What can “Star Trek” teach Stanford students?

If I had one defining characteristic, it would be that I am absolutely “a central cast nerd.” At the heart of my nerdiness is a lifelong love of Star Trek. The show’s breathtaking spaceships and ingenious technologies motivated my study of mechanical engineering. By portraying an evolved egalitarian society facing the complexities of interstellar diplomacy, Star Trek also developed my appreciation for terrestrial international relations. I am proud to share my fandom with others who have inspired me: officials like Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker and Stacey Abrams, professors, friends and family who first introduced me to Gene Roddenberry’s universe. Star Trek’s progressive future, full of hope, curiosity and compassion, remains visionary as it approaches its 60th anniversary.

So it was a pleasant surprise when I saw a Twitter post from Star Trek alum Cirroc Lofton saying he was attending Stanford. But this would be no ordinary visit. Lofton would be a special guest lecturer for Stanford’s own Star Trek-themed course. Led by education professor Adam Banks and Grace Toléqué, a program officer at the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, CSRE 194DS9: “Alternative Futurisms and Radical Worldbuilding,” was intended to be the story of a “Star Trek” spin-off, “Deep Space Nine.” , to be investigated.”

For a university that is considered “nerd nation,” having a course on “Star Trek” might be less mind-blowing. After all, we have four of them in Taylor Swift alone! The fascinating thing was that “Deep Space Nine” (DS9) had an outsider status in the fan community for a long time. Deemed “darker and grittier” and set on a stationary space station, DS9 offers a different flavor than the traditional “Wagon Train to the Stars.” After widowed black Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) raises his son (Cirroc Lofton) on the edge of the galaxy, DS9 has carved out a unique place in science fiction by depicting Star Trek’s utopian universe in many shades of gray .

Of course, this was a must for my final class in the spring. Still, I was afraid that I would be an outsider in a heterogeneous intellectual space. I had never taken a course in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE), which is known for hosting activism-oriented students. On the first day, I sat next to classmates who were involved in the pro-Palestinian camp that caused major problems for the Stanford administration last year. Because I was the sole student member of the Stanford Board of Trustees Presidential Search Committee and represented the United States at the G7 and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summits, I embodied an institutionalist view of policy change. I expected that “Alternative Futurisms and Radical Worldbuilding” would be a huge departure from my other studies this quarter: a political science course on U.S. interventions abroad and a national security discussion group at the conservative-leaning Hoover Institution.

My concerns turned out to be unfounded – I really enjoyed the lessons. In Star Trek’s tradition of openness, I was treated with dignity and respect at every turn, even when my views differed. As we explored the themes behind Trek and science fiction, we learned how to construct compelling stories. As the class studied and critiqued from a racial and decolonial perspective, I found it unexpectedly refreshing to learn about these perspectives – which I would not have found anywhere else in my studies. We challenged me to explore a series I love in a novel way and discussed how DS9 pushed the boundaries of 1990s science fiction by dramatizing discrimination and the pursuit of agency for the marginalized.

Whether through an eerily prescient depiction of a 2024 San Francisco in which homelessness was deeply embedded in society, or through a lighthearted plot in which DS9’s alien employees unionize and strike against the network’s profit-hungry bartender, we have it learned how science fiction holds up a mirror to the present. In a world that is becoming increasingly uncertain, the class asked difficult questions about the sacrifices required to maintain institutions and values. We discussed whether characters made moral decisions in episodes that tested whether the common good could trample on individual rights. We disagreed about whether Star Trek’s optimistic approach to resolving interstellar disputes applies to modern conflicts. And most importantly, we had a lot of fun together under the guidance of Lofton and the teaching team.

I believe that the variety of “Alternative Futurisms and Radical Worldbuilding,” as I understand it, reflects Stanford’s ethos of fostering “intellectual vitality.” By choosing a complex topic for scientific inquiry that was accessible to both fans and newcomers, the course brought together people from all of Stanford’s academic traditions and disciplines—including a libertarian veteran and several medical students. In this way, CSRE 194DS9 modeled civic discourse in good faith in the pursuit of shared intellectual exploration. In a university, a country and a world riven by polarization and division, this is no small achievement.

Through this course and the eight long months I spent searching for the president, I realized that Stanford’s greatest strength is our diversity. Stanford’s unique excellence in so many academic disciplines, medicine and athletics – all on a single campus – is the special flavor that makes our university the best in the world. The flexibility to traverse the universe of scientific research from Hoover to CSRE helps foster an interdisciplinary mindset in Stanford faculty and students to become instinctive innovators, collaborators, and changemakers. As Stanford boldly pushes new frontiers under President Levin’s leadership, it is critical that the university promotes academic freedom for faculty and students to explore all sorts of strange new worlds. Stanford can continue to build on its uniqueness in global higher education by emphasizing how all parts of the university – from engineering to the arts and regardless of any perceived market value – contribute to our collective excellence. Through courses like “Deep Space Nine, Alternative Futurisms, and Radical Worldbuilding,” Stanford can strive for the truth and beauty central to the Vulcan philosophy of “Infinite Variety in Infinite Combinations.”

Senkai Hsia ’24 is a member of The Daily’s Vol. 265 Editorial Board and served as an undergraduate member of the 2023-24 Stanford Presidential Campaign Committee.