Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

My Best Laid Plan, Becky E. Hall

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This story ties together the precise planning traits of mathematicians with the challenges of motherhood.

Does Math Help With Addition?, Ellen Veomett

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Math always has the answer, right? In this humor-speckled piece, we probe the answer to that question in a challenging context: the mathematician as mother. Unfortunately, we’ll find that skill and knowledge in mathematics does not necessarily translate to skill and knowledge in making, birthing, and raising people. But can motherhood in some way improve us as mathematicians?

Reflections On Challenging Times, Jacqueline Jensen-Vallin

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

As many academic mamas do, I waited until I was (almost) tenured to try to have my children. After a couple of miscarriages, I got pregnant with twins. Here I present both personal stories and tales of how colleagues were treated by their department and administration when they were pregnant. Some had administrative duties revoked, some were encouraged to engage in academic dishonesty in order to have maternity leave, and some were not eligible for any leave. I also provide suggestions of how others might handle these encounters better than we pregnant faculty did.

The Elephant (-Sized Belly) In The Room, Teena Carroll

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Had I known about the grim employment statistics facing mothers in academia I might have chosen a different path. I share my story of navigating the academic job market while visibly pregnant and connect my experiences to the wider issue of biases against motherhood in academia. Ultimately I was lucky to get a tenure-track job right out of graduate school, but the environment I found myself in was hostile to me as a new mother. There has been much interest in increasing gender diversity of the professorate, especially in mathematics; it is valuable to look specifically at how motherhood and …

The Multiple Identities Of A Mathematics Professor Mom, Margaret J. Mohr-Schroeder

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In this essay, i dive into the multiple identities of a Mathematics Professor Mom and how we interchange those identities as we work to achieve harmony (not balance!) in our lives.

Family As Vocation; Work As Mission, Sara B. Quinn, Christina Safranski

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The terms vocation and mission are often considered synonyms; both meaning work to which one feels called and deeply dedicated. But, for working mothers who feel called and deeply dedicated to both family and work, it can be useful to make a distinction between vocation and mission. Inspired by Catholicism and working for Catholic universities, we explore how the terms vocation and mission have been traditionally defined. The Catholic Church recognizes only four vocations (married life, single life, religious life, and ordained life), while there are countless specific missions that individuals and institutions can carry out. Each of these ideas …

A Letter To My Daughters, Maeve L. Mccarthy

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This piece is a letter to my two daughters, Susan and Nora, to explain why I am a working mother, why being a mathematician and a woman in science is important to me. I hope they will read it someday and be inspired. I hope they will realize that while the balance between family and work continually shifts, it is possible to have it all.

Calculating Intersections: The Crossroads Of Mathematics And Literature In The Lives Of Mother And Daughter, Della Dumbaugh, Hannah Fenster

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This article tells the stories of how we, Della (mom, mathematician) and Hannah (daughter, writing instructor and bookseller), arrived in our professional settings through the lens of mother and daughter. For us, the intersections of literature and mathematics inspired many of our pivotal moments.

Inquiry Based Learning: A Teaching And Parenting Opportunity, Aliza Steurer

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In this paper, I discuss what appears to be a new perspective on inquiry based learning (IBL) by describing its parallels with parenting. IBL is a student-centered learning method involving collaborative work on carefully sequenced exercises, oral and written communication of solutions, and peer review. Students create their own knowledge and present their ideas, and the instructor acts as a facilitator. The parallels between IBL and parenting include a growth mindset, emphasizing process over outcome, learning from mistakes, learning how to get unstuck, and deconstructing tasks. IBL and parenting also involve similar social interactions, such as responding to difficult questions …

The Upside Of Down Syndrome: Math Is My Superpower!, Heidi Berger

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

My son Isaac has Down syndrome. He was born in 2015, within a year of me receiving tenure at Simpson College. The experience of being his mother has had a profound effect on me as a mathematician. Having been with him through eleven surgeries over sixteen hospitalizations, I wanted to learn about his medical complexities and, more generally, about coordinated health care for those with chronic illness. To accomplish these goals, I’ve looked to my teaching and research. In the spring of 2016, I designed a sophomore-level mathematical modeling course on the respiratory system. In the summer of 2016, I …

A Math Research Project Inspired By Twin Motherhood, Tiffany N. Kolba

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The phenomenon of twins, triplets, quadruplets, and other higher order multiples has fascinated humans for centuries and has even captured the attention of mathematicians who have sought to model the probabilities of multiple births. However, there has not been extensive research into the phenomenon of polyovulation, which is one of the biological mechanisms that produces multiple births. In this paper, I describe how my own experience becoming a mother to twins led me on a quest to better understand the scientific processes going on inside my own body and motivated me to conduct research on polyovulation frequencies. An overview of …

The Situatedness Of Mathematics In Motherhood And Academia, Jennifer Schenk Sacco, Jill Shahverdian

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The authors, a mathematician and a political scientist, examine mathematics, motherhood, and academia, and argue that feminist epistemology is necessary to explain the intersection. Relying on the principles of feminist epistemology laid out by philosophers Naomi Scheman and Marianne Janack, the authors consider how work, the concept of time, teaching, arts and crafts, and decision-making all reveal the situatedness of knowing and using mathematics.

