Joy Zhang

At the end of February, I spent two fantastic days at the Futures + Literacies + Methods Lab in Utrecht, in conversation with the amazing Annette Markham, Rebecca Coleman, Anna Hickey-Moody, Adi Kuntsman, Taylor Annabell, Riccardo Pronzato, Jessica Enevold, Levien Nordeman, Evelyn Wan, Ana Pop Stefanija, Jenny Chan, Ana Kubrusly, and many others, thinking through transgressive methods, futuring, public engagement, and the role of academia.

It was one of those rare spaces where ideas were not only exchanged, but tested, stretched, and reimagined. Across discussions, a shared question kept surfacing: how might our methods not simply study the world, but actively participate in shaping more just and imaginative futures?

A big bravo to Annette and everyone at the Futures + Literacies + Methods Lab for convening such a wonderful group and curating an inspiring, generous space for discussion. These kinds of gatherings are a powerful reminder of why academic conversations matter.

I’m sharing here a video of the ‘Tower of Futuring’ I built during the workshop, in the spirit of our two-day exploration: tentative, playful, and held together by collective imagination.