Katja Bruisch
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kbruisch.bsky.social
Katja Bruisch
@kbruisch.bsky.social
3.1K followers 920 following 130 posts
Environmental historian, Trinity College Dublin. Author of "Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia's Fossil Economy" (CUP 2025) & "Als das Dorf noch Zukunft war: Agrarismus und Expertise zwischen Zarenreich und Sowjetunion" (Böhlau 2014).
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kbruisch.bsky.social
Katja Bruisch @kbruisch.bsky.social · Sep 25
📣 It's publication day! 🔥Burning Swamps🔥 is out with @universitypress.cambridge.org ! My book tells the forgotten history of peat in the context of Russia’s industrialization & electrification and points to the lingering presence of past extraction 1/5

#envhist #energysky
Book cover of "Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia's Fossil Economy" by Katja Bruisch. A black and white photograph shows a woman with a headscarf stacking peat
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
purseigle.bsky.social
🚨#History #envhist Job Alert: My Department is hiring an Assistant Professor in Environmental History.
🗃️

Come work with us at Warwick. You'll get both excellent colleagues and great students!

See details below... And do not hesitate to spread the word...
👇👇👇

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK289/a...
Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125) at University of Warwick
Explore an exciting academic career as a Assistant Professor in Environmental History (111009-1125). Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 12, 2025 at 12:15 PM
kbruisch.bsky.social
New washing machine arrived and I finally got what "AI washing" is. Good lord, help us! 😱😂
washing machine screen saying "AI Wash: Auto adapt to stains & load" Washing machine screen
November 21, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
cominsitu.bsky.social
the most anticipated book of 2026:
bravo @ueberdruss.bsky.social !!

www.versobooks.com/products/334...
Working Nature
Working Nature offers a history of the energy economy and its representations over the 19th and 20th century.Russ argues that “Energy” is not a thing nor an ability, but a social relation to nature fo...
www.versobooks.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
irisvanrooij.bsky.social
“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
November 15, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
kbruisch.bsky.social
🔔 Admissions are open for the M.Phil in Environmental History at Trinity College Dublin. Come and join us - or recommend our course to your students! #envhist #skystorians

More info here 👇
www.tcd.ie/courses/post...
Screenshot of the admissions website of the Environmental History M.Phil at Trinity College Dublin
November 13, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
bcmerchant.bsky.social
How is AI *really* impacting jobs?

Henley Chiu, the CTO of Revealera, a jobs data analysis firm, analyzed 180 million jobs listings in 2024 and 2025, in an effort to find out. Chiu found an:

-8% drop in all jobs postings
-~30% drop in art, photography, writing jobs
-22% drop in journalism jobs
What’s really going on with AI and jobs?
Record-breaking layoff reports, Amazon's mass firings, and a slump in entry level employment. Is AI behind it all?
www.bloodinthemachine.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:25 PM
kbruisch.bsky.social
🔔 Admissions are open for the M.Phil in Environmental History at Trinity College Dublin. Come and join us - or recommend our course to your students! #envhist #skystorians

More info here 👇
www.tcd.ie/courses/post...
Screenshot of the admissions website of the Environmental History M.Phil at Trinity College Dublin
November 13, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
davidho.bsky.social
Since 1990, the emissions share of the richest 1% has increased by 13%, and the richest 0.1% has grown by 32%, while the poorest 50% has decreased by 3%.

policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/cl...
A graphic poster with a green, textured background. At the center is a black-and-white image of Earth. Above the planet, a small private jet flies around the Earth, leaving a dark, tangled trail. Across the middle of the image, bold white text on black rectangles reads “CLIMATE PLUNDER.” Below, smaller white text states, “How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster.” In the bottom-right corner, the Oxfam logo and the word “OXFAM” appear in white.
November 10, 2025 at 9:01 AM
kbruisch.bsky.social
Really looking forward to presenting 🔥Burning Swamps🔥 next Monday at UCL/SSEES! Thanks to @vkulikov.bsky.social for the initiative and to @eglerin.bsky.social & @robertsuits.bsky.social for agreeing to discuss my work. Join us if you happen to be in London

@uclssees.bsky.social
uclssees.bsky.social UCL SSEES @uclssees.bsky.social · 19d
What happens if we tell the history of the planetary emergency from the margins? Join us for this event with @kbruisch.bsky.social, Eglė Rindzevičiūtė and @robertsuits.bsky.social to find out more.

