Image: henflein (pixabay)
Space – the final frontier… These are the opening credits of one of the most famous and longest pop culture phenomena: Star Trek. As a form of fiction that uniquely describes the encounter between various diversities in its cyber utopia, Star Trek is also ideal for an analytical examination from a digital intercultural perspective.
ReDICo members Roman Lietz and Natascha Strobl have taken on this challenge with their (German language) chapter “(Un-)Sichtbarkeit von Race und Queerness in der diskriminierungsfreien Zukunftsutopie Star Treks” ((In)Visibility of Race and Queerness in the non-discriminatory future utopia of Star Trek). The chapter was recently published in the anthology Star Trek: Gestern – Heute – Morgen: (Selbst-)Historisierung und Zukunftsvision (Katja Kanzler / Sebastian Stoppe, eds., 2024).
In the chapter, the authors ask why no one in the Star Trek world is discriminated against due to race or queerness. In addition, the article examines the discussion and representation of these discriminatory categories in the collaborative social media project Memory Alpha – basically the Star Trek Wikipedia. While the social category of race (along with gender) has already been discussed repeatedly in connection with Star Trek, the preoccupation with queerness in Star Trek is still somewhat of a blank space.
Bibliographical data: Lietz / Strobl (2024): (Un-)Sichtbarkeit von Race und Queerness in der diskriminierungsfreien Zukunftsutopie Star Treks. In: Kanzler, K. / Stoppe, S. (eds.): Star Trek: Gestern – Heute – Morgen: (Selbst-)Historisierung und Zukunftsvisionen. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 119-144.
Link to the chapter