03:00PM - 04:30PM

In-person and online: More information

Abstract

Amid persistent power outages, the Ghanaian government signed contracts with numerous independent power producers from China, the UAE, and Turkey. This talk will focus on one of these power plants, studying the emergence of a Turkish-built floating power plant, Ayşegül Sultan, in the Tema fishing harbor. Framed as temporary electricity production mechanisms to address immediate crises, floating power plants contractually lock host countries into prolonged fossil-fuel dependency while extending Turkey's geopolitical influence. Drawing on fieldwork in Ghana, Turkey, and the United States, the talk will show how countries such as Ghana continue to add fossil-fuel power to their energy mix, even when decision-makers believe the country will eventually enter a renewable energy future.

Speaker bio

Gökçe Günel is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rice University. Her work investigates how infrastructure transforms amid challenges related to energy and climate change. She is the author of Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi (Duke UP, 2019) and Floating Power: Energy, Infrastructure, and South-South Relations (Duke UP, 2026). Günel also leads Patchwork Ethnography, and co-authored Patchwork Ethnography: A Methodological Guide (U of Chicago Press, 2027).