Inhabiting Ustopia: Science Fiction in Film, Performing Arts, and Digital Media

This volume contributes to research in both humanities and performing arts without disregarding the more recent digital artistic media by focusing on works of science fiction (Sci-Fi). The book's structure mirrors the themes approached in an effort to contextualize the Atwoodian concept of 'ustopia' by addressing a variety of topical subjects, such as transhumanism, ethical dilemmas, subjectivities in a digital world, in science fiction theater, opera, and art installations as well as film and new digital media.
The book collects interpretations of transmedial performances, comparisons of films and novels, videogames, and other immersive platforms. The contributors include a range of academics and specialists from Japan, Romania, India, Spain, Ireland, and the U.S.A. Recent preoccupations with Artificial Intelligence and its advantages and threats have also meant a re-assessment of Sci-Fi creations and their relevance. The book appeals to students and researchers in the humanities, media studies, performance arts, as well as larger audiences interested in comparative and analytic discussions of Sci-Fi works anchored in real-life concerns.

Aparajita Nanda, recipient of a Visiting Associate Professorship to the University of California, Berkeley, is Chair, Department of Ethnic Studies, and Associate Professor, Department of English, Santa Clara University. She is on the executive committee of the Modern Language and Literature Association (MLA). Dr Nanda is also recipient of a Fulbright Faculty Fellowship Award, the Cedric Busette Memorial Award for her “outstanding contributions” to Ethnic Studies, and the David E. Logothetti Teaching Excellence Award. Her recent book publications include Black California, The Strangled Cry: The Communication and Experience of Trauma, Romancing the Strange, Ethnic Literatures and Transnationalism and God is Change: Religious Practices and Ideology in the Works of Octavia Butler. She has published several book chapters in edited volumes and her articles appear in peer-reviewed journals, including Callaloo, Ariel, Subjectivity, and GRAMMA: Journal of Theory and Literary Criticism. Her academic treatises (by invitation) appear in Oxford African American Studies and Cambridge University Press publications on California.
Lucia-Mihaela Grosu-R-dulescu is an Associate Professor with the Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication, Faculty of International Business and Economics of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. As a professor and researcher, she has participated in numerous conferences, and her research has been published in academic journals indexed in international databases. Her research interests range from literary and cultural studies to language learning and social psychology. She has published books, edited volumes and authored chapters in collective volumes. Her most recent contributions include Foreign Language Teaching in Romanian Higher Education. Teaching Methods, Learning (editor), “Multiculturalism under attack in Europe” (chapter) in the Muslim Minorities and Social Cohesion – Cultural Fragmentation in the West (ed. Abe W. Ata) and “The Magician, The Savior, and the Cyborg: Exploring Girlhood in Young Adult Film”(chapter) in Handbook of Research on Translating Myth and Reality in Women Imagery Across Disciplines (eds. Roxana Ciolaneanu & Roxana-Elisabeta Marinescu).