Annette S. Lee | |
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| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Astrophysicist, professor, painter  |
| Awards | AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement (2021) |
Annette S. Lee is an American astrophysicist and professional artist. [1] Lee is the director of Native Skywatchers, a program created to record, map, and share Indigenous star knowledge. [2] She is mixed-race Lakota and works with Ojibwe, Dakota and Lakota communities to preserve those cultures' astronomical and ecological knowledge. [1]
Lee is mixed-race Lakota from the Wanbli Luta (Red Eagle) family and is closely associated with Ojibwe communities in Minnesota. [3] Lee is married to fellow artist and Native Skywatcher member, William Wilson. [4]
Lee has two bachelor's degrees, one from the University of California, Berkeley in Applied Mathematics (1992) and another from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in Art (1998). [5] She went on to earn two master's degrees, a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University in 2000, with a focus on painting, and a Master of Science in Astrophysics from Washington University in 2008. [5] She earned her Ph.D. in physics and astronomy at the University of Western Cape in 2020. [5]
Lee launched the Native Skywatchers initiative in 2007. [6] The project works to revitalize the star lore and astronomical and ecological knowledge of Indigenous cultures, including the sustainable engineering and agriculture practiced by North American native peoples. [7] Lee and her collaborators, including Jim Rock, William Wilson, and Carl Gawboy, consult with Indigenous cultural experts to create star maps, constellation guides, and educational curricula. [8] Native Skywatchers organizes in-person workshops and symposia which bring together scientists, students, community members, and Indigenous knowledge keepers. [6] Lee's paintings are an important part of the Native Skywatchers project, illustrating constellations from Ojibwe and D/Lakota cultures. [3] The Native Skywatchers initiative received a Next Gen STEM grant from NASA's Office of STEM Engagement to fund a series of seasonal virtual sessions for K–12 students from October 2020 to April 2021. [9]
Along with indigenous astronomer Wilfred Buck, Lee curated the "One Sky, Many Astronomies" exhibit at Ottawa's Canada Science and Technology Museum, featuring constellations of Canada's indigenous cultures. [10] A traveling exhibit, "One Sky, Many Worlds: Indigenous Voices in Astronomy," includes Lee as one of the principal curators. [11]
In 2014 Lee was the Olga J. and G. Roland Denison Visiting Professor of Native American Studies at Central Michigan University. [12] Lee was the 2018/2019 AIA Webster Lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America. [13] She was a Shapley Lecturer at the American Astronomical Society and is currently an Honorary/Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Southern Queensland's Centre for Astrophysics. [7] Lee was a keynote speaker at the International Dark-Sky Association 2020 Global Conference. [14]
Until 2020, Lee was an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at St. Cloud State University where she taught courses including Indigenous Astronomy, Astronomy Education Research (AER), and the History & Philosophy of Science.
In 2021, Lee won the AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement in Science for her community education efforts in teaching Indigenous knowledge of the stars. [6]
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, cosmological, calendrical, and astrological beliefs and practices of prehistory: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy. It was not completely separated in Europe during the Copernican Revolution starting in 1543. In some cultures, astronomical data was used for astrological prognostication.
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south of the ecliptic, which is the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The orbital paths of the Moon and major planets are within the belt of the zodiac.
Traditional Chinese astronomy has a system of dividing the celestial sphere into asterisms or constellations, known as "officials".
Orion is a prominent set of stars visible during winter in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is one of the 88 modern constellations; it was among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy. It is named for a hunter in Greek mythology.
ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Sūfī was an Iranian astronomer. His work Kitāb suwar al-kawākib, written in 964, included both textual descriptions and illustrations. The Persian polymath Al-Biruni wrote that al-Sūfī's work on the ecliptic was carried out in Shiraz. Al-Sūfī lived at the Buyid court in Isfahan.
Astronomy in China has a long history stretching from the Shang dynasty, being refined over a period of more than 3,000 years. The ancient Chinese people have identified stars from 1300 BCE, as Chinese star names later categorized in the twenty-eight mansions have been found on oracle bones unearthed at Anyang, dating back to the mid-Shang dynasty. The core of the "mansion" system also took shape around this period, by the time of King Wu Ding.
