Science Fiction TV Dinner: Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Highlights

Event Date: October 8, 2014 Location: Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, ASU Episode: “Intervention” (Season 5) Speakers: Bridget Kromhout, tech operations engineer; Astrid Atkinson, senior engineering manager, Google; Dawn Gilpin, associate professor of public relations and social media, ASU; Nina Miller, design strategist, Center for Science and the Imagination

Event Date: September 30, 2014 Location: Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Episode: “Cane and Able” (Season 3) Speakers: Dr. Cathy Seiler, scientific liaison at ASU’s Biodesign Institute; Dr. Kenneth S. Ramos, associate vice president of precision health services and professor of medicine at the Arizona Health Sciences Center of the University of Arizona; Joey Eschrich, editor and program manager, Center for Science and the Imagination

By Steve Goldstein, 91.5 KJZZ (Phoenix Public Radio)

Check out the discussion that followed the Science Fiction TV Dinner screening of the first episode of The Walking Dead. Adam Chodorow, the Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, challenges the definitions of life and death in U.S. legislature and questions the applications of tax laws regarding zombies, avatars, and vampires.

Check out the discussion that followed the Science Fiction TV Dinner screening of the cult classic science fiction comedy Red Dwarf. Steven Desch, an astrophysicist and professor at ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, and Don and Alleen Nilsen, ASU emeritus professors and co-founders of the International Society for Humor Studies, join CSI director Ed Finn to discuss whether or not humor and science fiction make a good mix. This event was co-sponsored by ASU’s Project Humanities.

Check out the discussion that followed the Science Fiction TV Dinner screening of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Evolution,” about space exploration and synthetic life. Phil Plait, an astronomer and blogger for Slate, and Karmella Haynes, a synthetic biology researcher at ASU’s School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, joined CSI director Ed Finn to discuss the ethics of synthetic life and the surprising scientific realism of this particular Next Generation episode. This event was co-sponsored by SpaceVision, the largest student-organized space conference in the U.S.

Check out the discussion following the screening of the Quantum Leap episode “The Wrong Stuff,” about the early days of the Space Race and using animals to test spaceflight safety. Juan José Diaz Infante, artist and mission director for the Mexican Space Collective, and Micah Lande, Assistant Professor of Engineering at ASU’s College of Technology and Innovation, join CSI director Ed Finn to discuss imagination, ethics, STEM education, DIY satellite launches and more.