Nora Castle

PhD, English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick

MLitt, Modernities: Literature, Theory and Culture, University of Glasgow

BA, English and East Asian Languages & Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania

Thesis Title

Food Futures: Food, Foodways, and Environmental Crisis in Contemporary Science Fiction

Runner-Up for the Graduate Association for Food Studies's Distinguished Food Studies Doctorate Dissertation AwardLink opens in a new window

^{Page last updated 30 Nov. 2023}

Publications

Journal Articles

"In Vitro Meat and Science Fiction: Contemporary Narratives of Cultured Flesh"Link opens in a new window in ExtrapolationLink opens in a new window, Vol. 62 No. 2 (2022) [Open Access]
- Honourable Mention for the SFRA Innovative Research AwardLink opens in a new window 2023 (given for the year’s best critical essay-length work published in a peer-reviewed academic journal)
The Sociopolitics of Language: Bilingual Education in Tibet in Sino-Platonic Papers
Remaking Mao: From Propaganda to Pop Culture in the Stanford Journal of East Asian Affairs

Book Chapters

co-authored with Liza B. BauerLink opens in a new window, "Reading the Speaking Animal: Biotechnology and Animal 'Uplift' in Adam Roberts’s Bête", in Animals and Science Fiction, Palgrave Macmillan, ed. Nora Castle and Giulia ChampionLink opens in a new window, 2024
"Nonhuman Entanglements in Adam Roberts’s Science Fiction: Bête (2014) and By Light Alone (2012)", in Literature and Politics of the EnvironmentLink opens in a new window, Boydell & Brewer, ed. John Parham, 2023
co-authored with Esthie HugoLink opens in a new window, "'Growgirls' and Cultured Eggs: Food Futures, Feminism and Reproductive Technologies in SF from the Global South"Link opens in a new window in Technologies of Feminist Speculative Fiction: Gender, Artificial Life, Reproduction, Palgrave Macmillan, ed. Sherryl Vint and Sümeyra Buran, 2022
"'You eat or you die': Sixth Extinction Cannibalism in Contemporary Speculative Fiction"Link opens in a new window in Interdisciplinary Essays on Cannibalism: Bites Here and ThereLink opens in a new window, Routledge, ed. Giulia ChampionLink opens in a new window, 2021

Book and Media Reviews

Plants in Science FictionLink opens in a new window for SFRA ReviewLink opens in a new window Vol. 52 No. 3 (Summer 2022)
Upload (TV Series)Link opens in a new window for SFRA ReviewLink opens in a new window Vol. 51 No. 1 (Winter 2021)
- Winner of the 2022 Mary Kay Bray AwardLink opens in a new window, awarded for the best review in the SFRA Review
The Poetry of FossilsLink opens in a new window, a review of Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils by David Farrier for Review 31Link opens in a new window
- Spanish translationLink opens in a new window by Patricio Tapia for Paniko.cl

Edited Collections

Utopian and Dystopian Explorations of Pandemics and Ecological Breakdown: Entangled FuturitiesLink opens in a new window, co-edited with Heather Alberro, Emrah Atasoy, Rhiannon Firth, and Conrad Scott, Routledge, forthcoming 2024
Animals and Science FictionLink opens in a new window, co-edited with Giulia ChampionLink opens in a new window, Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023

Editorial Introductions

co-authored with Heather Alberro, Emrah Atasoy, Rhiannon Firth, and Conrad Scott, "Introduction: Entangled Futurities", Routledge, Forthcoming 2024
co-authored with Giulia ChampionLink opens in a new window, "IntroductionLink opens in a new window", in Animals and Science FictionLink opens in a new window, Palgrave Macmillan, ed. Nora Castle and Giulia Champion, 2024
co-authored with Graeme MacdonaldLink opens in a new window, "Introduction: Food Futures"Link opens in a new window, in Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 49 No. 2 (July 2022)
co-authored with Giulia ChampionLink opens in a new window, "Animal Futurity: An Introduction to the Special Issue"Link opens in a new window in Green Letters, Vol. 26 No. 1 (2022)
co-authored with Heather Alberro, Emrah Atasoy, Rhiannon Firth, and Conrad Scott, "The 'Living in the End Times' Conference"Link opens in a new window, introduction to Symposium: Living in the End TimesLink opens in a new window, in SFRA ReviewLink opens in a new window, Vol. 51 No. 2 (Spring 2021)

Roundtables

with Rachele Dini, Tiff Graham, Kathryn Heffner, Fitzhugh Shaw, and Sarah Stang, "Roundtable: SF in the Kitchen"Link opens in a new window, in Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 49 No. 2 (July 2022)

