What futures can South Asia imagine for itself — and in whose languages, forms and cosmologies are they written? This seminar reads futurity beyond the postcolonial and towards the decolonial, and beyond science fiction alone, asking whether folklore, myth and magic realism constitute equally vital archives of the future. It does not assume that futurism is inherently emancipatory, and puts South Asian Futurisms in dialogue with Afrofuturism, Sinofuturism, Dalit Futurism and Sufi Futurism.

Topics include: vernacular and regional speculative traditions; futurity in folk and mythological forms; caste, gender and the body in imagined futures; climate fiction and ecological futures of the subcontinent; diasporic and borderland futurisms; and the politics of translation. Practitioner perspectives from writers, translators and artists are also welcome.

Submissions are made through the ACLA portal: https://www.acla.org/seminar/b6dd48a6-550c-424a-8efe-083b43770025

Questions: m.maithri@uva.nl