The night skies have long inspired awe, and the history of astronomy can be told via the stories of the many star-struck individuals who channeled that awe into new arguments about the universe and our place within it.
Members of the Case Western Reserve University community can learn more during an upcoming Cleveland Humanities Festival event. Aviva Rothman, inaugural dean’s associate professor in the Department of History, will present “Astronomy and Awe: A Historical Journey” Thursday, March 21, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in Kelvin Smith Library’s Freedman Center.
Rothman will highlight some of the people whose work has shed light on our universe—from Copernicus to Einstein—and the ways their stories intersected with a particular variety of awe-inspiring astronomical phenomena: the novel, rare, or unexpected. This event will also feature a pop-up exhibit of rare books from Kelvin Smith Library’s Special Collections.