Withers,
Jeremy
Withers,
Jeremy
Email Address
withers@iastate.edu
Birth Date
Title
Associate Professor
Academic or Administrative Unit
Organizational Unit
Department of English
The Department of English seeks to provide all university students with the skills of effective communication and critical thinking, as well as imparting knowledge of literature, creative writing, linguistics, speech and technical communication to students within and outside of the department.
History
The Department of English and Speech was formed in 1939 from the merger of the Department of English and the Department of Public Speaking. In 1971 its name changed to the Department of English.
Dates of Existence
1939-present
Historical Names
- Department of English and Speech (1939-1971)
Related Units
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (parent college)
- Department of English (predecessor, 1898-1939)
- Department of Public Speaking (predecessor, 1898-1939)
About
I study the relationship between science fiction and transportation politics. I am fascinated by what science fiction teaches us about which kinds of mobility practices and technologies of movement are more equitable, restorative, and sustainable. More specifically, much of my recent research focuses on science-fictional representations of what I call “post-automobile cities”: futuristic cities in which automobiles no longer dominate urban space and urban lives. Recent articles of mine analyze how writers like H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke present useful and important visions of cities that have rejected the paradigm that automobiles should constitute the primary means by which people move around. In another recent article, I examine how the writer Kim Stanley Robinson uses a depiction of a flooded, post-automobile New York City (but one brimming with automobile-like boats) to warn us about how automobility is a menacing ideology that has grown so vast and complex that it encompasses much more than just materially existing cars. I am interested in how all these authors portray people using airships, moving sidewalks, zip lines, bicycles, or even simple walking in place of cars for their mobility needs. In sum, in much of my research I focus on science fiction’s value as a site for thinking through the dystopian and utopian possibilities of our daily movement and travel.