Planetary Hospitality
Our project explores the rhetoric and representation of planetary hospitality—from stories about the increasingly inhospitable planet Earth to utopian visions of extraterrestrial settlements in our Solar System and beyond.
We’re using planetary hospitality as a framework to interrogate the rhetoric, films, and media we use to represent planet Earth as increasingly inhospitable; we’re also interested in how we represent our ambition to explore and, possibly, to colonize other planets. What does it mean for a planet to be hospitable or inhospitable? What factors influence our representations of planetary hospitality? What are the consequences of these representations for life on Earth and beyond? Over the course of the three-year project, we will be exploring these questions via film screenings, talks, courses, symposia and more.
Project Directors
Kathy Newman
Associate Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies
Department of English