🗓️ 17 November at 6.15pm
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ buff.ly/zYgWn4s

@universitypress.cambridge.org
Event poster for 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy' with an image of the book cover. In-person event.
November 10, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
apuz.bsky.social
In der neuen APuZ geht es um #Wachstum und #Wohlstand, #Degrowth, #GreenGrowth und #Ungleichheit - mit Texten von Werner Plumpe, Julia Braun, @lukasscholle.bsky.social, Ulrike Herrmann, Niko Paech sowie @cmohren.bsky.social und @moritzoder.bsky.social:

www.bpb.de/apuz/wachstu...
Titelseite der APuZ 46/2025 "Wachstum"
November 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
aseees.bsky.social
Congratulations to Anne O’Donnell, winner of the Ed A Hewett Book Prize for Power and Possession in the Russian Revolution with Princeton University Press.
#ASEEESPrizes
See all winners: buff.ly/qNk3PSU
@princetonupress.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 3:32 PM
kbruisch.bsky.social
We need a critique of AI in academic publishing. Following my decision not to sign an AI addendum to my contract with Cambridge University Press, I wrote this short essay which is now out in the Dublin Review of Books.
👇
drb.ie/move-over-fo...
Move over for AI - DRB
Katja Bruisch writes: I recently completed a scholarly monograph – an environmental, economic and energy history of peat in imperial and Soviet Russia. After years of thinking and writing, I approache...
drb.ie
October 30, 2025 at 11:01 AM
kbruisch.bsky.social
Peat on air! I got to talk with Sean and Rusana from the @euraknot.bsky.social about my book 🔥 Burning Swamps 🔥. Thanks for having me! #envhist
euraknot.bsky.social The Eurasian Knot🎙️ @euraknot.bsky.social · 28d
This week we, alongside @kbruisch.bsky.social, deep-dive into Russia's crucial fuel, imperative both in industrialization and Lenin’s Electrification campaign. As the old man put it, “Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.”
patreon.com/posts/how-peat-ussr-142174549
October 28, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
uclssees.bsky.social
Please join us for this event to hear more about @kbruisch.bsky.social's new book 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy' (@universitypress.cambridge.org).

Discussants: Eglė Rindzevičiūtė and @robertsuits.bsky.social.

🗓️ 17 November at 6.15pm
➡️ buff.ly/zYgWn4s
Event poster for 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy' with an image of the book cover. In-person event.
October 24, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
michael-thomas.bsky.social
For the last few months I've been going through public documents, permits, and satellite images to track the largest data centers in the US.

Today I published the first story about what I've learned.

🧵

www.distilled.earth/p/these-data...
These Data Centers Are Getting Really, Really Big
Gigawatt-sized data centers are becoming the new normal
www.distilled.earth
October 16, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
melinabuns.bsky.social
10 days left to apply for this course!

Many amazing scholars will contribute to this course, including @untamed.bsky.social, @dudleymarianna.bsky.social, Abigail Harrison Moore, Alice Owen, and @andersriel.bsky.social!

#envhist #energyhistory #envhum
melinabuns.bsky.social Melina Antonia Buns @melinabuns.bsky.social · Sep 16
I am really excited to announce the call for the PhD Course in Energy Humanities!

Held at the @greenhouseuis.net from 1-5 December.

Applications are welcome until 24 October.

#envhum #envhist #energyhistory
Poster showing a wind turbine from frog perspective. The picture is in light pink and blue nuances and announces a PhD course in energy humanities. More information can be found in this website. https://www.uis.no/en/research/collaboration/the-greenhouse-centre-for-environmental-humanities/humanities/apply-for-phd
October 15, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
immorebitschek.bsky.social
Fellowships for doctoral candidates or postdoctoral researchers from Poland or Ukraine for a stay of up to six months in Halle. 👇

www.aleksander-brueckner-zentrum.org/forschung/au...
Ausschreibungen
www.aleksander-brueckner-zentrum.org
October 15, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
dudleymarianna.bsky.social
It sure is! Thanks to everyone who helped me make this book. I'm reminiscing today about field trips to Orkney, Shetland & the Outer Hebrides, islands which swept me up in their windy history, and offered new perspectives on 'national' narratives & global challenges. (And plotting ways to return!)
manchesterup.bsky.social Manchester University Press @manchesterup.bsky.social · Oct 14
It's Electric Wind publication day!💨

Join @dudleymarianna.bsky.social for the launch of her new book, online and at @bookhaus.bsky.social.

