Call for Papers: Infrastructures of Empire and Empires of Infrastructure in the Age of Fossil Fuel Take Off 

About the Conference

The recent infrastructural turn in historical scholarship is poised to transform knowledge of empire in modern world history as well as histories of fossil fuel takeoff. Yet historians of the United States have largely approached questions of infrastructure and empire on separate tracks. This renders the imperial an implicit but unquestioned problem in histories of technology and the infrastructural a subterranean feature of U.S. power. This small workshop-style conference responds to the premise that putting histories of empire and infrastructure into the same frame can illuminate the workings and outcomes of power. Among these are inequalities that persist into the present, as well as the overlooked historical foundations of the unfolding climate crisis.

The conference brings together the disparate historiographies of empire, infrastructure, and energy history. By linking the history of fossil-fuel dependence and promoting infrastructures to contemporaneous histories of imperialist power relations, this conference aims to foster a deeper and wider understanding of the material and ideological roots of these relations and their role in launching modern fossil fuel regimes.

This conference centers on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a span marked by the U.S. ascent to superpower status and, not coincidentally, a massive global upswing in fossil fuel use. We are especially interested in the U.S. history angle to this topic because of the preponderance of U.S. power in the making of the high emissions “American century.” However, the aim of situating U.S. history more fully in global history means that we are as interested in imperial transitions as in energy transitions, and we welcome papers that decenter the United States and provide crucial international, transnational, and comparative context.

Approaches and Themes

In addition to gathering historians who work across an array of geographies, we aim to gather historians across a variety of methods and fields, including diplomatic, military, and political history; social, intellectual, and cultural history; and histories of colonialism, postcolonialism, indigeneity, labor, capitalism, technology, energy, landscape architecture, and the environment. We especially invite papers that address each of the three main themes of the conference (empire, infrastructure, and energy).

Applicants are encouraged to broadly conceptualize empire, colonialism, infrastructure, and energy as categories of historical analysis and narrative. Papers that prompt reflection on periodization and themes such as the relation between structure and agency, technopolitics, resistance, and other relations of power are particularly welcome.

Submission Details

This conference is being supported by the Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement, and Education, and funding for travel will be available. To be considered, please submit a brief abstract, no more than 250 words in length, and a c.v. of no more than two pages, by August 15, 2026. Although this will be largely an in-person conference, remote participation is a possibility. If you would prefer to participate remotely, please state that in your application. Doctoral candidates who are ABD and early career scholars are particularly encouraged to apply. Applications should be sent to: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].