Futurity as Praxis: Learning from Octavia E. Butler

Conference Schedule

Thursday, May 23, 2024

9 a.m. | Registration and Coffee

9:45 a.m. | Welcome

• Susan Juster (The Huntington) and André Carrington (University of California, Riverside)

10 a.m. | Session 1: Creativity as Praxis

• Moderator: Sage Ni’Ja Whitson
  Queer & Trans anti-disciplinary artist and writer, Department of Dance and Department of Black Study at UC Riverside

• Damian Duffy
  Author of the graphic novel adaptations of Kindred and Parable of the Sower

• Steven Barnes
  Author of The Eightfold Path, Marvel’s Black Panther: Sins of the King podcast series, and Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror on Shudder

• Sheree Renée Thomas
  Editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and the Dark Matter anthologies, poet, author of Nine Bar Blues: Stories from an Ancient Future

Noon | Lunch

1:30 p.m. | Session 2: The Books of the Living: Collection Researchers

• Moderator: Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi
  Historian, digital humanist, author of Imagine Lagos, Department of History at UC Riverside

• Ayana Jamieson
  Educator, mythologist, depth psychologist, founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network

• Alyssa Collins
  University of South Carolina professor, 2021–22 Octavia E. Butler Fellow at The Huntington

• Lois Rosson
  Historian, Berggruen Institute Fellow, 2023–24 Octavia E. Butler Fellow at The Huntington

Friday, May 24, 2024

9:30 a.m. | Registration and Coffee

10 a.m. | Session 3: Mind of My Mind: Scholarship & Pedagogy

• Moderator: Jasmin Young
  Co-editor of Black Power Encyclopedia; Department of Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside; Visiting Scholar in the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard

• Gerry Canavan
  Author of Octavia E. Butler (Modern Masters of Science Fiction), Department of English at Marquette University

• Ashanté Reese
  Anthropologist, author of Black Food Geographies, Department of African & African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin

• Marisa Parham
  Director of the African American Digital & Experimental Humanities Initiative; Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at University of Maryland

• Valorie Thomas
  Author, consultant, coach, Phebe Estelle Spalding professor emerita at Pomona College

Noon | Lunch

1:30 p.m. | Session 4: Earthseed: Sustainability & Activism

• Moderator: Jade Sasser
  Feminist scholar of climate justice, reproductive politics, and the future. Author of Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question (2024) and On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women’s Rights in the Era of Climate Change (2018), Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies at UC Riverside

• Syrus Marcus Ware
  Artist, activist, member of the Performance Disability Art Collective, co-editor of Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada, School of the Arts at McMaster University

• Rasheedah Phillips
  Author of The Recurrence Plot, attorney, housing advocate, co-founder of Black Quantum Futurism

4:30 p.m. | Closing Remarks

Day of Program

Parking Is free. There are two entrances to the parking lot: Oxford Road and Allen Avenue. Handicap parking and bicycle racks are conveniently located in the south end of the lot closest to the main entrance and admission windows.

Heading to registration. You'll check in with Security and then proceed to Rothenberg Auditorium for check-in at the registration table. Signage will direct you.

Attendee badges. We will provide you with two stick-on name badges, one for each day of the conference. Your badge grants you access to the Huntington grounds and galleries during normal business hours.

Continental breakfast. A complimentary continental breakfast is available during registration at 9 a.m. on Thursday and 9:30 a.m. on Friday. If you did not pre-purchase lunch, you can visit 1919 Cafe or Red Car coffee shop.