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Hofstra Cultural Center Presents One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 @ 50

Tuesday & Wednesday, April 2-3, 2019

Hofstra Cultural Center in collaboration with the Cradle of Aviation Museum

presents

ONE GIANT LEAP: Apollo 11 @ 50

Tuesday and Wednesday, April 2-3, 2019

The Apollo 11 Moon landing on July 20, 1969, marked a watershed moment in human history for science, engineering, and culture, not only in the United States, but around the globe. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of that landmark series of events, the Cultural Center at Hofstra University, in partnership with the Cradle of Aviation Museum is holding an interdisciplinary conference, One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 @50, on the Hofstra campus April 2-3, 2019. The conference will consider both the scientific and technological dimensions of the landing on the moon and its cultural and political repercussions, both locally on Long Island and around the world.

Admission is free and open to the public.

For information, and to RSVP, please call the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669 or visit hofstra.edu/apollo11



Agenda

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

9:15-9:35 a.m. GREETING and OPENING REMARKS

9:35-11 a.m. KEYNOTE ADDRESS: WE RAN AS IF TO MEET THE MOON: THE INSPIRED LUNACY OF APOLLO 11
Dr. Matthew Hersch, assistant professor of the history of science at Harvard University, is the author of the critically
acclaimed book, Inventing the American Astronaut, as well as numerous articles about Cold War-era aerospace, computer,
and military technologies and their relationship to labor and popular culture.
Joseph G. Astman Distinguished Conference Scholar

11:10 a.m.-12:35 p.m. CULTURAL IMPACTS OF APOLLO
Laura Lally (Hofstra University), Technology and Exhilaration: The Space Program as a Source of Career Inspiration
Andrew Vielkind (Yale University), Colonizing the Imagination: Apollo 11 and the 1960s Avant-Garde
Julie Wosk (SUNY Maritime College), Imaging the Space Age: The Impact of the Lunar Landing on Fashion and Film

2:20-4:20 p.m. POLITICAL IMPACTS OF APOLLO
Rosanna Perotti (Hofstra University), Scientists without Borders: Immigrants and the Apollo Program
Patricia Rossi (Independent Scholar), The Launching of Apollo 11: An Examination of the American People’s Reaction –
A Necessary Mission in the Space Race vs. Superfluous Government Spending – Sheer Lunacy
Leslie Feldman (Hofstra University), Leap Year: Space Influences On Television in the 1960s
James Spiller (SUNY Brockport), The Long Demise of the ‘Space Frontier’– From Apollo to 21st Century Private Space Travel

6:30-8 p.m. SIGNATURE SPEAKER: DR. MAE C. JEMISON
Dr. Mae C. Jemison is the first woman of color to go into space, serving six years as a NASA astronaut. Aboard the Space
Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-47 Spacelab-J mission in September 1992, she performed experiments in material science, life
sciences, and human adaptation to weightlessness.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019

9:05-10 a.m. ASTRONAUTS IN FILM AND PRINT
John Rocco (SUNY Maritime College), New Journalism and the Creation of the American Astronaut:
Mailer’s Of a Fire on the Moon and/vs. Wolfe’s The Right Stuff
Allison Whitney (Texas Tech University), Lunar Exploration and the IMAX Experience: Magnificent Desolation and First Man

10:10-11:05 a.m. THE CHEMISTRY OF APOLLO
Sabrina Sobel (Hofstra University), The Chemistry of the Apollo Missions
Roger Turner (Science History Institute), Apollo for Chemists

11:15-12:40 p.m. SCIENTIFIC IMPACTS OF APOLLO
Caitlin Fendley (Purdue University), “One Small Step” for Science: Risk, Contagion, and the Apollo 11 Moon Landing
Nehru Cherukupalli (Hofstra University and City University of New York), How different are the Apollo 11
Moon Rocks Compared to Earth Rocks?
Fernando Espinoza, (Hofstra University), Scientifically speaking we know a lot, or do we?

2-3:30 p.m. HISTORY CHANNEL presents APOLLO 11 DOCUMENTARY
Mike Stiller, Vice President, Development and Programming, History Channel
Dr. Kimberly Gilmore, Senior Historian and Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility History/A+E Networks

3:45-4:30 p.m. GRUMMAN DOCUMENTARY
Connie Anderson Castilla (Hofstra University)