Speculative Futures Through Cinematic Fiction Conference
Children of Cuarón is part of a year-long series of events and conversations about borders and immigration included in the Dartmouth Dialog project. The conference originated in our belief that speculative fiction in literature and film provides opportunities to discuss some of the most pressing political, environmental, and social concerns now confronting our global society. Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men includes graphic depictions of border spaces and the mass deportation of immigrants, set within a near future in which sterility and environmental crises have hardened political borders and destroyed social bonds. Border crossing, environmental decline, childbirth, and women’s bodies are also themes in Octavia Butler’s novels, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. In these creative works the date in which the “futures” are set has either arrived (Butler’s 2024) or is about to arrive (Cuarón’s 2027), which makes this conference timely for 2025.
This conference is produced by the Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies Department with support from Dartmouth Arts & Sciences Dean of Faculty, Elizabeth Smith and the Dartmouth Dialogue Project .