APS March Meeting 2014
Volume 59, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 3–7, 2014;
Denver, Colorado
Session B38: Invited Session: Women and the Manhattan Project
11:15 AM–2:15 PM,
Monday, March 3, 2014
Room: 709/711
Chair: Margaret Murnane, University of Colorado Boulder
Abstract ID: BAPS.2014.MAR.B38.5
Abstract: B38.00005 : Then and Now: Women Respond to the Manhattan Project -- an illustrated talk
1:39 PM–2:15 PM
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Abstract
Author:
Olivia Fermi, M.A.
(None)
I am very much looking forward to visiting you, the family of physicists
gathering for your annual APS conference. In different ways, my grandfather
Enrico Fermi is a member of both our families. In this sense we are
connected and share a common legacy, which I want to explore from the angle
of two women inextricably involved with and affected by the Manhattan
Project. One from the past and one alive now. These two women, despite a
significant temporal and cultural gap share a remarkable number of traits
and values.
My talk will not offer a particular thesis or finding. Rather it will be
about ways of seeing, including questioning unnoticed assumptions and belief
systems. My grandmother Laura Fermi, modeled this for me as a youngster.
She was at Enrico's side during the Manhattan Project years, yet in the dark
about his work. What was it like to live in a climate of intellectually and
patriotically charged enthusiasm, with an undercurrent of unspoken dread?
Laura, just like most everyone else, discovered the true nature of the
effort on the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
After the war and after Enrico's untimely death in 1954, in response to all
she had experienced, Laura re-invented herself as an author and visionary,
pioneering in both the environmental and handgun control movements.
Marian Naranjo lives on the Santa Clara Pueblo near Los Alamos. Her
ancestors dwelled on the Pajarito Plateau which encompasses the space where
Los Alamos National Labs (LANL) is today. Her people, the Pueblo People have
used the area's natural resources for ceremonial and survival for
uncountable generations. They say, ``We \textit{are} this place.''
What is it like to live on land one's families have safely occupied for
thousands of years, with an undercurrent of dread at the prospect of toxic
waste stream products from LANL? Like my grandmother did in her place and
time, Marian builds community as an integral part of her environmental and
social justice activism. She is regularly a presenter at the table with
LANL, DOE and other organizations; and also works to empower women and
youth.
Laura and Marian's lives illustrate the potential for engaged response to
the Manhattan Project and its legacy. Implicit in them are fundamental moral
and ethical questions. What is the nature of individual responsibility? Does
it differ for men and women? How does the interplay between masculine and
feminine forces affect our culture, and what does it imply for our future?
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2014.MAR.B38.5