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Inaugurated in the spring of 2021, NYU Space Talks is a lecture series convened by Alexander C. T. Geppert at NYU's Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and NYU Shanghai with the Department of History in New York City. Each semester, established and upcoming scholars present the latest research on the history and politics of outer space, extraterrestrial life and astroculture, both in Europe and around the globe.
All NYU Space Talks are held on Zoom. Everybody is welcome but advance registration is required.
NYU
SPACE
TALKS
History, Politics, Astroculture
FALL 2024
About
Schedule
/ FALL 2024 –– Season VIII
Season 8
Heralds of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: The C/SETI Novel
De Witt Douglas Kilgore (Indiana University)
Wednesday, 11 September 2024, 10–11:30 EDT
Location: Online
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has played a significant role in American astroculture since the 1960s. The field’s founders popularized it as a science that could answer an extraordinary question. However, it is as science fiction that radio communication with extraterrestrials entered the popular consciousness as the subgenre I call the C/SETI novel. I argue that resolving mid-twentieth century anxieties about racial conflict is an important preoccupation of the form. In this talk the speculative fictions of James Gunn’s The Listeners (1972) and Carl Sagan’s Contact (1985) make human unification across race the desired outcome of communicating with an older, wiser sentient species. I argue that the political hope represented by the C/SETI novel is indicative of the desperate political hopes of the postwar era.
Whither a Planetary Turn? A Roundtable
Thore Bjørnvig (Copenhagen), Alexander C.T. Geppert (NYU/NYU Shanghai), Haitian Ma (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Tilmann Siebeneichner (ZZF Potsdam), Brad Tabas (ENSTA Bretagne)
Moderation: Fabienne Will (Deutsches Museum)
Wednesday, 9 October 2024, 12–13:30 EDT
Location: Online
In recent years the concept of planetarity has seen a meteoric rise among critical theorists. But they often leave its exact significance opaque or even actively obscure the meaning of ‘planet’. Can space history unearth a more accurate conceptualization by de-metaphorizing planetarity and fostering a spatial understanding of planet Earth instead? In this roundtable, a philosopher, a media theorist, a cultural historian, a historian of technology and a religious studies scholar discuss the uses of planetarity in their respective disciplines. They ask what all that planetarity talk is about, if proclaiming a planetary turn can be justified, and whether understanding the transformation of Earth into a planet over the course of the twentieth century necessitates an extra-terrestrial perspective.
Computer World: Satellites, Planetization and Pixelation
Mia Bennett (University of Washington)
Wednesday, 6 November 2024, 10–11:30 EST
Location: Online
This talk considers the political and epistemic stakes of Earth observing satellites, which have been gazing down at the planet since the early 1960s. It asks of these perceptual technologies: What do these satellites observe, and how do practices and cultures of Earth observation differ? I offer examples of how satellite imagery has shifted from depicting the “full disc” of planet Earth to honing in on increasingly fine pixels. At the same time, in light of the rapid advances that governments and companies in several countries are making to satellites’ spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions, along with the integration of Earth observation data with social sensing, this talk argues that increasingly, more important than what satellites can see is what they can foresee, from the individual to the planetary scale. It then considers the consequences of satellite foresight and reflects upon whether we are really dealing with satellite imagery or satellite simulacra.
New Directions in NASA History
Brian Odom (NASA)
Wednesday, 4 December 2024, 10–11:30 EST
Location: Online
The NASA History Office has recently undertaken a major effort to build a centralized, applied history program capable of capturing and disseminating the agency’s history. This process has also included new, integrated approaches to analog and digital archiving. As we work to document ongoing NASA efforts, we continue to ask new questions and bring new perspectives and methodologies to bear on that past. Our engagement will include new symposia, workshops, publications, and program reviews. Our hope is that this approach will enable us to chronicle ongoing programs; contextualize past accomplishments by asking now questions and including new perspectives; and equip current NASA leadership with a ‘usable past.’ To achieve this end, we invite feedback from and collaboration with aerospace historians and related interdisciplinary groups.
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CONTCT
/ CONTACT
Professor Alexander C.T. Geppert
New York University
King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center
53 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
USA
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