Dr. Julia Leyda, NTNU Trondheim, and Dr. Katie Ritson, Rachel Carson Center / LMU Munich
Time and Date: 31 March 2022, 10:00 CET (Central European Time)
In this seminar we will consider Cara Daggett’s concept of petro-masculinity and how this translates in the context of European petrocultures. The cultural face of oil dependence has been influenced by US American films and novels in particular, and petrocultural scholars are only beginning to disentangle the varied economic, politicial and aesthetic forms of oil culture in other parts of the world. Daggett’s work on petro-masculinity pushes us to consider how gender relations inform and are informed by the availability of oil and interact with cultural specificities to produce local and gendered petrocultures.
Key questions for our discussion include:
- How does Daggett’s concept of petro-masculinity translate into a European context?
- What kinds of petro-masculinity and feminist or allied responses to it can we identify in European cultural productions?
- How do representations of oil in art, fiction, and visual media uphold or subvert gendered ideas about oil dependence?
- How might gender-nuanced understandings of petroculture prepare us for energy transitions in the future?
Required reading
Cara Daggett (2018) “Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire.” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 47:1, 25-44.
DOI: 10.1177/0305829818775817
Jessalynn Keller (2021) “‘This is oil country:’ mediated transnational girlhood, Greta Thunberg, and patriarchal petrocultures.” Feminist Media Studies, 21:4, 682-686.
DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2021.1919729
In addition to the required reading, we ask participants to bring to this webinar an image, text, film, or other item that speaks to the topic in some way.
Optional further reading
Imre Szeman. “Conjectures on World Energy Literature: Or, What is Petroculture?”
DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2017.1337672
Stephanie LeMenager and River Ramuglia. “Cli-Fi, Petroculture, and the Environmental Humanities: An Interview with Stephanie LeMenager”
DOI: 10.1353/sdn.2018.0008
Carolyn Merchant. 1980. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution.
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