An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Emrah Atasoy (Heritage Collections Postdoctoral Fellow, 2026)
Rethinking Future Possibilities: Utopia, Dystopia, and Beyond
This work-in-progress seminar introduces the interdisciplinary field of utopian and dystopian studies to researchers from a wide range of academic backgrounds, including literary, cultural, social, and political studies. Emphasising the field's inherently cross‑disciplinary nature, the talk highlights current scholarship and emerging debates across global contexts. After providing an overview of both retrospective and future‑oriented narratives, the seminar explores how utopian and dystopian imaginaries present alternative visions of societal order, systems, and futures from a critical standpoint.
By addressing how these narratives question dominant assumptions and unsettle binary or dichotomous modes of thinking, the talk highlights their value for understanding todays ecological, environmental, political, migration‑related, and cultural challenges. Ultimately, the discussion reflects on how critical engagements with utopian and dystopian narratives can reveal new perspectives and contribute to imagining transformative possibilities.
Recommended Reading & Sources:
- Utopian and Dystopian Explorations of Pandemics and Ecological Breakdown: Entangled Futurities. Edited By Heather Alberro, Emrah Atasoy, Nora Castle, Rhiannon Firth, Conrad Scott. Routledge, 2025. Open access.
- The Postworld In-Between Utopia and Dystopia: Intersectional, Feminist, and Non-Binary Approaches in 21st-Century Speculative Literature and Culture. Edited By Katarzyna Ostalska, Tomasz Fisiak. Routledge, 2022.
- “Critical Forum Introduction: Cultural Encounters and Textual Speculations in the Mediterranean,” Edited by Burcu Kayışcı Akkoyun, Emrah Atasoy, Merve Tabur. Utopian Studies, 35.1 (March 2024): 127-131.
- Atasoy, Emrah and Jeffrey Wasserstrom (University of California, Irvine). “How George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four predicted the global power shifts happening now.” The Conversation. 19 January 2026.
Meeting ID: 384 971 962 716 1
Passcode: nV6Rg79e