Seminário de investigação que procura alargar o campo dos estudos sobre o petróleo para além das narrativas, geografias e fronteiras disciplinares estabelecidas, dando maior destaque às perspetivas do Sul Global e de outros locais de extracção e resistência.

Mind the Gap III:

Unearthing Petromodernity: Oil Studies in the Anthropocene

Online Research Seminar

The rise of fossil fuels has been central to the political, economic, cultural, and material transformations of the past two centuries, yet the forms of power, knowledge, and life enabled by carbon energy often remain analytically invisible. As we confront the converging crises of the Anthropocene, the need to rethink the centrality of fossil fuels to modern life has never been more urgent.

At a moment when toxic landscapes, resource frontiers, and environmental inequality reveal the uneven geographies of fossil modernity, the humanities and social sciences are reorienting analytical attention toward the energetic foundations of modern life. From pipelines and refineries to plastics and everyday petrochemical products, the material properties of oil have fundamentally shaped modern infrastructures and forms of life. What forms of political and social power are created through fossil fuel industries? How have fossil fuels shaped modern societies, their economic models, governmental regimes, everyday lives? How have they contributed to uneven global geographies rooted in colonialism and capitalism? What kinds of transitions to post-carbon futures are possible?

Bringing together approaches from history, anthropology, political ecology, and geography, we seek to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

🔗 Free registration here

📎 Download full programme (PDF)

Programme:

Every fortnight we will meet online to discuss an article or book chapter circulated in advance. The sessions will start with a 20–30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The sessions will take place on Mondays at 2PM.

We will explore key concepts such as petro-culture, carbon democracy, extractivism, fossil capital, energy regimes, and transition imaginaries, examining how energy dependence shapes modern subjectivities, infrastructures, economies, and ecological futures. The texts will be shared with participants in advance.

Everyone is welcome.

To register, please fill out the online form. After registering you will receive the readings and access information ahead of each session.

For more information, please write to unearthingpetromodernity@proton.me.

30 March  |  Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Selected chapter TBA (Verso, 2011)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Focus: How fossil fuels structured democratic politics, labour power and modern governance

13 April  |  Adam Hanieh, “Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production“ New Left Review (139)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Global production networks, the Gulf region and the restructuring of capitalism through petrochemicals

27 April  |  Carola Hein (ed.), Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Chapter 8: Peyerl, D. “Building Brazil’s Petroleumscape on Land and Sea: Infrastructure, Expertise, and Technology” (Routledge, 2022)
Henrique Oliveira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Infrastructure, territorial development and the spatial materiality of oil

11 May  |  Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Selected chapter TBA (Oxford University Pres, 2014)
Raquel Ribeiro (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Focus: Oil, media, culture, and everyday life in twentieth-century society

25 May  |  Appel, Mason & Watts (Eds.), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Introduction: “Oil Talk” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Anthropological and political-economic perspectives on oil extraction and everyday life

8 June  |  Alice Mah, Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Chapter 2: “Enduring Toxic Injustice and Fenceline Mobilizations” (Duke University Press, 2023)
João Pedro Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Environmental justice, pollution, and grassroots activism around petrochemical industries

22 June  |  Chelsea Schields, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean. Introduction and Chapter 1. “Crude Bargains” (University of California Press, 2023)
Anita Buhin (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil economies, intimacy, and social relations in offshore extraction zones

6 July  |  Tim Di Muzio & Matt Dow, “Global capitalism and oil“ in Handbook on Oil and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing , 2022)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA), Amedeo Policante & Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil in international relations, financialization and the structure of global capitalism

Organisation:

Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)

Um evento sobre a repressão política, autoritarismo e democracia na Europa do século XX, organizado pelo projeto STEXEU.

