Thinking with Fuels: Toward Postcarbon Futures

* Reception at 5:30pm, followed by lecture at 6:00pm *

In recent years many in the humanities have turned their attention to climate change justice, the Anthropocene, and the carbon economy, among other topics. This talk is particularly interested in undoing the common sense and rhetorical knot that ties together "fuel" and "energy" (not to mention "electricity"). If we separate out and rigorously examine fuels, could they serve as critical tools to help confront the unfathomable temporal problems posed by accelerated greenhouse gas concentrations? Can they help us think - beyond the bad faith dream of merely substituting renewable for fossil-based substances - of different futures?

Karen Pinkus is Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at Cornell University.