The 49th Annual Utopian Studies Conference will be held in Portland, Oregon on Nov. 12–14, 2026, with the Center for the Study of Women in Society as its local sponsor. Among the more than 50 programming blocks over three days, CSWS will be hosting a "Feminist Futures" roundtable discussion on Friday, Nov. 13 from 3:15–4:45 p.m.
What are “feminist futures”? How do we think through the relationship between utopia and dystopia in times of crisis as we aspire to create more feminist futures? What possible alternatives can our individual and collective actions bring about, and what challenges or limits do we face? In this roundtable, graduate students and faculty affiliated with CSWS will discuss these and other questions engaging gender and utopia through an intersectional frame.
Panelists will address: How Asian American science fiction and speculation are sites of utopic thinking, with special attention to how such culture allows us to move toward abolitionist Asian American feminist futures (Abigail Lee, Indigenous, race, and ethnic studies); the costs of equity-centered work and institutional betrayal for Latina career women in Oregon, and how feminist futures mean making those costs visible, naming them as political, and rejecting the terms institutions set (Alejandra Pedraza, sociology); how feminist futures are not distant utopian ideals but emergent from the everyday negotiations and aspirations of marginalized Dalit (historically “untouchable”) women living within deeply unequal gender, caste, and class structures in India (Malvya Chintakindi, anthropology); how the female voice in performance and reception functions not an autonomous instrument but as a culturally constructed interface shaped by gendered expectations, and how feminist futures of musical performance create frameworks for how one can critically observe, understand, and uplift female vocalists (Makenna York, musicology); how video games are distinctly dystopian, reifying neoliberal exploitation and destruction through their design features and development processes, and how women players enact utopian practices of deconstruction and resistance within systems that are designed with divisiveness and domination in mind (Sophia Sinsheimer, communications and media studies). The panel will be moderated by CSWS Research Dissemination Specialist Jenée Wilde (English).
The 2026 meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies invites scholars, artists, activists, and practitioners from diverse fields to reflect on the interconnections between utopian and dystopian thought, representation, and practice. Contributions from any academic discipline as well as creative, activist, and community-based perspectives are welcome. Information is available on the conference website.