Matthew Shutzer
Biographic Data
| ID | 325113 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Shutzer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Shutzer |
| SIGNATURE | SHUTZER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Berkeley |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3392-849X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 17 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Subterranean Archives
Capital, Earth, and Image
How does photography materialize a mine? This article examines photography and film in India's coalfields from 1900 to the present. The visual objects discussed include a diary from a colonial mining firm produced in 1906, a photo album sent to the early postcolonial Ministry for Industry and Supply in 1948, and a documentary film on displacement for open-cast coal mining in the 2010s. This article argues for an interpretive framework of mining p…
Oil, Money and Decolonization in South Asia
Why did oil become a privileged object for debating economic sovereignty during the Cold War? Recent scholarship has attempted to answer this question by drawing attention to decolonizing struggles for oil nationalization across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. At the core of these inquiries is the presumption that a global proliferation of oil production after 1945 - now referred to as 'the great acceleration' - reflected a growth in g…
A Vast Bed of Combustible Fuel
Does climate change pose a crisis for the concept of nation-state sovereignty? This article explores how contemporary debates about climate and sovereignty are connected to deeper histories of empire and capitalism in the global South. Arguing against recent critical appraisals of sovereignty that emphasize the elision of nature from formal political and legal theory, the article reconstructs a genealogy of sovereign power in the major fossil fue…
Subterranean Properties: India's Political Ecology of Coal, 1870-1975
Scholars have long been attentive to the relationship between legal regimes and agrarian dispossession in the resource frontiers of the postcolonial world. The analytical problem of identifying how private firms use legal regimes to take control of land-whether for mining, plantations, or Special Economic Zones-now animates a new body of research seeking the historical antecedents for contemporary land grabs. In the case of colonial South Asia, e…
Energy in South Asian history
Energy history is a burgeoning sub‐field focused on the role of a wide variety of prime movers—from solar energy, to animal labor, to water power, and diesel‐fueled engines—in shaping human societies. Although some energy historians consider “energy” a relatively constant feature of societies across time and culture, others have highlighted the specificity of the modern era as a unique period of energy history due to the globalization of fossil f…
A rogue and peasant slave: Adivasi resistance 1800–2000
Shashank Kela's book is an historical inquiry into the roots of adivasi (a contested term, used by Kela to signify a constitutionally recognized Indian indigenous group) politics in modern India. S
The Practice of Custom in India's Recognition of Forest Right's Act: Case Studies from Kalahandi, Odisha
The Indian Recognition of Forest Right’s Act defines a category of land tenure that is premised upon the recognition of customary entitlements to forest resources entitled to forest dwelling groups. In this paper I examine how the concept of custom is defined by livelihood practices and proprietary rights. I argue that ‘custom’ presents an understanding of agrarian practices that is both a claim to political rights and a normative description of …
Subterranean Properties: India's Political Ecology of Coal, 1870-1975
Scholars have long been attentive to the relationship between legal regimes and agrarian dispossession in the resource frontiers of the postcolonial world. The analytical problem of identifying how private firms use legal regimes to take control of land-whether for mining, plantations, or Special Economic Zones-now animates a new body of research seeking the historical antecedents for contemporary land grabs. In the case of colonial South Asia, e…
Energy in South Asian history
Energy history is a burgeoning sub‐field focused on the role of a wide variety of prime movers—from solar energy, to animal labor, to water power, and diesel‐fueled engines—in shaping human societies. Although some energy historians consider “energy” a relatively constant feature of societies across time and culture, others have highlighted the specificity of the modern era as a unique period of energy history due to the globalization of fossil f…
Oil, Money and Decolonization in South Asia
Why did oil become a privileged object for debating economic sovereignty during the Cold War? Recent scholarship has attempted to answer this question by drawing attention to decolonizing struggles for oil nationalization across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. At the core of these inquiries is the presumption that a global proliferation of oil production after 1945 - now referred to as 'the great acceleration' - reflected a growth in g…
A rogue and peasant slave: Adivasi resistance 1800–2000
Shashank Kela's book is an historical inquiry into the roots of adivasi (a contested term, used by Kela to signify a constitutionally recognized Indian indigenous group) politics in modern India. S
A rogue and peasant slave: Adivasi resistance 1800–2000
Shashank Kela's book is an historical inquiry into the roots of adivasi (a contested term, used by Kela to signify a constitutionally recognized Indian indigenous group) politics in modern India. S
The Practice of Custom in India's Recognition of Forest Right's Act: Case Studies from Kalahandi, Odisha
The Indian Recognition of Forest Right’s Act defines a category of land tenure that is premised upon the recognition of customary entitlements to forest resources entitled to forest dwelling groups. In this paper I examine how the concept of custom is defined by livelihood practices and proprietary rights. I argue that ‘custom’ presents an understanding of agrarian practices that is both a claim to political rights and a normative description of …
Energy in South Asian history
Energy history is a burgeoning sub‐field focused on the role of a wide variety of prime movers—from solar energy, to animal labor, to water power, and diesel‐fueled engines—in shaping human societies. Although some energy historians consider “energy” a relatively constant feature of societies across time and culture, others have highlighted the specificity of the modern era as a unique period of energy history due to the globalization of fossil f…
Subterranean Properties: India's Political Ecology of Coal, 1870-1975
Scholars have long been attentive to the relationship between legal regimes and agrarian dispossession in the resource frontiers of the postcolonial world. The analytical problem of identifying how private firms use legal regimes to take control of land-whether for mining, plantations, or Special Economic Zones-now animates a new body of research seeking the historical antecedents for contemporary land grabs. In the case of colonial South Asia, e…
Oil, Money and Decolonization in South Asia
Why did oil become a privileged object for debating economic sovereignty during the Cold War? Recent scholarship has attempted to answer this question by drawing attention to decolonizing struggles for oil nationalization across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. At the core of these inquiries is the presumption that a global proliferation of oil production after 1945 - now referred to as 'the great acceleration' - reflected a growth in g…
A Vast Bed of Combustible Fuel
Does climate change pose a crisis for the concept of nation-state sovereignty? This article explores how contemporary debates about climate and sovereignty are connected to deeper histories of empire and capitalism in the global South. Arguing against recent critical appraisals of sovereignty that emphasize the elision of nature from formal political and legal theory, the article reconstructs a genealogy of sovereign power in the major fossil fue…
Capital, Earth, and Image
How does photography materialize a mine? This article examines photography and film in India's coalfields from 1900 to the present. The visual objects discussed include a diary from a colonial mining firm produced in 1906, a photo album sent to the early postcolonial Ministry for Industry and Supply in 1948, and a documentary film on displacement for open-cast coal mining in the 2010s. This article argues for an interpretive framework of mining p…
Subterranean Archives
Political science (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Economics (4 works) · Economy (4 works) · Political economy (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (3 works) · Colonialism (3 works) · History (3 works)