Join Dr. Aurangzeb Ahmad for a conversation about the history of science fiction that has emerged from the Islamic world over the last 100 years. From examples of early 20th century feminist science fiction in the Bengali language to Sufi utopias, science fiction in the Islamic world has always been about the fears and aspirations about the future, but the writings also tell a story about the current day. Dr. Ahmad will explore these themes while also discussing the transformative power of science fiction to imagine possible Muslim futures.

About the Speaker

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad is an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at University of Washington and Principal Research Scientist at KenSci, a Seattle based company focused on Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare. He has had academic appointments at University of Washington, Istinye University in Istanbul, Center for Cognitive Science at University of Minnesota, Minnesota Population Center and the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur. He has worked as a Research Scientist at organizations like Boston Scientific, Groupon, ConEdison etc. and multiple startups. He has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. He has been fascinated by Science Fiction since his childhood and greatly appreciates the use of Science Fiction to illuminate the relationship among people and the relationship between technology and humankind. He also edited the first anthology of short Science Fiction stories on Islam and Science Fiction in 2008 with Ahmed A. Khan titled “A Mosque Amongst the Stars.”