Emilia Groupp
Graduate Student Fellowship | 2024–2025 Academic Year
Cultivating the Sun: Solar Development in Rural Tunisia
Based on over two years of ethnographic and mixed-methods research, this project examines the large-scale development of solar-generated electricity in rural Tunisia. It focuses on the ways in which new energy technologies are reconfiguring rural space, shaping new forms of gendered labor, environmental decision-making, and transnational networks. It further critically evaluates how these technologies are contributing to broader socio-political and economic transformations in the region, from rural labor movements to regional geopolitical shifts. In doing so, it offers novel insights into the relationship between energy and society, and traces how new forms of energy are giving rise to distinct political formations, economic practices, and modes of governance.
Emilia Groupp, Department of Anthropology
Emilia Groupp is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the social implications of large-scale renewable energy development, specifically relating to political movements, labor, and the production of space. She conducted over two years of ethnographic research in the United Kingdom and Tunisia on utility-scale renewable energy development, and she has also worked in the renewable energy industry on utility-scale renewable energy projects.
In addition to her research, Emilia is actively engaged in collaborative research with both public and civil society organizations. She worked alongside organizations in Tunisia in developing equitable energy policies and in understanding the impact of existing energy inequities. She has also conducted energy equity research with the Bay Area's own Peninsula Clean Energy, where she worked on developing energy equity best practices for public agencies. In 2023 she developed a novel tool to help California Community Choice Aggregates and other public service providers expand access to energy subsidies and programs. The tool helps to identify low-wealth households who may not qualify under current state eligibility screenings and is currently being implemented.
Based on her research and professional experience, Groupp is currently contributing to widely-read global reports on the role of renewable energy development in rural development and political transitions. She also works on several Open Source data projects, and is co-editor of the Anthropology Book Forum. At Stanford, she founded the Stanford University Energy and Society Network for cross-disciplinary collaboration on energy research.