Pragmatic Utopias

How can imagination and governance work together to make better worlds? This 10-week, 16-credit, upper division interdisciplinary program in literary arts and political philosophy brings together political theory and the radical imagination, examining how visions of what is possible emerge at the crossroads of pragmatism and utopian thinking. Through lectures, seminars, and critical and creative writing workshops, students will engage with contemporary and historical material, reading works by William James, Richard Rorty, Gaia Vince, Ursula K. Le Guin, T.J. Demos, and others to consider how ideas about progress, cooperation, and imagination inform both real-world governance and speculative world-building. Topics to be considered include solving the problem of homelessness, ameliorating the climate crisis, and instituting more just and sustainable ways of living together.

The program integrates analytic study and creative inquiry. Students will complete critical essays and develop one creative writing project in the genre of their choice, integrating theoretical reflection with imaginative practice. Across political philosophy, ecological thought, and speculative fiction, the class asks how pragmatic experimentation and utopian vision can together illuminate paths toward more just and livable futures. Meeting three days a week, Pragmatic Utopias invites students to think critically, write inventively, and collaborate in envisioning the possible.

 

4 - Literature

4 - Creative Writing

4 - Political Science

4 - Political Theory