Precarious futures: cultural studies in pandemic times

Abstract

This article introduces the special issue of Continuum on 'Precarious Futures: Cultural Studies in Pandemic Times'. The issue arises out of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia conference 'Cultural Transformation' held in December 2019, in Meanjin (Brisbane), on the land of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples. The articles in this special issue originate from this conference, and have thus been written and revised in the unusually difficult circumstances caused by the emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Taking up (and indeed living) the theme of 'precarious futures', the authors of these papers canvass topics related to this issue, including: environmental transformations caused by climate change and species extinction; global food security; modes of protest in climate crisis and pandemic crisis; affective politics; colonialism; drone technologies; science fiction realities; futurist biologies; resurrection science and art; feminist hauntology; feminist futures and academic precarity; and current approaches in medical humanities to emerging health issues.