Sci Fi zines stand up against a 3D printer in the makerspace

Sci-Fi: An Anthropology Anthology of Other Worlds with a 3D printer in the university Makerspace (Deanna Kolell)

For Kailey Rocker, former visiting assistant professor of anthropology, science fiction was one of the most natural ways to explore anthropological concepts. 

For two of her three years at 杨贵妃传媒视频, she taught the course Anthropology and Sci-Fi鈥攗nder ANTH 300: Topics in Anthropology鈥攚here students explored humanity through an unfamiliar lens: the connection between science fiction and anthropology.

"We have an adage in anthropology: 'to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange,'" said Rocker. 鈥淭here are a lot of things that we consider normal or that we take for granted that are familiar to us. Students learn to reexamine what they consider familiar and to open themselves up to the diversity of perspectives that exist. Science fiction does the same thing.鈥

Kailey Rocker Headshot

Kailey Rocker

We have an adage in anthropology: 'to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange.' Students learn to reexamine what they consider familiar and to open themselves up to the diversity of perspectives that exist. Science fiction does the same thing.

Kailey Rocker

Mark Jenike, associate professor of anthropology and chair of the department, said elective courses like Anthropology and Sci-Fi provide an opportunity for students to dive deeper into specific aspects of humanity and understand them in new ways.

鈥淎nthropology is the only discipline at 杨贵妃传媒视频 that seeks to understand humans as a total species, from our origins to the present, in all of our global diversity,鈥 said Jenike. 鈥淒r. Rocker鈥檚 Anthropology and Sci-Fi course is the kind of creative application of an anthropological approach to understanding humanity that our topics courses are particularly well-suited for.鈥 

You鈥檒l see humanity鈥檚 patterns, practices, and places in new lights through multidisciplinary lenses.

Ethnography & Science Fiction

While they differ in content, writing style, and audience, both anthropological writing and science fiction share a commonality: they are forms of world-building. The course combined creative writing with ethnographic writing through readings, writing, and a world-building project.

Ethnography is a research methodology that cultural anthropologists use. It is a type of immersive fieldwork where anthropologists live with, work with, and interview the people they are studying. It also refers to the written stories anthropologists produce from their fieldwork.

鈥淲e collaborate with communities to share their story and their experience of the world around them,鈥 Rocker said. 鈥淭here is a creative component, though. My field notes are often written down as a story: what I encountered, who I learned from, and some quotes they shared with me. In ethnographic writing, you are trying to the best of your ability to represent the words and the worlds of the people that you work with as truthfully as you can.鈥

This is where the two genres differ. While ethnographers are responsible for truthfully and honestly representing the people they study, science fiction writers have more creative freedom. This freedom makes science fiction a great avenue for exploring anthropological ideas without having the same constraints.

World-Building and the Power of Sci-Fi 

For their world-building project, students worked in small groups to construct a world where specific technology, technological input, or environmental change had occurred. From there, they imagined the logic and cultural systems of that world, exploring beyond the bounds of their own reality.

鈥淭hey were each responsible for developing some aspect through story and through it an anthropological analysis,鈥 said Rocker. 鈥淚 asked them to think not only about technology or material but to think more about the human experience. How would this impact what a family structure looks like? How might it influence relationship building or language development?鈥

As part of this project, students also interviewed each other in a 鈥榗ultural exchange鈥 to present an analysis of what a long-term cultural encounter between two very different groups would look like.

From this project, the idea of a sci-fi zine was born.

鈥淥ne student just made a casual remark that they really enjoyed reading the other groups鈥 material,鈥 Rocker said. 鈥淭hat it was so neat to dive into a different world that wasn鈥檛 their own and to see the creativity, imagination, and exploration. I was like, 鈥榃ould anyone be comfortable sharing their stories outside the classroom?鈥欌

The answer was yes. Nine students from the winter 2025 course worked with Rocker through the spring to edit and compile their stories into a science fiction zine. A limited number of copies were also printed by Allegra Appleton.

In the zine, the students used the genre of science fiction to build worlds with their own cultural logics and contemplate anthropological questions.

"We are fortunate to have An Anthropology Anthology of Other Worlds as a lasting reminder of the achievements of Dr. Rocker and her students in the anthropological study of self and other, of the familiar and strange," Jenike said. 

