Cultures of the Future Lectures is CETAPS latest initiative which aims to provide innovative tools and methods by inviting prominent scholars from all over the world to reflect on relevant topics to our fields of research.
For our first lecture, we are honoured to introduce Jennifer A. Wagner-Lawlor, Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and English at Pennsylvania State University. Jennifer A. Wagner-Lawlor has published two monographs, Postmodern Utopias and Feminist Fictions, published by Cambridge University Press in 2013; and edited two essay collections, including The Scandal of Susan Sontag (Columbia University Press, 2009).
She is the author of dozens of book chapters and articles in Utopian Studies, Feminist Studies and Contemporary Women’s Writing and a former president of The Society for Utopian Studies (SUS). Her current work looks at the cultural significance of plastic and plastic waste, and its impacts on environmental crisis.
CETAPS is proud to present Part 1 of the lecture on The Force of Gender: Queer Reckonings in Post-War American Utopian Literature.
CETAPS+ Cultures of the Future – Webinar September 15th, 6pm UTC+1
This Webinar will be held in Portuguese.
“Caldeirão da Santa Cruz do Deserto: Time, Memory and Utopia”
The first “CETAPS + Cultures of the Future” Webinar will have as its theme the Intentional Community Caldeirão da Santa Cruz do Deserto, which existed in the city of Crato, in the State of Ceará, northeast region of Brazil, from 1926 to 1936.
The theme will be presented and discussed by Michel Macedo Marques (CETAPS), Domingos Sávio Cordeiro (URCA) and Cristina Rodrigues Holanda (Instituto Mirante de Cultura e Arte).
You can attend this Webinar by registering in the link below:
https://forms.gle/xSPjynGGqFpV
For any questions please contact:
culturesofthefuture@gmail.com or cetaps@letras.up.pt
“Utopian Openings and Closings: The COVID Pandemic and its Aftermath”.
In this conversation, it will be explored from an ethical and utopian perspective our current global challenges and their (im)possible solutions in light of these hopes and missed opportunities since the early months of the pandemic. As our timeline lines up one dystopian scene after another—the pandemic, the war, the energy crisis, the rise of authoritarianism—(pop) culture and literature have turned to utopian thought to grapple with a crisis-ridden world. On screen, for example, shows like The Good Place (2016-2020) or Severence (2022-) insist on the ethics of personal choice in the everyday as an inflection point for larger utopian (and dystopian) implications. In the same vein, Ursula K. Le Guin writes in her post-capitalist utopia Always Coming Home (1985): “Accidents happened to people, but what people did they were responsible for.” As humanities scholars, the conversation will be drawing on the utopian imagination to ask how we may help usher in a livable future through a critical engagement with the now.
Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 5:30 pm UTC+1
The theme will be presented and discussed by:
Manuel Sousa Oliveira (he/him) (co-host), University of Porto / CETAPS
Tobias Annamalay Jochum (he/him) (co-host), JFKI / FU Berlin
Guest speakers:
Julia Gibson (they/she), Antioch University
Rhiannon Firth (she/her), UCL Institute of Education
The session will be streamed live on Youtube on the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/@cetap
Attendees will be able to comment and ask questions through the YouTube chat function.