Thomas Max Turnbull

Dr Thomas Turnbull

Small Group Project 2021-22

Energy and Society: Shifts in Historical Understanding

As our understanding of the concept of energy, and its dynamics and effects, have altered over time, the relation between energy and society has been reconceived. The aim of this research endeavour is to map out the history of energy and the humanities by bringing a group of scholars to Berlin to workshop an edited collection of primary sources and short commentary essays to produce an authoritative account of the intellectual history of energy in the humanities. By thus showing the historical mutability of relations between energy and society, our aim is to open up possible paths of contemporary energy futures.

More information

Research outcomes

Russ, D., & Turnbull, T. (Eds.). (2025).

Energy’s History: Toward a Global Canon. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press

Russ, D., & Turnbull, T. (2025).

Introduction: Toward a Global Canon. In D. Russ, & T. Turnbull (Eds.), Energy’s History: Toward a Global Canon (pp. 1-19). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Turnbull, T. (2025).

Laura Nader’s Third-Wave Energy Anthropology. In D. Russ, & T. Turnbull (Eds.), Energy’s History: Toward a Global Canon (pp. 183-201). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Russ, D., & Turnbull, T. (2025).

Conclusion: Pluralistic Energy History in a Contested Epoch. In D. Russ, & T. Turnbull (Eds.), Energy’s History: Toward a Global Canon (pp. 223-228). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Areas of interest

History of Science Energy Conservation Political Economy Energy Policy

Cohort

FG6

Biography

Thomas has worked at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) since 2017. Following a collaborative project with Berlin’s House of World Cultures (HKW), he became a research scholar in MPIWG's Department I in 2020. In January 2025, he transferred to the Department on Knowledge Systems and Collective Life.

Thomas completed his PhD at the University of Oxford School of Geography and the Environment in 2017. Before Oxford, he worked in energy policy in London. Thomas has held visiting roles at Leuphana University’s Institute for Media Cultures of Computer Simulation, Maastricht University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, KTH Stockholm’s Center of Excellence for Anthropocene History, as well as teaching at the University of Oxford, University College London, and St Gallen University, where he teaches a course "Energy Histories, Climate Futures." In 2023, he joined an experiential education programme called The Mississippi River Open School for Kinship and Social Exchange in which participants paddled and sailed down the Mississippi River out into the Gulf of Mexico, visiting field sites, engaging with activists, ecologists, gardeners, herbalists, and academics.

Biographical details correct as of 29.04.26