Workshop with Hugo Award-winning author Ken Liu

The McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society aims to increase awareness of some of society’s most pressing social problems and has recently pivoted toward topics in ethics and technology.  To this effect, we are organizing a student-oriented conference on Inclusive Design in Technology this fall, and we would like to invite students to attend a workshop with Hugo Award-winning American author of science fiction and fantasy, Ken Liu, on Wednesday, November 17. 

Our conference event for this day will feature a small-knit workshop for attendees to engage with and learn from Ken Liu as he leads an insider's look on storytelling and futurism. Please RSVP here to attend the EDiT Conference's workshop with Ken Liu on Storytelling Tools: How to Think About Technology in Worldbuilding! The workshop will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 17, from 12-1:30 pm on Zoom (Zoom link will follow in a separate email). This workshop has 30 spots that will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Ken Liu's can be found here, and more information about the workshop is attached.

Storytelling Tools: How to Think About Technology in Worldbuilding

Course Description: This workshop will train you to see and think about “technology”—both fictional and nonfictional—in new ways that help you tell compelling stories. We’ll examine a broader definition of technology and delve into the perspective of a worldbuilder, someone who must conjure a concrete but also novel vision for others. Interactive exercises will allow participants to put these new ways of seeing and thinking into practice. In addition to fiction writers, this course is also suitable for journalists, technologists, gamemasters, sales and marketing staff, activists—anyone who wants to communicate more effectively about technology.

Prerequisites: This workshop is suitable for writers at all levels of expertise, so there are no requirements per se. However, prior to attendance, it would be helpful for you to think about a piece of technology that you wish to feature in a story. This can be something real (a new programming language you’re excited about; an old gadget that you love; a new startup idea; a hand tool that you know intimately …) or something fictional (a web site you wish someone would make; a program that you want to craft; a new method of space travel; a boat powered by phlogiston in a parallel universe …). You don’t have to do much thinking—a vague idea in mind is enough.