Energy Humanities
Energy has driven cultural practices and shaped civilization throughout time.
The Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts incubates research that investigates humanistic and anthropocentric contexts for energy use and how energy might be used sustainably in equitable and just ways for all human communities. It supports research investigating the human, animal, and environmental impacts of energy at all phases of human history, from how raw materials are gathered to how energy is stored, distributed, and marketed. As scholars such as Dominic Boyer have noted, energy systems do not reflect human values and cultures: they in fact often determine those values and dramatically change cultural and societal organization.
The Denbo Center supports visiting speakers, symposia, and research seminars as well as special events that examine how art, history, ethics and philosophy, literature, music, theater, classics, and global cultural studies can provide new insights into energy in all of its use phases. We want to work with the STEM fields in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams to generate public conversation about what might come next, imagining how energy concerns might guide progress for all life on planet earth, and beyond.
The center has supported collaborations with the Bredesen Center around energy storage devices, has supported research seminars investigating energy and environmental issues, and is currently considering other topics within this initiative. Please contact us if your work intersects with energy research, energopower studies, or energy-related humanistic work. We’d love to work with you!
Some Examples of Energy Humanities at the Denbo Center
Quantum Canvases (2023)
In collaboration with the Denbo Center, the UT Department of Physics and Astronomy hosted Quantum Canvases, a series of public events exploring the intersection between physics, the arts, and the humanities held on October 19-23, 2023. Events ranged from discussions of injecting hard science into science fiction to exploring the physics of music and the music of physics on the dance floor.
The New Humanities (Torchbearer, 2023)
The humanities today offer the public new ways to engage with the past and the present, connecting humanities research with fields such as medicine, energy studies, environmental studies, and data studies and expanding the impact of arts, literature, and history into local communities. Read more.
Science Minute Podcast: “Incorporating Humanities into STEM: A Look at One Energy Storage Class” (2023)
Suzie Allard, Chancellor’s Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee, discusses her role in developing an innovative team-taught graduate course focused on energy storage devices, which was funded by the Department of Energy, and examined the intersection of humanities, data science, and engineering.
Amy Elias Interview With Hallerin Hilton Hill (2022)
Amy Elias, Chancellor’s Professor and director of the UT Humanities Center, talks with Hallerin Hilton Hill about the importance of the humanities and dialogue for a high-functioning society as well as its importance for students of STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) to ensure technology can work in a human world.