The Disordered Cosmos
A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein writes a wonderful memoir about her passion for astrophysics and the barriers keeping people out of the field. Prescod-Weinstein is one of the first one hundred Black American women to earn a PhD from a department of physics. She works on both theoretical cosmology and theories of Black feminist science.
This book was a highly enjoyable listen. I felt I understood particle physics better mid-read than I ever did during my own undergraduate physics education (the last time I thought about it). Chanda is an excellent science communicator. She also weaves the tale of the underrepresentation of Black American women in physics through her own experience. This story parallels that of many minoritized groups in American (and probably other’s) academia, including my own view of oceanography and earth science. Progress is happening, but still most junior researchers see and feel the lack of diversity ahead of them on the academic hierarchy.
