This 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.
The Team
Abigail Harrison Moore is Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at the University of Leeds. She currently co-leads an international project on gender and the social histories of energy.
Katie Ritson is Research Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment & Society in Munich with a German Research Council-funded project entitled “Offshore: Energy Cultures of the North Sea.”
Ruth Sandwell is Professor Emerita, University of Toronto and editor of the award-winning Powering Up Canada: A History of Power, Fuel and Energy from 1600 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016).
Leeds University Library’s Special Collections houses hundreds of thousands of rare books, manuscripts, archives, and art. It is committed to research and activities that enable community access to its collections.