Winter 2023 Reading Circle
I took last year off from running my Reading Circles, but I am now in a place where I want to start them up again. Reading Circles are online forums that read texts and then meet to talk about them. It approaches learning in a circular pattern: although there is a summarizer that begins the week’s conversation, there is no authoritative teacher or professor to guide us in our reading. Instead, we are coming together and approaching a text in community, striving to piece together meaning.
If you’ve never participated in one of my Reading Circles, know that you are very welcome! I’ve been doing these since the beginning of the pandemic and they have turned out well. (Previous iterations: Gender, Sexuality, and Faith; Mormonism, White Supremacy, and Me; Omelas, Um-Helat, and the United States; Transgender Histories and Theologies; Founding Potentials and Philosophies of the American Project; Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction; Foucaulting Around.) We usually find a good group of people who love to talk about books and converse about what’s in them. Whether you are new or a returning circle member, whether I know you personally or we have never met, please apply to participate if you’re interested. The Circles are capped at 12–15 people.
For Winter 2023, I am running one reading circle in my SF Studies series. We will be focusing on the feminist science fiction of the twentieth century. Our guiding text is Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century, edited by Justine Larbalestier. Daughters of Earth contains eleven chapters that introduce readers to eleven feminist science fiction authors from 1927 to 2002. Each chapter is partnered with an academic essay that gives context, analysis, and engagement with the text. Each week, one or two people will summarize the stories and some of the main points from the article, and then provide us with a few discussion questions. Then, we’ll discuss for about an hour.
If you’re interested in being a part of the Reading Circle, please apply here. Applications will be taken until January 25. You will be notified by January 26.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Adam.
Syllabus
Meetings will be every other Wednesday beginning on February 1. They’ll happen at 8 p.m. Eastern on Zoom. Meetings will be an hour to an hour and a half, depending on people’s engagement and energy levels.
February 1: Introduction, Feminism, and Science Fiction
February 15: Clare Winger Harris & Leslie F. Stone
March 1: Alice Eleanor Jones & Kate Wilhelm
March 15: Pamela Moline & James Tiptree Jr.
March 29: Lisa Tuttle & Pat Murphy
April 12: Octavia E. Butler & Gwyneth Jones
April 26: Karen Joy Fowler & Conclusions
