Theme: Interconnections between Utopia and Dystopia in Times of Crisis

Venue: Embassy Suites Portland Downtown (Formerly the 1912 Multnomah Hotel)

Proposal Deadline:June 30, 2026

Conference Co-chairs email: susprogramchair@gmail.com

Conference website: https://utopian-studies.org/conference2026/

A common assertion in utopian studies and beyond recognizes the dialectics of utopia and dystopia. As Ursula K. Le Guin put it (expressing a widely held sentiment), if “[e]very eutopia contains a dystopia, every dystopia contains a eutopia”*: a dream of how things could be, combined with the realities of how things could be worse (or even how they are). Scholarship on the critical utopia and critical dystopia also highlights how the two forms are embedded within each other. Yet, it is perhaps in times of crisis—when the catastrophes of war, genocide, authoritarianism, continuing and growing economic disparities, blatant discriminations of all varieties, and ecological collapse cannot be ignored—that we need to place emphasis on how to think through the relationship between utopia and dystopia. In this sense, utopia emerges not as an actually existing place to which we can escape but a horizon toward which we can aspire. Utopia becomes a call to action as much as a vision of the possible alternatives that our actions can bring about. Even as immigrants around the globe are demonized and targeted for violence and arrest, as new acts of colonial aggression are perpetrated, as the U.S. President threatens to control elections, we also see social movements arising, progressive political formations emerging, and people uniting to reject fascism.

For the 2026 meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies, we invite proposals of 250-300 words especially, though not exclusively, on this year’s theme. We invite presenters from any academic discipline, activist or community organization, and creative or journalistic field. And as always, SUS is dedicated to welcoming a variety of activist, artistic, disciplinary, identitarian, ideological, practitioner, and theoretical perspectives. This year, we are delighted to have the University of Oregon’s Center for the Study of Women in Society as the local host, which especially invites papers and panels engaging with gender and utopia in an intersectional/international frame.

We also invite presentations focusing on figures, locations, or histories connected to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Although not necessarily unique, its simultaneously hopeful and grim history provides a particularly fruitful site for thinking about this year’s theme with its abundant connections to utopias, dystopias, and their interrelations. If the state’s notorious founding in 1859 as a “white utopia” was predicated on banning nonwhite people (particularly disenfranchising Blacks and Asians), it has led in more recent years to “a vibrant Black culture that helped sustain many communities throughout the state,” as Portland State University’s Walidah Imarisha has argued.** And while the Pacific Northwest more generally has been a key site for progressive visions like Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia, it has also been the home for racists to imagine their own visions of utopia, such as the white nationalist Northwest Territorial Imperative. Oregon has also been home to several intentional communities, including the Aurora Colony (1856-1883) and the more infamous Rajneeshpuram (1981-1985).*** The literary tradition is represented by Jeff W. Hayes’s Portland, Oregon, A.D. 1999 and Other Sketches (1913), and the University of Oregon houses the papers of numerous science-fiction writers such as Alice B. Sheldon/“James Tiptree Jr.” (1915-1987), Damon Knight (1922-2002), Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018), Sally Miller Gearhart (1931-2021), Joanna Russ (1937-2011), Suzy McKee Charnas (1939-2023), and Vonda N. McIntyre (1948-2019), among others, as well as architect Philip Dole who wrote and taught about utopia at the university. Examples of Oregon-based activism and art include the Utopia PDX Queer and Trans Pacific Islanders organization in Portland and artist Camas Logue (Klamath Tribes), whose works have been included in Indigenous Futurism exhibitions.

Submissions can take any of the following:

• A 15- to 20-minute individual paper
• A full panel of up to 4 speakers, an informal roundtable of 3-6 presenters, or a workshop of up to 6 presenters
• A presentation or performance of a creative work or artifact
• A visual/audio presentation in the form of a poster and/or demo
• Other formats such as lightning rounds or PechaKucha

Sessions are typically 75-90 minutes. We especially encourage pre-formed, full sessions (e.g., panels) that allow for audience discussion and engagement.

About the organization: The Society for Utopian Studies is an international interdisciplinary association dedicated to the study of utopianism in literature, social thought, political theory, intentional communities, architecture, and other cultural forms. The annual meeting provides a collaborative space for scholars, artists, activists, and practitioners to explore utopian ideas and practices across disciplines.

The Society is also accepting nominations and/or submissions for the Lewis, Hough, Sargent, and Roemer awards. For graduate students, there is also the Nicole LaRose travel grant. For information, please see the Awards tab of the SUS website.

Conference Organizers:

Sangita Gopal (Local Chair, University of Oregon)

Edward K. Chan (Program Co-Chair, Waseda University, Tokyo)

Patricia Ventura (Program Co-Chair, Spelman College)

Donald Zarate (Graduate Assistant, University of California, Riverside)

* “Utopiyin, Utopiyang,” 2015, https://www.ursulakleguin.com/blog/97-utopiyin-utopiyang, (published in No Time to Spare, 2017). 

** “Why Aren’t There More Black People in Oregon? A Hidden History,” A Conversation with Walidah Imarisha at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene, February 23, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWC-8hvP7aY&t=11s.

*** As documented in Eden Within Eden: Oregon’s Utopian Heritage (2009) by James J. Kopp, who was born in Oregon and served as director of the Aubrey R. Watzek Library at Portland’s Lewis & Clark College.