The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

The Department of African American & African Studies is pleased to announce the 2025 John S. Wright Luminaries Series in Africana Studies. Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical physicist and author of The Disordered Cosmos, will deliver the keynote on Thursday, March 20, 2025 at McNamara Alumni Center, Johnson Great Room, beginning with a reception at 4:00pm. The talk will start at 5:00pm, followed by moderated discussion and Q&A.

What does the authority of Black Studies look like from the vantage point of a Black feminist scholar who studies particle physics? Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s erudition is our itinerary to experience and reimagine Blackness.

Post-Lecture Roundtable Discussion:
John S. Wright (Professor Emeritus, African American & African Studies)
Dwight K. Lewis, Jr. (Assistant Professor, Philosophy)
Moderated by: Yuich Onishi (Associate Professor, African American & African Studies, Core Faculty, Asian American Studies)
 

About the Author

Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy and core faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her research in theoretical physics focuses on cosmology, neutron stars, and dark matter. She is also a researcher of Black feminist science, technology, and society studies. She was a co-convener of Dark Matter: Cosmic Probes in the 2021 Snowmass particle physics community planning process and a member of the National Academies Elementary Particles: Progress and Promise particle physics decadal committee from 2022-2024. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein is currently a member of the Department of Energy High Energy Physics Advisory Panel. She is also the creator of the Cite Black Women+ in Physics and Astronomy Bibliography.

Dr. Prescod-Weinstein is also a columnist for New Scientist and Physics World. Her first book The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred (Bold Type Books) won multiple awards, including the 2021 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the science and technology category, the 2022 Phi Beta Kappa Science Award, and a 2022 PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award. She is now working on her second book for general audiences, The Edge of Space-Time (Pantheon Books), and an academic book, The Cosmos is a Black Aesthetic (Duke University Press). Originally from East L.A., she divides her time between the New Hampshire Seacoast and Cambridge, Massachusetts.