Anne Sullivan
- Postdoc in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Home State California
- Date of this Interview April 8, 2020
What do you research?
I’m working on a book project titled, “Imaging the Universe in Victorian Astrophotography and Literature.” By analyzing the development of astrophotography alongside British poetry and prose that ranges from Anna Laetitia Barbauld to Thomas Hardy, my book argues that imaginative forms of looking were necessary to visualize otherwise invisible, unobservable celestial light, both in literary narratives and on photographic plates. Moreover, I demonstrate that poetry and prose offered strategies for interpreting and communicating celestial data to nineteenth-century British readers.
What’s the first thing you’re looking forward to doing after COVID-19 isolation ends?
Seeing family, friends, colleagues, and students.
If you were a celestial body which celestial body would you be and why?
I think I’d like to be a comet. I’d get to fly through the universe, see incredible sights, and then, ideally, orbit back into our solar system.
