We warmly invite you to take part in the international academic conference

“Shapes of Dystopia: Literary Imaginings and Social Realities Across Media,”
which will take place on January 16, 2026, at the Sucharskiego Campus in Rzeszów, in a hybrid format.

This conference is the second edition of the “Shapes of Dystopia” series and is devoted to dystopia understood not only as a literary or film genre, but above all as a way of describing and critically interpreting the contemporary world. In a reality marked by climate crisis, social inequalities, disinformation, technological surveillance, and the algorithmization of everyday life, dystopian narratives are no longer only visions of the future—they increasingly describe the “here and now.”

The program includes 14 panel sessions with over 70 speakers from Poland and abroad (including Cyprus, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Morocco, and Turkey). Panel topics include, among others:

  • ecological and climate dystopias (Anthropocene, eco-dystopia, posthumanism),
  • artificial intelligence, algorithms, and technology as tools of control,
  • language of power, disinformation, and propaganda,
  • dystopia in film, TV series, video games, and popular culture,
  • feminism, the body, biopolitics, and reproductive control,
  • late capitalism, work, consumption, and the mental health crisis,
  • the city as a space of exclusion, surveillance, and resistance.

The conference shows how dystopia functions today in a transmedia way—from classical and contemporary literature, through cinema and Netflix series, to social media, advertising, and artificial intelligence.

Keynote Lectures

The central points of the conference will be three keynote lectures:

Prof. James Mackay (European University Cyprus)
Exploring the Wastelands of Artificial Intelligence: Reading Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Service Model after Agbogbloshie
James Mackay is a professor of literature and digital culture, specializing in artificial intelligence and media. In his lecture, he will show how literature and technological narratives expose the myths of productivity, progress, and the “inevitability” of AI, revealing their social and environmental costs.
This keynote is delivered as part of international cooperation within the SUNRISE network.

Dr Nikoleta Zampaki (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Neganthropocene Imagination in Modern Greek and Turkish Climate Fiction of the 21st Century
This lecture will focus on climate and ecological narratives in 21st-century Greek and Turkish literature, and on how literature responds to ecological disasters and the “slow violence” of the climate crisis.

Dr Goutam Majhi (University of Calcutta, India)
Phytodystopia: Vegetal Agency and Ecological Apocalypse in Dystopian Fiction
The lecture introduces the concept of “phytodystopia”—a form of dystopia in which plants and the non-human world become active agents, challenging anthropocentric visions of catastrophe and power.

Hybrid Format

The conference will be held onsite and online.
All sessions can be joined remotely—links are available in the conference program.

📌 Conference program (with links to online sessions):
https://shapes-of-dystopia-2kzvgga.gamma.site/program/

🌐 Conference website:
https://shapes-of-dystopia-2kzvgga.gamma.site/

🕘 Conference opening: January 16, 2026, at 9:30 a.m., Senate Room, Sucharskiego Campus in Rzeszów.

The conference is addressed to scholars of literature, language, culture, and media, as well as students, doctoral candidates, teachers, and all those interested in how media and narratives help us understand the technological, ecological, and social crises of the contemporary world.

We warmly invite you to join us!