Anarres Project

In this presentation from the October 2022 symposium honoring the 50th anniversary of Ursula K. Le Guin's novella, Sean MacCracken examines the way Le Guin depicts the colonialism of her intergalactic federation in the Hainish series and what lessons we might take for our political organizing today.  He describes his talk:

In the six-part documentary , Capitalism, David Graeber reflects on the historical question of the colonial world-empire, and why Western Europe was the first to “achieve” it, contending that this is really the wrong question. Many societies, he reflects, such as China, could have done so, though it wouldn’t occur to them to, say, depopulate entire continents in search of gold and silver. Racial capitalism has a forerunner in colonial conquest, itself a form of high-stakes venture capitalism. Though within the wide framework of human possibility such colonial action is in fact the exception rather than the rule.

By what mental sickness is such colonial action permissible and even laudable by some, where it would be abhorrent to others? In the Word for World is Forest, Le Guin imparts one of her bleakest tales in the history of her richly imagined interstellar society, the League of All Worlds, as a remote colonial project brutalizes a planet’s indigenous inhabitants, with tragic results. A recurring theme in Le Guin’s rich anthropology-infused imaginings is that of an unsettling encounter between mutually incommensurate forms of social organization. What my presentation teases out from that theme is the varied channels of communication portrayed in LeGuin’s novella, and some of their explanatory potency for present day work in direction action and dual power movement-building.

Within the intimate scale of political action at a local, municipalist level, I argue that present-day reactionary extremism, toxic masculinity, and violence are as much the product of communication’s lack as they are the product of active recruitment. LeGuin’s lines of communication here serve as fictive symbols for that precarious lack—whether communication by dreams, by radio, or by ansible.

Highlights from our symposium in October 2022, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's anti-war novella, The Word for World is Forest.

In this episode, Ben Nadler discusses the possibility of dreaming as a radical and collective act of liberation.  He says:

"I am interested in exploring the ways in which dreaming can be understood as a collective act, rather than an individual one. In these explorations, I will draw on Robin D.G. Kelley’s concept of “freedom dreaming,” Saidiya Hartman’s concept of “critical fabulation,” and Abraham J. Heschel’s understanding of “prophecy.” Further, I will connect the practice of dreaming in The Word for World Is Forest to the practice of speculative fiction writing, as expressed by authors such as Nalo Hopkinson, Margaret Killjoy, and Le Guin herself. Ultimately, I hope to advocate for dreaming, imagining, and storytelling as forms of mutual aid."

Highlights from our symposium in October 2022, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's anti-war novella, The Word for World is Forest.

In this episode, Christopher Loughlin discusses Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, in conjunction with Jacques Ranciere's aesthetic and political philosophy, to discuss the meaning of solidarity and visibility.  How might art be thought of as a tool of class struggle?

The Word for World is Forest Symposium: Sheryl Medlicott

Highlights from our symposium in October 2022, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's anti-war novella, The Word for World is Forest.

In this episode, Sheryl Medlicott helps us to understand the book as an ecofeminist and utopian text with lessons about how to think about language in the struggle for a better future.

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Dr. Sergio Gallegos, who teaches philosophy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the City University of New York, about the anarchist ethics of Ricardo Flores Magon.  

A key figure in the development of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Flores Magon was deeply inspired by anarchist thought and worked to organize workers on both sides of the Mexican/U.S. border.  He fled from Mexico into the United States during the revolution and inspired labor struggles among Mexican American workers.  Flores Magon died in a US prison in 1921.

Gallegos focuses his work on the ethical theory of Flores Magon, which we reconstructs from numerous sources, including Flores Magon's political writing, journalism, and plays.  Gallegos argues that Flores Magon offers a unique ethical outlook that urges us to take action against poverty and pervasive structural inequality that robs the majority of people of liberty.  He believes that these ethical lessons have a lot to tell us about how to frame social movements today.

The popularity of the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons has skyrocketed recently.  Partly because of the COVID 19 pandemic and also because of the its prominent portrayal in the hit show "Stranger Things", more and more people have started to play this classic fantasy game where players imagine themselves as characters in far away mystical realms.  

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we continue our discussion with two philosophers who are fans of Dungeons and Dragons.  Both of them grew up playing the game, but in recent years they have started to reflect on the potential that the game has for developing philosophical skills, civic capacities, and imaginative abilities. We meet Dr. Terrance MacMullan, who teaches philosophy at Eastern Washington University, and Dr. Albert "Randy" Spencer who teaches philosophy at Portland State University.    

