Middle East and Central Asia Futurescapes: Rethinking Politics, Culture, and Technology

The Middle East and Central Asia are undergoing profound transformations that are reshaping the ways their futures are imagined, debated, and pursued. Across the region, governments, societies, businesses, artists, and communities are drawing upon historical legacies, cultural traditions, and collective memories to articulate competing visions of the future. From governance, diplomacy, and economic development to technological innovation to cultural production, the future has become a powerful arena in which ideas, identities, and aspirations are negotiated. Rather than viewing the past and the future as opposing forces, this conference explores how historical experiences continue to inform contemporary transformations and future trajectories across the region. The upcoming conference will be organised under the “Middle East and Central Asia Futurescapes Network,” an initiative by the ANU’s Centre for the Arab and Islamic Studies (CAIS) to bring together scholars to examine the tangible and intangible ways by which the region is being re-shaped and re-imagined through the prism of future-facing technology.