Astronomy Development in the Karoo: Livelihoods and Expectations. Carnarvon is the town closest to the site of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape, South Africa. The research project explores four hypotheses using interview based inquiry. Fieldwork in Carnarvon and nearby towns in the Karoo took place in 2014 and 2015. Additional interviews were conducted at astrophysics conferences in South Africa over the same time period. All interviews were video recorded, parts of those interviews make up the documentary films that were released connected to the project. 

The films and links to articles are made publicly available on this website. The film is of interest to multiple academic communities such as Science & Technology Studies, Physics & Astronomy, African Studies and International Development. My hope is that it will be shown in secondary school classrooms in the communities that are near the Square Kilometre Array site. 

There is one article that is publicly available on the project "ASTRONOMY DEVELOPMENT AND FILMMAKING IN THE KAROO" published in 2018 in the Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry: https://www.maajournal.com/index.php/maa/article/view/740/666. This article is written for non-specialists, thus is appropriate for students in secondary school or older.  

There is another 15 minute film, "Echoes of the SKA," which was completed during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The details of that film are found on the ASTROMOVEW blog: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/astromoves/2024/06/09/echoes-of-the-ska-a-short-film-about-the-square-kilometre-array-in-africa/. 

This project was funded by the South African National Research Foundation via a Competitive Funding for Unrated Researchers Grant to Jarita Holbrook - "Astronomy & Society" Grant #91535. Hosted by the Physics Department at the University of the Western Cape.