Talk by Prof Kathrin Schödel: Utopia Today

Talk on Utopia Today

The planned talk argues for the necessity of utopian thought in the current age. Utopian visions are often branded as unrealistic or totalitarian systems detached from social relations and democratic processes. But rather than being conceived as a blueprint to be implemented, utopian thought offers scope for experimentation and imagination. The search for different possible futures is becoming increasingly urgent in a time of environmental destruction, climate catastrophe and accelerated exploitation of man and nature. Imaginings of a better place that does not exist (yet)  – ou-topos literally means nowhere – can serve as a method of critical enquiry and an inspiration for change. The planned talk will explore an emancipatory tradition of utopian theory and fiction concerned with the political economy of (utopian) social worlds and it will develop a concept of utopian practices for the present.

About the Speaker

Prof Kathrin Schödel M.A., Phd (Erlangen) is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of German, University of Malta. She has published on literature and politics, revolutionary discourses, gender constructions, discourses of migration and utopian thought in academic and non-academic contexts. She is part of a collaborative research network on islands and insularity and a founding member of the independent institute of Utopian Studies.