Events

November 1-12, 2021

Our fellows will participate in a variety of events and panels with partner organizations around the world in the runup to the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. These events will put our fellows into conversation with scientific experts, social science researchers, policy makers, activists, and other curious, insightful thinkers on climate action.

At COP26, our fellows will participate in conversations with delegates and co-creation activities with attendees and members of the public.

October 12-15, 2021

On October 12-15, 2021, our fellows will participate in TED Countdown in Edinburgh, Scotland, sharing insights and co-developing stories and visions of the future with TED speakers and attendees.

2021 partner events

We’re planning events in 2021 with a variety of partners, including Future Tense, the British Library, the Journal of Science Policy & Governance, and the Hay Festival in Arequipa, Peru. Check back on this page for event updates, or join the Center for Science and the Imagination mailing list to be notified as events are announced. 

Seeing the future: What do success and failure look like?

Visualizing our future is critical to motivating wise choices today. In this endeavor, speculative fiction is a powerful complement to scientific projections. The final event in the series explores success and failure through the eyes of creatives and invites audiences to activate their own imaginations.

December 9, 2021
7:00 pm  – 8:30 pm  EST
Online

Past Events

Flipping the Script on Climate

Join us for an online storytelling event bringing optimistic climate stories, performers and scientists together to re-imagine our future.

November 17, 2021
1:30 pm  – 2:45 pm  MST
Online

Imagining Our Climate Futures

If we hope to achieve the global will and cooperation needed to meet the challenges of the climate crisis, we need stories of hope and transformation, not just disaster and deprivation. These stories should be rooted both in local realities and scientific insights. If we can inspire communities around the world to imagine their own positive climate futures, we can begin to imagine and undertake the work it will take to rebuild the world’s economies and cultures on more sustainable foundations. The Climate Imagination Fellowship, presented by the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, aims to create positive stories about the future that catalyze action in the present. Join fellows Libia Brenda, the first Mexican woman to be nominated for the Hugo Award, and Vandana Singh, a speculative fiction author and professor of physics, for a conversation about storytelling, hope, and climate justice. The discussion will be moderated by Ed Finn, director of the Center for Science and the Imagination and the Climate Imagination Fellowship.

November 4, 2021
4:30 pm  – 5:30 pm  EST/PET
Online

Crafting Climate Futures: From Story to Policy

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow presents an opportunity for decisive global action amidst escalating climate chaos. Now, more than ever, we need narratives of positive climate futures alongside coordinated interventions in order to ameliorate the crisis. Join the University of Liverpool’s Olaf Stapledon Centre for Speculative Futures and the Climate Imagination Fellows at Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination for a session dedicated to exploring the stories that might catalyze new understandings and connect narrative interventions to transformations in policy, governance, and culture. During the event, our panelists will respond to questions and provocations posed by an international group of policy thinkers, researchers, and fiction authors.

November 8, 2021
1:30 pm  – 2:30 pm  GMT
Online

Cli-Mates: Climate Futures Conversations from Scotland

During the UN Climate Change Conference, or COP26 (1-12 November, 2021), the eyes of the world are on Glasgow, Scotland, where nations, civil-society groups and activists are meeting to determine the shape of global action in the face of the climate crisis. At this moment, perhaps more than any other, we need creatively expansive thinking about possible futures—stories that help us chart a path towards a just, equitable, sustainable global civilization.

November 10, 2021
 GMT

Unlocking Our Climate Imagination

Hosted by Future Tense Speakers: Climate Imagination Fellows Libia Brenda, Hannah Onoguwe, and Vandana Singh; novelist Kim Stanley Robinson; UN High-Level Climate Champion Nigel Topping; journalist and climate policy expert Bina Venkataraman

August 31, 2021
4:00 pm  UTC
Online

Workshop on Reimagining Climate Futures

Hosted by the Journal of Science Policy & Governance and the UK Science and Innovation Network Speakers: Climate Imagination Fellows Libia Brenda, Hannah Onoguwe, and Vandana Singh; British Consul General Emily Cloke

September 7, 2021
4:30 pm  UTC
Online

The Days After Tomorrow: Climate Fiction for the Future

Hosted by the British Library Speakers: Climate Imagination Fellows Libia Brenda, Hannah Onoguwe, and Vandana Singh; Guardian culture editor Claire Armitstead

September 22, 2021
3:00 pm  UTC
Online