Margot Lurie is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Chicago. Her research examines the underlying causes of contemporary socio-ecological crisis, with particular attention to the state as a distinct environmental actor. Using historical sociological methods, her dissertation explores the emergence of energy as an object of American state strategy during the 20th century. She asks how and why the American state’s relationship to energy and the environment changed over the 20th century, and how the American state’s involvement in the power sector has shaped social, economic, (geo)political, and ecological conditions in the U.S. and globally. In another project, she is working toward a theory of state environmental violence.