“Many Ways of Being Human” with Karen Lord


DATE
Wednesday October 18, 2023
TIME
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Buchanan Tower 225
1873 East Mall

The Social Justice Institute Noted Scholars Series presents

Many Ways of Being Human

by Karen Lord

When & Where

October 18, 12-1pm
Buchanan Tower 225

This event will be recorded but not livestreamed.

Please wear a mask if you are attending this event.

A sandwich lunch will be served at 1pm.


Abstract

In her science fiction, Barbadian author Karen Lord uses real and fictional differences in human cognitive abilities to imagine societies shaped by other norms and expectations of what constitutes neurotypical behaviour. Concepts of personhood, adulthood, class, and disability vary as a result, thus demonstrating how the standards for social inclusion and exclusion are rarely absolute.

In this talk, Lord will focus on three characters as examples: Ntenman, who lacks empathic ability but still attempts to achieve status in a society of empaths; Serendipity, who has rejected the highly developed telepathic community of her birth and is seeking other forms of community; and Rafi, whose abilities are beyond the restrictions and standards of any existing human society, and who is perceived as a hero or a threat as a result.

This talk is part of UBC Social Justice Institute’s Noted Scholars Speakers which brings together our faculty, students, and community members into a generative space for exchange and discussion with the work of noted scholars and artists. This year’s Series will explore and question the ways that entire populations can fall within hierarchies of both physical and cognitive ability; the ways that negative feelings about our bodies can both foreclose and open new avenues of thought; and the ways that crip methods can help consider the parallels and intersections of studies in settler colonialism, racial capitalism, empire, queer theory, refugee narratives, and permanent war.

About Karen Lord

Karen Lord Headshot

Barbadian novelist Dr Karen Lord is the author of Redemption in Indigo, which won the 2008 Frank Collymore Literary Award, the 2010 Carl Brandon Parallax Award, the 2011 William L. Crawford Award, the 2011 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature and the 2012 Kitschies Golden Tentacle (Best Debut). Her other works include the science fiction novels The Best of All Possible Worlds and The Galaxy Game, and the crime-fantasy novel Unraveling. She edited the anthology New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean. Her latest book, The Blue, Beautiful World, will be published in August 2023.

Accessibility

  • This will be an in-person event in Buchanan Tower. A wheelchair accessible and single-user, gender-neutral washroom is located across from the room. Otherwise, gendered washrooms are located on alternate floors in the stairwell between floors.
  • The room has a capacity of approximately 40 people and will have open windows.
  • Please wear a mask if you intend to attend this event. There will be masks available in the room.

Please include any additional access requests or questions in the RSVP form above.