Long before the film Black Panther captured the public’s imagination, the cultural critic Mark Dery had coined the term “Afrofuturism” to describe “speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth-century technoculture.” Since then, the term has been applied to speculative creatives as diverse as the pop artist Janelle Monae, the science fiction writer Octavia Butler, and the visual artist Nick Cave. But only recently have thinkers turned to how Afrofuturism might guide, and shape, law. The participants in this workshop explore the many ways Afrofuturism can inform a range of legal issues, and even chart the way to a better future for us all.
This online conference took place on May 13, 2022, and featured contributors to a special issue, guest edited by Bennett Capers (Law, Fordham), in the open-access online journal Critical Analysis of Law: An International & Interdisciplinary Law Review. Access the special issue here.
Introduction
- Bennett Capers (Law, Fordham)
Panel 1
- Ngozi Okidegbe (Law, Cardozo), Of Afrofuturism, Of Algorithms
- Alex Zamalin (Political Science & African American Studies, Detroit Mercy), Afrofuturism as Reconstitution
Panel 2
- Rasheedah Phillips (PolicyLink), Race Against Time: Afrofuturism and Our Liberated Housing Futures
- Etienne C. Toussaint (Law, South Carolina), For Every Rat Killed
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