I invite paper proposals for a panel at the 2012 Society for Utopian Studies conference on the status of the critical utopia. If all goes well, Tom Moylan has agreed to serve as respondent for this panel.

Now twenty-five years beyond the publication of Tom Moylan’s Demand the Impossible, what can we say in retrospect about the generic characteristics and historical significance that Moylan ascribed to the critical utopia? Does the genre need to be re-described or re-defined in any significant ways? Is the genre still historically viable, or have we moved beyond it to something substantially different? Can the genre be used to describe and understand broader cultural forms or trends? What are the historical and theoretical touchstones of the genre as seen from the present moment? What relationships have evolved between critical utopia and critical dystopia?

I welcome proposals that approach the topic from any angle. Papers might survey several works, focus on a representative case, or pursue theoretical analysis. Finished presentations must be no more than 20 minutes in length. Please send abstracts of about 200 words to Gib Prettyman at cgp3@psu.edu by May 15, 2012.