Dear colleagues and friends,

The Department of English Language and Literature is pleased to invite you to our next seminar in the English Department: Seminar Series

Dr. Orin Posner Ünlüönen (University of Haifa)
“The Architectural Novum in Science Fiction”

Tuesday, January 6, 14:00–16:00
Beit Hastudent, Room 101, University of Haifa

 

 

In this talk, Dr. Posner will discuss her research into innovative urban spaces in science fiction literature, presenting her concept of “architectural novums”: new types of built environments in speculative narratives. Focusing on Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140, a 2017 American novel set in a partially submerged Manhattan, Dr. Posner will show how reading texts through their architectural novums allows us to identify science fiction’s strategies for reimagining cities, urban dwellers, and their experiences of space and time.

About the speaker:

Dr. Orin Posner is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Haifa. She recently received her PhD from Tel Aviv University, where she researched urban space in science fiction literature under the guidance of Prof. Elana Gomel. Her current project deals with representations of infrastructure and maintenance in speculative narratives. Her work has been published in the journals Science Fiction Studies (2025) and Frontiers of Narrative Studies (2020), and is forthcoming in JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory (in 2026).

We hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a fascinating discussion.

Warm regards,
The English Department Seminar Committee
University of Haifa