“Entre a democracia e o autoritarismo: capitalismo, coerção e repressão política na Europa, 1900-1975”

Resumo:

O evento reúne destacados investigadores da Grécia, de Portugal e dos Estados Unidos para refletir sobre a relação histórica e sociológica entre repressão política, autoritarismo e democracia na Europa do século XX. Organizado no Museu do Aljube – Resistência e Liberdade, um espaço profundamente ligado à memória da luta antiditatorial e do encarceramento político durante o Estado Novo, o debate articula-se diretamente com os interesses de investigação mais amplos do projeto STEXEU sobre estados de exceção e transformações autoritárias. Polymeris Voglis abordará a longa história da perseguição política na Grécia entre democracia e autoritarismo, desde a década de 1920 até aos anos 1970, enquanto Nikos Vafeas analisará a politização do banditismo na Grécia do período entre guerras. Irene Flunser Pimentel discutirá o papel da PIDE na repressão salazarista, e Dylan Riley revisitará a complexa relação histórica entre capitalismo, geopolítica e democracia através do caso alemão.

Abstract:

The event brings together leading scholars from Greece, Portugal, and the United States to reflect on the historical and sociological relationship between political repression, authoritarianism, and democracy in twentieth-century Europe. Hosted at Museu do Aljube – Resistência e Liberdade, a space deeply connected to the memory of anti-dictatorial struggle and political imprisonment under the Estado Novo, the discussion closely engages with the broader research interests of the STEXEU project on states of exception and authoritarian transformations. Polymeris Voglis will discuss the long history of political persecution in Greece between democracy and authoritarianism from the 1920s to the 1970s, while Nikos Vafeas will examine the politicization of banditry in interwar Greece. Irene Flunser Pimentel will analyze the role of the PIDE in Salazarist repression, and Dylan Riley will reconsider the complex historical relationship between capitalism, geopolitics, and democracy through the German case.

ENTRADA LIVRE

Cristina Marques faz a defesa pública da Tese de Doutoramento “O Instituto Superior Técnico e a Internacionalização Escolas Universitárias – Política Científica e Práticas Laboratoriais (1945-1974)”.

Provas de Doutoramento em História e Filosofia da Ciência na Universidade de Évora.

Júri
Paulo Simões Rodrigues (Universidade de Évora) — Presidente
Alvaro Ribagorda (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) — Vogal
Ana Simões (Universidade de Lisboa) — Vogal
Quintino Lopes (Universidade de Évora) — Orientador
Ângela Salgueiro (Universidade de Évora) — Vogal
Luís Trindade (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa) — Vogal

Workshop organizado pelo projeto I&D PHONLAB 

Repensar centros e periferias científicas no século XX

Sobre o projecto:

O projecto PHONLAB pretende aprofundar o conhecimento sobre a História da Fonética Experimental. O nosso caso de estudo é o Laboratório de Fonética Experimental da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra (1936-1979), criado pelo foneticista português Armando de Lacerda (1902-1984) e considerado por diversos linguistas estrangeiros, em meados do século XX, o mais avançado laboratório de Fonética Experimental da Europa. Pretendemos biografar este laboratório português, identificando e documentando os instrumentos e técnicas, reconhecendo os seus actores e as suas redes científicas. A importância de PHONLAB reside também no facto de se encontrarem em acelerada degradação e ameaça de desaparecimento inúmeras fontes históricas inéditas que respeitam a actividade deste laboratório e que mostram a evolução da Fonética Experimental ao longo do século XX.

Jacqueline S. Silva faz a defesa pública da Tese de Doutoramento “De Instituto de Antropologia a Museu Câmara Cascudo: Trajetórias científicas no Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil (1950-2010)”.

Provas de Doutoramento em História e Filosofia da Ciência na Universidade de Évora.

Júri
Laurinda Abreu (Universidade de Évora) — Presidente
Elisabete Pereira (Universidade de Évora) — Orientadora
Marilia Xavier Curry (Universidade de São Paulo) — Vogal
Susana Simões Martins (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa) — Vogal
Luís Miguel Nunes Carolino (Iscte) — Vogal
Sara Albuquerque (Universidade de Évora) — Vogal

Seminário de investigação que procura alargar o campo dos estudos sobre o petróleo para além das narrativas, geografias e fronteiras disciplinares estabelecidas, dando maior destaque às perspetivas do Sul Global e de outros locais de extracção e resistência.

