Writing for Popular Media
I’m hard at work on my first book, The Disordered Cosmos, forthcoming from Bold Type Books (Spring 2021).
From May 2016 to August 2018 I volunteered as Editor in Chief of The Offing, an online literary magazine dedicated to authoring change from the people who built these cities. I am the founder of The Offing's science department, Back of the Envelope. Below are many of my publications for the public, in addition to those which appear on my blog.
Are we pressuring students to choose a hostile STEM? (Inside Higher Ed, October 2019)
Seeking Repentance in Star Trek (with help from MrProfChanda, StarTrek.com, October 2019)
Dust is annoying but is key to life and death in the cosmos (New Scientist, October 2019)
The Rules of the Diversity and Inclusion Racket (The Riveter, September 2019)
Einstein’s black holes are not the black holes we see in reality (New Scientist, September 2019)
Ann Nelson Took on the Biggest Problems in Physics (Quanta Magazine, August 2019)
Time Traveling Through the Trek Universe (StarTrek.com, August 2019)
How the coolest, smallest stars could help us discover new exoplanets (New Scientist, August 2019)
‘Star Trek’ as a Philosophical Thought Experiment (StarTrek.com, August 2019)
'Physics of Trek' Teaches Physicists and Non-Scientists Alike (StarTrek.com, August 2019)
Holodeck-Inspired VR Transforms Conversation About Diversity (StarTrek.com, August 2019)
In ‘House of Quark,’ the Devil’s in the Details (StarTrek.com, August 2019)
The Fight for Mauna Kea is a Fight Against Colonial Science (The Nation, July 2019)
Earth’s helium is running out and it has dire consequences for science (New Scientist, July 2019)
How Star Trek’s warp drives touch on one of physics’ biggest mysteries (New Scientist, June 2019)
Dear Chandra: How X-rays became the bright spot in my sky (NationalGeographic.com, June 2019)
Axions may or may not exist — but we’re not just making things up (New Scientist, May 2019)
Particle Physics is Doing Just Fine (with Tim Tait, Slate, January 2019)
Grad school activism, while often necessary, isn't a substitute for technical proficiency (Inside Higher Education, January 2019)
The Legacy of Cold War Science Propaganda: a review of Audra Wolfe’s Freedom’s Laboratory (Physics Today, January 2019)
An Anxious Descent: a review of Anxiety and the Equation by Eric Johnson (Physics World, January 2019)
Kyung-Sook Shin, An Author Found in Translation (Shondaland, December 2018)
Sexual Misconduct Allegations against Neil deGrasse Tyson Reveal the Complexity of Academic Inequality (Scientific American, December 2018)
Finding Black Boy Joy In A World That Doesn't Want You To (Electric Literature, June 2018)
Toxic Masculine Cosmology: a review of Losing the Nobel Prize (Public Books, May 2018)
What a Massive New Study On Income Inequality Misses About Black Women (The Cut, March 2018)
Defying the Odds: Why Black Faculty Matter (Inside Higher Education, March 2018)
Star Trek: Hearing Women of Color in Space (with @MrDrChanda, Lady Science, February 2018)
Just Because It's "Science" Doesn't Mean It's Good (Slate, January 2018)
Mirroring Society, White Anxiety Reigns Supreme in the Literary World (Wear Your Voice, November 2017)
#ScientistsTakeAKnee Needs To Be About Black Lives (Slate, September 2017)
Scientists Must Challenge What Makes Studies Scientific (American Scientist Blog, August 2017)
Stop Equating "Science" With Truth (Slate, August 2017)
review of Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall: The Case for Black Women to Ditch Academia (Bitch, July 2017)
Can we disagree and still love each other? (Racebaitr, July 2017. This was a collaborative statement for which I was lead writer.)
Curiosity and the End of Discrimination (Nature Astronomy (paywall), free copy, June 2017)
PURITY IN A TRUMPED-UP WORLD: A conversation against purity with Alexis Shotwell (Bitch, Summer 2017 "Invisbility" issue)
"Black and Palestinian Lives Matter: Black and Jewish America in the Twenty-First Century" in On Antisemitism: Solidarity and the Struggle for Justice in Palestine (Haymarket Books, April 2017)
We Are The Scientists Against A Fascist Government (with Sarah Tuttle & Joseph Osmundson, The Establishment, February 2017)
Translating the Universe: Remembering Trailblazing Astronomer Vera Rubin (Bitch, January 2017)
Introduction to Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA (ABDO Publishing, December 2016)
Black Lives Matter, Taiwan's "228 Incident," and the Transnational Struggle for Liberation (Black Youth Project, December 2016)
The Physics of Melanin (appeared in Bitch, Winter 2016-17 "Chaos" print issue)
(contributor) Ko Kākou Struggle: 15 Voices on Where to Go Next (Ke Kaʻupu Hehi ʻAle, November 2016)
Finding the Right Boundaries (appeared in Physics World, October 2016)
Black Intellectual History and STEM: A Conversation with Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (AAIHS, August 2016)
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Cosmic Acceleration? (The Toast, May 2016)
Introduction to Literary Juneteenth (Or Why I Left The Offing) (The Offing, May 2016)
How Black Holes Saved Relativity (appeared in Physics World, February 2016)
Times Six: Finding a Language for Borders, Theft and History (with Kiese Laymon, Gawker, January 2015)
Saying it loud: Reflections on Racism at the Institute and Beyond (The Tech, December 2014, adapted from a May 2012 speech)
Ain't I a Woman? At the Intersection of Gender, Race, and Sexuality (Women in Astronomy, May 2014)
Pasadena (Is Greater Than, February 2010)
Getting Physicists to Invest in Caring, Not Killing: Who Takes Responsibility? (Is Greater Than, January 2008)
Selections from my Medium Blog:
Let Astro | Physics Be The Dream It Used To Be (original & one year later)
Intersectionality as a Blueprint for Postcolonial Scientific Community Building
Surviving and Thriving: How to be an Underrepresented Minority astro/physics student: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 (series ongoing)
Reading Lists: