Artifice, Energy, Intelligence: French & Francophone Speculative Fiction in the Anthropocene

Sean Singh Matharoo (The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
February 23, 2026
Scott Nygren Scholars Studio
Library West Room 212
2 PM

About the Speaker

Sean Singh Matharoo, Assistant Professor & Jacques Hardré Fellow of French and Francophone Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is a transdisciplinary scholar of 20th- and 21st-century French, Francophone, and Anglophone speculative fiction, environmental humanities, technoculture studies, and critical theory. They are currently working on two book projects. The first, The Energy of Wonder: French, Francophone, and Anglophone Speculative Fiction in the 20th and 21st Centuries, argues that authors in these traditions activate the sense of wonder to confront exhaustion, climate change, and uncertain futures, while reimagining survival as a practice of collective sustainability. Their second book project is about glitch, artificiality, and intelligence in 20th- and 21st-century French and Francophone speculative fiction and media – from Surrealism and OuLiPo to bandes dessinées and video games.

“Artifice, Energy, Intelligence” is sponsored by the France-Florida Research Institute, the George A. Smathers Libraries, and Imagining Climate Change.