Art historian Dr. Elizabeth Kessler to speak at Geneva College on October 24-25

Dr. Kessler will discuss the relationship between art and science, as seen in Hubble Space Telescope photographs and other images.

BEAVER FALLS, PA (10/10/2013)(readMedia)-- Dr. Elizabeth Kessler, an art historian who focuses on the visual culture of science and its relationship to art, will speak at Geneva College. She will be at Skye Lounge in the Student Center for a 7:30 p.m. lecture on Thursday, October 24, "Displaying the Beauty of the Truth: Hubble Images as Art and Science." In conjunction with Geneva's Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) Visit Day, she will present "Postcards into Outer Space" in Skye Lounge at 10:10 a.m. on Friday, October 25.

Kessler currently teaches art history at Stanford University. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and has held fellowships at Stanford University and the Smithsonian Institute National Air and Space Museum. Her first book, Picturing the Cosmos: Hubble Space Telescope Images and the Astronomical Sublime, which examines the aesthetics of deep space images and their invocation of the visual language of the sublime, was published in 2012.

The book, according to its synopsis, "examines the Hubble's deep space images, highlighting the resemblance they bear to nineteenth-century paintings and photographs of the American West and their invocation of the visual language of the sublime."

Kessler's background in art has pointed her in the unique direction of science. She maintains that the aesthetics of science must be understood in order for one to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the space telescope's impact.

Kessler is coming to the college as part of the Geneva Visiting Artist and Lecture Series. Her appearances are free and open to the public.

Geneva College invites students to accept the challenge of an academically excellent, Christ-centered education. Offering nearly 40 undergraduate majors, Adult Degree Programs with fully online and campus-based options, and seven graduate degrees, Geneva has programs that place students at the forefront of higher learning. Adhering to the inerrancy of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world.