Dara Fogel, PhD

Dara Fogel, Ph.D. watched the original broadcasts of Star Trek with her father as a wee lass, and has been attending cons since the age of nine. Her Orion Slave Girl costume won multiple contests back in the day, and she taught several Star Trek and Matrix-themed philosophy courses at both the University of Oklahoma and the University of New Mexico. She was the first queen of the Norman Medieval Fair and is still an active volunteer; and was the founding director of the Santa Fe Renaissance Fair. She is the author of the bestselling Steampunk series The GrailChase Chronicles, which combines the unholy combination of speculative science, conspiracy theory, metaphysics, and romance. She has published academically and presented extensively on the philosophies of Star Trek,  Steampunk, and Holographic Universe Theory. Her essay "Life in the Holodeck," was included in Blackwell's The Ultimate Star Trek and Philosophy, and in the forthcoming college textbook Philosophy and Popular Culture, due out this fall. She is delighted to be returning to Soonercon.