Close Encounters of the First Kind...

11/12/2007

Close Encounters of the First Kind:
Richmond Lecturer Invited to Give Guest Lecture on Aliens at Northampton University

Dom Alessio, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Study Abroad Program at Richmond, gave his inaugural lecture as Visiting Research Fellow in the English and Media Department of the University of Northampton, on December 6.

Dom, who is also Vice Chair of the New Zealand Studies Association, was discussing a rediscovered science fiction text that was written in New Zealand in 1881 by an unknown author. Dom argued that this work was significant as it was the first time in the history of science or science fiction that spacesuits, airlocks, shuttle craft, non humanoid friendly aliens, the colonisation by humans of outer space, faster than light travel, fleets of spaceships, and exploration beyond the solar system to other systems of planets, was raised.

Dom also posited the description of friendly aliens in a postcolonial context in 19th century colonial New Zealand. His book on this subject will be published in the Spring of 2008 with University of Nebraska Press.

Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/n/399.aspx