This mini-project, developed together with Abigail Harrison Moore at the University of Leeds and Ruth Sandwell at the University of Toronto, has been selected for funding as part of the Intersecting Energy Cultures Working Group at the Penn Program for Environmental Humanities. Our project uses the lens of energy practices to re-explore guidebooks, recipe-books, novels, other texts, and the material culture of the home. By partnering international researchers with collections specialists and those working in educational outreach, we will identify and interpret texts and objects that can be used for co-produced/participatory workshops and exhibitions on the theme of past and future energy transitions in the home. The project aims to reinstate both the agency of women in negotiating historical energy transitions and the centrality of the household tasks (laundering, cooking, and home-making) to the energy economy.
Katie Ritson 