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“Teaching with Trek”: Star Trek, the LGBTQ+ Community, and College Composition

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Abstract

The premise of “Teaching with Trek” is to illustrate the benefits of using the iconic science fiction (sf) franchise in a college composition classroom. Various science and technology topics for research and exploration can be readily found in Star Trek, but this chapter will have a more humanities-based focus. Its narrow focus on the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, “The Outcast”, “The Host”, and “Liaisons” will allow for a detailed discussion of Star Trek’s place in LGBTQ+ history. I discuss process composition theories and multidisciplinary writing situations in relationship to the topics found in these episodes.

These examples will be discussed thematically and rhetorically, and I will propose real examples of composition pedagogy that can be facilitated through Star Trek texts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, IL, USA

    Carey Millsap-Spears

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  1. Carey Millsap-Spears
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Correspondence to Carey Millsap-Spears .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of American Studies, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Graz, Austria

    Stefan Rabitsch

  2. Department of History, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria

    Martin Gabriel

  3. Institute of Networked and Embedded Systems, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria

    Wilfried Elmenreich

  4. Social Good and Goodwill UX Research, Facebook (via Rose), Menlo Park, California, USA

    John N.A. Brown

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Millsap-Spears, C. (2018). “Teaching with Trek”: Star Trek, the LGBTQ+ Community, and College Composition. In: Rabitsch, S., Gabriel, M., Elmenreich, W., Brown, J. (eds) Set Phasers to Teach!. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73776-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73776-8_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73775-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73776-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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