Conference Program

This contribution aligns with the panel’s topic by examining how higher education in astrophysics can explicitly address the epistemic, social, and institutional dimensions of scientific research alongside disciplinary content, with the general objective to build the professional preparation of future scientists, and foster scientific citizenship. In fact, scientific knowledge is not merely a body of concepts, but a negotiated, collective and value-based enterprise. However, the majority of university curricula privilege focus on disciplinary content, leaving implicit the processes by which knowledge is produced, validated, and communicated within the scientific community and in society (see e.g. [1] for a review).

To address this gap, we investigate the educational potential of cinematic narratives to re-enact the scientific endeavour. The study centres on the analysis of the documentary "Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know" [2], narrating the realization of the first image of the supermassive black hole in M87. Beyond presenting scientific results, the film portrays the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration as a space of dialogue, negotiation and shared responsibility, where theory, observations, simulations and data analysis interact across diverse groups. In this sense, the movie can be interpreted as an example of democratic interaction within and across scientific communities, from which knowledge emerges. Also, black-and-white animation footages make visible the personal and collective emotions underlying contemporary research.

The movie has been analyzed through a framework integrating three complementary conceptual “lenses”. First, social semiotics supports the analysis of how disciplinary "modes" (e.g. equations, images, simulations) contribute to meaning-making [3]. Second, the Nature of Science (NOS) allows us to identify epistemic, social and institutional dimensions of research, combined within the FRA Wheel [4]. Finally, epistemic emotions examine how feelings such as curiosity, uncertainty and wonder shape both individual and collective inquiry. Taken together, these lenses show that the movie is able to render the scientific practice as a negotiated and inherently relational process, resonating with democratic forms of knowledge. Our analysis was complemented by an exploratory public screening, followed by a discussion and a questionnaire administered to the audience. Preliminary findings indicate that the film not only stimulates conceptual interest in black holes, but also foregrounds transversal aspects of research, such as uncertainty and the interaction between communities in large-scale collaborations. Moreover, the majority of participants reported strong emotional engagement with the scientific endeavour. Building on this, our next step is to realize a pilot internship for Astronomy undergraduate students, to be guided in a film analysis with our framework.

Overall, we claim that narrative-based re-enactments of research can open reflective spaces in higher education where to confront the complexity of research practices. By making visible the social and emotional nature of inquiry, this approach not only enriches disciplinary understanding, but also equips people with interpretative tools to critically engage with the public production and circulation of scientific knowledge. In this sense, engaging with cinematic narratives of research can support the development of scientifically literate and democratically engaged citizens capable of participating thoughtfully in collective decisions about the future of our communities.