FEATURE STORY - Spring 2007, Outreach-Reaching Out

Some graduate students have learning goals that are so original they need to chart an individualized academic course of study. These students enjoy learning for the sake of learning and are strongly selfdirected. One student who fits this profile and charted his own course of study at OU was Steven Gullberg. These days he can be found climbing over shrines and crawling through caves high in the Peruvian Andes as he examines their orientations with regard to the sun, moon and stars while conducting field research for his doctoral degree.

“Students like Steven have a need to go beyond the norm and discover something new,” said Frank Rodriquez, program administrator for the University of Oklahoma College of Liberal Studies. “They seek to break through traditional learning boundaries,”

“I learned to love learning for the sake of learning and I have embarked upon a lifelong quest for knowledge that has led me to my current doctorial studies in the cloud forest of Peru.” Steven Gullberg, College of Liberal Studies graduate and current doctoral student on his University of Oklahoma experience

In 2001, Gullberg, a commercial airline pilot who lives in St. Louis, Mo., wanted to begin work on a master’s degree. With his research interests in ancient astronomy spanning several areas, he discovered OU’s College of Liberal Studies would allow him to design a highly individualized level of specialization. The integrated studies selfdesign option best fit his needs and the online delivery format was appealing.

Astronomy is a lifelong passion for Gullberg that began in his boyhood during the Sixties as he watched every televised launch of NASA’s fledgling spaceflight program. By the age of 14 he was paying for his first flight lesson with money he earned from a paper route. He celebrated his 16th birthday by making his first solo flight in a Cessna 150.

“OU’s assets were ideal in both its talented staff and the Bizzell Library’s world-leading History of Science Collections,” Gullberg said. “I took full advantage of them while discovering that online learning is what you make of it. Even though this was a distance learning program, I worked with my professors on-campus regularly.

“Through the College of Liberal Studies, I was able to learn about ancient astronomical concepts, spherical astronomy, Babylonian astronomy, Greek and Roman astronomy, ancient astrology, ancient calendrica systems and time keeping, Mesopotamian culture and a bit of the ancient Akkadian language.”

Utilizing computer analysis, he isolated the likely reference system of the Babylonian astronomical diaries and learned that the majority of these observations likely took place within two seasonal hours of either sunset or sunrise. He also identified several astronomically related errors in the diary transliterations of cuneiform to Akkadian. “Interdisciplinary scholarship became my pastime and I thoroughly enjoyed learning everything I possibly could,” he said.

Gullberg’s resulting research and thesis, The Babylonian Astronomical Diaries: A Contextual Survey and Graphical Analysis of Their Implied Reference System, was highly recognized and he represented OU in the 2003 Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award competition.

With his master’s degree completed, Gullberg entered a doctoral program at James Cook University (JCU) in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. JCU has a growing astronomy department that includes research in archaeoastronomy, his specialization. At JCU he is once again going beyond the norm.

“While I could have elected to spend my time in libraries researching a different topic, I’ve chosen instead to forge a research program centered upon field research in the Peruvian Andes,” he said.

This summer Gullberg will present a paper accepted for the 8th Oxford International Conference on Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture to be held in Klaipeda, Lithuania.
 

The College of Liberal Studies, self-design master’s degree program had a profound effect on Gullberg. “I learned to love learning for the sake of learning and I have embarked upon a lifelong quest for knowledge that has led me to my current doctorial studies in the cloud forest of Peru,” he said.

Recently, Gullberg began teaching an undergraduate online course, The Dynamic Universe, for the College of Liberal Studies where, he said, “I am thoroughly enjoying helping OU students discover the cosmos around them.”