In this part two, we talk about the specific philosophical lessons they think we can learn from Dungeons and Dragons.  Dr. Spencer talks about the connections he sees between Dungeons and Dragons and the work of Michel Foucault, on the "technologies of the self".  Dr. MacMullan encourages us to think about the game and the work of John Dewey in encouraging cooperation in democratic spaces.  We then talk about ways in which the habits of role playing might be used to confront political authoritarianism, while at the same time recognizing that role playing might be behind the prevalence of conspiracy thinking today.

Music for the episode: Omega by Scott Buckley https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckleyCr... Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/omega-scott-buckleyMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ZRBsgI8PD1Y 

Cover Image: Image by upklyak on Freepik

The popularity of the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons has skyrocketed recently.  Partly because of the COVID 19 pandemic and also because of the its prominent portrayal in the hit show "Stranger Things", more and more people have started to play this classic fantasy game where players imagine themselves as characters in far away mystical realms.

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with two philosophers who are fans of Dungeons and Dragons.  Both of them grew up playing the game, but in recent years they have started to reflect on the potential that the game has for developing philosophical skills, civic capacities, and imaginative abilities. We meet Dr. Terrance MacMullan, who teaches philosophy at Eastern Washington University, and Dr. Albert "Randy" Spencer who teaches philosophy at Portland State University.  

In this first part of a two part episode, we talk about how they first learned about Dungeons and Dragons and what they first got out of it when they started playing.  We also learn about how they are currently engaged in playing the game and thinking about it philosophically.  In part two, we talk about the specific philosophical lessons they think we can learn from Dungeons and Dragons.

Music for the episode: Omega by Scott Buckley https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckleyCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/omega-scott-buckleyMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/ZRBsgI8PD1Y

Cover Image: "Greet the Final Battle Alone" War game photo created by liuzishan - www.freepik.com

In this episode, we celebrate five years of TrekWars@OSU by considering the issue of refugees and displaced persons.  In 2021, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees estimated that there were 82 million people displaced because of war, conflict, and human rights violations around the world.  Some 30% of those are children.  Starting in 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine produced another 7 million refugees, with almost half of them fleeing to neighboring Poland.  

The TrekWars@OSU collective decided to consider whether the major science fiction franchises of Star Wars and Star Trek have any lessons to help us to think about dealing with the crises of refugees and displaced migrants today.

Joining Dr Joseph Orosco are longtime members of the TrekWars@OSU Collective:

Dr. Randall Milstein is the Sandy and Elva Eminent Professor of the University Honors College at OSU.  He is Senior Instructor in the Physics department in the College of Science at OSU.

Dr. Diana Rohlman is Associate Research Professor in the School of Biological and Population Health Sciences at OSU

Mohammed Shakibnia is an alumnus of Oregon State.  He graduated in 2020 with bachelor's degrees in both Political Science and Philosophy.  He is currently a graduate student in the School of Public Policy at OSU.

You can find the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Let us know your thoughts.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Track: Sphere — KV [Audio Library Release] Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/ysnjlSicPVEFree Download / Stream: https://alplus.io/sphere––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

In this episode of TrekWars@OSU, Joseph Orosco, co director of the Anarres Project for Alternative Futures, and Dr. Jason Scully (Urban and Regional Planning, Eastern Washington University) discuss the ways in which race and mental health are represented in Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard.  They talk about how the show depicts Black and Latinx characters through the story arcs of Raffi and Rios and in particular, the way mental health crises are represented in the story of Picard's mother.  Would the Federation ever allow mental health issues to go unaddressed in the way the Season illustrates, or is the story really a representation of the way in which we, the audience, have to manage mental issue issues in a society that fails to create adequate support services for people in crisis? 

CW:  In addition to spoilers for Season 2, this episode also involves discussion of mental health crises and suicide.

Track: Sphere — KV [Audio Library Release] Music provided by Audio Library Plus Watch: https://youtu.be/ysnjlSicPVEFree Download / Stream: https://alplus.io/sphere––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––  

In this episode of FutureStates Focus, two philosophy professors, Joseph Orosco and Robyn Morris, review the sci-fi short film "Children of the Northern Lights" (2013).  This short film is written and directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, who is now an Assistant Professor of Arts at New York University.  His previous film "On the Ice" (2011) explores Inuit culture in Alaska and is a film festival award winner.

In "Children of the Northern Lights", two astronauts on an energy searching expedition crash land on a desolate planet.  They encounter a mysterious entity that is connected to a potential fuel source that can get the ship back to earth.  But will the expedition choose to exploit the entity or let it's secret die with them.

You can watch the film here