Application Deadline
July 15, 2026
Institution or Organization
Society for Utopian Studies
Location
Portland, Oregon, USA
Website
Home
Salary or Compensation
none
Description and Requirements
Keynote Speakers: Tavia Nyong’o, Yale University, author of Black Apocalypse and Alex Zamalin, Rutgers University, author of Black Utopia
A common assertion in utopian studies and beyond recognizes the dialectics of utopia and dystopia. As Ursula K. Le Guin put it (expressing a widely held sentiment), if “[e]very eutopia contains a dystopia, every dystopia contains a eutopia”*: a dream of how things could be, combined with the realities of how things could be worse (or even how they are). Scholarship on the critical utopia and critical dystopia also highlights how the two forms are embedded within each other.
Yet, it is perhaps in times of crisis—when the catastrophes of war, genocide, authoritarianism, continuing and growing economic disparities, blatant discriminations of all varieties, and ecological collapse cannot be ignored—that we need to place emphasis on how to think through the relationship between utopia and dystopia. In this sense, utopia emerges not as an actually existing place to which we can escape but a horizon toward which we can aspire. Utopia becomes a call to action as much as a vision of the possible alternatives that our actions can bring about.
Even as immigrants around the globe are demonized and targeted for violence and arrest, as new acts of colonial aggression are perpetrated, as the U.S. President threatens to control elections, we also see social movements arising, progressive political formations emerging, and people uniting to reject fascism.
The 2026 meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies invites proposals that explore the complex interconnections between utopia and dystopia in historical, theoretical, literary, political, artistic, and practical contexts. We welcome submissions from scholars in all academic disciplines, as well as from artists, activists, journalists, and community practitioners. As always, the Society for Utopian Studies is committed to fostering dialogue among a wide range of activist, artistic, disciplinary, ideological, and theoretical perspectives.