Lillian G Lippold (BA ’25) (they/them)
The Alien Theory Quartet
“The Alien Theory Quartet” performs a four-part multi-genre analysis of the figure of the alien in US SciFi writing as a useful, though at times trapping, extended synecdoche for the nonbinary body, especially in a Trans Studies that struggles with that body’s articulation. The thesis of this series, therefore, offers a fresh angle for encountering this question of unreadability through combining the established symbolic of traditional and contemporary SciFi with the indecisiveness of Trans Theory and the reliability of Deleuzian and Munozian Critical Theory surrounding death and escape.