Who are currently the leading figures of energy studies in France and in the world? Paying attention to national and international trends, how can we construe the dynamics of contemporary research in the area of human and social sciences of energy? To answer these questions, my contribution will focus on two edited volumes which are respectively key publications for the English-speaking and the French-speaking areas of energy studies: The Oxford Handbook of Energy and Society (OUP, 2018) and Repenser la transition énergétique (PUR, 2019). Beyond the contents themselves of the books, I will consider their representativeness as editorial initiatives formalizing energy studies. In this perspective, keen attention will be paid to their framing of energy studies, based notably on blind spots regarding some research perspectives developed in discourse analysis and communication studies. Faced with plural and shifting representations of the "field", I will finally suggest the hypothesis of a multipolar articulation of energy studies, in the shape of an archipelago rather than a field. Given its approach, this paper can be considered both as an introduction to energy studies for students and as a reflection on its boundaries for specialists.