Dr. Abby Spinak

Biography

Abby Spinak studies energy history with a particular interest in the politics of utility ownership and the role of infrastructure in disseminating economic ideas. Her current research connects the history of electrification in rural America with the evolution of twentieth-century American capitalism and alternative economic visions. Abby is working on a book titled 'Democracy Electric: Energy Economic Citizenship Urbanizing America,' which explores the cooperative business model that emerged from federal electrification policies of the 1930s, amidst significant debates over public versus private power. This work examines how a vast network of community-owned, democratically managed utilities transformed the American landscape and how urbanizing communities have variously interpreted the political opportunities afforded by community ownership over the past eighty years. She received her PhD in Urban Studies and Planning from MIT in 2014 and has held fellowships at prestigious institutions such as the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard and the Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Rice University's Energy Humanities program.

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