From the Community | What can ‘Star Trek’ teach Stanford students?

If I had a defining characteristic, it is that I am utterly “a nerd from central casting.” Central to my nerdom is a lifelong love for “Star Trek.” The show’s stunning starships and ingenious technologies motivated my studies in mechanical engineering. By depicting an evolved egalitarian society facing the complexity 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: public officials like Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker and Stacey Abrams, professors, friends and my family, who first introduced me to Gene Roddenberry’s universe. “Star Trek’s” progressive future filled with hope, curiosity and compassion continues to be visionary as it approaches its 60th anniversary.

So, it came as a pleasant surprise when I saw a Twitter post from Cirroc Lofton, a former “Star Trek” cast member, saying he would be visiting Stanford. But, this would not be any ordinary visit. Lofton would be a special guest lecturer for Stanford’s very own class on “Star Trek.” Led by education Professor Adam Banks and Grace Toléqué, a program officer from the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, CSRE 194DS9: “Alternative Futurisms and Radical Worldbuilding” would study the story of a “Star Trek” spin-off, “Deep Space Nine.”

For a university labeled as “Nerd Nation”, having a class on “Star Trek” is perhaps less jaw-dropping. After all, we have four on Taylor Swift alone! What was intriguing was that “Deep Space Nine” (DS9) has long occupied an outsider’s status in the fandom. Seen as “darker and grittier” and set on a stationary space station, DS9 offers a different flavor than the traditional “wagon train to the stars.” Following a widower Black captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) raising his son (Cirroc Lofton) at the galaxy’s edge, DS9 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-take class for my senior spring. Yet, I worried that I would be an outsider in a disparate intellectual space. I had never taken a class in comparative studies in race and ethnicity (CSRE), which has a reputation for hosting activism-inclined students. On the first day, I sat next to classmates involved in the pro-Palestinian encampment that presented Stanford’s administration with much difficulty last year. Having served as the only undergraduate member of the presidential search committee for Stanford’s Board of Trustees and represented the United States at the G7 and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summits, I embodied an institutionalist view on political change. I presumed that “Alternative Futurisms and Radical Worldbuilding” would be a vast departure from my other studies that quarter: a political science class on U.S. foreign interventions and a national security discussion group at the conservative-leaning Hoover Institution.

My concerns turned out to be unfounded — I loved the class. At every turn, in the traditions of “Star Trek’s” openness, I was treated with dignity and respect even when my views differed. In exploring the themes behind Trek and science-fiction, we learned about constructing compelling stories. While the class did study and critique with a racial and decolonial lens, I found learning about these perspectives — otherwise unencountered elsewhere in my studies — unexpectedly refreshing. Challenging me to examine a show I love in novel ways, we discussed how DS9 pushed the envelope of 1990s science fiction by dramatizing discrimination and the pursuit of agency for the marginalized. 

Whether through an eerily prescient portrayal of a 2024 San Francisco where homelessness had become ingrained in society, or a lighthearted plot where DS9’s alien employees unionize and strike against the station’s profit-obsessed bartender, we learned how science fiction holds a mirror to the present. Amid a world that is increasingly insecure, the class asked hard questions about the sacrifices required to uphold institutions and values. We debated whether characters made moral decisions in episodes that tested whether the greater good could trample the rights of individuals. We disagreed agreeably on whether “Star Trek’s” optimistic approach on resolving interstellar disputes could be applied to modern-day conflicts. And above all, guided by Lofton and the teaching team, we had a galaxy’s worth of fun together.

I believe the diversity “Alternative Futurisms and Radical Worldbuilding” brought to my understanding represents Stanford’s ethos of promoting “intellectual vitality.” By choosing a complex subject for scholarly inquiry that was accessible to fans and newcomers alike, the class brought people together from across Stanford’s academic traditions and disciplines — including a libertarian veteran and several medical school students. In this way, CSRE 194DS9 modeled good faith civil discourse in pursuit of shared intellectual exploration. In a university, country and world riven by polarization and division, that is no small accomplishment.

Through this class and spending eight long months on the presidential search, I grew to appreciate that Stanford’s greatest strength is our diversity. Stanford’s unique excellence across such a range of academic disciplines, medicine and athletics — all at home on a single campus — is the special sauce that makes our university the world’s best. The flexibility to traverse the universe of scholarly inquiry, from Hoover to CSRE, helps foster an interdisciplinary mindset in Stanford faculty and students to become instinctive innovators, collaborators and change-makers. As Stanford boldly goes forward to new frontiers under President Levin’s leadership, it is critical the university promotes the scholarly freedom for faculty and students to explore all kinds of strange new worlds. Stanford can continue to build upon its uniqueness in global higher education by emphasizing how all parts of the university — from engineering to the arts and untethered from some supposed market value — contribute to our collective excellence. Through classes like “Deep Space Nine, Alternative Futurisms and Radical Worldbuilding,” Stanford can aspire to the truth and beauty central to the Vulcan philosophy of “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.”

Senkai Hsia ’24 is a member of The Daily’s Vol. 265 Editorial Board and served as the undergraduate member of the 2023-24 Stanford presidential search committee.

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