Eco-environmental criticism has now become a staple presence in the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary landscape, calling for ongoing reflections on the human impact on the environment. A distinct aspect of these conversations has been the growing focus on the concern of ecological destruction for the planet, with all the inevitable consequences that this entails.  Within changing contexts that feel increasingly more precarious, conceptualisations of the ‘eco-futures’ have become central to our cultural discourses,  from film to television series, from literature to comics, from animation and video games to digital narratives and design, from socio-ecology to animal studies. 

Indeed, our cultural and socio-scientific conversations are becoming increasingly more characterized by the fear ecological catastrophes, climatic, pandemic diseases, technological shifts, biological annihilation, and political and socio-economic collapse. And yet, discourses of environmental hope and sustainability also permeate the global landscape, in an effort to preserve the planet for future generations. Within this context, considerations over ‘eco-futures’ seek to contextualize the relationships between the human and non-human in increasingly multidisciplinary frameworks.

In answer to the transformations, insecurities, and opportunities that characterize the very concept of eco-futures in our contemporary moment, the editors welcome chapter proposal for selection and inclusion into Eco-Futures: A Companion. The volume will be published by Peter Lang, Oxford.

Topics may include, but are not limited to: 

• Eco-Futures in critical media and cultural discourses (e.g. Eco-criticism, Environmental Humanities, Eco-feminism, Animal Studies, New Materialism, Environmental Education etc.)
• Eco-Futures and genre (fantasy, horror, science fiction etc.)
• Eco-Futures in film and television
• Eco-Futures in comics, manga, and graphic novels
• Eco-Futures and games (video games, tabletop games etc.)
• Eco-Futures and environmental destruction
• Eco-Futures and socio-ecology
• Eco-Futures and eco-hope
• Eco-Futures and Indigenous discourses
• Eco-Futures and memory
• Eco-Futures and disability studies
• Eco-Futures and technology
• Eco-Futures and the digital
• Eco-Futures and bio-ethics
• Eco-Futures and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Eco-Futures and urban landscapes
• Eco-Futures and sustainability
• Eco-Futures and the monstrous
• Eco-Futures and the non-human
• Eco-Futures and Trans/Posthumanism
• Eco-Futures and animals
• Eco-Futures and plants/vegetation
• Eco-Futures and medicine/disease
• Eco-Futures and LGBTQI+ discourses
• Eco-Futures and food/consumption
• Eco-Futures and historicity
• Eco-Futures and children/childhood studies
• Eco-Futures and education

The editors invite abstracts of 300 words on or around any of the above topics. Final essays will be 3,000 words in length.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 1 January 2025. Please email your abstracts (together with a short bio, 100 words max) for consideration to both editors: Lorna Piatti-Farnell, lorna.piatti-farnell@aut.ac.nz; and  Simon Bacon, baconetti@googlemail.com.