Utopias, Dystopias, or UStopias: Whose Imagination are we Living in?

In this talk, Ruha Benjamin takes us into the liberating power of the imagination. Deadly systems all emerged from the human imagination, and have real-world, often deadly impacts. To fight harmful systems and create a world in which everyone can thrive, we will have to imagine things differently. Drawing on work that critically examines “smart” technologies that perpetuate inequities and engaging with grassroots approaches to community building, she offers a pragmatic and poetic approach to worldbuilding that invites each of us to consider the role we play in maintaining or transforming the oppressive status quo.