FutureSpace Talks

What does an asteroid taste like? How does design shape our cosmic imaginations? And what’s wrong with the way we periodise the Space Age?

FutureSpace Talks is an online series, curated and hosted by the FutureSpace team, showcasing researchers who critically engage with Earth—space relations and explore possible futures on and off planet.

Explore the upcoming talk, register to join, and browse past events below.

FutureSpace Talk #18 | Anne W. Johnson

Thursday, 9 April 2026 · 16:00–17:00 CET

Cosmic Pasts, Fictitious Presents and Speculative Futures in Mexican Outer Space Narratives

Drawing on my recent book Mexico in Space, this talk examines three interwoven temporal registers in Mexican outer space narratives. The cosmic past invokes pre-Hispanic astronomical knowledge as a source of legitimacy and belonging in contemporary space endeavors. The fictitious present interrogates the strategic mythologies and institutional performances that sustain Mexico’s space sector while obscuring structural inequalities. The speculative future traces the imaginative labor of scientists, artists, and communities who project Mexican cosmic presence through decolonial thought and situated knowledge. Across these registers, Mexican space narratives operate not as linear progress but as baroque entanglements of remembering, fabulating, and worldmaking.

Anne W. Johnson is a Professor in the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Universidad Iberoamericana. Her most recent book, Mexico in Space: From La Raza Cósmica to the Space Race, was recently published by the University of Arizona Press. She is currently conducting research projects on space art and astronomical observation practices in Mexico.