PAMLA 2023 Panel: Bodies of the Future
This panel aims to explore the role of futuristic bodies as spaces for addressing contemporary issues such as gender and race equity, climate change, and income inequality. Science fiction and speculative fiction confront us with the uncanny, asking us to question the boundaries between our reality and fictional-yet-possible futures. Centering the body, often porous and precarious, in these texts positions us to imagine the future of humanity, and encourages us to think critically about perspective shifts we must make today to enable a better tomorrow. As Michel Foucault (1980) states, “the body is given meaning and wholly constituted by discourse.