At the 36th Biennial Conference of the European Association for American Studies (EAAS), “1776 – Visions of Freedom – 2026”, which took place at the University of Bologna from September 1 to 4, 2026, Prof. Dr. Jens Temmen chaired the panel “Free from Death, Free from Earth”: Post-Planetary Freedom in the Age of Technocapitalist Authoritarianism together with Claire Cazajous-Augé (Université Toulouse-Jean-Jaurès).
Taking its cue from Elon Musk’s promise of a humanity “free from death, free from Earth, free from gravity,” the panel explored how tech-billionaires’ visions of leaving Earth are entangled with technocapitalist authoritarianism, the erosion of scientific and legal standards, and transhumanist fantasies. At the same time, the panelists asked how post-planetarity might be imagined otherwise: not as escape or expansion, but as renewed responsibility for our planetary entanglements.
Our research assistant and lecturer Maxine Broich presented her paper “Humans Left Their Planet Not as One, but in Fragments”: Planetary Exodus and the Making of Hodgepodge Humanity in Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet,” which reads the novel’s planetary exodus as a reissue of terrestrial inequalities under galactic conditions. Further papers were given by Brad Tabas (ENSTA Paris / Institut Polytechnique de Paris), Alexandra Ganser (University of Vienna), and Judith Rauscher (University of Cologne).
We would like to thank all panelists and everyone in the audience for the inspiring discussion!
For more information on the conference program, go to: https://site.unibo.it/visions-of-freedom/en/program
