Uploaded May 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
A conversation between Fatoumata Kébé and Emilie Biggs at the American Library in Paris. Filmed on 02/05/2023 with a live audience both in person and on Zoom.
An astronomer asks: how have humans across history, from astrophysicists to poets, written about the moon?
The moon has been the subject of human fascination since the dawn of recorded history. Celebrated in epic poetry and sacred texts, spanning ancient mythology and modern physics, it has been the object of awe, worship, investigation, and analysis across every era of civilization. In La lune est un roman, astronomer Fatoumata Kebe tells us the story of the moon. The moon’s story, we learn, is also the story of the humans looking at, studying, rhapsodizing, and loving it. We have always looked at the same moon. Kebe demonstrates that our ways of looking at it, and writing about it, have not changed all that drastically, either.
About the speaker:
Fatoumata Kébé is a doctor of astronomy at Sorbonne Université. She researches the impact of space activities on astronomical observations, and how such activities contribute to pollution around the Earth. She is also working on “Connected Eco,” an entrepreneurial project for water preservation in the farming sector, and is the founder of the Éphémérides organization, which promotes the practice and teaching of astronomy among the public.
Evenings with an Author is generously sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg.
A conversation between Fatoumata Kébé and Emilie Biggs at the American Library in Paris. Filmed on 02/05/2023 with a live audience both in person and on Zoom.
An astronomer asks: how have humans across history, from astrophysicists to poets, written about the moon?
The moon has been the subject of human fascination since the dawn of recorded history. Celebrated in epic poetry and sacred texts, spanning ancient mythology and modern physics, it has been the object of awe, worship, investigation, and analysis across every era of civilization. In La lune est un roman, astronomer Fatoumata Kebe tells us the story of the moon. The moon’s story, we learn, is also the story of the humans looking at, studying, rhapsodizing, and loving it. We have always looked at the same moon. Kebe demonstrates that our ways of looking at it, and writing about it, have not changed all that drastically, either.
About the speaker:
Fatoumata Kébé is a doctor of astronomy at Sorbonne Université. She researches the impact of space activities on astronomical observations, and how such activities contribute to pollution around the Earth. She is also working on “Connected Eco,” an entrepreneurial project for water preservation in the farming sector, and is the founder of the Éphémérides organization, which promotes the practice and teaching of astronomy among the public.
Evenings with an Author is generously sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg.
