Alysa Cisneros

Alysa has been a professional political and community organizer for almost a decade, and is currently graduate student in Public Policy at Mills College. This work focuses on original analysis and research on political and social capital. For Alysa, Doctor Who, Octavia Butler, GISHWHES, and fandom generally play a major role in everything from consulting with international non-governmental organizations to helping run statewide campaigns to analyzing laws. Alysa will be discussing how her principles of justice and hope were shaped by science fiction and geekdom; balancing pragmatism and imagination; how nerdiness can act as antidote to cynicism and burnout in public and private political spheres; and how shared fandom is likely one of the last great peacemakers in these contentious times.