The 20th Century philosopher Hannah Arendt grounded ethics in aesthetics because she viewed art as a way of understanding how the world appears to different people. In her recent work, Professor Andreea Deciu [day-chew] Ritivoi [ree-tee-voy] of Carnegie Mellon University highlights Arendt’s rich repertoire of literary writings, as she believes that they deserve to be considered alongside other popular ethical works. Professor Ritivoi shows how Arendt’s unique contribution identifies the obstacles facing ‘human togetherness’, so that we can find ways to overcome them.

Cyberpunk brings to mind neon lights, artificial intelligence and mega corporations. It is a subgenre of science fiction set in a dystopian, futuristic, and oppressive setting, with advanced technology often featured alongside societal decay. Professor Elana Gomel [ee-lah-nah go-mell] in the Department of English and American Studies at Tel-Aviv University in Israel specialises in narrative theory with a particular focus on the intersection between literature and science. In her recent work focusing on the cyberpunk genre, Professor Elana Gomel argues that cyberpunk is not a dystopian modality of representation; rather, it is better classified as ‘post-utopian’.