Date & Time
7:00pm EDT - 9:00pm EDT
About This Event
The Future Happened Yesterday
Advancements in astronomy (such as the James Webb telescope), technological innovations (such as the SpaceX program), robotic advancements (like those happening at Boston Dynamics), and controversial tech products (like Elon Musk’s Neuralink) create a potentially growing dilemma for sci-fi literature and cinema. Maybe. How can we keep the fiction in science-fiction as our ability to understand the universe is growing exponentially? Christopher Irving will examine how sci-fi literature and its cinematic representations are both expanding and retreating due to our continued demystification of the universe. Where, if anywhere, does progress direct (or maroon) both literature and cinema of this genre?
Each ticket includes a free meal (vegetarian and gluten-free options available).
Meal service begins at 6:00 p.m.
Speaker presentation begins at 7:00 p.m.
About This Event
The Future Happened Yesterday
Advancements in astronomy (such as the James Webb telescope), technological innovations (such as the SpaceX program), robotic advancements (like those happening at Boston Dynamics), and controversial tech products (like Elon Musk’s Neuralink) create a potentially growing dilemma for sci-fi literature and cinema. Maybe. How can we keep the fiction in science-fiction as our ability to understand the universe is growing exponentially? Christopher Irving will examine how sci-fi literature and its cinematic representations are both expanding and retreating due to our continued demystification of the universe. Where, if anywhere, does progress direct (or maroon) both literature and cinema of this genre?
Each ticket includes a free meal (vegetarian and gluten-free options available).
Meal service begins at 6:00 p.m.
Speaker presentation begins at 7:00 p.m.
About the Speaker
Christopher J. Irving is a senior instructor of humanities at Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida. Beacon is a nonprofit liberal arts school and America’s first accredited baccalaureate institution dedicated to educating primarily neurodivergent students with learning disabilities, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning differences. Irving teaches English composition, multidisciplinary literature, special topic literary courses, media Studies, and rhetoric at Beacon. Previously, he taught English, reading remediation and the mechanics at Palm Beach State College and Florida Atlantic University. He also served as a writing center consultant in the Center for Excellence in Writing at FAU where he developed a series of specialized English language online workshops focusing on grammar, sentence fluency, critical thinking and analysis while developing his thesis novel, "The Future Will be Better Tomorrow: A Prose of Post-Apocalyptic Sarcasm". He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing and nonfiction with a focus on sci-fi and fantasy literature from the English department of Florida Atlantic University and a dual Bachelor's degree in English literature and film and multimedia communication, also from FAU. Irving has been published or quoted on topics concerning pop culture, writing, and film by The Palm Beach Post, Entertainment Weekly, Mashable, X-Ray Literary Journal, the Chronicle of Higher Ed, The Washington Times, the New England Journal of Composition, The Christian Science Monitor, the International Cinematographers Guild Magazine, Variety, Voice of America, The Daily Gazette, and ESource.
Date & Time
7:00pm EDT - 9:00pm EDT