Agenda

Day 1: May 13

  • 8:00-9:00 am: Breakfast + check-in

    Location:
    ASU Barrett and O’Connor Washington Center (8th Floor)
    1800 I St NW
    Washington, DC 20006
    Google map

  • 9:00-9:15 am: Welcome

    Speakers
    •     Jessica Rousset, Director, Interplanetary Initiative, Arizona State University
    • Mia Armstrong-López, Managing Editor, Future Tense
    • Jack Traphagan, Visiting Scholar, Arizona State University

  • 9:15-10:00 am: Cosmism, Atheism, and Socialism: Millenarian Cosmologies of the Soviet Space Program

    Presenter
    •Asif Siddiqi, Fordham University

  • 10:00-10:45 am: Postcolonial Endeavour in Outer Space: Cosmic Projections of National Ideologies

    Presenter
    •     Nelly Bekus, University of Exeter

  • 10:45-11:00 am: Coffee break

  • 11:00-11:45 am: Ideology and Chinese Space Expansionism

    Presenter
    • Lincoln Hines, Georgia Institute of Technology

  • 11:45-1:00 pm: Lunch

  • 1:00-1:45 pm: Look to the Heavens: Religion and Space Exploration in the U.S. and Russia

    Presenter
    • Lance Gharavi, Arizona State University

  • 1:45-2:30 pm: Why are Shingon Buddhists Launching a Temple Satellite?

    Presenter
    • Anthony Milligan, Arizona State University

  • 2:30-2:45 pm: Coffee break

  • 2:45-3:30 pm: Does NASA Know What’s Good for the World?

    Presenter
    • Linda Billings, Consultant

  • 3:30-4:15 pm: Japanese Space Expansion, Religious Ideology. and Society 5.0

    Presenter
    Jack Traphagan, Arizona State University

  • 4:15 - 5:00pm

    Discussion

  • 6:15-9:15 pm: Arrival: My Favorite Movie with Shane Harris and Katherine Mangu-Ward

    Location:
    Landmark’s E Street Cinema
    555 11th St NW
    Washington, DC 20004
    Registration required

    When 12 mysterious spacecraft arrive to Earth in the 2016 film Arrival, they bring with them an eerie question: why are they here? To answer that question, the U.S. military enlists the help of a top linguist, played by Amy Adams, who is tasked with deciphering the extraterrestrial’s language. Her mission is backdropped by escalating threats of war and a particularly fraught distinction: the difference between the translations of “weapon” and “tool.” The film, based on Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life, is a compelling exploration of language, reality, (mis)communication, and how we understand worlds far beyond our own.

    Join Future Tense to watch and discuss the film with Shane Harris and Katherine Mangu-Ward. The event is free and open to the public, and it will be celebrated alongside the Space Intersections symposium, organized by ASU’s Interplanetary Initiative and led by Jack Traphagan.

    Featuring:
    Katherine Mangu-Ward,     @kmanguward
    Editor in Chief, Reason

    Shane Harris, @shaneharris
    Intelligence and National Security Reporter, The Washington Post

    Jack Traphagan
    Visiting Scholar, ASU Interplanetary Initiative

Day 2: May 14

  • 8:00-9:00 am: Breakfast + check-in

    Location:
    ASU Barrett and O’Connor Washington Center (8th Floor)
    1800 I St NW
    Washington, DC 20006
    Google map

  • 9:00-9:15 am: Welcome back

    Speaker
    • Jack Traphagan, Visiting Scholar, Arizona State University

  • 9:15-10:00 am: Orthodox icons in the Space Age: saints and cosmonauts

    Presenter
    • Jenia Gorbanenko, University College London

  • 10:00-10:45 am: The Space Flown Body: How Medical Spaceflight Researchers Manifest the Destiny of Human Biology

    Presenter
    • Deana Weibel, Grand Valley State University

  • 10:45-11:00 am: Coffee break

  • 11:00-11:45 am: There Will Be War

    Presenter
    • Ken Wisian, University of Texas at Austin

  • 11:45-1:00 pm: Lunch

  • 1:00-1:45: Space Strategy, Strategic Culture, Policy and Goals: China and India

    Presenter
    • Namrata Goswami, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University

  • 2:00-2:30 pm: The Spirit of Space Exploration in China and the West

    Presenter
    • James Miller and Ben Van Overmeire, Duke Kunshan University