{"312561":{"#nid":"312561","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Goonan Featured in Locus, Melds Science Fiction with Technology","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EScience fiction as a genre has changed immensely since the days of \u003Cem\u003EFrankenstein\u003C\/em\u003E author Mary Shelley, who relied on the biological sciences and psychology. \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty\/bio\/goonan\u0022\u003EKathleen Goonan\u003C\/a\u003E, science fiction author and professor of the practice in the \u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC)\u003C\/strong\u003E, represents this shift in the genre through her works involving nanotechnology, synesthesia, and memory and consciousness.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the \u002770s and \u002780s, the biological sciences and psychology were not considered science fiction. At the time, any attempt to study consciousness was considered absurd. Times have changed, however, as we have developed the tools to observe the brain non-invasively with fMRI to discover how the brain works, in real time, and in response to different kinds of stimuli. The process is not exactly precise, but we are making progress.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGoonan, who was recently featured on the cover of\u003Cem\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.locusmag.com\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E Locus\u003C\/a\u003E,\u003C\/em\u003E the premiere trade journal for science fiction and fantasy publishing, is a self-described autodidact and born-again science nerd. Following a suggestion by Greg Bear to fellow science fiction authors, she began to read more science-oriented books and journals. Books written by scientists, increasingly by neuroscientists, comprise nearly two-thirds of her library.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn 2010, after turning in her novel \u003Cem\u003EThis Shared Dream\u003C\/em\u003E for publishing, Goonan had intended to take some time off to think about whatshe wanted to do next as a writer, not just in terms of subject matter, but also style, scope, and audience. Just a week later she received an email from \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty\/bio\/yaszek\u0022\u003ELisa Yaszek\u003C\/a\u003E, director of undergraduate studies in LMC, inviting her to join the Ivan Allen College faculty. Goonan began teaching shortly thereafter.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe first class I taught at Georgia Tech was an honors class in nanotechnology, and, because of my (series) \u003Cem\u003ENanotech Quartet\u003C\/em\u003E, and all the people I know in the nanotech field, it was a perfect class for me to teach. During that time, the possible changes that a theoretical nanotechnology might bring about in science, society, the arts\u2014basically, everything \u2014were being explored.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGoonan now teaches two classes each semester, a creative writing class and one of her own creation. In 2012, her specially-formulated honors class on the \u201860s called From the Earth to the Moon covered civil rights, assassinations, the space program, Vietnam, and feminism. This fall she is putting together \u201cDesigning the Future,\u201d which will explore how people have thought about the distant future in the past and how those futures were or were not realized.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAt Georgia Tech, the student\u0027s minds are prepared for science fiction because it\u0027s one of the top engineering schools in the world. I\u2019ve taught [everything from] \u003Cem\u003EDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep \u003C\/em\u003E[to] \u003Cem\u003EThe Diamond Age\u003C\/em\u003E. It [has been] a wild ride, a lot of reading, and very intensive. The student\u0027s enthusiasm regenerated my interest in science fiction\u2014its history, its long-running conversation, its boldness in bringing important issues to life.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERead her featured article in \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/files\/wysiwyg\/file\/GoonanLocus.pdf\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ELocus Magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EKathleen Ann Goonan has been at the vanguard of literary science fiction since the publication of her New York Times Notable Book Queen City Jazz in 1994, garnering starred reviews in all major review journals for each of her six novels. A literary stylist, she melds cutting-edge science with strong characterization, history, jazz, and what Publisher\u2019s Weekly described as \u201cthe work of a powerful imagination with a superior command of language.\u0022\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EScience fiction as a genre has changed immensely since the days of \u003Cem\u003EFrankenstein\u003C\/em\u003E author Mary Shelley. Kathleen Goonan, science fiction author and professor of the practice in the \u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC)\u003C\/strong\u003E, represents this shift in the genre through her works involving nanotechnology, synesthesia, and memory and consciousness.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Kathleen Goonan, featured in Locus Magazine, explores science fiction through a technological framework, including nanotechnology, synesthesia, and memory and consciousness."}],"uid":"27889","created_gmt":"2014-08-05 12:32:58","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:52","author":"Beth Godfrey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-08-05T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-08-05T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"312551":{"id":"312551","type":"image","title":"Kathleen Goonan in Locus","body":null,"created":"1449244929","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:02:09","changed":"1475895022","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:22","alt":"Kathleen Goonan in Locus","file":{"fid":"199882","name":"goonan_locus_cover_may_2014.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/goonan_locus_cover_may_2014_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/goonan_locus_cover_may_2014_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3368508,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/goonan_locus_cover_may_2014_0.jpg?itok=3phJRc7Y"}},"312571":{"id":"312571","type":"image","title":"Kathleen Goonan","body":null,"created":"1449244929","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:02:09","changed":"1475895022","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:22","alt":"Kathleen Goonan","file":{"fid":"199883","name":"kathleen-goonan.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/kathleen-goonan_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/kathleen-goonan_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":440387,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/kathleen-goonan_0.jpg?itok=hh6r6rn2"}}},"media_ids":["312551","312571"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"98951","name":"consciousness"},{"id":"98931","name":"Goonan"},{"id":"1228","name":"memory"},{"id":"107","name":"Nanotechnology"},{"id":"167171","name":"science fiction"},{"id":"171347","name":"synesthesia"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERebecca Keane\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Erebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}