Membership

The plurality University Network is open to all individuals and organizations, under no other condition than the online approval of a Charter and/or Code of Conduct. People with membership status enjoy:

Full read/write access to U+’s online communications channels and events;
Access to U+’s network of members;
Access to, and voice on, all information relative to the organization, its activities, its funds, and the projects it carries out or supports;
The possibility to contribute in defining the Plurality University’s current and future directions;
The possibility to work on projects;
Access to information on all potential and future projects, and the possibility to submit or discuss projects.
The possibility to participate in collective decisions, in general by means of “lazy consensus” (no explicit objection meaning “Yes”) and in other cases, through consensus-seeking mechanisms;
The possibility to nominate oneself and/or vote for the Supervisory Board.

Look through our projects, take part, and let us know how to make them better! U+’s experimental approach is not possible without our members’ (your) engagement. Your returns, comments, experiences are what makes the project evolve and become more impactful. U+ is a learning process organized around one common objective (imaginaries for alternative futures) and common values (diversity, plurality, openness and sharing).

Become a member

Supervisory board

As an open organisation, the Plurality University Network (U+) has a supervisory board. The board’s function is to support, make suggestions and review how U+ operate through its activities. Once every month, board members meet online to review projects, share ideas and decide on next actions.

The Supervisory Board is composed of 6-10 individuals of diverse geographic origins, genders, abilities, and practices. It is elected yearly by members during our General Assembly, through online voting using a non-binary voting mechanism, and term limits are imposed.

The board is an open structure and everyone feeling interested in participating is invited to apply, so if you would like to be part of the board, feel free to reach us out and contact us.

2020 supervisory board

Ketty Steward (Presiding member)

Born in 1976 in Martinique, Ketty Steward is a writer, with more than 40 science-fiction short stories published as well as poetry and stories outside the Sci-Fi genre. Ketty Steward also gives conferences and courses, and has coordinated special issues of science-fiction magazines.

Adwaita Das

Adwaita Das is the author of Colours of Shadow, a novella and short fiction collection, as well as the books of poetry, 27 Stitches and Songs of Sanity. Global speaker and creative facilitator for inclusive and innovative mental healthcare, Adwaita applies sound and imagery to address trauma and share peace.

Jorge Camacho

Jorge Camacho is a strategic designer, foresight strategist, researcher, and lecturer. He is a research affiliate at Institute for the Future and a co-founder of Diagonal: a research, design, and futures studio based in Mexico City. He’s a lecturer at Centro, Ibero, EGADE Business School, and ISDI.

Mary Anne Mohanraj

Mary Anne Mohanraj is author of A Feast of Serendib, Bodies in Motion, The Stars Change, and twelve other titles. Mohanraj founded Hugo-nominated and World Fantasy Award-winning speculative literature magazine Strange Horizons, and serves as Executive Director of both DesiLit and the Speculative Literature Foundation.

Mimi Mondal

Mimi Mondal is a Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated author of science fiction and fantasy and a columnist writing about history, politics, technology and futures.

Lara Orawski

Lara Orawski is an artist and educator. She has masters degree in Photography and Philosophy from Central Saint Martins, and a multidisciplinary background combining strategic digital project development expertise in arts, design and cultural institutions utilising collaborative and speculative methodologies.

Salik Shah

Salik Shah is an author, futurist, and creative entrepreneur. He is the founding editor and publisher of Mithila Review, the international journal of science fiction and fantasy. You can find him on twitter or see more on his website.

Brigitte van der Sande

Brigitte van der Sande is founding/artistic director of Other Futures, a multidisciplinary platform for makers and thinkers of speculative fiction based in Amsterdam. With a festival, exhibition, events and an online feed, Other Futures introduce the critical potential of this genre to a diverse community.

Nicolas Gluzman

My professional paths led me to work in human resources consulting, sales and business developments before moving to corporate role in HR. For the last 2 years, I have been developing a concept called “Futurs Proches” (“Near Futures”) which is about organising workshops (open for everyone) to co-imagine and co-write short stories about a desirable future. It is now a collective of 50 facilitators across Switzerland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Team

The association is run by a small team oversighted by the Supervisory Board. The team conducts the projects proposed and initiated by the board and its members, creates partnerships with other organisations, communicates about the organisation, organises and conducts all of U+’s related actions: meetings, publications, workshops, etc.

Current team

Émilie Audibert

Émilie Audibert has a master’s degree in Cultural Project Management from University of Paris 1 Pantheon - Sorbonne, and has skills in communication as well as graphic design. She has extended knowledge in several areas such as digital cultures, political utopias and imaginary, and the issues of inclusive and alternative practices.

Daniel Kaplan

Daniel Kaplan is a futurist and entrepreneur, with one leg in innovation, and another in imagination. In 2000, he created the Next-Generation Internet Foundation (Fing), a think-&-do-tank to “anticipate digital transformations”. In 2018, he co-founded the Plurality University.

Chloé Luchs

With a multidisciplinary background in arts, digital culture and international organization, I conceptualize projects, strategies and methods to collectively imagine narratives about tomorrow. Sometimes a producer, sometimes a curator, I work and learn from collaborative formats, fiction&speculation and the encounter between arts and social sciences. In 2018, I co-founded the University of Plurality.

Rose Rondelez

Interaction design student at Strate, I started in 2020 a double diploma with Sciences Po, in the Innovation and Digital Transformation master’s degree. I’m really interested in ethics, environmental, social and societal challenges and in their futures. I am joining U+ as an intern to learn how to work with imaginaries and plurality.

General Assembly

U+’s second General Assembly and Board Election will be held between May 17 and May 31, 2021. This event is online and open to all members who joined before May 17, 2021.

According to the Statutes (French / English), the General Assembly needs to take three formal decisions:

Approve the 2020 Activity Report and 2021 Action Plan
Approve the 2020 Accounts [forthcoming]
Elect the Board, which means we need candidates! Those who wish to stand for the board needed to declare themselves before May 3, 2021. The vote takes place between May 17 and May 31.

Also, we want the General Assembly to be a place for substantive discussion on what U+ should become, what it should do, and how. We have put up a Questionnaire for members, but members are welcome to raise any other topic for dicsussion!

Most discussions will happen on Slack, via the #2021generalassembly channel.

1. The 2020 Activity Report and 2021 Action Plan

The document can be accessed here.

If you wish to discuss it, please join the #2021generalassembly channel on Slack.

2. The 2020 Financial Statement

The full financial statement for 2020 can be downloaded here (in French). We will soon provide a summary in english

If you wish to discuss it, please join the #2021generalassembly channel on Slack.

3. The Board

If you wish to stand for election to U+’s Board, please fill in this online form as soon as possible, and no later than May 3, 2021.

What does being a board member mean?

4. Discuss the future of the Plurality University Network

We have put up a list of issues that we think should be discussed about what U+ should become, what it should to, and how.

It can be discussed online, either on the #2021generalassembly Slack channel, or via this Questionnaire:

2021 General Assembly: Some Questions