Extraterrestrial Life and Science Fiction Cinema: an anthropological perspective

Abstract

Science fiction films offer countless narratives in which extraterrestrials appear—whether arriving on Earth, encountered in space, or portrayed on their own planets. By constructing a plurality of beings and worlds, these films teach us to adopt a distanced perspective on the living conditions on our own planet. The essay Comment habiter notre planète. Une lecture d'Avatar (How to Inhabit Our Planet: A Reading of Avatar, Presses Universitaires de France, 2024) examines how James Cameron’s saga is organized around operations of comparison: between humans and non-humans, between our planet and the planet Pandora. Building on this line of analysis, and drawing on the anthropology of life, this lecture will examine both classic and lesser-known works of science fiction in order to explain how they represent extraterrestrial life as a biological, ecological, social, and political phenomenon. At the same time, by examining the role played by scientists, the lecture will reflect on how the construction of knowledge in the field of astrobiology is staged and represented.

About the speaker

Perig Pitrou is a Senior Researcher at the CNRS, based at the Maison Française d'Oxford and at the Collège de France, University PSL, where he leads the research group “Anthropology of Life,”. He has published a dozen books, edited volumes, and special issues on this topic. Within the framework of the French national interdisciplinary programme PEPR Origins, he is in charge of the work package aiming to develop the contribution of the humanities and social sciences to the field of astrobiology. 

In 2026, he is a Leverhulme Visiting Professor, invited by University College London, to give a series of lectures on the Anthropology of Astrobiology and Space Exploration—topics on which he has co-edited the books Otherwhere Ethnography: An Introduction to Outer Space Studies (Oxford University Press, 2025) and Off Earth Atlas: A Guide to the Social Study of Outer Space (Intellect Publisher, 2027). He is the author of Ce que les humains font avec la vie (2024) and Comment habiter notre planète. Une lecture d’Avatar (2025), published by the Presses Universitaires de France.

This event is free to attend but please register in advance: https://forms.gle/FPkrhev4WSa6ouon6 as places are limited.