On Tuesday, July 29, at 5 p.m. Prof. Renée Bergland as its next speaker in the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s summer lecture series.

Dr. Bergland will speak on her book, Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science, a cultural biography of the 19th-century Nantucket astronomer. Maria Mitchell, a Nantucket native, apprenticed with her father, an amateur astronomer. For years she swept the Nantucket night with the telescope in her rooftop observatory. In 1847, Mitchell discovered a comet and was catapulted to international fame.

Dr. Bergland is a full professor at Simmons College in Boston where she teaches a wide range of courses in 19th and 20th century American literature. She is particularly interested in Native American studies, cultural studies, and gender studies. An essayist, book reviewer and author, she lives in New Hampshire.

The lectures are $10 for museum members, $12 for nonmembers. The talk takes place on the campus of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, 59 School street in Edgartown.