South Atlantic Quarterly Special Issue: Decolonizing Energy
Due Date: 12-01-2024
For this special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly, we invite contributors working in the energy humanities to identify and unpack key scenes for theorizing energy in classic decolonial or anticolonial thought—including the work of Fanon, W. E. B. DuBois, Aimé Césaire, Sylvia Wynter, Gloria Anzaldúa, Patrice Lumumba, Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Husain al-Rahhal, among others. Though the contemporary “canon” of decolonial theory is deep and broad, we propose to return to and address classic and foundational works of the late twentieth century. Our aim is to produce a special issue that lays the groundwork for a new intellectual history of energetic liberation, by inviting energy-focused readings of influential keystone texts.
By revisiting the decolonial project through the perspective of energy, this special issue seeks to address the colonial legacies of the spatial and historical development of energy systems, while foregrounding ecopolitical visions of “taking back power” and energy justice. As such, it aims to
- foreground the relationship between energy, ecology, and settler colonialism;
- engage with intellectual genealogies to help us understand past, present, and future relationships between energy systems and decolonial political imagination;
- study global struggles for energy justice against colonial regimes of energy apartheid in the Global South; and
- develop critical and theoretical frameworks for understanding how energy can be conceived in relation to anticolonial epistemologies and politics.
The issue and its contributions will thus have a somewhat nontraditional structure: the issue will offer 10–12 shorter essays (of roughly 4,000 words) rather than a smaller set of full-length articles. In each of these essays, a contributor will select a particular decolonial theorist and offer an energy-inflected reading of a scene, thematic, or feature of that theorist’s work, explaining how their reading opens new avenues for the study of energy systems in their imbrications with forms of life.
As necessary, this project will support new translations of essential de/anticolonial works that have not been previously published in English. Any potential contributor who will benefit from such support should make a note in their proposal so that the editorial team can help to coordinate the translation logistics. As an ongoing part of the project, we hope that these works can be made accessible to a wider group of scholars and students, and aim to use the special issue as a step along the way to producing a critical anthology of de/anticolonial theory targeted for use in energy humanities pedagogy.
Steps and Timeline
Interested contributors should submit proposals of no more than 300 words to
energyhumanities@georgetown.edu, identifying the theorist and text that will be the subject of your reading, and explaining in brief the energy studies intervention. Proposals will be accepted through 1 December 2024, and we will respond to submissions in January 2025. Early submissions or inquiries are encouraged.
Selected contributors should expect to commit to the full development process for the special issue, which will be supported by the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University in Qatar. For the list of steps and more information, view the full call for papers.