Exploring Humanity Through Fiction 

Junior Percy Schneider, an anthropology major from Milwaukee, WI, always had an interest in humans and in fiction. They found their passion for anthropology after taking Rocker鈥檚 introductory cultural anthropology course.

鈥淚 love humans; I love everything we create,鈥 Schneider said. 鈥淚 took intro to cultural anthropology with Kailey Rocker, and something just kind of clicked: 鈥楾his is my field. This is where I鈥檓 meant to be.鈥欌

Schneider studied under Rocker again in the science fiction course. They enjoyed the readings and the challenge of studying humanity through science fiction.

鈥淚 think science fiction is a great genre because it鈥檚 looking at humanity looking towards the future,鈥 Schneider said. 鈥淭here are stories where it gets really dystopian, but other times, there are ones that just fill us with this blinding hope.鈥

Percy Schneider

Percy Schneider

For their literary exercise, Schneider collaborated with, among others, junior Iris Shykula, a junior creative writing and Russian studies major from Longmont, CO, to create a shared universe for their stories. The effort was entirely collaborative, as they had to decide how their stories fit together, what the timeline was, and the rules of how their world functioned.

Schneider鈥檚 story follows a 16-year-old on her 鈥榙escent,鈥 a rite of passage for people in their culture who are about to start a new job at the bottom of the ocean. The story also explores the theme of kinship in a world without traditional families.

鈥淚 was really trying to focus on finding family in a world where you don鈥檛 begin with one, because in the world we created, there are no babies or children,鈥 Schneider said. 鈥淚 focused on that idea of how someone looking like you could be comforting, even if you don鈥檛 know them at all. I wanted it to be like coming to a home that you never knew you had.鈥

The students were also asked to write an anthropological analysis of their own works of fiction. Schneider made the decision to include their analysis in the zine. When analyzing your own work, they said they felt like a professional anthropologist.

鈥淚 yielded more out of analyzing the story than writing the story,鈥 Schneider said. 鈥淚 started looking back at it, and I was like, 鈥極h yeah, I see how this works. I see how this represents some anthropological concept.鈥欌

In addition to their stories, students were tasked with imagining an everyday cultural object from their worlds. They designed and 3D printed these objects with the help of the 杨贵妃传媒视频 Makerspace. Pictures of the objects were printed in the zine, and the physical items were used in a cultural encounter workshop. Students were challenged to interpret the objects produced by other groups like archaeologists working within a limited context.

Angela Vanden Elzen, associate professor and reference and learning technologies librarian, said this is one of the many examples of Lawrentians utilizing the Makerspace to get more out of their coursework and their 杨贵妃传媒视频 experience.

鈥淥ur makerspace has given faculty, students, and staff the opportunity to bring a wide range of making technologies into coursework, laboratories, performance spaces, field work, as a creative outlet, and so much more,鈥 Vanden Elzen said. 鈥淭hese kinds of projects help students to see that getting started with 3D design and 3D printing is not as intimidating as they may think. The technology has come so far that it is easier than ever to learn how to use these technologies.鈥

According to Rocker, the idea was to make students consider how everyday objects can take on new meanings when viewed in a different light. One group, inspired by time travel and historical drama, created a teleportation device within a pocket watch. The device caused severe memory loss when used, which led to a deeper analysis of how this would impact kinship practices, communication, and human agency.  

3D printed object: a small gray rod with ridges
A small black square with a point at the end and a red star
A golden pocket watch
A small black circle with a grey star, four spikes extend from it

A microscopic heart implant

The "袨斜谢邪褋泻/Oblask" biomechanical device

A pocketwatch and teleportation device

"The Tether," a communication implant

A Collaborative Effort  

While Rocker had initially planned for the zine to be a digital-only project, she was encouraged to get it printed.

鈥淚鈥檓 very excited with what we were able to achieve. It surpassed my wildest imaginations,鈥 Rocker said.

Physical copies of the zine were disseminated to different departments at 杨贵妃传媒视频 and are available to check out at the Seeley G. Mudd Library.

Rocker hopes that readers enjoy the students鈥 creativity and get to experience what 杨贵妃传媒视频 professors get to see every day.

鈥淚鈥檓 blown away by the creativity and passion, and I hope readers will think about the ways it overlaps with or is very distinct from their own everyday lives and experiences,鈥 Rocker said. 鈥淪o much collaboration was involved in the creation of this little zine. I鈥檓 incredibly proud of the students who took the class and also indulged me in taking on this project.鈥