Latest Daedalus journal features ASU scholars, asks readers to think about our past and future
“How will we think about the past in the future?” asks the summer issue of Daedalus, an open-source journal from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which features multiple ASU scholars. Illustration and design by Katie Burk/Good Work Burk
“How will we think about the past in the future?” asks the latest issue of Daedalus.
The summer 2025 edition of the open-access journal, which features a combination of scholarship and creative/speculative work, was guest-edited by Arizona State University Regents Professor of English Ayanna Thompson and includes a piece by ASU President Michael Crow, with William B. Dabars of ASU's School for the Future of Innovation in Society.
In her introduction, Thompson says that the issue explores the harms we inflict on each other and our planet while imagining a bridge toward a more equitable tomorrow.
“A unifying theme in the issue is the recognition that people need time and encouragement to think about the future — that we must face the worst outcomes to avoid them, and that a better future must first be dreamed to be realized. Through speculative thinking and the power of the arts, this collection encourages us to see ourselves outside of the constraints that persist today,” Thompson wrote.
From escaping regressive tax models to decommodifying the arts to rethinking human relations after first contact with intelligent alien life, the contributors envision what is needed to conjure this future.
Other ASU faculty and staff who contributed academic and creative work to the issue include:
- Natalie Diaz, professor and Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry.
- Matt Bell, professor and director of the ASU Worldbuilding Initiative.
- Joshua LaBaer, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and the executive director of the Biodesign Institute.
- Madeline Sayet, clinical associate professor of English.
- Leah Newsom, manager of marketing and communications for the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and a faculty associate in the Department of English.
- Lindy Elkins-Tanton, formerly an ASU professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Daedalus is a quarterly, peer-reviewed academic journal published by MIT Press on behalf of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
It explores significant issues of public importance and the frontiers of knowledge, drawing on leading thinkers in various fields. The journal's name and emblem are inspired by the Greek myth of Daedalus, symbolizing the pursuit of knowledge and the overcoming of intellectual obstacles.
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