New UC San Diego initiative features Star Trek stars, new Clarion masterclass and housing during Comic-Con

As part of a new initiative to commemorate Comic-Con at UC San Diego, the university will host Star Trek actors and writers George Takei and John Cho, and open their renowned and exclusive Clarion Science Fiction Writing Workshop to the a public via a one-day masterclass.

The university will also offer campus housing during Comic-Con for all UC affiliates and alumni, any current UC/CSU/community college students and participants in the masterclass. This is significant given that Comic-Con week is a notoriously challenging time to secure a hotel stay.

While UCSD is best known for its contributions to science and technology, it has also built a vibrant arts community. The university hopes sci-fi may bring both worlds closer together.

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"What we've been really looking at over the last year or so is that identity at the intersection of those two things. So where does science and art intersect? That really is a sweet spot on our campus," said Colleen Kollar Smith, executive director of UCSD's Campus Performances and Events Office. "What we imagine on the page today becomes reality in our labs tomorrow, and what we create in the lab today becomes fuel for tomorrow's stories."

The science of story

UCSD is calling their Comic-Con-adjacent programming "The Science of Story." It will be centered around the pre-con masterclass offered by the folks responsible for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Workshop.

The Clarion workshop was launched in 1968, and has been at UC San Diego since 2007. It's an intensive program with a small class of accepted students (18 this year) writing and workshopping a story a week for six weeks. It attracts top science fiction and fantasy writers, both as students and faculty.

Notable prior faculty include Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Neil Gaiman and Kelly Link. Alumni include Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Carmen Maria Machado and Cory Doctorow.

"It's just really an incredible legacy, the premier place to be studying this kind of writing" said Jaclyn Jemc, professor of literature at UC San Diego and the current director of the Clarion program.

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This will be the first year that the public can gain access to Clarion through a special masterclass on Tuesday, July 23. It's a full day of instruction and keynotes about the fundamentals of speculative fiction, and includes lunch and dinner.

Instructors and teaching artists include comic book writer Alyssa Wong ("Star Wars: The High Republic"); fiction writer and poet Isabel Yap ("Never Have I Ever"); O. Henry Prize winner 'Pemi Aguda ("GhostRoots"); novelist and former physicist Emet North ("In Universes"); and special guest, writer Nalo Hopkinson.

"I'm hopeful that more people from the area, and also people who are traveling just to visit for the Comic-Con, that they might see this as a way to sort of begin their Comic-Con experience, and also to allow themselves to engage in their own storytelling urges before they sort of dive into the Comic-Con experience, where, you know, you're sort of bombarded with all these other people's stories," Jemc said.

Imagined futures with 'Star Trek'

Another major component of UCSD's Comic-Con initiative is a series of "Star Trek" events. George Takei and John Cho have both portrayed the character of Sulu at different points in the franchise — and are both writers and graphic novelists. Takei and Cho will hold an evening event to discuss the character, the series and their work as graphic novelists.

Takei's "They Called Us Enemy," which was a One Book, One San Diego selection in 2020, is his graphic memoir about childhood internment in Japanese American concentration camps.

Cho published "Troublemaker" in 2022, a middle-grade novel set during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

"A Tale of Two Sulus: An Evening with George Takei and John Cho" is Wednesday, July 24 at Epstein Family Amphitheater on campus. The following night, the San Diego Symphony will live score a screening of "Star Trek Beyond (2009)."

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UC San Diego

In part, "Star Trek" was chosen because of its enduring contributions to the sci-fi genre, and how the franchise has pushed boundaries of representation and imagined futures.

"'Star Trek' holds up," said Kollar Smith. "You can go back and look at the previous versions of 'Star Trek' and be impressed with how forward-thinking it was. I think we as humans never stop thinking about what could be, and how we can be better. And 'Star Trek' itself takes big questions and starts to break them down episode-by-episode, in a way that is tangible, in a way that helps us approach those questions. Is there life out there? From that to also: How can we be good neighbors to each other, how can we talk past cultural differences?"

A Comic-Con 'home base'

In addition to their Comic-Con-inspired programming on campus, the university is offering a set of on-campus housing packages during the Comic-Con week. UCSD hopes the dorms will be a reasonable housing solution, especially for young people, given that the hotel landscape during Comic-Con can be complicated and nearly impossible to navigate.

"I don't think much has changed in terms of the fact that Comic-Con tends to have multiple young people sharing floors and couches, and certainly we wanted to be able to offer a housing option that was reasonable. They can make campus home base," Kollar Smith said. "It is, of course, dorms, but we have beautiful dorms."

The "Enterprise" package is a housing- and transit-only option restricted to UC affiliates and alumni plus anyone currently enrolled in a UC, CSU or California Community College school.

Pricing for the "Enterprise" is $640, and includes four nights in a single-occupancy room with shared common spaces; a five-day transit pass; free breakfast; and access to downtown Park & Market events.

UCSD is situated on the trolley's Blue Line, which runs directly through downtown, with stops at the 12th and Imperial station near the Convention Center as well as at Park & Market and elsewhere downtown.

For the general public, the "Starfleet" centers on enrollment in the Clarion masterclass, "A Tale of Two Sulus," the live scored concert with the San Diego Symphony, a "Jaws" screening, a cocktail reception and access to Park & Market events downtown. A six-day trolley pass is included. The Starfleet package is $1,200 for a five-night stay in a single room with shared common spaces and free breakfast. No UC or college affiliation is required.

For local residents, the Starfleet options are available without housing for $425.

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San Diego Comic-Con badges are not included in any package.

UCSD Comic-Con housing and "The Science of Story" packages go on sale the week of June 17.