Invited Talks

11 September 2023: “In Vitro Meat and Science Fiction.” At “Promissory Meatscapes of Mosa Meat & Co: The Political Ecologies of Urbanized Protein”, part of the Protein Matters Link opens in a new windowproject, hosted at University of Amsterdam’s Centre for Urban Studies
20 May 2021: Guest Lecture (with Heather Alberro) on "Dystopia and Climate Change: Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer (2013)", for IDE 520/580 Dystopia in Fiction and Film, Cappadocia University, Turkey
30 April 2021: Workshop on New Food/Blue Food (with Wythe Marschall and Josh Milburn) at World/Water Futures Part Two: Blue FuturesLink opens in a new window, supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh
1 February 2021: In Vitro Meat: Ethics and CultureLink opens in a new window, supported by the Sheffield Animal Studies Research CentreLink opens in a new window and ASLE-UKILink opens in a new window

Conference Papers and Roundtables

15 - 19 August 2023: "'If you don’t stop doing that, you’ll be toast': The Toaster as Disruptive Figure in
Sf Imaginaries". At the 2023 Joint SFRA and GFF Conference: Disruptive Imaginations, hosted at TU Dresden, Germany
15 - 19 August 2023: Roundtable “In/Out of Time: Meditations on Disruption” [as a director of the London Science Fiction Research CommunityLink opens in a new window]. At the 2023 Joint SFRA and GFF Conference: Disruptive Imaginations, hosted at TU Dresden, Germany
15 - 19 August 2023: Roundtable: "SF on the Market: Advice on Pursuing an SF Studies Career from Early Career Researchers" [as an SFRA Support a New ScholarLink opens in a new window awardee]. At the 2023 Joint SFRA and GFF Conference: Disruptive Imaginations, hosted at TU Dresden, Germany
31 May - 3 June 2023: "Future Imaginaries of Agriculture and the City". At the 2023 ASFS/AFHVS Conference: Knowing Food: Insights from Around the Table, hosted at Boston University, USA
10 November 2022: "Science Fiction and the Kitchen of the Future". At the IAS Accolade Research Exchange, hosted in hybrid format by IAS, the University of Warwick, UK
27 June - 1 July 2022: (with Kate Heffner) "'Push-Button Magic': Gendered Labor and the Techno-Utopian Kitchen". At the Science Fiction Research Association Conference: Futures from the Margins, hosted in hybrid format by CoFutures, the University of Oslo, Norway
30 June - 1 July 2022: (with Liza B. Bauer) "Reading the Speaking Animal: Biotechnology and Animal 'Uplift' in Adam Roberts's Bête (2014)"Link opens in a new window. At the Contemporary Research in Speculative Fiction Conference, hosted in hybrid format by the University of Liverpool, UK. Presentation viewable hereLink opens in a new window.
16 - 18 May 2022: "Non-Human Entanglements in Adam Roberts's Bête (2014) and By Light Alone (2012)". At Second International Environmental Humanities Conference: Critical Animal and Plant StudiesLink opens in a new window, hosted in hybrid format by Cappadocia University, Turkey
15 - 17 September, 2021: "Kitchens of the Future: New Tech and New Food in Science Fiction Narratives". At Food and Communication: Discourses on the Future of FoodLink opens in a new window, hosted virtually by the University of Ljubljana
26 July - August 6, 2021: "'Everything here survives at the mercy of his balance': Agriculture and Ideology in Closed-Loop Future Imaginaries"Link opens in a new window. At ASLE 2021: EMERGENCE/Y, the Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, hosted virtually. Presentation viewable hereLink opens in a new window
9 June 2021: "'Growgirls' and Cultured Eggs: Food Futures and Critical Race Feminism in Speculative Fiction from the Global South"Link opens in a new window with Esthie HugoLink opens in a new window. At Just Food: Because It's Never Just FoodLink opens in a new window, the Joint Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Food and Society, the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society, the Canadian Association for Food Studies, and the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, hosted virtually by the Culinary Institute of America and New York University, USA. Presentation viewable hereLink opens in a new window
11 December, 2020: "Their Tradition is Our Innovation: Insect-Eating and the Future of Food". At The Diasporic Plate: Food in the Contemporary Diasporic World in Times of CrisisLink opens in a new window, hosted virtually by Institute of Modern Languages Research at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK
24 September, 2020 (reconfigured, stand-alone panel due to in-person conference cancellation): "Alternative Foodways and Alternative Futures: The Politics of Meat-Eating in The Carhullan Army and Moon of the Crusted Snow". At Imagining Alternatives: Speculative Fiction and the PoliticalLink opens in a new window, 11th Annual Conference of the GFF, hosted virtually by the University of Augsburg, Germany. Panel recording available hereLink opens in a new window
10-12 September, 2020: **CANCELLED DUE TO COVID19** "Alternative Foodways and Alternative Futures: Food and Politics in Contemporary SF". At Imagining Alternatives: Speculative Fiction and the PoliticalLink opens in a new window, 11th Annual Conference of the GFF, hosted at the University of Augsburg, Germany
6 February, 2020: Poster Presentation (of Dissertation Research). At 'Food Encounters: A Network Conference'Link opens in a new window, hosted at the University of Warwick, UK
7-9 November, 2019: "Which came first, the broiler chicken or the Anthropocene?: Meat Imaginaries in Contemporary Speculative Fiction", At Craving Planet Earth: Food in Culture - Past, Present, and FutureLink opens in a new window, hosted at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania
1-5 July, 2019: "Meat Culture/Cultured Meat: Food Futures in Contemporary Climate Fiction" At "Utopia, Dystopia and Climate ChangeLink opens in a new window", 20th International Conference of the Utopian Studies Society, Europe, hosted at the Monash University Prato Centre, Italy
11-13 April, 2019: "Techno-Utopia and the Future of Food in The Blind Pig." At More Meals to Come: An International Conference, hosted at the University of Porto, Portugal
17th November, 2018: "'Ethical' Foodways: Justifying Cannibalism in Contemporary Speculative Fiction." At ''Bites Here and There'': Literal and Metaphorical Cannibalism across Disciplines, hosted at the University of Warwick, UK

