See you in Oregon, USA for SUS 2026!
Blue Utopias: Utopian Dreams on Sea and Shore
The 50th Anniversary Conference of the Society for Utopian Studies
October 30 to November 1, 2025
Trailborn Surf and Sound Resort
Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, USA
Conference Co-Chairs:
Mark S. Jendrysik (Program Chair)
Peter Stillman (Local Chair)
Conference Co-Chairs email:
The Society for Utopian Studies is an interdisciplinary academic organization that has been meeting regularly since its founding in 1975. Our 50th anniversary conference takes place in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina from October 30 through November 1, with sessions from Thursday afternoon through Saturday evening.
Utopian visions of the oceans and shores of our planet and beyond have long excited the human imagination. These “Blue Utopias” include the myth of Atlantis, tales of castaways, the dream of the sea as a garden, modern proposals for undersea living, current plans for floating cities of capitalist freedom, and more. Since the work of Thomas More, whose utopia is an island, the sea and the shore have provided a canvas for new spaces, new places and new people. Oceans are highways of purposeful movement that bring dreamers to those new places and new peoples. Space, once called the “final frontier,” provides an unlimited ocean and limitless shores on which to project utopian dreams. Of course, historically these dreams have often been dystopian for indigenous peoples, who have their own visions of blue utopias whether in Oceania, the Arctic, or elsewhere.
The far and distant shore lends itself to utopian aspiration. Dreams of colonial settlement reflect utopian aspiration even if the reality of such settlements usually belies such visions. Modern migration and the desperate efforts of refugees to escape violence and privation have been couched in dystopian terms for political gain. Popular culture and modern capitalist tourism position the “beach” as a place of liberation, and the vacation resort or cruise ship as a little utopia while ignoring the conditions of exploitation that make these personal utopias possible.
We will reflect on utopian themes that arose in the fertile soil North Carolina and the American Southeast. This region has long been a cradle for utopian dreaming and mythmaking, educational experiments, intentional communities, and planned cities, such as the Lost Colony, “Soul City,” and Black Mountain College.
2025 marks the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Society for Utopian Studies, and we will celebrate! In doing so we will critically address the history, development, and future of the discipline of utopian studies. Today we must ask if the “three faces of utopianism,” seen in literary/cultural works, intentional communities, and social/political theory, can thrive in the face of a reactionary culture and politics?
Be sure to join us Friday afternoon at 3:15 for a special roundtable celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Society for Utopian Studies.
Please note that panels with four presenters are extended by 15 minutes to allow time for discussion.
Remember to visit this conference website (and the program) for information on restaurants and entertainment within walking distance of the Trailborn Resort and in the Wrightsville Beach/Wilmington Area. Happy Conferencing!
The Society for Utopian Studies is pleased to continue its long-standing tradition of providing funding to offset travel costs for graduate students presenting their work at its annual meeting via the Nicole LaRose Travel Grant.
Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Hester Blum, Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. Her keynote address is entitled: “Polar Erratics: In and Out of Place in Circumpolar Seas.” She is the author of The News at the Ends of the Earth: The Print Culture of Polar Exploration (Duke 2019) and The View from the Masthead: Maritime Imagination and Antebellum American Sea Narratives (UNC 2008), as well as the editor of the Oxford edition of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (2022), among other volumes. She has participated in several research expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica, and her awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
The Society for Utopian Studies is also accepting nominations and/or submissions for the Lewis, Hough, Sargent, and Roemer awards. For information, please see the Awards tab of the SUS website.
“A map of the world that does not include utopia is not worth even glancing at.”
Oscar Wilde