CSI Fall 2025 Catalog
The Center for Science and the Imagination’s publications for fall 2025 explore visions of the future across a broad range of themes and contexts, from climate futures in China, South Asia, Mexico, Nigeria, and beyond to symphony halls and communities considering issues of nuclear waste management in the western United States. We are excited to share the work of dozens of collaborators, from scientists and engineers to speculative fiction authors, policy thinkers, musicians and arts leaders, educators, and more.
Climate Imagination
Climate Imagination: Dispatches from Hopeful Futures: Forthcoming, MIT Press, December 2; preorders available now. The stories we tell about our climate future are often catastrophic: megastorms and heat waves loom over us, sending a signal that the problem is so vast, so complex, that it’s out of our control. That narrative is compelling for some, but leaves others feeling hopeless. Without positive visions of climate adaptation and resilience that we can work toward, it’s difficult to motivate broad-based efforts for change in the present. Through speculative fiction, essays, and visual art, Climate Imagination seeks to inspire a wave of narratives about what positive climate futures might look like for communities around the world. This book features perspectives from contributors based in a diverse range of places, each with their own unique opportunities and challenges for climate action: from China to Wales, Germany to Nigeria, Sri Lanka to Mexico, and more. A digital open-access version is also available now, under the title The Climate Action Almanac.
Sound Systems
Sound Systems: The Future of the Orchestra: Available now. Classical music institutions across the United States are facing challenges of relevance, access, representation, and sustainability. Can we reimagine orchestras as vibrant spaces for connection, shared learning, and exploring new modes of creative expression, without compromising their role as purveyors of rich aesthetic experiences? Sound Systems features speculative fiction and visual art alongside essays from musicians, music educators, arts leaders, activists, and scholars, including thinkers from the fields of civil engineering, learning science, and public health. Contributors consider possible futures for U.S. orchestras through four lenses, each of which brings into focus different social functions, goals, and resources: Orchestra as Game, Infrastructure, Network, and Public Good. The book is free across several digital formats, and will soon be available to order at cost via print-on-demand.
Our Radioactive Neighbors
Our Radioactive Neighbors: Collaborative Imagination, Community Futures, and Nuclear Siting Practices: Forthcoming winter 2025. How might living next door to nuclear waste shape a community’s future? The United States and other countries around the world are seeking long-term solutions for the spent fuel produced by nuclear power plants. In the process, neighboring communities are being asked to consider whether they are willing to host repositories for storing nuclear waste, and to participate in deliberations about their design, safety, and environmental impact. What would it mean, day-to-day and for decades or centuries, to share one’s home with nuclear waste? Can communities collectively envision the possibilities it might create, or the risks? Through science fiction, visual art, and essays by experts in fields ranging from history and public policy to architecture and geology, Our Radioactive Neighbors provides resources to help communities imagine their futures and make informed choices about nuclear siting. The book will be available for free across several digital formats.