Interplanetary Fellowship

Interplanetary Initiative welcomes second fellow to explore the intersection of space exploration, culture, science and religion.

This year, the fellowship which supports bold interdisciplinary projects and thinkers to further a positive space future is offered in collaboration with the ASU School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, focusing on projects that address the human, social and cultural implications of exploring outer space.

John Traphagan, professor emeritus of anthropology in the Program in Human Dimensions of Organizations at the University of Texas at Austin, was selected as the second recipient of the Initiative’s Interplanetary Fellowship.

As a scholar of Japan, Traphagan will explore how the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)’s programs and narratives around space exploration are shaped by Japanese religious ideas. His findings will be included in an edited volume tentatively titled Religion and Space Exploration in Cross-Cultural Perspective and shared as part of a cross-cultural symposium to be hosted in the Spring of 2024. The symposium will discuss how religion, ideology, and space exploration intersect in different societies and shape the ways those societies approach space exploration.