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What’s speculative fiction?
Speculative fiction refers to texts (novel, film, other media) that probe readers/viewers to ask ‘what if’ questions, and reconsider the quotidian certainties of the past, present, and future. Such texts may defamiliarize readers’ thinking about what is, or cause readers to reconsider what could be through describing different worlds, or describing this world, differently. While speculative fictions generally do not attempt to realistically represent our current world, through the exploration of alternative, or extrapolated, or fantastical stories, speculative fiction is a medium that allegorically or metaphorically can draw attention to elements of our current world or research that may need to be reconsidered.
In this seminar, Dr. Truman will give an overview of their Australian Research Council research project focused on speculative fiction. As part of the project high school students in Australia, Canada, and the UK have studied and written speculative fictions on the themes of sustainability, technology, and social justice, and engaged with writing by transdisciplinary scholars who use speculative fiction in their research. The seminar will include a lecture on some of the findings from the project, followed by an activity where seminar participants will have the opportunity to think through some of the project’s prompts and discuss their own research areas in relation to (speculative) fiction.
A/Professor Sarah E. Truman is a trans-disciplinary scholar in literary education, cultural studies, and the arts, and co-director the Literary Education Lab (www.LiteraryEducationLab.org) at University of Melbourne. From 2022-2025, Dr. Truman is an ARC DECRA Fellow, their project ‘Speculative Futures’ focuses on speculative fiction as an interdisciplinary method for thinking about the world and mode of literary engagement in diverse pedagogical settings (high schools, universities, and interdisciplinary scholarship). Truman is also PI on the ARC Linkage Grant ‘Reading Climate’ (2024-2026) which focuses on the relationship between Indigenous climate fictions, literary education, and climate justice. Truman’s other past and ongoing artistic and scholarly collaborations include WalkingLab, a SSHRC-funded international arts collective (www.WalkingLab.Org) and Oblique Curiosities, a electro folk group (www.ObliqueCuriosities.com).
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