The University of Melbourne launches the only university subject of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and one of only two offered globally.
After three years of hard work, a full program in Cultural Astronomy will be up and running from the second half of 2023 at the University of Melbourne. This includes brand new 3rd Year subject PHYC30025: Safeguarding Dark Skies
It will be offered as a 2-week summer intensive from 4-15 December 2023, taught in-person with a range of guest lecturers and workshops covering topics such as light pollution and artificial satellites, astronomical heritage, Indigenous sky rights, space colonisation, wildlife ecology, human health, crime, economics, landscape design, lighting technology, and public policy.
The major assessments will involve student groups surveying university campuses and public spaces to conduct full dark sky surveys, then developing a full strategic plan and video pitch to resolve them, which will go to management/councils for implementation. It is my hope we can collaborate with lighting companies to realise real-world outcomes from this work.
We would appreciate you sharing this with all of your networks and encouraging students to enrol and colleagues to get involved.
Ad astra,
Duane Hamacher -- Duane Hamacher, PhD FRAS CAPAS Fellow Käte Hamburger Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies University of Heidelberg, Germany Associate Professor of Cultural Astronomy ASTRO-3D Centre of Excellence and the School of Physics University of Melbourne, Australia
Comments