The exhibits shared on this site were entirely produced by the students of Dr. FitzPatrick's 2019 Science Fiction (SF) course. These student authors activated archival methods and methodologies to collect and publicize metadata and construct contextual narratives that make evident thematic, historic, and cultural connections between archival objects in the University of Pittsburgh's Special Collections. In the resulting exhibits, you will find surveys about apocalypse and technological progress, studies of social history expressed through a speculative lens, considerations of visual storytelling techniques and megatextual tropes, explorations of SF's inclusivity, and connections to real-world science. To learn more about the exhibits, we encourage you to Browse Exhibits through the link on the side menu.

Archival items featured in the exhibits are mostly available through the Univeristy of Pittsburgh's Special Collections, though occasionally exhibits connect Pitt's Pop-Culture collection to the larger world of science fiction archiving. To learn more about these Items, you can click on images of items in the exhibits. You can also fully explore specific item metadata through the Browse Items link on the side menu, which will list all items from all exhibits and collections.    

This project is a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh's Digital Scholarship Services department, Archives and Special Collections department, and the Liason Librarian to the English Department. Special thanks to Gesina Phillips, Tyrica Terry Kapral, Ben Rubin, Kathryn Haines, Daniel Kaple, and Robin Kear for supporting our endeavors.

“...archival methods seem to be represented in the practical know-how of collection, selection, access, determination of text location, determination of provenance, examination, circumstance, evidence, evaluation of selection criteria, and triangulation. Our archival methodologies come from our ways of doing and seeing history, with a focus on ...interpretation of evidence, positionality of researcher and subject, examination of history from a particular standpoint, examination of archival definition and boundaries, and evaluation of archival resources.” -pg 384,Jennifer Clary-Lemon, “Archival Research Processes: A Case for Material Methods,”Rhetoric Review, 33:4, 2014, pgs 381-402. DOI: 10.1080/07350198.2014.946871.
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