Petrocultures 2026: Situating Energy
On this website you will find information on the international conference PETROCULTURES 2026: SITUATING ENERGY, held at TU Dresden on August 26-28, 2026.
With the aim to examine the social and cultural dimensions of energy relations of the past, present, and futures, we will host interdisciplinary conversations with contributions from across the humanities and social sciences, including sociology, literary and cultural studies, media studies, political science, history, philosophy, anthropology, design, art history, and geography, including artistic and practice-based approaches.
Late Registration open until July 8. For late registrations after that date or regristration from within TUD, please contact the conference team at petrocultures2026@tu-dresden.de.
Organizing Team: Moritz Ingwersen, Anja Lind, Michaela Büsse, Orit Halpern, Susann Wagenknecht, and Özgün Eylül İşcen. A collaboration of the Chairs of North American Literature and Future Studies, Digital Cultures, Microsociology and Techno-Social Interaction, and the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden.
Petrocultures 2026: Situating Energy
Petrocultures 2026: Situating Energy at TUD Dresden University of Technology
August 26-28, 2026
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Located in a national borderlands between lignite mines, Soviet-era uranium extraction, and lithium prospecting, Dresden is a palimpsest of energy cultures, uniquely triangulating nuclear pasts, fossil presents, and solar futures. A burgeoning silicon economy, political mobilizations for and against ‘green’ energy, post-socialist transformation (fatigue), and minority Sorbian agency all texture the site of Petrocultures 2026—affectively, geologically, socio-technically, historically, and politically.