Forming the Future An interdisciplinary conference
Thinking about the future often focuses on its ‘content’: what might happen. Similarly, thinking about ‘future studies’ often concentrates on its goals, concepts and methods. But what about the forms in which the future comes couched?
How does the medium in which the future is presented – its genres, structures, conventions – shape or influence what the future might include? What forms do representations of the future currently take in different disciplines and fields of practice – from fiction to non-fiction, the visual to the textual, science to politics – and to what effect? Can we make our representations of the future more efficacious, with a view to the current world situation? And what might different fields learn from each other, or how might they combine, in order to do this?
This conference sets out to investigate these and related questions, and to trigger dialogue within and across different areas in which the future is being ‘formed’. Proposals are welcome from researchers across the humanities, social sciences and STEM disciplines, as well as from those working outside the university sector.
Confirmed speakers
- Amy J Elias (Tennessee, Knoxville; English Literature)
- Daniel Innerarity (Ikerbasque; Political Philosophy)
- Sandra Kemp (Lancaster/Imperial; Director of the Ruskin Library/Museum)
- Ian Stewart (Plymouth; Geoscience and Communication)
The conference will run across the afternoon of Monday 2 September and all day Tuesday 3 September. Two £150 bursaries are available for those without institutional funding or equivalent.