Indian astronomy refers to astronomy practiced in the Indian subcontinent. It has a long history stretching from pre-historic to modern times. Some of the earliest roots of Indian astronomy can be dated to the period of Indus Valley civilisation or earlier. Astronomy later developed as a discipline of Vedanga, or one of the "auxiliary disciplines" associated with the study of the Vedas dating 1500 BCE or older. The oldest known text is the Vedanga Jyotisha, dated to 1400–1200 BCE.
Australian Aboriginal astronomy is a name given to Aboriginal Australian culture relating to astronomical subjects – such as the Sun and Moon, the stars, planets, and the Milky Way, and their motions on the sky.
High visibility of the star cluster Pleiades in the night sky and its position along the ecliptic has given it importance in many cultures, ancient and modern. Its heliacal rising, which moves through the seasons over millennia was nonetheless a date of folklore or ritual for various ancestral groups, so too its yearly heliacal setting.
Anthony Francis Aveni is an American academic anthropologist, astronomer, and author, noted in particular for his extensive publications and contributions to the field of archaeoastronomy. With an academic career spanning over four decades, Aveni is recognized for his influence on the development of archaeoastronomy as a discipline in the latter 20th century. He has specialized in the study of ancient astronomical practices in the Americas, and is one of the founders of research into the historical astronomy of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. He held an endowed chair as the Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology and Native American Studies at Colgate University, in Hamilton, New York, where he is now an emeritus professor.
Two-spirit is a modern, pan-Indian umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional third-gender ceremonial and social role in their cultures.
The worship of heavenly bodies is the veneration of stars, the planets, or other astronomical objects as deities, or the association of deities with heavenly bodies. In anthropological literature these systems of practice may be referred to as astral cults.
The Killarney Provincial Park Observatory is an astronomical observatory located at the George Lake Campground of Killarney Provincial Park . The Observatory is operated by Ontario Parks and houses two observatory buildings. The original facility contains a 10" telescope with solar filter, ideal for nighttime as well as daytime viewing of the Sun. The newer facility contains a 16" fully automated telescope with a 5" refractor and is ideal for research, astrophotography and public use. The telescopes are available for Discovery programs as well as private sign-out (self-use) by interested visitors.
Robert P. King, born August 9, 1953, is an American photographer, writer, and an amateur astronomer. He publishes an astronomy blog called Astro Bob which is "widely read and respected" according to astronomer Bob Mizon.
Jarita Charmian Holbrook is an American astronomer and associate professor of physics at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where they are principal investigator of the Astronomy & Society group. Holbrook's work examines the relationship between humans and the night sky, and they have produced scientific publications on cultural astronomy, starburst galaxies, and star formation regions.
Wilfred Buck is a science facilitator at the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre and an Indigenous star lore expert. A member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Buck is known as "the star guy" due to his knowledge of First Nations astronomy. He has researched and consulted with elders to learn more about the astronomical knowledge of Cree, Ojibway, and Lakota peoples.
Indigenous astronomy is the name given to the use and study of astronomical subjects and their movements by indigenous groups. This field encompasses culture, traditional knowledge, and astronomy. Astronomy has been practised by indigenous groups to create astronomical calendars which inform on weather, navigation, migration, agriculture, and ecology. Alongside calendric uses, constellations have names and stories that inform ceremony and social structures holding specific and deep cultural meanings for respective indigenous groups.
Bdóte is a significant Dakota sacred landscape where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers meet, encompassing Pike Island, Fort Snelling, Coldwater Spring, Indian Mounds Park, and surrounding areas in present-day Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. In Dakota geographic memory, it is a single contiguous area not delineated by any contemporary areas' borders. According to Dakota oral tradition, it is the site of creation; the interconnectedness between the rivers, earth, and sky are important to the Dakota worldview and the site maintains its significance to the Dakota people.
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