articles and News
May 16, 2023
Author's Note: Life against States of Emergency: Revitalizing Treaty Relations from AttawapiskatSarah Marie Wiebe
In this Author's Note, political scientist Sarah Marie Wiebe outlines the stories, concerns, and methods animating her new book, "Life Against States of Emergency: Revitalizing Treaty Relations from Attawapiskat."
April 24, 2023
Archives of the Planetary Mine: Culture, Nature Extraction, and Energy across the AmericasGianfranco Selgas
Gianfranco Selgas reports on the recent workshop "Archives of the Planetary Mine: Culture, Nature Extraction, and Energy across the Americas" at Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden.
April 3, 2023
Break TimeBarbara Leckie
Barbara Leckie beautifully explores the interruptions of time, academic research and writing, and climate behind her new book, Climate Change, Interrupted: Representation and the Remaking of Time.
March 24, 2023
Author’s Note: Violent Inheritance: Sexuality, Land, and Energy in Making the North American WestE Cram
How might we trace the entanglements of logics of energy in the extractivist projects of the North American West with logics of energy in the body? In this author's note, E Cram sketches the personal and historical inheritances that ground their new book, Violent Inheritance: Sexuality, Land and Energy in Making the North American West.
February 17, 2023
Author's Note: The Thread of Energy: Weaving the Fabric of Our LivesMartin J. Pasqualetti
In "The Thread of Energy" (OUP, 2021), Martin J. Pasqualetti "treats energy as a social issue with a technical component, rather than the other way around." In this Author's Note, Pasqualetti tells the story of how he came to realize the social importance of energy while outlining the book's key topics and themes for prospective readers.
February 1, 2023
What is the Sun?Oxana Timofeeva
Philosopher Oxana Timofeeva explores human conceptions of the sun, from ancient mythologies and philosophical metaphors to modern techno-scientific designs to extract virtually unlimited amounts of energy. In this elegant essay, Timofeeva offers a mythological rejoinder to unbounded techno-scientific ambitions, noting that the endless pursuit of extraction, even when applied to solar energy, is likely to end up like an ecological Icarus.
November 25, 2022
After Oil 3: Volatile Trajectories Podcast SeriesMark Simpson, Scott Stoneman, Imre Szeman, and Caleb Wellum
The Petrocultures Research Group's After Oil Collective recently began its After Oil 3 (AOS 3) project. One result of the first AOS 3 meeting is a six-episode podcast series called Volatile Trajectories, which has just been released online and as part of the Environmental Humanities Month 2022 Program. The podcast episodes were written and recorded over a day and a half at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in October 2022. They feature leading and emerging energy humanities researchers in conversation about how we move beyond fossil fuels and climate crisis.
December 8, 2022
EnergyshedsDarin Barney
Could organizing power systems regionally on an "energyshed" model empower citizens and redistribute the political control of energy systems in a democratic direction? In this introductory exploration, Darin Barney highlights the political implications of energysheds, arguing that they "will be made, not found."
November 16, 2022
Why Read Fiction while the Planet is in Crisis? Reflections on Cli-Fi Book ClubsMisty Matthews-Roper
Climate fiction stories, sometimes known as "cli-fi", have captured the imagination of writers and their readers. But it isn't yet clear if reading dramatic narratives about climate change can or will translate into action. Amidst a significant push for new narratives to shift climate anxiety into action, researcher Misty Matthews-Roper has turned to book clubs to understand the social power of reading cli-fi. She reports on her preliminary findings about how social reading can create meaningful conversations about how to live and respond to the ongoing climate crisis.
October 12, 2022
The Ecological Stakes of America’s New Cold War with ChinaAndrew Pendakis
"Climate change," writes Andrew Pendakis, "is not a box on a diplomatic checklist: it’s now the checklist itself." In this provocative essay, Pendakis argues that the increasingly aggressive posture of US policy towards China threatens to undermine the kind of radical and collaborative actions that the climate crisis demands. To have any hope of addressing the crisis, the United States must abandon xenophobic nationalism and adopt a much more open and cooperative position on China.
September 8, 2022
Low Carbon Justice in Canada's Net-Zero TransitionTemitope Onifade
Achieving net-zero is a complex process beset by many challenges. Writing about the Canadian context, Temitope Onifade, a legal scholar and instructor in climate law and policy at the University of British Columbia, explains the need to develop and apply a "low carbon justice" approach to the actions that Canada takes to reduce its carbon emissions. If it doesn't prioritize justice, Onifade argues, Canada will once again fail its most vulnerable populations.