DESCRIPTION. The project explores the imaginary qualities of the future and speculative writing. We believe that thinking about the future from the present and the past allows us to imagine more hopeful (and democratic) societies than the apocalypses anticipated by climate crises, uncritical advances in science and technology, AI-generated/controlled scenarios and worlds, and geoengineering. In doing so, we aim to take action in the present and to produce a more balanced and inclusive vision of the future.

QUESTIONS. We wonder what imaginings of the future provide less 'futuristic' futures for all: humans, animals and the planet? How has the future been imagined in the past and possibly outside the Western logic of modernity/coloniality? Since 'modernity', 'human' and 'environment' are dynamic and plural concepts, they need to be critically examined, especially in a context where neoliberal capitalism and techno-utopianism combine to produce mostly conservative and unequal futuristic solutions that reproduce patriarchal and anthropocentric worldviews.

FRAMES.Research in (eco)feminism, animal, plant and food studies, indigenous philosophies, posthumanism and ecocriticism provide diverse yet interrelated theoretical lenses through which to critically engage with imagined directions for society. Speculative fictions from literature, film, graphic novels and other art forms employ a strategy of indirection to think through visions of the future.

THEMES AND CONTEXTS. We plan to work on several interrelated sub-projects that explore the idea of future modernities, informed by specific theoretical frameworks and contexts: a) gender and (eco)feminist speculations in Hispanic and Southeast Asian literatures, b) intersections of science and literature, technology and landscape, in Italian and other speculative fiction, and c) geo-narratives and experimental writing from Latin America.