About this Event
Canadian Oil, Big Government, and Conserver Society: The 1970s Energy Crises and Energy Security in Canada
Recent events in Venezuela and the ongoing war in Ukraine have led to yet another revival of the term “energy security.” Used by expert commentators and average Canadians alike, energy security invokes vulnerabilities and dependencies. The phrase is employed to justify new policies and new projects, even if these propose conflicting solutions to the lack of security. But do we all mean the same thing? And when did we start talking about energy security? In this talk, Petra Dolata will provide a history of the concept as she revisits the two energy crises of the 1970s (1973/74 and 1979/80) in Canada and examines the political, social and cultural origins of the term. Through historical analysis of diplomatic and everyday energy narratives and imaginaries, she will provide an interdisciplinary and humanist perspective on this ubiquitous expression which has gone through many lives since 1970.
Dr. Petra Dolata, Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Calgary and former Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in the History of Energy, is the 2025-26 Naomi Lacey Resident Fellow at the Calgary Institute for the Humanities. She is the author of Die deutsche Kohlenkrise im nationalen und transatlantischen Kontext (The German Coal Crisis in Its National and Transatlantic Dimensions) and of an influential article on “Women and Energy in the Ruhr Area after 1945” published in In a New Light: Histories of Women and Energy (ed. by R.W. Sanwell and Abigail Harrison Moore, 2021).
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, 434 Collegiate Boulevard Northwest, Calgary, Canada
CAD 0.00
