Academic panel offers new event at TrekFest 40

RIVERSIDE — TrekFest returns for its 40th year this weekend, as Riverside’s town festival draws crowds from near and far to the recently canonized future birthplace of Star Trek’s Capt. James T. Kirk.

This year’s lineup is packed with all the usual attractions, including a parade, model-building contest, cosplay competition, and celebrity meet-and-greets featuring Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating, the actors behind Star Trek: Enterprise characters Trip Tucker and Malcom Reed, a series of the sci-fi franchise not featured at TrekFest in recent memory.

But on Friday, TrekFest will feature a new kind of panel: a series of brief academic talks from a handful of professors, all about their favorite shows.

Starting at noon at Riverside City Hall June 27, the roster includes DePaul University Professor of Media and Pop Culture Paul Booth, University of Arkansas Director of European Studies Fiona Davidson, Indiana State Anthropology Professor Emerita Kathleen Heath, and Moraine Valley Community College Communications Professor Carey Millsap-Spears.

Topics on the docket include the geopolitical implications of Paramount’s fictional sci-fi universe, and its relationship to broader fandom culture, among other things.

Millsap-Spears, who helped organize Friday’s panel and attended TrekFest for the first time last year, said it echoed similar events at larger Trek-related gatherings, like Star Trek: Las Vegas and England’s Destination Star Trek.

“I reached out to some of my friends who do this work, and we were able to pull together four of us,” she said. “It’s not a class, it’s some people who have really spent a lot of time in Star Trek fandom or Star Trek shows, and they just want to tell you their favorite thing about it, or the thing that inspires them. It’s a way of being a part of the fan group, and also sharing their academic expertise.”

Personally, she said she appreciated the talks as a showcase of the diversity within the fandom.

“Star Trek fans are from every walk of life. I have met engineers, professors, mathematicians, artists, I’ve met everybody who likes Star Trek … it’s something that just cuts across so many areas, because people see themselves represented in the show.”

Riverside Area Community Club Volunteer and TrekFest 40 Chair Travis Riggan said the addition to the week’s lineup was a “no-brainer,” adding that he was excited to welcome the new event.

“We’ve looked at options to bring other forms of entertainment in, for people that come from out of state, as well as opportunities to provide more of a learning or educational environment,” he said. “It’s something people always gravitate toward when they go to different comic-cons … it’s almost like a live podcast, right in front of you. And in the middle of the day on Friday, people are already in town, so you’ve got to entertain them.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com