Anarres Project

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we speak with Dr. Stephanie Luce. She is a labor scholar, organizer, and the author of "Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World."We talk about how the US labor movement is resurged in the last decade and how it might react to increasingly authoritarian political times.

On this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Alexandro Jose Gradilla. He is a professor of Chicana/Chicano Studies at Cal State Fullerton and one of the directors of the Latinx Lab there. The Lab teaches undergraduate and graduate students how to harness the power of storytelling and narrative building. We talk about how the work of the Lab is informed by the idea of Latinx Futurism/F...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with author and organizer Andrew Lee. He is the author of "Defying Displacement" ( https://www.akpress.org/defying-displ... ) and a board member of the Institute for Anarchist Studies. Lee recently wrote a pamphlet for the IAS Lexicon series entitled "Democracy Beyond the State" ( https://anarchiststudies.org/lexicon-... )We...

In this Conversation on Anarres , we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's classic novel, The Dispossessed . We talk with Dr. Alexis Shotwell who is working to spell out Le Guin's anarchist philosophy. Shotwell speculates as to the features of "Odoian anarchism"--what values it expresses and how it is related to other classical anarchist thinkers such as Emma Gol...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we speak with author Javier Sethness Castro about his new review of Dune II (2024). Sethness Castro argues that the Frank Herbert's vision of humanity, as laid out in the novels, is one of a multicultural, multiracial, and religiously pluralistic human race spread out among the stars. The persistence of Islam, and of Muslim culture and traditions, is ke...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Dr. Jason Eberl who is the editor of the book Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy. Dr. Eberl is a featured speaker at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of 2004 reboot of Battlestar Galactica in Chicago. This series begins by asking an existential question: "Does humanity deserve to exist?" Over four seasons, BSG tries to portray stori...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we interview artist Will Burrows. In the past few years, Burrows has become popular for his art that blends Star Trek with political themes and LGBTQIA pride. We wanted to talk to him about some of his best selling work in celebration of the Bell Riots--an event in Star Trek lore that sets the United States toward a recognition of its serious social and...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Katherine Ann Power about her new memoir, " Surrender: My Journey from Guerilla to Grandmother" . For over twenty years, Power was on the FBI Most Wanted List for her involvement in a revolutionary armed cell that sought the overthrown of the US government. After a bank robbery in which a police officer was killed, Power went into...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we speak with New York Times Best Selling author, Dr. Una McCormack. She has written over twenty science fiction novels, many of which are franchise novels that tie into the Star Trek, Firefly, and Dr. Who universes. We talk about how she prepares for writing her work and why she appreciates science fiction. Dr. McCormack, however, has a deep appreciati...

In this Conversation on Anarres, we speak with Dr. David Seitz about his new book A Different Trek: Radical Geographies of Deep Space Nine. We talk about how Star Trek came to be part of his academic research project and why Deep Space Nine captured his imagination as a way to talk about radical politics in the world today. Our conversation touches on how DS9 is important for the way it is infused...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Matilda Bickers, the co-editor of a new anthology, "Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex" (PM Press, 2023), which is a collection of reflections by sex workers on the nature of their labor. She explains how she got into this form of advocacy and what similarities sex work has to other forms of labor under capitalism. Given t...

In this episode of TrekWars@OSU, we consider the sci-fi, fantasy, and other speculative fiction that helped us to imagine futures free of domination, exploitation, war, and empire. Our discussion panel included: Joseph Orosco, co-director of the Anarres Project; Randall Millstein, Robyn Morris, and Kaja Gjelde. Each of them mentioned their favorite choices from 2023, their runner ups, and what the...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk with Dr. Jesse Cohn about his essay "Demodernizing Anarchism". This essay appears in Issue 33 of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory and you can read it here . For more information on the Institute for Anarchist Studies, check out their website here .

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, we talk to Avery Jade, one of the organizers of the Really, Really Free Market in Corvallis, Oregon. The Really, Really Free Market movement is a global movement that creates space for mutual aid--making clothes, toiletries, literature, and other necessities available for free. We discuss the inspiration for the Market, how it has expanded, what role an...

In this episode, Joseph Orosco talks with Maria Castro and Javier Castro, about their recent essay "Bibliophilia and Anarchism in Star Trek: Picard" , published in October 2022 in Perspectives in Anarchist Theory. Maria and Javier argue that throughout Season One of Star Trek: Picard several books are mentioned that echo the radical themes and anti-authoritarian perspectives of the main characters...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of Staughton Lynd, who passed away in 2022. They talk about the important ways in which Staughton Lynd, along with his wife Alice, devoted themselves to providing historical resources to spark our imagination about forms of activism and organizing that we might use today, an...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of Dave Forman, who passed away in 2022. They talk about the importance of Forman's work in creating the radical environmental group, Earth First!, and the limitations of this approach to movement building. Music Credit:  –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Track: Bubble — K...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of Barbara Ehrenreich, who passed away in 2022. They talk about the importance of Ehrenreich's works including Nickel and Dimed , Bait and Switch , and Witches, Midwives, and Nurses . Music Credit:  –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Track: Bubble — KV [Audio Library Releas...

In this episode of Conversations on Anarres, co-directors Joseph Orosco and Tony Vogt discuss their encounters with the work of historian Mike Davis, who passed away in 2022.   They talk about the importance of Davis' books including City of Quart z, Ecology of Fear , and Magical Urbanism .   Music Credit:  –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Track: Bubble — KV [Audio Library Release]&nb...

Christian Matheis presents the keynote presentation for The Word for World is Forest Symposium, honoring the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ursula Le Guin's anti-war novella.   This talk was given in October 2022.  It is entitled "Devious as Nerves: Teaching the Fine Balance of Reason and Dream." Image:  Eileen Dunn

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 th...

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 t...

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...

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 bette...

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 bo...