Risk and Promise: Digital Rights, Science Fiction Thinking and a Struggle for the Future by Deji Olukotun

DC Speaker Series- Deji Olukotun

Abstract:
Deji Bryce Olukotun is both a science fiction novelist and a digital rights advocate who fights for cybersecurity, privacy and free expression for users at risk all over the world. In this talk, he will trace how his experience as a technology attorney influenced his two novels, "Nigerians in Space" and its just-released sequel "After the Flare," which imagines a future where Africa is becoming the world’s most technologically and culturally innovative region. Join Deji to discuss how futures thinking, both in fiction and concrete action, can be a powerful tool for catalyzing real-world change.

Biography:
Deji Bryce Olukotun is the author of two novels, "Nigerians in Space" and "After the Flare," and his fiction has appeared in three different book collections. He works in the field of digital rights on issues such as internet shutdowns, cybersecurity and online censorship, and he is also a Future Tense Fellow at the New America Foundation. Previously, he defended writers around the world at PEN America with support from the Ford Foundation. His work has been featured in Electric Literature, Quartz, VICE, Slate, The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, The Atlantic and Guernica. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Andrew Luna
The School of Arts, Media, and Engineering
Andrew.Luna@asu.edu
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Stauffer B Wing, room B125