This hands-on workshop brings together international scholars working across media studies, sociology, and energy politics to explore how sustainability can be researched, framed, and practiced across disciplines.

Jana Tsoneva is a sociologist based at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the chairperson of Association KOI: a Sofia-based left-wing publishing and research NGO. Her research spans diverse fields such as the sociology of labor, memory studies and most recently the politics of energy. Her latest book is Back When People Dug Light: the Bulgarian Energy Sector from Fossil Socialism to the Green Transition and Heliosocialism. The book brings together fragments of the history of Bulgarian coal energy on the threshold of the Green Transition and archival research on experiments in the field of so-called new energy sources from late socialism.

Antonio López is a leading international scholar and media literacy expert whose work examines the environmental and cultural impacts of digital media and artificial intelligence. Drawing on his influential research and his book Ecomedia Literacy: Integrating Ecology into Media Studies, López will discuss how media systems, AI infrastructures, and storytelling shape public understanding of the climate crisis. His contribution will foreground ecomedia as both a research framework and a pedagogical practice, highlighting how critical media literacy can support more sustainable and just technological futures.

In addition to López and Tsoneva, the workshop will feature contributions from AUBG faculty members who will share their own sustainability-related research and reflect on their methodological approaches. The session will also feature the announcement of exciting funding and research opportunities for students.