Today, energy emerges as a central issue not only in politics, economics, and environmental studies, but also across the humanities and social sciences. It stands at the intersection of multiple disciplines—philosophy, human and nonhuman geographies, material history, anthropology, cultural studies, and psychoanalysis. Energy humanities contribute actively to the multidisciplinary discourse on the future of the planet and its inhabitants. Questions of energy extraction, transportation, and consumption underpin modern conflicts and their geopolitical dimensions, spanning from fossil fuel trade and the challenges of energy transition to the nuclear threat, which rekindles Cold War tensions. These issues are set within broader contexts of global inequalities, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
The energy imaginary permeates ideological agendas, political projects, national myths, and mass media narratives, while visions of past and future energy inform public discourse, literature, and film, reflecting their historical and social underpinnings. This conference aims to map this evolving field of research by exploring the social and humanistic dimensions of energy, including fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear power, and by examining the complex relationship between energy and the dynamics of war and peace.
Additionally, the conference will feature two policy-oriented panels: one addressing the energy and climate agenda following the onset of the full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, and the other examining the roles of scientists, experts, and activists in shaping and implementing energy transition policies and actions.
The conference is organized in partnership with Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.
Program
December, 12
10:00 Welcome coffee
10:30 Opening remarks
Oxana Timofeeva (IGRec; UdK Berlin), Ilya Kalinin (IGRec; Humboldt Universität zu Berlin), Olaf Hamann (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin)
11:00 - 13:00 Practicing Energy Humanities
Alexander Klose (University of Halle)
Whose Ideology is it? On the Multiplication of Ideological Possibilities and Contradictions in Late Petromodernism
Gretchen Bakke (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Ineffable without Capture: Considerations from the Anthropology of Energy
Oxana Timofeeva (IGRec; UdK Berlin)
Who Is Afraid of Nuclear Bomb? Dialectics of Atom Between War and Peace
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 16:00 Energy Futures and Capitalist Present
Darin Barney (McGill University)
After the Fire: Fossil Capitalism Beyond Combustion
Jeff Diamanti (University of Amsterdam)
Capital Returns on Energy Investment
Felix Jaitner (IGRec)
Green vs Brown Capitalism? Contested Transformation Strategies in Response to Climate Change
16:00 - 16:15 Coffee break
16:15 - 17:45 Keynote talk
Cara Daggett (Virginia Tech)
Desiring Energy: American Fantasies of Fuel, Freedom and Power
December, 13
10:00 Welcome coffee
10:30-11:50 Carbon Energy and North and South Divides
Johanna Gautier Morin (CEU)
What Economy for a Peaceful and Carbon-Neutral Europe?
Ayansina Ayanlade (CEU)
Dialectics of Oil Dependency, Resource Conflicts, and Gender Inequalities in African Petro-states
11:50 - 12:10 Coffee break
12:10 - 13:30 The Spectres of Oil
Maria Engström (Uppsala University)
Dark Petroaesthetics: The Crude Ghosts of Soviet Oil
Ilya Kalinin (IGRec; Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Soviet and Post-Soviet Discourses on Oil: Grammar and Vocabulary
Lunch 13:30 - 14:30
14:30 - 15:30 Energy and Climate Agenda in Transition Following the Beginning of the Full-scale War in Ukraine in 2022
Moderator: Angelina Davydova (IGRec)
Tatiana Mitrova (Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA)
Oldag Caspar (Germanwatch)
15:30 - 15:45 Coffee break
15:45 - 16:45 Energy Activism: How Can Scientists, Experts and Activists Form and Implement Energy Transition Policies and Actions
Moderator: Angelina Davydova (IGRec)
Tatiana Lanshina (Coalition for Sustainable Development)
Polina Malysheva (environmental/climate activist)
16:45 - 17:00 Coffee break
17:00 - 18:30 Keynote talk
Imre Szeman (University of Toronto Scarborough)
Futures of the Sun: On Power, Transition, and Tradition
Practical details
Dates: December, 12-13
Venue: Wilhelm-von-Humboldt-Saal, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin,
Unter den Linden 8, 10117 Berlin