Details on the MUP Events page🎟️👇

A cutting-edge history of wind power in Britain from the industrial revolution to the present.

Electric Wind is out now💡
Promotional image for Electric Wind book launch events. Purple background with an image of rolling green hills and a blue sky with wind turbines dotting the hills. MUP logo in top left corner. Photograph of Marianna Dudley next to her book cover in top right corner. Event details read: 20th October, Book Talk Online; 29th October, Britain's Energy Transition with Dominic Hinde at Bookhaus Bristol. Promotional image for Electric wind. Purple background with an image of rolling hills and a blue sky, wind turbines dot the hills. Book cover sits in centre of image. Text reads: How has energy shaped a nation? Electric Wind Out Now.
October 14, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
adamwickberg.bsky.social
We are hiring! Prospective PhD students in environmental history, history of science, history of technology and STS interested in the climate and environmental impacts of AI look here. Please share in your networks. #envhist #histsci #AI #anthropcoene
anthropocenekth.bsky.social Center for Anthropocene History @anthropocenekth.bsky.social · Oct 8
Open PhD position at KTH: "AI Planetary Futures: Climate and environment in Silicon Valley's AI paradigm". Apply by Oct 23! lnkd.in/dCs8eZjb

The project analyzes the climate and environmental aspects of Silicon Valley-based general-purpose AI systems developed by Big Tech companies.
October 11, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
pastpresentsoc.bsky.social
From the current issue: “Dams and the Deep Earth: The 1967 Koyna Earthquake and Human Agency in the Anthropocene”

by Elizabeth Chatterjee and Sachaet Pandey-Geeta Mantraraj (University of Chicago)

doi.org/10.1093/past...
Dams and the Deep Earth: The 1967 Koyna Earthquake and Human Agency in the Anthropocene*
Abstract. On 11 December 1967, a large earthquake devastated the village of Koynanagar in Maharashtra, western India. Many blamed the new Koyna hydroelectr
doi.org
October 8, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
tedmccormick.bsky.social
Generative AI, in both form and content, and whether looked on favourably or critically, seems to embody a collective hopelessness about the prospect of human learning and creativity, if not human knowledge altogether. It’s as if climate change had fans.
October 9, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
kbruisch.bsky.social
Three excellent readings on electricity from this week's "Energy & Power in the Modern World" - case studies from Latin America, Africa & Asia which complicate narratives based on Western cases.💡⚡ Students also liked the texts for the different ways in which they present a historical argument 👇
October 8, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
juliahauser.bsky.social
Dear colleagues, we drafted an open letter to the conference of German federal ministers of education asking for a reform of the Privatdozentur, that stage in a German academic's career where your work is not paid - a situation that can easily extend over years.
Petition unterschreiben
An die Bildungsministerkonferenz: Schluss mit dem Prekariat der Privatdozent:innen!
chng.it
October 9, 2025 at 7:28 AM
kbruisch.bsky.social
Three excellent readings on electricity from this week's "Energy & Power in the Modern World" - case studies from Latin America, Africa & Asia which complicate narratives based on Western cases.💡⚡ Students also liked the texts for the different ways in which they present a historical argument 👇
October 8, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Katja Bruisch
jeffmanuel.bsky.social
It's the official publication day for ETHANOL: A HEMISPHERIC HISTORY FOR THE FUTURE OF BIOFUELS. Want to know why the US turns 40 percent of the corn crop into fuel? How the US and Brazil became the world's two largest ethanol producers? Tom Rogers and I have answers.
www.oupress.com/978080619601...
Ethanol - University of Oklahoma Press
Though ethanol, a liquid fuel made from agricultural byproducts, has generated controversy in recent years—good or bad for the environment? a big-ag boon o...
www.oupress.com
October 7, 2025 at 7:07 PM