Feminist futures imagine and seek to create a better world. To do this, we must study the world as it is to better understand how systems of oppression operate. Feminist futures move between studying, dreaming, and doing. We study the world with a critical lens cut by encounters with oppression and polished by hope for a better future. We dream of a world of thriving, rather than precariousness. And we take action to bring those visions to fruition.
Feminists of color along with indigenous and queer scholars, social justice scientists, writers, and artists all recognize the importance of envisioning the world toward which we want to grow. Their work draws upon histories of resistance in order to engage in forward-looking speculative practices that often challenge traditional models of progress and innovation. Today we seek to draw upon this tradition and engage in creative, collaborative research practices to create futures of thriving.
In order to co-create these futures, we believe we must:
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Look to histories of resiliency and resistance as a source of strength and wisdom.
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Refuse traditional divides between science and art, the social and material world. Instead, we must see these as relational, and constantly feeding into one another.
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Center the voices of those who have historically carried the burden of structural oppression, and who have been systematically excluded from projects of knowledge production.
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Envision a world free from oppression, while seeing research and knowledge production as a key tools to help us get there.
And, finally:
Embrace criticism as an act of making new worlds possible, while also engaging in productive implementation that bring these possibilities into being.
THIS YEAR’S FELLOWS
Our graduate and faculty fellows and visiting scholars, which make up the Feminist Futures Collaboratory, are all engaged in work that embodies this year’s theme of feminist futures.