Mark Simpson is a professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. He undertakes the study of petroculture, a field that understands energy as not just brute input but also social relation: a matter of values, habits, practices, affects, and beliefs that, at first glance, might seem completely unrelated to questions of energy. At stake in such research is an effort to bring qualitative methods and insights from the humanities to bear on issues and problems that often appear merely technological. Ongoing projects include two book-length studies, one on energy impasse and one on cultures of renewability, as well as a theoretical account of energy subjectivity and climate subjectivity.
