

Isiah Lavender, III is Assistant Professor of English at Louisiana State University, where he researches and teaches courses in African American literature and science fiction.  In addition to his book Race in American Science Fiction (Indiana UP, 2011) and edited collection Black and Brown Planets: the Politics of Race in Science Fiction (UP of Mississippi, 2014), his publications on science fiction include essays and reviews in journals such as Extrapolation, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, and Science Fiction Studies.  He’s currently working on his second monograph Classics of Afrofuturism as well as a second collection, Yellow Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction, now under contract with the University Press of Mississippi.