Social theory attempts to explain ways-of-being, power structures and dynamics, and other social phenomena. Students can use the frameworks provided by social theorists to develop their own understanding of the world they inhabit. Engaging with theory and theorizing helps people—whether scholars or not—make sense of their surroundings.

Yet introducing students to conceptual material can cause “theory anxiety,” wherein students believe theoretical courses to be more challenging than other courses. Many scholars have investigated this phenomenon. Ginger E. Macheski, Kathleen S. Lowney, Jan Buhrmann, and Melanie E. L. Bush identify the presence of this anxiety in social science theory and methods courses, while Lowney discusses how the need for abstract reasoning skills in the teaching of theory may stimulate anxiety. Students see the subject itself as inherently forbidding because of its abstract nature. And, as Rachel Ann Rosenfeld observes, theory anxiety can interfere with the learning process.

To counter the impact of theory anxiety, many scholars have created and use concrete interventions and materials—such as jigsaw puzzles and feature films—to mitigate against it in the classroom. Sociologist Jane A. Rinehart argues that focusing on “doing theory” or “theorizing” rather than learning the works of existing theorists as banked knowledge can both lessen students’ anxiety and better prepare students to engage in social change work, while sociologist Christina D. Weber writes that as educators teach students social theory, they should encourage their pupils to focus not only on “the canon,” but also on seeing themselves as theorists. Students are then more equipped to engage in their social reality and perhaps change it as they see fit.

One way to support students in this pursuit is through the close reading and analysis of speculative fiction, a powerful literary genre that explores how society might operate in contexts different from reality. Speculative fiction spans science fiction, fantasy, alternative historical fiction, dystopian and utopian fiction, and apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. An intentionally broad category, the genre encompasses and moves between subgenres which are united by their conspicuous lack of realism. Speculative fiction thus isn’t constrained by past or current realities of any sort, and as such, it offers a productive playground in which readers can apply social theory to analyze power structures.

Some speculative fiction, often but not exclusively older works, have logics from our world baked into their storytelling without critique or consideration. Scholar Joshua Yu Burnett writes that speculative fiction has a history of “depicting conquest and colonialism as glorious enterprises.” Other works create entirely new worlds with different assumptions and frameworks underpinning their social and other dynamics. Because of this, it’s important to consider these limitations when we select works to discuss and use to analyze different social theories. There’s no need to have students engage with racist, uncritical works steeped in colonialist biases when there are so many powerful works of speculative fiction—like Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, Margaret Killjoy’s A Country of Ghosts, and Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death—that actively subvert these tropes.

Ultimately, the classroom is a place to equip students to better understand the world through historical and theoretical inquiry.

Anthropologist Katherine Fox observes that dystopian fiction “provides an entertaining, low-stakes way for students to practice observation and analysis” as an alternative to observing real life. She created a series of speculative fiction assignments for graduate student training in ethnographic methods in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-person participation was impossible. For these assignments, students chose one work of speculative fiction and use it as a case study to practice observation, analysis, and create a research plan. In the observation assignment, students took field notes as if observing, in real time and space, the story they selected. In the next assignment, they analyzed the sociocultural landscape of their story and applied theories learned in the course through short-answer questions. The last assignment was to create a research plan that they could carry out in the setting of the work of fiction they selected. Using speculative fiction as a playground to apply theory and to theorize removes the weight and baggage that comes with observing and theorizing about our own world. The same is true of using other media entirely.

In an essay exploring various exercises she assigns students to mitigate their theory anxiety, sociologist Julie A. Pelton discusses the virtue of writing “film analysis papers” rather than “theory papers” as a means of igniting students’ curiosity and excitement. As she writes, “using film decreases anxiety over the difficulty of theory courses because it distracts students from these fears, allowing them to relax.”

Speculative fiction, no matter the medium in which it’s presented, offers a place to practice imagination. It facilitates the building of critical consciousness, helps students develop critical media literacy, and strengthens their ability to counter harmful narratives. This is true both in consuming such works and in creating them. Fox suggests that through these works, students can grapple with questions of how we, collectively, respond to crisis, change, and difference. Scholars Neil Gerlach and Sheryl N. Hamilton discuss the importance of separating our vision of the future from the limitations placed upon us by our current realities and how science fiction helps to activate this imagination. Writing speculative fiction opens space for “extrapolative social science theorizing” that constructs a positive future unconstrained by current realities, they argue. Cultural critic Henry A. Giroux writes that educators can create space for students to question, think critically, and imagine a different, positive future. Furthermore, he writes, our responsibility to students goes beyond mastery of content to include assisting them to develop their imagination about how the world can be.

Engaging with speculative fiction brings students from theory to practice. Sherell McArthur, a scholar of educational theory and practice, discusses the importance of empowering students, specifically Black women, to connect their lived experiences to the world around them so that they can “identify, deconstruct, and problematize the complexity of power relations operating in society.” McArthur’s work focuses on the development of critical media literacy by Black girls through an understanding of the historical and present role of Black women and girls, including Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Sojourner Truth, Kathleen Cleaver, and Bree Newsome, in social change work; through the recognition of harmful narratives in current media about Black women and girls; and by creating counter-narratives about themselves and their peers. While not specifically speculative fiction, the nonfiction narratives that students both read and produce serve as counter-narratives to the oppressive and harmful tropes in media more generally about Black girls and girlhood. Similarly, Black feminist speculative fiction authors such as N. K. Jemisin, Butler, and Okorafor offer stories of strong Black female characters operating in worlds that are both similar to ours and distinct, which allow students to consider how power, inequity, social stratification, and agency are present both in the world of the fictional narrative and in their own.

Burnett discusses two Okorafor novels (The Shadow Speaker and Who Fears Death) as examples of works that play with and subvert white supremacist tropes common in speculative fiction to complicate postcolonial narratives and “articulate a way forward beyond our current neocolonial reality.” Literature and media studies scholar Shelley Streeby examines Butler’s works in the context of feminist theory. Speculative fiction, then, can complement engagement with works of nonfiction, and both can offer stories that counter dominant narratives. This genre serves as a powerful tool to help students understand social theory and become theorists themselves. This, in turn, helps them build their imagination and envision and perhaps seek to create alternate futures.

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