JO LINDSAY WALTON
ABOUT
I am an arts and humanities researcher, and a creative practitioner, who likes interdisciplinary collaboration involving science and technology. My interests include climate and sustainability, AI and automation, finance and governance, futures and speculative cultures, and games and play.
RESEARCH STRANDS
POSITIONS
UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Since 2024
Senior Research Fellow in Arts, Climate and Technology
ANALYSIS UNDER UNCERTAINTY FOR DECISION-MAKERS NETWORK
Since 2021
Steering Committee
UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
2018-2024
Research Fellow in Critical and Cultural Theory (2018-2022), Research Fellow in Arts, Climate and Technology (2022-2024)
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
2017-2018
Research Fellow at the Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities (Project Title: "Speculative Fiction, Speculative Finance, and the Economic Humanities")
UNIVERSITY OF SURREY
2016-2017
Writer-in-Residence
UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER
2016-2017
Teaching Fellow in English Literature and Creative Writing
BATH SPA UNIVERSITY
Since 2016
Associate Lecturer in English Literature
NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY
2013-2016
PhD ("Moneykins: Using Speculative Fiction to Re-Imagine Finance") and Associate Tutor in English and Creative Writing
SEA++
Since 2018
STEM collaborations, offering consultancy on communication, ethics, data visualisation, and critical data studies
BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION
Since 2017
Vector chief editor (2017-2024), editor-at-large (since 2024)
PUBLICATIONS
Selected Publications
ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS
'Machine Learning in Contemporary Science Fiction,' in SFRA Review 54(1). Article.
‘Bitcoin and Stone Money: Anglophone Uses of Yapese Economic Cultures, 1900-2020’ in Finance and Society, 2022, 8(1). Article.
'Speculative Fiction and Post-Capitalism' in The Cambridge Companion to Economics and Literature ed. Nicky Marsh and Paul Crosthwaite (CUP, 2022). Chapter.
'Shoshana Zuboff' in Fifty Key Figures in Cyberpunk Culture, ed. Anna McFarlane, Graham J. Murphy and Lars Schmeink (Routledge, 2022). Chapter.
With Ian Davidson: ‘Political Poetry’: The Blackwell Companion to British and Irish Poetry, ed. David Malcom and Wolfgang Görtschacher (2020). Chapter.
With Liz Stainforth: ‘Computing Utopia: the Horizons of Computational Economies in History and Science Fiction’ in Science Fiction Studies 46(3) (2019). Peer-reviewed article.
‘Estranged Entrepreneurs and the Meaning of Money in Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.' Foundation 49(3) (2020). Peer-reviewed article. Longlisted for the BSFA Award.
With Polina Levontin and Jana Kleineberg, Visualizing Uncertainty: A Brief Introduction (Analysis Under Uncertainty for Decision-Makers Network, 2020). Mini-monograph.
‘Away Day: Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Utopia of Merit' (Big Echo, 2019). Working paper. Shortlisted for BSFA Award.
With Ed Luker: 'Poetry and Secrecy,' Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry, 10(1) (2018). Editorial essay.
'Cockayne Blues: Economics as Speculative Fiction,' in Strange Economics, ed. David Schulz (Toronto SFFW, 2018). Afterword.
'All in a Day’s Play: Fuzzy and Forceful Gamification in the Work of Iain M. Banks' in The Science Fiction of Iain M. Banks, ed. Esther MacCallum-Stewart, Nick Hubble, and Joseph Norman (Glyphi, 2018). Chapter.
'Public Money and Democracy' in Economic Science Fictions ed. Will Davies (Goldsmiths Press, 2018). Chapter.
With Polina Levontin, John Mumford, and Nasir Warfa: ‘Lone Wolf Bioterrorists and the Trajectory of Apocalyptic Narratives' (Vector Online, Winter 2017). Working paper.
'Chaoplexity: The Science and Science Fiction of Contemporary Warfare' (Vector, Winter 2010). Working paper.
'The eBook Nova: Collaboration, Cohesion, Copyright,' (Openned Zine #3, 2010). Working paper.
'Concrete: Brutalism and Marxism in J.G. Ballard's High Rise and Concrete Island' (Vector, Winter 2009). Working paper.
EDITORIAL
Utopia on the Tabletop (Ping Press, 2024).
With Polina Levontin: Vector, the critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association (2017-). Themed issues include 'Speculative Economics,' 'SFF and Contemporary Art,' 'African and Afrodiasporic SFF,' 'Chinese and Sinodiasporic SFF.'
With Ed Luker: Poetry and Work: Work in Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Poetry (Palgrave, 2019)
With Ed Luker: special issue of The Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry on the theme of secrecy (Glyphi, June 2018)
With Samantha Walton: special issue of Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism on ecology and crime fiction (ASLE-UK, September 2018)
With Joe Luna: On the Late Poetry of J.H. Prynne (Hi Zero 2015)
Peer review
Journal of General Artificial Intelligence, Textual Pratice; Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research; Fishes; MOSF Journal of Science Fiction; Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry.
CREATIVE
Kampala Yénkya, with Dilman Dila, Polina Levontin, Maurice Ssebisubi, and Jana Kleineberg. Climate futures storytelling game and more.
Wildlaw Judgment Generator, with Bonnie Holligan and Elias Youssef.
'An Eternal Amanuensis,' in Criptörök (Grand Union). Short fiction.
'Oh God, the Dogs!' in Juana y La Cibernética (edición bilingüe) (Desperate Literature, 2020). Short fiction.
Heterotopia Hooks (Sad Press, 2020). TTRPG sourcebook.
'Please Don't Let Go' in Fireside Fiction (2020). Short fiction.
'In Arms' in Gross Ideas: Tales of Tomorrow's Architecture (The Architecture Foundation, 2019). Short fiction.
Connections (Sad Press, 2018). Storytelling game / scenario exploration tool.
'It's OK To Say If You Went Back In Time And Killed Baby Hitler' (Big Echo, 2018). Short fiction.
'Cat, I Must Work!' (Big Echo, 2017). Short fiction.
'Froggy Goes Piggy' (Nesta / Long+Short, 2017). Short fiction.
'The Internet of Things Your Mother Never Told You' (MIT Technology Review / Twelve Tomorrows, 2016). Short fiction.
Skycrawl (2016). A story-game fragment, written in Twine.
The Sputnik Awards. 2015-2016. Functional participatory artwork.
Invocation (Critical Documents, 2013). Novel / digital artwork.
As Francis Crot: Hax (Punch Press, 2011). Mixed media novella.
With Samantha Walton, as Lorqi Blinks: 'Cowards Are Great!' (Cambridge Literary Review, 2009). Short fiction.
Poetry with Justin Katko, James Harvey, Samantha Walton, Nour Mobarak, and others, under various names.