This course engages in critical work in the areas of energy humanities, energy history, and energy politics, in order to investigate the potential for energy democracy and a just future. We begin with definitions of energy as both a concept and historical phenomenon, examining its mobilization as "power," examining texts such as Andreas Malm's Fossil Capital and Cara Daggett's The Birth of Energy. Next, we interrogate the political and cultural ideologies associated with extractivism and its implications for social and environmental justice, reading a novel such as Ursula LeGuin's The Word for World is Forest or Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. This leads us to analyze competing visions of energy transition and renewable futures, reading the After Oil books, looking at solarpunk, and analyzing infrastructure. Through interdisciplinary readings in theory, history, literature, and politics we will scrutinize how these discussions shape our understanding of democracy in the 21st century.