Future Souths--MLA 2024 CFP
Going against tenacious perceptions of the south as firmly rooted to the past, we argue for a vision of multicultural, diverse souths oriented towards the future. At times, southern futurism has been a force of oppression, including the technological innovations of the plantation; the rebranding of Atlanta as a place where commerce could ignore racism or complicate it as a model of true global exchange; or the militaristic and privatized response to Hurricane Katrina that foreshadows a disaster-capitalist approach to climate change. However, the south’s overlapping histories of decolonial and anti-racist activism have always imagined progressive futures.