‘Speculative Play and Just Futurities’ to address social justice through new residencies
From IUPUI Today, 13 February 2022
https://jagnews.iupui.edu/live/news/2829-speculative-play-and-just-futurities-to-address
IUPUI will host eight residencies per year for diverse scholars and creators who are imagining more just and equitable futures through writing and other forms of narrative production, thanks to a three-year, $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation.
“Speculative Play and Just Futurities” — which aims to expand the conversation around diversity, equity, inclusion and justice more broadly within the residents’ areas of expertise — is one of 26 projects to be awarded at universities across the United States for projects supporting social-justice-related research or other projects. It will focus on supporting research, teaching and community engagement at IUPUI.
“By bringing imaginative thinkers and creators to campus, they become partners in the university’s mission of pursuing knowledge and supporting creative activity,” said project leader Jason Kelly, director of the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute. “Our team, which includes Dr. Les Etienne, Dr. Jason Aukerman and Dr. Gemmicka Piper, wants to foster environments where scholars and creators can imagine ways to create just futures. By establishing spaces that are welcoming, open and experimental, residents, faculty, students and community members can work together to co-create and play with intellectually rigorous, critical and generative ideas.”
According to Kelly, “speculative play” builds on the Renaissance concept of serio ludere, or serious play, especially as it has been employed in academic fields such as anthropology and digital humanities. The approach emphasizes the importance of games, experiments, collaborations and conversations in shifting perspectives and opening up new avenues for ideas.
Each four-week residency will be open to scholars and creators from across the globe who have a track record of work focused on addressing social justice issues facing historically marginalized groups — including Black, Latine, Indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities, as well as individuals with disabilities. They will be individuals who are engaged in constructing alternative humanistic narratives that expand our understanding of what literature can be and the ways it can help us imagine and enact just futures. Residents may include writers, game designers, poets, filmmakers, VR/AR storytellers and more.
Residents will work with IUPUI faculty to support their work, share knowledge and create new connections. Faculty may also choose to build modules or whole courses around ideas and projects the residents bring with them. Students will have opportunities to engage with residents in class, during seminars and at community events.
Ultimately, the project leaders hope it will help amplify ongoing conversations and expand spaces on campus for fostering community engagement and the creation of new ideas.
“We want to change the nature of the spaces used for speculation and play here at the university and beyond,” Kelly said. “We hope to help make the university and the city of Indianapolis a major hub where scholars and creators can come together to pursue speculative ideas focused on imagining and enacting equitable and just futures.”
“Speculative Play and Just Futurities” is a collaboration between the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute, the Center for Africana Studies and Culture and the Ray Bradbury Center. For more information or to learn how to become involved, contact Kelly at iahi@iupui.edu.