Building Utopia - the power of social dreaming with Dr Kirsten Harris

From the Ideal City of the Renaissance humanists to the actual utopian communities of Robert Owen there has long been a connection between utopias - both real world and fictional - and humanism. Thomas More, who coined the term 'utopia' in his book of the same name, was himself heavily influenced by Erasmus, the great humanist thinker of the late Renaissance.

What are the points of connection between the ideas that drive utopian world-building and those that drive humanism? In what ways do utopias diverge from religious constructions of paradise, and what do they do differently? Why do authors and filmmakers – and readers and viewers – turn to the idea of utopia? One critic has called utopianism “social dreaming,” but it’s social dreaming with a purpose. Utopias offer a way to scrutinize society, challenge its faults, and propose an alternative. Utopias are about desire: they teach people how to want differently, with the aim of bringing about change in the real world. This talk will explore how fictional visions of alternate or future societies can offer hope and drive change.

Pic above shows members of the utopian community at Whiteway, near Stroud

Kirsten Harris
Dr Kirsten Harris is Lecturer in Liberal Arts at Bristol University and Director of Teaching. She has a Ph.D. from Sheffield University on the poet Walt Whitman.
Her interests are in the american poet Walt Whitman, C19th British socialist culture and the utopian tradition. Combining utopias, imagined societies, theory and lived practice, she explores the problems humans navigate when trying to create a better world. She has published and lectured widely, including for the Coventry City of Culture and is on the editorial team of the journal Utopian Studies

Everyone is welcome - if you are a Bristol Humanists member it is FREE. Others we request £3/£1.

We meet at the Unitarian Meeting Hall in Brunswick Square. There is free on-street car parking and nearby cycle parking.