This international conference sets out to explore the possibility of utopian imagining today, at a time when many of our social, political and environmental conditions are in crisis.
The conference brings together writers and thinkers from across disciplines, to produce a mobile critical picture of the condition of utopian thought now. The keynotes (Ali Smith, Kiran Desai, Homi Bhabha) bring literary fiction into dialogue with philosophy and critical theory. The panels bring together thinkers from the environmental humanities, the medical humanities, linguistics, film studies, literary studies and political theory, among other disciplinary formations.
In exploring the possibility of utopian thought today, the conference will offer a fresh reflection on the ways in which our aesthetic, critical and discursive forms are able to summon pictures of a better world.
Ticketing Information
Make a day of Utopia Now! with a Saturday or Sunday conference day ticket, giving you access to all daytime panels for £10 standard / £5 student & U25.
Evening events require a separate ticket, so please remember to book your place. When booked alongside a conference day ticket for the same day, the relevant discount will be applied, meaning you can enjoy the daytime conference and evening programme for £10 standard / £5 student & U25 in total.
If you would just like to attend an individual evening event, tickets are £10 standard / £5 student & U25.
Planning to join us for the whole weekend? Add the conference days and individual events you would like to attend to your basket and the weekend discount will be applied, bringing the total to £20 standard / £10 student & U25.
The Friday Frozen Atlantis screening is free.
Conference Schedule
Friday 13 November
Evening events, separate booking required (included in the day price when booked together):
5-6pm: Marco Brambilla in Conversation – After Utopia
7–9pm: Screening of Bernhard Schirg, dir., Frozen Atlantis
Saturday 14 November
Talks included in the Saturday Utopia Now! Conference ticket:
10am–11.30am: Panel 1 - 'Utopia and Language Difference'
A panel exploring utopia through language, translation and untranslatability, from Esperanto and linguistic difference to the possibilities of AI translation.
Panel leads:
Matthew Reynolds, Devyani Sharma
Panellists:
Federico Gobbo, ‘Bridge and Wall: The Paradox of Writing Original Literature in Esperanto’
Tom Wright, “Every Voice, Understood? The Dream of Equal Speech”
Deepshikha Behera, ‘Untranslatability as Utopia?’
David Adger ‘Utopia Through Language’
Matthew Reynolds ‘The Promise of AI Translation’
11.45am–1.15pm: Panel 2 - 'Utopia and Ecocrisis'
A panel exploring utopia in relation to ecological crisis, led by Pablo Mukherjee with Mukul Sharma, Bernhard Schirg, Venus Bivar and Nayanika Mathur.
Panel lead:
Pablo Mukherjee
Panellists:
Mukul Sharma, ‘Begumpura and Beyond: Caste, Nature and the Making of an Ecological Utopia’
Bernhard Schirg, ‘Frozen Atlantis: Revisiting Utopia in the Shifting Landscapes of the North’
Venus Bivar, ‘Degrowth as Practical Utopia’
Nayanika Mathur, ‘Living through Dystopic Times: Notes from the Indian Himalaya’
2.15pm–3.45pm: Panel 3 - 'Utopia and Political Theory'
A discussion of utopia and political thought, considering utopian method, ordinary imagination and the radical imagination.
Panel leads:
Sophie Cardin, Polina Whitehouse and Ming Wong
Panellists:
David Leopold, ‘Utopias and Method’
Jeanne Morefield, ‘Burning Down the House: Utopia Beyond Liberal Fantasy’
Lois McNay, ‘Utopia as Ordinary Imagination’
Mathias Thaler, ‘Utopia in an Age of “Inverted Utopianism”: Understanding the radical imagination with Günther Anders’
4pm–5.30pm: Panel 4 - 'Utopia and Medical Humanities'
A panel examining visions of disease eradication and medical utopianism through ethics, medicine and literature.
Panel lead
Alberto Giubilini
Panellists:
James Wilson, ‘Ethical aspects of disease eradication’
Caitjan Gainty, ‘How Disease Ends: The Medical Utopianism of Mid-20th century Medicine’
Manon Mathias, ‘Disease Eradication in French Literature: Utopian visions?’
Evening events, separate booking required (included in the day price when booked together):
6pm–7pm: Brave Now World: Ali Smith in Conversation with Peter Boxall
Sunday 15 November
Talks included in the Sunday Utopia Now! Conference ticket:
11am–12.30pm: Panel 5 - 'Artificial Imaginaries'
A panel exploring artificial intelligence, creativity, politics and embodiment.
Panel lead:
Arthur Bradley
Panellists:
Antonio Cerella, ‘The Political Theology of AI: Temporality and the Future of Creativity’
Caroline Bassett, ‘Not founded on the brittle strength of bone: AI and embodiment’
Eleonora Lima, ‘The Machine Stops: AI, Entropy, and the Collapse of Information’
2pm–3.30pm: Panel 6 - 'Utopian Fictions'
A panel exploring utopian fiction across literature, from Rabelais and Bacon to questions of implicit worlds and the perceived “failure” of utopianism.
Panel lead:
Peter Boxall
Panellists:
Joanna Kavenna, ‘Utopia for Sale’
Wes Williams, ‘“No direction home”: Rabelais’s Utopian fictions’
Douglas Mao, ‘Implicit Worlds’
Greg Claeys, ‘Utopian Literature and the “Failure” of Utopianism’
Evening events, separate booking required (included in the day price when booked together):
4pm-5:30pm: '"Woke", Revoke and the Right to Narrate' – Homi Bhabha
6.30pm-7:30pm: Kiran Desai in Conversation with Homi Bhabha
