From blockbuster starships to immersive video game worlds, popular culture does far more than entertain us. It shapes how we see ourselves, each other, and the future. In this talk, MVCC Faculty members, Carey Millsap-Spears will explore how TV, film, and gaming create powerful narratives about identity, power, technology, and fear. Drawing on her work as the author of Star Trek Discovery and the Female Gothic and contributor to Set Phasers to Teach!: Star Trek in Research and Teaching, and other works, she will show how even the “geekiest” stories reveal deep cultural anxieties and hopes.

Drawing on his research in fandom, games, and popular culture, DePaul University professor Paul Booth examines how media texts like Doctor Who invite audiences to imagine new futures, question authority, and rethink what justice looks like. Booth is Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Engagement in the College of Communication and the author or editor of more than ten books, including Adventures Across Space and Time: A Doctor Who Reader, Watching Doctor Who, and Entering the Multiverse. He is also the organizer of the annual DePaul Pop Culture Conference, where fans and scholars gather to discuss everything from time travel and Star Trek to slasher films, superheroes, and pop music.

History is riddled with tales of leaders courting authoritarianism and dictatorial desires when leading institutions, organizations, and countries. Some who enter positions of authority with the best of intentions at times fall prey to the temptation of self-gratifying motives. Is this human nature or a function of the ways in which society conceptualizes leadership? What role do associates, supporters, and constituents play? For those who have resisted the lure of self-aggrandizement, were there certain protocols and characteristics that keep them balanced, or were these individuals skilled at not being exposed? This conversation explores this failure (or fallacy) of leadership and inevitably invites far more questions than answers.

Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and historic Palestine continue to struggle for justice and liberation after 79 years of occupation. Join us for a talk on the goals of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which advocates for an end to Israeli complicity in Palestinian human rights violations.

We welcome Tim Noonan, director of 19th Ward Mutual Aid, which provided over 20,000 people with food during the pandemic and supports asylum seekers who need support. This talk will explore the idea of “mutual aid” and what it means. It will consider how students may get involved.

Join Moraine Valley Psychology faculty in a conversation inspired by our One Book text, Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Dispossessed. Using the novel’s vision of community, freedom, and obligation as a starting point, the panel will explore how people build relationships when autonomy and interdependence are both at stake.

Political Divisions in the United States are far more complex than decisions about the role of government. In this talk we’ll discuss the cultural, historical, geographic, and economic roots of political bifurcation, and how understanding this can yield more enriching political interactions. This event is a Democracy Commitment event.

Marc DiPaolo presents on his newly published book about the contributions Italians and Italian Americans have made to the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Join Moraine Valley history and political science faculty for a lively panel conversation inspired by Ken Burns’ new PBS documentary series The American Revolution.

In this talk we’ll discuss some of the historical, economic, and political roots of the current Venezuelan conflict.