On the Cultural History of Energy and Extraction

Jamie L. Jones, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

February 12, 2026

UM6P Campus – Benguerir

This next seminar will be delivered by Jamie L. Jones, entitled: “On the Cultural History of Energy and Extraction”

This talk offers an introduction to the methodology of the environmental humanities, with a focus on the new subfield of the energy humanities, in which scholars are now exploring the historical and cultural dimensions of energy extraction, circulation, and consumption. As we take up the serious challenges of climate change and energy transition, scholars in the humanities must join scientists and engineers to help imagine and bring into being new, more sustainable energy systems. Jamie Jones will discuss energy humanities scholarship, drawing from new research on wind energy in Morocco, petroleum extraction in Nigeria, and from her own research on nineteenth-century energy transitions in the United States.