From light-sabers and wookiees to galaxy travel and reapers, The University of Texas at Tyler will have it all at the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Colloquium they are hosting on April 14th.
Hosting the event is senior Michael Hale who is majoring in English at UT-Tyler.
This is the 2nd Annual Colloquium that UT-Tyler is hosting, last year’s main topic was Animation Across Cultures, but when choosing this year’s theme Hale wanted a topic that would be more “broadly attractive” which is how he came up with this year’s theme, science fiction.
“The whole point of the project…is students having space to present their own material, whether it’s a Q&A, or a discussion panel, or a presentation, or a Power Point, or art, or whatever it’s pretty much up to their imagination with whatever they want to do with any time that they get,” said Hale.
This year’s presentations include “an adjunct professor wants to talk about science fiction and how it involves children, I [Hale] want to talk about science fiction and how it effects how we interpret what our view of humanity is, and someone is doing a video game project on art,” said Hale.
The guest speaker for this year’s event is Drew Karpyshyn, who is a lead writer in the video game industry. Karpyshyn was the lead writer on best-selling video games such as “Star Wars” and the “Mass Effect” series.
Karphyshyn will be talking about “different aspects of writing, his perspective in this kind of the business community, what it’s like as a writer, you know things like that” as well as engaging in open dialogue with students in a Q&A sort of atmosphere.
Hale expects at least 150 attendees but hopes for more around 200, “it would be great to see students from TJC come”, said Hale.
The Colloquium will be held April 14th from 11 a.m. – 6p.m. at the University Theater at UT-Tyler. Karphyshyn will speak for around 90 minutes beginning at 11. Following Karphyshyn’s remarks there will be a brief break for lunch, food will be provided, and student presentations will begin after lunch and conclude around 3. The event is open to the public and there is no admission charge.
More information can be found online at the event’s Facebook page or by contacting Hale at 713-689-8482 or at michaelrhale1984@gmail.com.
