Mountains of controversy: narrative and the making of contested landscapes in postwar American astronomy

Author:

Swanner, Leandra Altha

Title:

Mountains of controversy: narrative and the making of contested landscapes in postwar American astronomy

Year:

2013

Volume:

Ph.D.

Pages:

568

Subject:

Mauna Kea Kitt Peak Mount Graham Astronomical observatories Mauna Kea controversy Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)

Summary:

This dissertation examines the histories of conflict between Native, environmentalist, and astronomy communities over telescope construction at Kitt Peak, Mauna Kea, and Mt. Graham from the mid-1970s to the present. It showed that the same mountain may be culturally constructed as an ideal observing site, a pristine ecosystem, or a spiritual temple. And "two cultures can exist side by side in the same area and relate to the same landscape with different interpretations ... one interpretation doesn't necessarily lead to the delegitimization of the other interpretation."

URL:

https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/11156816

Date:

August 2014

Collection:

Monographs