Utopian studies
Field of study
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Through Interdisciplinarity, Social theory and Society
History
Denis Vairasse is mentioned among the earliest scholars in this field. His History of the Sevarambians contains one of the first thoughts on theoretical reflection on the concept of utopia: "Those who have read Plato's Republic or the Utopia of Thomas More or Chancellor Bacon's New Atlantis, which are in fact nothing more than the ingenious inventions ["imaginations"] of these authors, may think perhaps that this account of newly discovered countries, with all their marvels, is of a similar type ["sont de ce genre"]."
After the Summer of Love in 1960s, there was a significant increase in utopian works. The Society for Utopian Studies was founded in 1975 and the Utopian Studies Society was founded in 1988.
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Significant utopian studies scholars (in roughly chronological order)
- Herbert Marcuse
- Karl Mannheim
- Ernst Bloch
- Krishnan Kumar
- Raymond Williams
- Darko Suvin
- Lyman Tower Sargent
- Gregory Claeys
- Erik Olin Wright
- Ruth Levitas
- Tom Moylan
- Fredric Jameson
- Lucy Sargisson
- Vincent Geoghegan
- Raffaella Baccolini
Principal research institutions, journals, conferences, societies, awards
Research institutions:
Societies:
- Society for Utopian Studies (North America, founded 1975)
- Utopian Studies Society (Europe, founded 1988)
Journals:
- Utopian Studies (founded 1987)
Conferences:
- Society for Utopian Studies, annual
- Utopian Studies Society, annual
Awards:
- The Lyman Tower Sargent Distinguished Scholar Award, made by the Society for Utopian Studies.