This project is affiliated with the PPEH Intersecting Energy Cultures Working Group at PPEH. Our small team, consisting of Professor Abigail Harrison Moore (University of Leeds), Professor Emerita Ruth Sandwell (University of Toronto), and myself have been using the lens of energy practices to re-explore guidebooks, recipe-books, novels, other texts, and the material culture of the home. We have been working with our project partner Leeds University Library’s Special Collections on a pilot workshop that we are hoping to scale up into a bigger project with research museums in Germany and Canada. 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. Our approach 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 