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Malka Older

Genre Fiction Faculty

Education

Ph.D., Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (also known as Sciences Po), Sociology of Organizations, 2019
M.A., Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, International Relations and Development Economics, 2004
B.A., Harvard University, Literature, 1999

Departments

Academic Programs

Biography

Malka Older is a writer, aid worker, and sociologist. Her science-fiction political thriller Infomocracy was named one of the best books of 2016 by Kirkus, Book Riot, and the Washington Post. She is the creator of the serial Ninth Step Station, currently running on Realm, and her acclaimed short story collection And Other Disasters came out in November 2019. She is a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society and her opinions can be found in The New York Times, The Nation, and Foreign Policy, among other places.

Courses Taught

  • CRWR 609 GENRE FICTION I
  • CRWR 694 CAPSTONE

External Professional Affiliations

  • Arizona State University, School for the Future of Innovation in Society
    Centre de Sociologie des Organisations

How did you discover Western?

Fran Wilde introduced me to the program by inviting me to the wonderful Summer Residency.

What are some of the highlights of your career?

As a humanitarian worker, I responded to complex emergencies and disasters in Darfur, Indonesia, Mali, and Japan, among others; as a researcher, I have been appointed Senior Fellow for Technology and Risk at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and worked on a report on the human and organizational factors of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster for the French nuclear safety institute (IRSN); as a writer, my science fiction political thriller Infomocracy was named one of the best books of 2016 by a number of reviewers and the full trilogy was nominated for a best series Hugo award.
What most excites you about your field?
I love creating new worlds – and connecting them to the world we live in

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