Dr. Orin[Orin] Posner

I am a lecturer in the Department of English Literature and American Studies, and a postdoctoral fellow in the Porter Institute and Porter School Postdoctoral Program at Tel Aviv University.

My research examines how science fiction imagines built environments and how extreme technological, environmental, and social changes redefine space and time. My current book project (under contract with Liverpool UP) develops a narratological account of speculative urban space, showing how specific architectural innovations – including vertical cities, layered cities, and flooded cities – influence characters’ spatial and temporal perceptions, mobility, and habits. Alongside this work, my new project focuses on portrayals of maintenance and infrastructure in speculative fiction: I argue that the mundane practices of care and repair become central in times of crisis and within conditions of risk, examining how these often-overlooked practices are highlighted and questioned in speculative writing.

Education

2025 – PhD in English literature, The Porter School of Cultural Studies, Tel Aviv University

2018 – MA in English literature: summa cum laude, Tel Aviv University

2014 – BA in English literature (summa cum laude) and Linguistics (magna cum laude), Tel Aviv University

Academic Appointments

2026–2027 – Postdoctoral fellow, The Porter Institute and Porter School Postdoctoral Program, Tel Aviv University

2025–2026 – Postdoctoral fellow, Department of English Language & Literature, University of Haifa. Faculty hosts: Prof. Ayelet Ben-Yishai and Dr. Keren Omry.

Awards and Scholarships

2026–2027 – Postdoctoral Fellowship, The Porter Institute and Porter School Postdoctoral Program, Tel Aviv University

2026–2027 – The Science Fiction Research Association, Support a New Scholar Program (Track B)

2025–2026 – Institutional Fellowship, Bloom Graduate School, University of Haifa

2021–2024 – The Rotenstreich Scholarship for Outstanding PhD Students in the Humanities

2019–2020 – Subsistence scholarship awarded by the School of Cultural Studies, Tel Aviv University

2019 – Incentive scholarship awarded by the School of Cultural Studies, Tel Aviv University

2018 – The Pozis Foundation Grant for Distinguished MA Students

2016 – The Nadav Vardi Award for Best Paper on the BA Level

Book

In development – The Architectural Novum in Science Fiction Literature: Narrating New Urban Forms. Under contract with Liverpool University Press.

Journal Articles

Forthcoming (2026) – “Chronotopes of Maintenance in Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and Gabrielle Korn’s Yours for the Taking” in JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory 56(2). Eastern Michigan University.

Forthcoming (2026) – “The Speculative Detective-Flâneur/Flâneuse: Transgressing Spatial and Social Boundaries in The City and the City and Jessica Jones” in Studies in the Fantastic, special issue “Speculative Detectives.” University of Tampa Press.

2025 – “‘No One Can Admit It Doesn’t Work’: Unstable Spatial Epistemology in Science Fiction-Detective Fiction Hybrids” in Science Fiction Studies 52(3): 461–482. University of California Press. doi.org/10.1525/sfs.2025.52.3.461

2020 – “Re-living the City: The Urban Time-Loop of Russian Doll” in Frontiers of Narrative Studies 6(2): 213–230. De Gruyter. doi.org/10.1515/fns-2020-0014

Book Chapters

2023 – “‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’?: Configuring the Horizon of Queer Utopia in Black Mirror’s ‘San Junipero’” in American Science Fiction Television and Space: Productions and (Re)configurations (1987-2021), edited by Joel Hawkes, Alexander Christie, and Thomas Nienhuis. Palgrave Macmillan. 55–70. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10528-9_4

2019 – “Buildings of the Mind: Architectural Influence and Posthuman Architecture in J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise and Philip Kerr’s Gridiron” in New Forms of Space and Spatiality., edited by Shawn Edrei, Chen F. Michaeli and Orin Posner. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 69–83.

Edited Volumes

2019 – New Forms of Space and Spatiality in Science Fiction. Co-Editor with Shawn Edrei and Chen F. Michaeli. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Reviews

Forthcoming (2026) – “Speculating Israel.” Science Fiction Studies 53(3). Review of Elana Gomel and Vered Weiss, eds., Israeli Speculative Fiction: Beyond Is/Real (Liverpool University Press, 2026).