500 Years after Utopia: A Symposium
Event Details
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Saturday, April 16, 2016
8:30 AM - 6:00 PM
Building: Traill College
Room: Bagnani Hall
Cost: Free
Thomas More’s Utopia, published in 1516, was both a stunning condemnation of his contemporary English society and a whimsical and speculative foray into imagining a better social-political order. Today many academic and grassroots organizations and societies carry the torch that More lit in the 16th century.
This one-day symposium celebrates the 500th anniversary of this monumental text in global history. The day will include a series of presentations from both emerging and established scholars who will address some of the diverse expressions of both utopian desire and dystopian anxiety particular to the contemporary moment. Scholars and attendees will have an opportunity to engage with the world of utopian scholarship and to entertain ideas and debates about what it means to imagine new and better worlds.
Our special guest is Professor Peter Fitting, Emeritus, Department of French, University of Toronto, past-president of the Society for Utopian Studies. Invited guests also include Professor Joan Gordon, co-editor of Science Fiction Studies; Professor Graham Murphy, School of English and Liberal Studies, Seneca College; Professor Roger Luckhurst, Birkbeck College, London, and Mellon Distinguished Visiting Professor at Columbia University; and Professor Wendy Pearson, Women’s Studies and Feminist Research, University of Western Ontario.
“500 Years after Utopia” is free and open to the public.