The MIT Press is delighted to announce a new monograph series, Critical Energy Studies, co-edited by Dominic Boyer (Rice University), Cara New Daggett (Virginia Tech), Penélope Plaza (University of Reading), Hiroki Shin (Queen’s University Belfast), and Imre Szeman (University of Toronto).
Responding to growing public concern about anthropogenic climate change and the sustainability of the world’s current energy mix, the past decade has witnessed a remarkable efflorescence of research exploring the significance of energy for history, politics, society, and culture. The new series Critical Energy Studies will showcase the very best critical research on energy being conducted today in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, both interdisciplinary projects in energy humanities and environmental studies and those rooted in disciplines such as anthropology, architecture, economics, geography, history, political science, and visual studies. Critical Energy Studies looks backward and ahead, pursuing inquiry into the coal, oil, and nuclear energy complexes that shaped modernity as well as to future forms of decarbonized sociality in-the-making. Books in the series will pursue innovative investigations of energy with respect to themes of race and ethnicity, sexuality, religion, political imaginaries, labor, social and environmental justice, decolonization, Indigeneity, identity and belonging, technology and science, media and communication, urban studies, and renewable futures. The series will also be open to more speculative projects that map out possible alternative social and cultural futures which could follow decarbonization of the global economy. Beyond its academic goals, Critical Energy Studies will amplify critical investigations into ways of living with energies past, present, and future—research essential to inform socio-political and culture change in support of climate action and energy transition.
Guidelines for submitting book proposals can be found on the MITP website. MITP has a new Open Access policy, that aims to publish all scholarly monographs on their OA platform Direct to Open, at no cost to authors. Senior Acquisitions Editor, Beth Clevenger, will guide the development of the series at MITP. Expressions of interest from authors should be directed to criticalenergystudies@mit.edu.