Event Organisation

Co-Organizer, Un/Building the Future: The Country and the City in the AnthropoceneLink opens in a new window, hosted at the University of Warwick, 15 & 16 June 2023
Conference Convening Committee, Living in the End Times: Utopian and Dystopian Representations of PandemicsLink opens in a new window, a virtual interdisciplinary conference supported by Cappadocia University, 13-15 January 2021
Co-Organizer, Flows and Floods: Changing Environments and CulturesLink opens in a new window, a one-day interdisciplinary conference funded by the HRC Doctoral Fellowship, 22 February 2020
Session Convener, Departmental Reading Group sessionLink opens in a new window on the Anthropocene from non-white perspectives, 29 January 2020
Co-Organizer, 15th Annual English Postgraduate SymposiumLink opens in a new window, a one-day conference showcasing the work of the University of Warwick's postgraduates in English and Comparative Literary Studies and related disciplines, 23 May 2019

Editorial Roles

see also Edited Collections above
Co-Editor, 'Food Futures' with Graeme MacdonaldLink opens in a new window, a special issue of Science Fiction StudiesLink opens in a new window, July 2022
Co-Editor, 'Animal Futurity' with Giulia ChampionLink opens in a new window, a special issue of Green Letters: Studies in EcocriticismLink opens in a new window, Spring 2022
Co-Editor, Symposium: Living in the End TimesLink opens in a new window, in SFRA ReviewLink opens in a new window, Vol. 51 No. 2 (Spring 2021)
Editorial Board MemberLink opens in a new window, Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 2020-2021
Associate Editor, Exchanges, Vol 8 No 2 (2021): Special Issue: Climate FictionLink opens in a new window
Associate Editor, ExchangesLink opens in a new window, Vol 7 No 2 (2020): Special Issue: CannibalismLink opens in a new window

Podcast Appearances

LOL My Praxis, "Faanta and THE BORG"Link opens in a new window, May 12, 2021
Knowing Animals, "Cannibalism in Speculative Fiction with Nora Castle"Link opens in a new window, April 5, 2021
The Exchanges Discourse, "Conversation With... Associate Editors"Link opens in a new window, Feb 4, 2021

Teaching

2022-2023: Seminar Tutor for EN2F5/EN3F5: Alternative LifeworldsLink opens in a new window
2021-2022; 2022-2023: Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant for IL97 Habitability in the Universe
2019-2020: Seminar Tutor for EN122 Modes of ReadingLink opens in a new window

Membership

Profile Picture

Nora.Castle@warwick.ac.uk

IAS Early Career Fellow

Associate Fellow (AFHEA)

Supervisor:
Prof. Graeme Macdonald

Funded by:
Chancellor's International Scholarship

Office Hour:
By appointment only