⏺️ The recording of this panel is now available on Dune News Net’s YouTube channel.
Join me for a virtual panel with women scholars who have written about Frank Herbert’s Dune as we discuss this science fiction classic and what we find interesting and relevant about its epic story. Each writer will bring their own angle of research to the table and explore what keeps fans and scholars alike coming back to this decades-old book and its adaptations. Just in time for the release of the new Dune: Part Two film!
Meet the Panelists!
Yosr Dridi, PhD (@YosrDridi8 on Twitter/X, @Dridi_Yosr on Instagram):
Dr. Dridi is a professeure agrégée of English who taught Anglo-American literature and history at the University of Tunis. She currently teaches at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her research areas include literature and film studies, adaptation studies, intermediality studies, science fiction studies, and postmodern metafiction. Her article De-orientalizing Dune: Storyworld-Building Between Frank Herbert’s Novel and Denis Villeneuve’s Film was published in Ekphrasis in 2022.
Kara Kennedy, PhD (@DuneScholar on Twitter/X, @dunescholar on Instagram)
Dr. Kennedy is an educator, researcher, and writer in the areas of science fiction, technology, and digital and AI literacy. She is the author of Adaptations of Dune: Frank Herbert’s Story on Screen, Frank Herbert’s Dune: A Critical Companion and Women’s Agency in the Dune Universe: Tracing Women’s Liberation through Science Fiction and articles on various Dune topics (see full publication list). She also writes on other topics in science fiction and fantasy literature, Wikipedia and academia, and digital literacy in the arts and humanities.
Olimpia Mailat Gurghian, PhD candidate (@OlimpiaMailat on Twitter/X, @olimpiamailat on Instagram, LinkedIn):
Olimpia Mailat Gurghian finished her degree studies in Translation and Interlinguistic Mediation in 2019, specializing in French and English as her source languages. She then pursued a master’s degree in Audiovisual Translation at the University of Cádiz and the ISTRAD, and a master’s degree in advanced English Studies at the University of Valencia. In her MA dissertation, “Cultural and Political Importance of Animals in Science Fiction: From Key Concepts to Frank Herbert’s Dune,” she analyzed the figure of sandworms in the Dune novels. Currently, she is a PhD candidate at the University of Valencia, a member of the CULIVIAN (Animals in Literary and Visual Cultures) research group, and her aim is to further examine the relationships between nonhuman animals and humans in science fiction, specifically in Frank Herbert’s works.
Leigha McReynolds, PhD (@LeighaMcR on Twitter/X, @lhmcr on Instagram, LinkedIn):
Dr. Leigha McReynolds is a science fiction researcher focusing on disability, eugenics, and genetics in literature and on screen. She has published chapters in Disability in Science Fiction and Discovering Dune: Essays on Frank Herbert’s Epic Saga, and you can find her work online at Ancillary Review and SFRA Review. Currently she is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Maryland, and she offers classes for the local DC bookstore Politics & Prose.
