Imaginary College
The Imaginary College is a group of outstanding creative thinkers, researchers, practitioners, and mad geniuses that represents one of the core missions of the Center for Science and the Imagination: to seek out intelligent life wherever it resides in the universe, and to get it on our side. Through the Imaginary College, CSI partners with and celebrates the individuals and groups who are already advancing our mission of fresh, creative and ambitious thinking about the future.
Imaginary College Philosophers
Sages and provocateurs who epitomize imaginative thinking and practice and provide inspiration for our work.
Paolo Bacigalupi - Fiction is optimistic or unrealistic enough to demand that there should be a meaningful narrative. 
Kim Stanley Robinson - “Very few people ever bother to find out what other people really think. They are willing to accept whatever they are told about anyone sufficiently distant.” 
Neal Stephenson - “See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places." 
Bruce Sterling - “Don't become a well-rounded person. Well-rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a pufferfish.” Imaginary College Fellows
Rebels, hackers, wizards, inventors, and alchemists driving pathbreaking research, teaching and outreach projects.
Madeline Ashby - Madeline Ashby is a science fiction writer, futurist, speaker, teacher, and immigrant living in Toronto. She has worked with Intel Labs, the Institute for the Future, SciFutures, Nesta, Data & Society, The Atlantic Council, the Center for Science and the Imagination, Changeist, [...]
Kevin Bankston - Kevin Bankston is the Director of New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI), where he works in the public interest to ensure that all communities have access to communications technologies that are both open and secure. He previously served as OTI’s Policy [...]
Elizabeth Bear - Elizabeth Bear was born on the same day as Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but in a different year. She is the Hugo, Sturgeon, Locus, and Campbell Award-winning author of 30 novels and over a hundred short stories, an occasional public speaker, and her hobbies [...]
Michael Bennett - Associate Research Professor
Assistant Director for Innovation Policy
School for the Future of Innovation in Society
michael.g.bennett@asu.edu
Michael G. Bennett is an associate research professor in Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society, the Center for Science and the Imagination, and the Risk Innovation Lab, as well as a Lecturer in the Sandra Day O’Connor College [...]
Dennis Bonilla - Dennis Bonilla serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Variable Labs, Inc.With nearly two decades of technology experience, Dennis has helped create data visualization and collaboration systems for NASA and other U.S. agencies, and has supported committees [...]
Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay - Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay is senior researcher at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo, where he works on Climate Fiction, Quantum Fiction, and Medical Science Fiction within the Lifetimes framework.[...]
Brenda Cooper - Brenda Cooper is the author of nine science fiction and fantasy books. Her most recent novels are POST (Espec Books, 2016) and Spear of Light (Pyr, 2016). Her other works include Edge of Dark (Pyr, 2015), The Creative Fire (Pyr, 2012), and The Diamond Deep (Pyr, 2013) as [...]
Sam Greenspan - Sam Greenspan is the creator and host of Bellwether, a podcast of speculative journalism. A radio reporter, producer, and artist with a knack for launching new shows, Sam was a founding member of 99% Invisible, NPR's TED Radio Hour, USA Today's The City, and others. [...]
Andrew Dana Hudson - Graduate Research Assistant
Andrew Dana Hudson is a speculative fiction writer, activist, and graduate student at ASU’s School of Sustainability. His fiction seeks to envision the lived experiences just around the corner in our climate-changed world, and the struggle to make good choices that can navigate our civilization [...]
Suren Jayasuriya - Suren Jayasuriya is an assistant professor at Arizona State University, in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. Before this, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. [...]
Brian David Johnson - Brian David Johnson is a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society, and a Futurist and Fellow at Frost & Sullivan, a visionary innovation company [...]
Eric Molinsky - Eric Molinsky is the creator and host of Imaginary Worlds, a podcast on the Panoply network about science fiction and other fantasy genres, which looks at how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief. Episodes have ranged from interviews with authors like [...]
Deji Bryce Olukotun - Deji Bryce Olukotun is the author of two novels and his fiction has appeared in five different book collections. His novel After the Flare won the 2018 Philip K. Dick special citation award, and was chosen as one of the best books of 2017 by The Guardian [...]
Aleks Romano - Aleks Romano is a human-centered designer, eternal reimaginer, and incurable bookworm. Embodying the literary tradition of Octavia E. Butler and Ursula K. LeGuin, Aleks creates experiential learning workshops that challenge 
Vandana Singh - Vandana Singh was born and raised in India and currently lives in the Boston area, where she is a professor of physics at Framingham State University, and a science fiction writer. Although her Ph.D. is in particle physics, in recent years she has [...]
David J. Staley - David J. Staley is an Associate Professor of History, with courtesy appointments in the Department of Design and the Department of Educational Studies at The Ohio State University. He is the author of Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education,
Sherri Wasserman - Sherri Wasserman constructs experiences at the intersections of physical, multimedia, and informational landscapes. She makes things for print, digital, and architectural/environmental spaces, creating content-rich exhibitions, [...]
Alumni
Former fellows, now changing the world from other coordinates.