Program Schedule
Wednesday, September 13
All events are held at the Neubauer Collegium (5701 S Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL 60637 - entrance on 57th Street) unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, September 14
9:00 a.m.
10:30 a.m.
Hidden Figures
“The Role of Human Computers at Astronomical Laboratories: Invisible Astronomical Labor in the Netherlands, 1880-1940”
Chaokang Tai (University of Regensburg)
“The Scientific Employment of Women at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, 1909-1937”
Lucy Arditi (Independent Scholar)
“Rocketdyne's 'Rockettes': Some Hidden Figures in Southern California's Aerospace Industry”
Emily Margolis (National Air and Space Museum) and Stuart W. Leslie (Johns Hopkins University)
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10:30 a.m.
11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break
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11:00 a.m.
12:30 p.m.
Materials, Manufacture, and Maintenance
“The Bureaucratic Knowledge Factory: The Neuchâtel Observatory: A Case Study of Transformation between Science and Bureaucratic-Scientific Regime”
Julien Gressot (Université de Neuchâtel)
“‘Put Mars above the Gas Burner’: A Carpenter at Work at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich”
Daniel Belteki (The Science Museum, London)
“The Day Laborers of Science. Forgotten Technicians in the History of Astronomy in Chile”
Carlos Sanhueza-Cerda (Universidad de Chile)
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12:30 p.m.
1:30 p.m.
Lunch
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1:30 p.m.
3:00 p.m.
Plates and Practices
“Too Easily Forgotten: The Celebrated Photographic Plate Collection of Lewis Morris Rutherfurd and its Current Inventory”
John W. Briggs (The Astronomical Lyceum)
“Quality Digital Preservation of Small Collections of Astronomical Photographic Plates”
Stephen Levine (Lowell Observatory)
“Fundamental Descriptors for Astronomical Photographic Plates”
Wayne H. Osborn (Independent Scholar/Yerkes Observatory)
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3:00 p.m.
3:30 p.m.
Coffee Break
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3:30 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
University of Chicago Library, Preservation Lab Visit
Location: Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, 1100 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL (enter through Joseph Regenstein Library)
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5:30 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
Keynote with reception to follow
"At the Intersection of Labor, Astronomy, and Photography"
Omar Nasim (University of Regensburg)
Location: Joseph Regenstein Library, Room 122 (1100 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL)
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Friday, September 15
9:00 a.m.
10:30 a.m.
Hierarchies and Race
“Invisible Workers and Invisible Trail: The Widening of the Trail up Mount Wilson”
Eun-Joo Ahn (University of California Santa Barbara)
"Southern Exposure: Workers at HCO Boyden Station and the Boyden Observatory, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 1927-1976"
Keith Snedegar (Utah Valley University)
"Invisible Labor and the 'Ghost Particle': Underground Physics at the Kolar Gold Fields"
Nithyanand Rao (University of California San Diego)
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10:30 a.m.
11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break
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11:00 a.m.
12:30 p.m.
Professional Peripheries
“Maria Mitchell’s Early Experiments with Solar Photography”
Allison Fulton (University of California Davis)
“Life Trajectories of Amateur Photographers from the Société Astronomique de France (1880-1920)”
Nicolas Joannes (Université de Bretagne Occidentale)
“Reysa Bernson (1904-1944): Invisibilization and Oblivion of an Astronomy Activist”
Florian Mathieu (Paris-Saclay University)
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12:30 p.m.
1:30 p.m.
Lunch
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1:30 p.m.
3:00 p.m.
Reevaluating Our Past to Reimagine Our Future: The Harvard Plate Stacks Collection
Papers by Samantha Notick, Elizabeth Coquillette, Lisa Bravata and Thomas Burns
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3:00 p.m.
3:30 p.m.
Coffee Break
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3:30 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
Capturing the Stars
An introduction to the activities of the research group and exhibit, featuring Richard G. Kron, Andrea Twiss-Brooks, Emily Kern, Sandra Schloen, Chelsea Kaufman, and Kristine Palmieri (all University of Chicago)
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5:30 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
Exhibit Opening and Reception
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center Gallery, Joseph Regenstein Library, 1100 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL
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Saturday, September 16
9:00 a.m.
10:30 a.m.
Conflicts, Communities, and Collaborations
“An Invisible Controversy About Comets”
Mariana Sanchez (Laboratory ICT, Univesity Paris Cité)
“‘Running the Observatory by Women Power’: Women’s Work at Yerkes Observatory in the early Twentieth Century”
Kristine Palmieri (University of Chicago)
“Empires Under the Sun: Coloniality and the Equatorial Electrojet, 1920–1970”
Prashant Kumar (Archives at NCBS, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore)
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10:30 a.m.
11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break
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11:00 a.m.
12:30 p.m.
The 1919 British expeditions to Brazil and Príncipe in Comparative Perspective. Eclipsed Actors, Eclipsed Labour, and Eclipsed Objects and Instruments
“Three Astronomers and a Clockmaker: The Visibility of E. Cottingham in the 1919 British Expeditions”
Hugo Soares (CIUHCT, University of Lisbon)
“Behind the Scenes of the 1919 Eclipse: The Invisible Labor of the Portuguese and Brazilian Eclipse Committees”
Luís Miguel Carolino (ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa) and Ana Simões (Center for the History of Science and Technology [CIUHCT], University of Lisbon)
“‘Ample Resources of Labor and Material’ – The Material Conditions of Success of the British Expeditions to the 1919 Total Solar Eclipse in Colonial and National Contexts”
Luís Tirapicos (CIUHCT, University of Lisbon) and Samuel Gessner (CIUHCT, University of Lisbon)
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