Current Projects
Facts, Fictions, and the Fantastic: I am currently working on writing a book based on my dissertation project. More to come soon!
The Understory: My colleague Dr. Katie Burke and I are in the early stages of creating a podcast examining the power structures that underlie science. Touching on topics as diverse as popular culture and forensic science, disciplinary power in citation tracing and the COVID-19 pandemic, and understanding the Space Shuttle Challenger and Columbia disasters, The Understory aims to bring humanistic perspectives on science to general audiences as well as provide educational resources for STS and engineering educators.
Dissertation
Who Speaks Truth to Fiction?: Scientific Authority and Social Difference in Speculative Fiction. Defended April 12, 2022. Available at Virginia Tech’s dissertation repository.
Academic Journal Articles
Koopman, Kristen, Erika Mosyjowski, Shanna Daly, Steven Skerlos, and Sita Syal. Engineering in the ‘Real World’: Student Perceptions of a Sustainability-Focused Engineering Case Study. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, volume 26, issue 9. 2025.
Koopman, Kristen. “I Don’t Know But I’m Trying To Find Out, Okay?”: Carlos as Scientist in Welcome to Night Vale. Extrapolation, volume 62 issue 3. 2021.
Conference Presentations
2023. Koopman, Kristen and James Holly Jr. “Facilitating Solidarity in DEIJ Discussions with Engineering Students.” Society for the Social Studies of Science 2023.
2021. Koopman, Kristen. “To Bring You Up To Speed: Exposition, Suspension of Disbelief, and the Epistemology of Genre.” Science Fiction Research Association 2021. Slides available here; later version appears in Ancillary Review of Books (below).
2018 Koopman, Kristen. “I Don’t Know But I’m Trying To Find Out, Okay?”: Welcome to Night Vale and the Demarcation of Science.” Presented at the Comics and Popular Arts Conference in Atlanta, GA. (September)
2016 Koopman, Kristen. “Origin Stories: Science, Agency, and the Creation of Marvel’s Superheroines.” Presented at the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts in Atlanta, GA. (November)
2016 Koopman, Kristen. “The Martian and the Sparrow: Religious Conversion and Disillusionment in Heinlein and Russell.” Presented at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, FL. (March)
Work for General Audiences
To Bring You Up To Speed: Exposition, Suspension of Disbelief, and Genre. Ancillary Review of Books, 2023.
To Boldly Know: Why Scientists Should Care About Science Fiction. American Scientist Blogs, 2019.
An “Invisible Gorilla” in the Lab. American Scientist Blogs, 2018.
Kristen Koopman 