The Futures Glossary: An experiment in utopic pedagogy

In this essay, we describe a project that asks students to edit and contribute to a collaborative “Futures Glossary” across two undergraduate media studies courses about the future and futurisms. Both courses focus on critique and critical creative practice; that is, they require students to actively imagine various futures using words and images, while also considering theories of technology. Our glossary asks students to work as editors, curators, and contributors. The whole point is the doing of these things, not the end result—the glossary itself is a space for practice that also centers practices. We situate our project first as an intervention in the instrumentalization of the university as an institution, then in terms of other glossary projects. We then establish the keywording aspect of our project as a utopian practice that befits a class on futures, and we establish the artistic aspect as part of ongoing conversations about collective imagination work, especially Afro- and indigenous futurisms. Finally, we describe how the project works in our classrooms and offer some preliminary examples of work-in-progress.