Mind the Gap III:

Unearthing Petromodernity: Oil Studies in the Anthropocene

Online Research Seminar

The rise of fossil fuels has been central to the political, economic, cultural, and material transformations of the past two centuries, yet the forms of power, knowledge, and life enabled by carbon energy often remain analytically invisible. As we confront the converging crises of the Anthropocene, the need to rethink the centrality of fossil fuels to modern life has never been more urgent.

At a moment when toxic landscapes, resource frontiers, and environmental inequality reveal the uneven geographies of fossil modernity, the humanities and social sciences are reorienting analytical attention toward the energetic foundations of modern life. From pipelines and refineries to plastics and everyday petrochemical products, the material properties of oil have fundamentally shaped modern infrastructures and forms of life. What forms of political and social power are created through fossil fuel industries? How have fossil fuels shaped modern societies, their economic models, governmental regimes, everyday lives? How have they contributed to uneven global geographies rooted in colonialism and capitalism? What kinds of transitions to post-carbon futures are possible?

Bringing together approaches from history, anthropology, political ecology, and geography, we seek to expand the field of oil studies beyond established narratives, geographies, and disciplinary boundaries, amplifying perspectives from the Global South and other sites of extraction and resistance.

🔗 Free registration here

📎 Download full programme (PDF)

Programme:

Every fortnight we will meet online to discuss an article or book chapter circulated in advance. The sessions will start with a 20–30 minute presentation, followed by discussion. The sessions will take place on Mondays at 2PM.

We will explore key concepts such as petro-culture, carbon democracy, extractivism, fossil capital, energy regimes, and transition imaginaries, examining how energy dependence shapes modern subjectivities, infrastructures, economies, and ecological futures. The texts will be shared with participants in advance.

Everyone is welcome.

To register, please fill out the online form. After registering you will receive the readings and access information ahead of each session.

For more information, please write to unearthingpetromodernity@proton.me.

30 March  |  Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. Selected chapter TBA (Verso, 2011)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Focus: How fossil fuels structured democratic politics, labour power and modern governance

13 April  |  Adam Hanieh, “Petrochemical Empire: The Geo-Politics of Fossil-Fuelled Production“ New Left Review (139)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Global production networks, the Gulf region and the restructuring of capitalism through petrochemicals

27 April  |  Carola Hein (ed.), Oil Spaces: Exploring the Global Petroleumscape. Chapter 8: Peyerl, D. “Building Brazil’s Petroleumscape on Land and Sea: Infrastructure, Expertise, and Technology” (Routledge, 2022)
Henrique Oliveira (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Infrastructure, territorial development and the spatial materiality of oil

11 May  |  Stephanie LeMenager, Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century. Selected chapter TBA (Oxford University Pres, 2014)
Raquel Ribeiro (CHAM — NOVA FCSH)
Focus: Oil, media, culture, and everyday life in twentieth-century society

25 May  |  Appel, Mason & Watts (Eds.), Subterranean Estates: Life Worlds of Oil and Gas. Introduction: “Oil Talk” (Cornell University Press, 2015)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Anthropological and political-economic perspectives on oil extraction and everyday life

8 June  |  Alice Mah, Petrochemical Planet: Multiscalar Battles of Industrial Transformation. Chapter 2: “Enduring Toxic Injustice and Fenceline Mobilizations” (Duke University Press, 2023)
João Pedro Santos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Environmental justice, pollution, and grassroots activism around petrochemical industries

22 June  |  Chelsea Schields, Offshore Attachments: Oil and Intimacy in the Caribbean. Introduction and Chapter 1. “Crude Bargains” (University of California Press, 2023)
Anita Buhin (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil economies, intimacy, and social relations in offshore extraction zones

6 July  |  Tim Di Muzio & Matt Dow, “Global capitalism and oil“ in Handbook on Oil and International Relations (Edward Elgar Publishing , 2022)
Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA), Amedeo Policante & Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Focus: Oil in international relations, financialization and the structure of global capitalism

Organisation:

Davide Scarso (CIUHCT — FCT NOVA)
Amedeo Policante (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Ricardo Noronha (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)