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How have we imagined utopic societies in the past and how do we do so now? What are the paradoxes and contradictions involved in imagining social alternatives? This First-Year Seminar examines modes of thought and imagination concerned with alternative, often future, worlds. We will consider classic and contemporary works of utopian (and dystopian) literature alongside instances of utopian thinking as manifested in philosophy, socioeconomic and political theory, art, architecture, and historical and current events. Through class discussions and brief writing assignments, collaborative projects, film screenings, and guest visits, we will engage a variety of themes including the relationship between technology and work, social hierarchy, the nature of history, and the character of social imagination. Texts may include works by Octavia Butler, Philip K. Dick, Thomas More, Samuel Butler, Ernst Bloch, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Le Corbusier, Marge Piercy, Ursula Le Guin, and W.E.B Du Bois, Samuel Delany, and Margaret Cavendish.