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For 50 years, Star Trek has been an inspiration to its fans around the world, helping them to dream of a better future. This inspiration has entered our culture and helped to shape much of the technology of the early 21st Century.

The contributors to this volume are researchers and teachers in a wide variety of disciplines; from Astrophysics to Ethnology, from English and History to Medicine and Video Games, and from American Studies to the study of Collective Computing Systems. What the authors have in common is that some version of Star Trek has inspired them, not only in their dreams of what may be, but in the ways in which they work - and teach others to work - here in the real world.

Introduced with references to Star Trek films and television shows, and illustrated with original cartoons, each of the 15 chapters included in this volume provides insights into research and teaching in this range of academic fields.

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Preface.- Introduction.- "Where Many Books Have Gone Before": Using Star Trek to Teach Literature.- From ´Shalom´ Aleichem´ to ´Live Long and Prosper´: Engaging with Post-War American Jewish Identity via Star Trek: The Original Series .- "Wagon Wheels, Sails, and Warp Cores": Star Trek and American Culture: Between Allegory and Worldbuilding.- Hot to Name a Starship: Starfleet between Anglo-American Bias and the Ideals of Humanism.- The Computer of the 23rd Century: Real-World HCI based on Star Trek .- The Energy System in Star Trek and its Real-Life Counterparts.- "My People once lived in Caves": Pre-modern Societies in Star Trek .- "Ready to Beam Up": Star Trek and its Interactions with Science, Research and Technology.- "Teaching with Trek": Star Trek, the LGBTQ+ Community, and College Composition.- "Resistance is Futile": Using the Borg to Teach Collective Computing.- Telepathic Pathology in Star Trek .- Playing Captain Kirk: Designing a Video Games based on Star Trek .- To Seek Out New Forms of Knowledge: Viewing Star Trek as an Introduction to Cognitive Science and Ways of Thinking about Narrative, Theory of Mind, and Difference.- La Forge´s VISOR and the Pictures in Our Heads: Understanding through Star Trek .- "Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end": Using Star Trek to Teach Scientific Thinking.- Complete list of Star Trek films, and Televised Episodes (by series).

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