Event: Talk by Prof. Kathrin Schödel
Date: 16 January 2023
Time: 18:00 – 19:30
Venue: University of Malta, Valletta Campus
Talk on Utopia Today
The planned talk argues for the necessity of utopian thought in the current age. Utopian visions are often branded as unrealistic or totalitarian systems detached from social relations and democratic processes. But rather than being conceived as a blueprint to be implemented, utopian thought offers scope for experimentation and imagination. The search for different possible futures is becoming increasingly urgent in a time of environmental destruction, climate catastrophe and accelerated exploitation of man and nature. Imaginings of a better place that does not exist (yet) – ou-topos literally means nowhere – can serve as a method of critical enquiry and an inspiration for change. The planned talk will explore an emancipatory tradition of utopian theory and fiction concerned with the political economy of (utopian) social worlds and it will develop a concept of utopian practices for the present.
About the Speaker
Prof. Kathrin Schödel M.A., Phd (Erlangen) is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of German, at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Malta. She has published on literature and politics, revolutionary discourses, gender constructions, discourses of migration and utopian thought in academic and non-academic contexts. She is part of a collaborative research network on islands and insularity and a founding member of the independent institute of Utopian Studies.
Interested participants can buy the tickets for this talk online.
