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Call for papers: The Power of Energy

A conference at the Hagley Library, Friday Oct. 10, 2025

Stephanie Decker FAcSS FBAM

Apr 28

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Deadline: June 1, 2025

Over the past decade, energy history has emerged as a vibrant subfield: the subject of growing numbers of books, dissertations, course offerings, and public history projects. Yet despite this vibrancy, the field has not yet managed to turn energy into an indispensable analytic in the histories of labor and political economy, broadly construed as the history of capitalism. This conference invites emerging and established scholars to share papers that offer insights into how energy history can affect scholarship on the history of capitalism and technology writ large. We are particularly interested in papers that aim to demonstrate how energy history can rewrite the narratives of subfields that have historically been underrepresented in energy history, and papers that consider energy as a lens as well as an object of study. From these papers we plan to publish an edited collection suitable for classroom use that can be used to expand awareness of energy history’s accomplishments and insights.

We are interested in original, unpublished, empirical papers that are conceptually informed and historically framed addressing the above and related topics. As the Hagley library holds substantial research materials on energy, including coal, oil, and nuclear power, as well as on its distribution and consumption, we hope to consider proposals that benefit from engagement with Hagley resources. However, we also welcome papers that use collections from other institutions. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

slavery as an energy regime
energy histories of U.S. empire
U.S.-Indigenous relationships
energy as a lens to study social relations and everyday life
relationships between energy producers and energy consumers
the racialization of energy sources
energy, politics, and regulation
environmental consequences of energy extraction, generation, transmission, and consumption

Please submit proposals of no more than 500 words and a one-page C.V. to Carol Lockman at clockman@Hagley.org by June 1, 2025. Conference presenters will be asked to submit complete versions of their conference papers by Sept 26, 2025. The conference is planned as an in-person event but will adopt a virtual format if necessary. Presenters will receive lodging in the conference hotel and compensation for their travel costs. The program committee is comprised of Trish Kahle, Greg Hargreaves, and Roger Horowitz.

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