Another new academic book on the way

From the University of Calgary Press website:

The Star Trek franchise represents one of the most successful emanations of popular media in our culture. The number of books, both popular and scholarly, published on the subject of Star Trek is massive with more and more titles being printed every year. Very few, however, have looked at Star Trek in terms of the dialectics of humanism and post-humanism, the pervasiveness of advanced technology, and the complications of gender identity. Relke sheds light on how the Star Trek narratives influence and are influenced by shifting cultural values in the United States, using these as portals to the sociopolitical and sociocultural landscapes of pre-and post 9-11 United States. Maintaining focus on Star Trek’s liberal humanism and extending it into a broader analysis of ideological features, Relke avoids a completely positive or negative critique, choosing rather to honour the contradictions inherent in the complexity of the subject.

About the Author

Diana Relke is founding member and professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, where she teaches courses in feminist theory, science fiction, and popular culture.

The U of C site has a publication date of December 2005, but according to amazon.com, it hasn't been published yet. To see whether this is likely to be your cup of tea, you can read a 1995 paper, "Roddenberry's Humanist Vision: Using Star Trek in Women's Studies," at her University of Saskatchewan faculty web page.