This talk explores the profound imaginative, methodological, and existential possibilities that Arab science fiction offers people throughout the region as they navigate multiple crises: popular uprisings, authoritarianism, and social and economic injustice, to name just a few. It explores the genre's deep regional historical roots while also considering what the explosion in contemporary sci-fi output from the region indicates about current political needs and desires, and the centrality of gender, race, and class dynamics to re-envisioning futurity.  Referencing literature, film, and scholarship, this talk inquires whether science fiction, in its simultaneous utopian and dystopian refractions, can in fact open up spaces for hope and action. Finally, it examines the parallel world-making possibilities of science fiction and revolution and the tools they offer us for re-imagining the past and reframing the present.

Nadya Sbaiti is Assistant Professor at the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES) at the American University Beirut (AUB).  She is a co-founder and co-editor of Jadaliyya.