American Ethnological Society
Online Call for Proposal
Promised Futures
Editors
Ibrahim Ince, University of Oxford
Erick Moreno Superlano, University of Oxford
Superbloque under construction, Caracas, ca. 1953. Curtesy of Archivo Histórico de Miraflores
What futures are promised, by whom, and at what costs? What does it mean to live in the aftermath of futures that do not come, that are indefinitely deferred, or granted only to certain groups? From nationalist slogans such as “Make America Great Again” to infrastructural development projects in the Global South, the temporal politics of promised tomorrows shape the subjectivities, aspirations and exclusions of today.
Anthropologists have increasingly turned their attention to how people imagine, anticipate and prepare for the future, what Knight and Bryant call “the future of the future in anthropology.” “Promised futures” are temporal claims that condition human action in the present, justify exclusion, sustain hope, or that fracture when expectations go unmet.
In this special collection, we welcome submissions that explore how promised futures moralize and motivate present-day actions. Who is left out from such futures and what happens when these promises fail? This call is an invitation to consider the future’s embeddedness in everyday life.
We are especially interested in contributions that address topics such as:
- Hopes and aspirations of a “good life”
- Migration, waithood, and deferred futures
- Development, infrastructure, and modernity (and their failure)
- Nationalism, collective, and exclusionary futures
Please submit a 300-word abstract and a 50-word author bio using this Google Form by August 31, 2025. Selected authors will be notified in mid-September and will be requested to submit their essay (1500-2000 words) by mid-October. We anticipate publication on the American Ethnological Society’s online platform in early 2026.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions at promisedfutures.AES@gmail.com; you may also contact the AES Digital Content Editor at kathryn.goldfarb@colorado.edu.
