Energy Matters: Latin America and the Cultural Critique of Energy

Jamille Pinheiro Dias (University of London) Paul Merchant (University of Bristol) Manuel Silva-Ferrer (Editor-in-Chief of Trópico Absoluto) Gianfranco Selgas (UCL)

How might a Latin American cultural critique of energy reframe the relevance of cultural history and aesthetics in light of the energy regimes that underpin them? Energy Matters, a special section of the journal Environmental Humanities, explores diverse approaches to examining, interpreting, and understanding the intersections between energy and sociocultural practices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela. This talk will focus on the research featured in the special section. It will discuss how it offers a Latin American perspective on the field of energy humanities, repositioning the region from the periphery to the center of global energy discussions, and how Latin American sociocultural constructions, representations, and mediations of energy sources are deeply embedded in planetary, social, and economic systems. “Energy Matters: Latin America and the Cultural Critique of Energy” is a special section in Environmental Humanities (volume 17, issue 1, March 2025). Edited by Gianfranco Selgas (UCL) and Manuel Silva-Ferrer (Editor-in-Chief of Trópico Absoluto), it includes a foreword by Imre Szeman (University of Toronto, Canada) and original research papers by Gina Saraceni (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia), Gabriel Rudas (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia), Jamille Pinheiro Dias (University of London), Paul Merchant (University of Bristol), and raúl rodríguez freire (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile).