Summary

Chapter Eight, “Let Astro/Physics Be the Dream It Used to be,” begins with 11-year-old Prescod-Weinstein deciding she wants to be just like Stephen Hawking. She set her sights on attending, then becoming a professor at, a top-tier university. At sixteen, she was accepted to several colleges, but could only afford Harvard and Cal Tech. She chose Harvard, partially because of their observatory, and partially because it was far from home. There, however, she experienced classism, racism, sexism, and a general doubt in her intelligence that almost caused her to quit. Since then, she has found some community, but still struggles with the lack of belonging and discrimination she faces, and with the fact that so much of her time goes to helping others in the same boat that it leaves her less time and energy for physics that her...