UC San Diego, Cross-Cultural Center
(2nd Floor of the Price Center East)
Open to the public
"Shaping Change: Remembering Octavia E. Butler Through Archives, Art, and Worldmaking" is a conference celebrating Octavia E Butler's life and work. The conference will take place from June 3-5, 2016 at the UC San Diego Cross-Cultural Center and is open to the public.
Butler's experiences as a working-class, quirky Black girl growing up in southern California profoundly shaped her life and writing. This conference endeavors to engage these intersecting identities through multiple mediums and fields of study. Participants will consider how Butler's work helps us imagine a future where justice is attainable and differences are celebrated and consider the following questions:
50 years from now, how have we shaped change (through art, activism, and archives) in the world? What have we left behind that that we can draw from our presents and pasts? What lessons in Butler's life and writing will help forestall what seems like the inevitable collapse of human civilization?
Organized by Shelley Streeby (UC San Diego) and Ayana Jamieson (founder, Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network), the event will feature talks from:
Adrienne Maree Brown
Aimee Bahng
Alexis Lothian
M. Asli Dukan
Ayana Jamieson
Krista Franklin
Lisa Bolekaja
Melanie West
Moya Bailey
Nisi Shawl
Ola Ronke
Rasheedah Phillips
Shelley Streeby
Sophia Echavarria
Ted Chiang
Walidah Imarisha
Aimee Bahng
Alexis Lothian
M. Asli Dukan
Ayana Jamieson
Krista Franklin
Lisa Bolekaja
Melanie West
Moya Bailey
Nisi Shawl
Ola Ronke
Rasheedah Phillips
Shelley Streeby
Sophia Echavarria
Ted Chiang
Walidah Imarisha
Butler was an alumnus of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop, which has been organized by the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at UC San Diego since 2007 and has fostered the talents of many of the leading sci-fi/fantasy writers since its inception in 1968.
This event is sponsored by the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination; The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop at UC San Diego; The Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network; Sixth College; Division of Social Sciences; Division of Arts and Humanities; Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; Departments of Theater and Dance, Ethnic Studies, Music, Psychology, Education Studies, and Literature; the Critical Gender Studies Program; and the Black Studies Project.
