CFP: Prediction & Popular Culture

Volume Editors: Megan Wood & Jeff St. Onge

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Abstract and CV Due: January 15, 2026

Initial Final Paper Due: May 1, 2026

 

Overview

Popular culture is not simply a reflection of contemporary society—one of its most enduring functions is to stage ways of imagining the futures we may one day inhabit. The narratives of popular cultural texts are often situated in speculative worlds, and with surprising frequency their imagined futures become our lived realities. Films, music, television, and literature have predicted technological shifts, societal transformations, and changes in our relationship to nature and government. This proposed special issue asks: How are popular cultural forms and narratives foretelling tomorrow’s realities, and what role does this predictive work play in shaping our present moment?

 

By analyzing how cultural artifacts anticipate and interpret technological, artistic, and political transformations, the included essays will collectively foreground popular culture’s unique power to mediate anxiety, spark critical dialogue, and mobilize reflection at moments of uncertainty. Together, they demonstrate the intertwined emotional, ethical, and societal stakes in imagining—and critiquing—tomorrow's realities, offering new frameworks for understanding prediction as a cultural practice. Ultimately, the argument of this special issue is that popular texts are not only blueprints for the future but resources for navigating the precarious present.

 

We welcome contributions that spotlight a distinct dimension of popular culture’s forecasting function in order to explore the theme of how cultural texts from the past help us make sense of the present, and/or how contemporary texts imagine the future.

Any topic related to popular culture and prediction is welcome. Already slated for this special issue are essays on contemporary disunion fantasy fiction and the affective politics of futurity; the 1980s cyberpunk imaginary; anticipatory critiques of AI in 1990s sci-fi television; and the critical prescience of 1960s–70s rock operas on the near future of music and artistic labor.

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Potential Topics 

We especially encourage proposals that move beyond these terrains–engaging different texts, genres, mediums, eras, communities, regions, or mechanisms of prediction. Possible areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

 

• Game worlds and simulations

• Sports fantasy and betting cultures

• Children’s media

• Influencers, memes, and/or social media

• True crime and procedural media

• Fashion and design

• Techo-futurist and/or astro-futurist media

• Medical and bioethical media

• Environmental and climate media

 

Contributors and Abstracts

If interested, please submit an abstract (500 word max) to Megan Wood (m-wood@onu.edu) and Jeff St. Onge (j-stonge@onu.edu) by January 15, 2026. Authors will be notified of acceptance by February 15. Papers should be 5,000-7,000 words and will be due by May 1, 2026. Please reach out to either editor with any questions!