“Imagining Climate Change” engages authors, scholars, scientists, and the general public in the vital work of imagining our collective climate futures.
As we move into an era of increased climate instability, scientific analysis of climate change is central to our understanding of physical systems of our planet and the impact of these systems on human life. Science fiction (sf), the distinctive literary form of our time, bridges elite and popular cultures and broadly engages enthusiasts and scholars alike in the work of imagining our possible fut
ures. These areas of scientific, intellectual, and artistic inquiry – climate studies and sf – converge in the new field of “climate fiction”: print and graphic fiction and film grounded in scientific realities of environmental change, and projecting the resulting transformations of our societies, politics, and cultures. Through semiannual colloquia and other events, “Imagining Climate Change” engages authors, scholars, scientists, and the general public in the vital work of imagining our collective climate futures. Our conversations aim at a better understanding of potential collaborations between science, fiction, and art on one of the most pressing global crises of our time.
“Imagining Climate Change” is co-sponsored by the France-Florida Research Institute, the Center for African Studies, the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, the Department of English, the Florida Climate Institute at the University of Florida, the George A. Smathers Libraries, the Science Fiction Working Group, the UF Water Institute, and , and Storm Richards and Jeanne Fillman-Richards. Colloquium events are made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.