ASU associate professor earns tenure for blending speculative fiction, decolonial research

When Jenna Hanchey earned promotion to associate professor with tenure in Arizona State University's Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, the milestone reflected more than professional advancement. It affirmed a vision of research that blends traditional scholarship with creative writing and public imagination.

For Hanchey, tenure signals recognition not only of her academic publications, including her award-winning monograph "The Center Cannot Hold: Decolonial Possibility in the Collapse of a Tanzanian NGO," but also of her creative research in African speculative fiction and decolonial thought. Speculative fiction is a type of storytelling that imagines things that don’t exist in everyday reality to explore “what if” questions about the world.

“My creative work is part of my research,” she said. “It is not separate from it. Imagination is central to how we build different futures.”

Her forthcoming book, "Decolonial Dreamwork: Africanfuturism and Imagination Beyond Development"  will be published by Ohio State University Press. The project looks at how African writers use imaginative stories about the future to imagine different, non-colonial ways of thinking about progress and development, outside of Western ideas.

Hanchey’s work invites readers not only to analyze speculative fiction but to participate in it. The book includes prompts that encourage readers to stretch their own imaginative capacities.

“Speculative fiction helps us question what we think reality is,” she said. “It gives us space to imagine beyond the limits we have accepted.”

Her research began in development studies, where she looked into international volunteer work in Tanzania and the assumptions that can shape aid relationships. This led to her focus on how African writers imagine their own futures, rather than having those futures defined by outsiders.

In her teaching, she often connects her research to popular culture. For example, she assigns her article “Catastrophe Colonialism: Global Disaster Movies and the White Right to Migrate,” which asks students to take a closer look at films such as "The Day After Tomorrow" and "2012" and consider how these stories can reflect underlying cultural assumptions.

She also teaches a doctoral module, Writing Speculative Fiction for Social Justice, which invites PhD students to translate their research into story form. The course explores how emotion and imagination can complement traditional academic argument.

“Essays move through logic,” she said. “Stories can move through emotion and intimacy. Both matter.”

Tenure also provides space for Hanchey to reflect on academic publishing and accessibility. She has become increasingly interested in open-access research and alternative venues that make scholarship publicly available.

“I would rather publish somewhere people can actually read the work,” she said. “Knowledge should be accessible.”

Beyond the classroom, she co-hosts the podcast "Griots and Galaxies," which features conversations with African speculative fiction writers, and "Just Keep Writing," a podcast supporting marginalized and under-resourced writers.

For Hanchey, tenure ultimately reflects community.

“This milestone was only possible because of the people and communities I work with,” she said. “It gives me space to continue doing that collective work.”

At ASU, she builds connections between her work at the Hugh Downs School and initiatives focused on imagination and futures, including the Center for Science and the Imagination.

“There is a real commitment here to thinking about how we build better worlds,” she said. “That is something I am proud to be part of.”