ENGL 221

Spring 2026 Part of Term 1

Part of Term 1
Jan 20-May 6

Speculative Futures

SHOW FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE

Credit: 3 hours.

Introduces majors and non-majors to several important conversations arising from the expansive genre of speculative fiction. In this course students will explore some of the most profound, disturbing, and downright bizarre imaginings of the future that human beings have generated. Climate change, ageing, fascist regimes, reproductive rights, technological failures, scientific advancements, and apocalypse are just a few of the possible topics for this class. Course materials will be drawn from literary works, contemporary and historical scientific developments, and cultural theory to explore how and why speculative futures are linked to specific cultural contexts, technologies, and social schemes.

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ENGL 221 class schedule data for spring 2026
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	76373	Lecture-Discussion	A	9:30AM -10:45AM	TR	1060 Lincoln Hall	Jenkins, C	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/26-05/06/26 Credit: 3 hours Section Info: SP26 ENGL 221 / AFRO 298 - Speculative Futures - Candice Jenkins - Black Speculative Futures - “THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE.” Pittsburgh-based artist Alisha B. Wormsley first posted these words on a billboard in 2017 to highlight and push back against the erasure of Blackness from collective visions of futurity. Wormsley was inspired by Black creative work falling under the umbrella of “Afrofuturism”— a literary and cultural aesthetic that incorporates science fiction and fantasy, magical realism, and non-Western cosmology, challenges the racial homogeneity of conventional genre fiction, and explores questions of Black identity and subjectivity in futuristic contexts. In this course, we will dig into such work, taking seriously the provocation and the anxiety that Wormsley’s statement implies: What is a Black future? Where and how do Black people inhabit future visions for the world? What does “the future” look like when seen through a Black, speculative lens? We will explore fictional narrative, graphic novels, film, video, visual art, and music by creators including Octavia Butler, W.E.B. DuBois, Arthur Jafa, N.K. Jemisin, Victor LaValle, Flying Lotus, Janelle Monae, Wangechi Mutu, Sun Ra, Rivers Solomon, and Kevin Willmott, among others. Active participation, group podcast, in-class writing, final project.