Math Mamas: Changing The Narrative, Pamela E. Harris, Becky Hall, Emille Lawrence, Carrie Diaz Eaton

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

How To Wear More Than One Hat Well, Mark Huber, Gizem Karaali

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Sulfonamide Synthesis Via Calcium Triflimide Activation Of Sulfonyl Fluorides, Nicholas Ball, Paramita Mukherjee, Cristian P. Woroch, Leah Cleary, Mark Rusznak, Ryan W. Franzese, Matthew R. Reese, Joseph W. Tucker, John M. Humphrey, Sarah M. Etuk, Sabrina C. Kwan, Christopher W. Am Ende

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

A method using calcium triflimide [Ca(NTf₂)₂] as a Lewis acid to activate sulfonyl fluorides toward nucleophilic addition with amines is described. The reaction converts a wide array of sterically and electronically diverse sulfonyl fluorides and amines into the corresponding sulfonamides in good yield.

Cmsc 2018: 4th Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication Conference, Frances Rosamond

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Join scientists, researchers, teachers, and artists in developing new ways of communicating mathematical and computational thinking. Welcome are contributions in art forms such as dance, graphic art, theatre, and the myriad of ways to communicate science to the public. The conference will feature keynote talks by leading researchers and communicators in the mathematical sciences, sharing their experience, new initiatives, and ideas. The conference will be held in Wellington, New Zealand, at The Learning Connexion (TLC) on 21--23 July 2018. The conference website is http://www.cmsc.nz.

Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal Special Issue Call For Papers: Numbers, Shep Steiner

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Mosaic, an interdisciplinary critical journal, is pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue on Numbers. Please submit your essay to the Editor using Mosaic’s online submission portal (http://umanitoba.ca/mosaic/submit) by March 9, 2018. The issue is currently scheduled to appear in September 2019.

Jesus And The Walnuts, Hugh C. Culik

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In “Jesus & the Walnuts,” a hapless English professor invokes fragments of mathematical thought to integrate his hunger for a knowable world with his affection for the logician with whom he shares an office. While “not even wrong” and horribly clumsy, his aspirations are iterations of the drive for order and meaning that are shared across disciplinary knowledge . . . and the hungers of the heart.

Paperback Vs. Cryptanalysis, Terry Trowbridge

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This poem is a defiant challenge against online and app based surveillance of readers. It also questions the guesses that are used to make claims about readers using text analyses.

Gradual Homicide, Jack Ritter

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A mathematical poem about asymptotic treachery.

The Two-Body Problem In Celestial Mechanics, William Sarill

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Theremin, David Pritchard

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Math In Seventeen Syllables: A Folder Of Mathematical Haiku

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In our July 2017 issue, we issued an open call for mathematical haiku, which we defined to be a three-line poem in the “5-7-5” syllabic form that expressed a mathematical idea or experience, and hopefully connected it to the human condition. In deference to traditional Japanese haiku, we encouraged poets to consider using allusions to nature or the seasons in their work, or what is known as a caesura or kire represented by punctuations, space, line-break, or other grammatical break that is intended to compare two images implicitly.

We received haiku on an amazing variety of themes and subjects, from …

Book Review: Algebra In Context: Introductory Algebra From Origins To Applications By Amy Shell-Gellasch And J. B. Thoo, Cindia D. Stewart

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This is a review of Algebra in Context: Introductory Algebra from Origins to Applications, a textbook authored by Amy Shell-Gellasch and J.B. Thoo. The text presents traditional mathematics through the lens of history, allowing students to gain a rich understanding of how mathematics works and where it comes from. In addition to providing the reader with a summary of the book contents, the reviewer suggests why and how the text may be incorporated into college-level mathematics courses.

Mathematicians Versus Philosophers In Recent Work On Mathematical Beauty, Viktor Blåsjö

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Recent attempts at defining mathematical beauty fall roughly into two schools of thought. One takes its starting point in the subjective experience of the mathematician and characterises mathematical beauty in cognitive terms. The other seeks to reduce beauty to objective notions such as truth, symmetry, or simplicity. This second approach is popular among analytic philosophers, who are committed to seeing mathematics and science as prototypically rational enterprises. I criticise this stance on the grounds that this commitment makes its supporters approach beauty in mathematics not with a genuine desire to sympathetically understand it, but with the preconceived goal of explaining …

The Origin Of The Group In Logic And The Methodology Of Science, Paolo Mancosu

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

The Group in Logic and the Methodology of Science at UC Berkeley was founded in 1957. It has been a key institutional element in carrying out Tarski’s vision for making UC Berkeley one of the most important centers of logical research in the world. In this brief history, I look at the emergence of the Group in Logic with an eye towards understanding the circumstances that made it possible.

My Sets And Sexuality, Andres Sanchez

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

It was only with the application of set theory to my own personal life that I discovered my true identity and sexuality. In this exploratory, personal essay, I detail my own discovery of my sexuality through mathematics and how this math has become a lens through which I view the world. And, with new knowledge of literary criticism in hand, I can now retroactively describe the thoughts I had in this discovery process.

Fun, Not Competition: The Story Of My Math Club, Johanna Hardin

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

For almost three years, I have spent most of my Sunday afternoons doing math with my daughters and a group of their school friends. Below I detail why and how the math club is run. Unlike my day job, which is full of (statistical) learning objectives for my college students, my math club has only the objective that the kids I work with learn to associate mathematics with having fun. My math club has its challenges, but the motivation comes from love of mathematics, which makes it fun, and worth every minute.

In Memory Of Professor Andrei Nikolaievitch Tikhonov (1906-1993) On The 25th Anniversary Of His Death, Hayat Rezgui

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Thursday, November 8, 2018, is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of the celebrated Professor A. N. Tikhonov, one of my most favorite mathematicians. The idea of writing this paper to honor his life and scientific activities came to me as I was reading many of his works; I was impressed by his knowledge, amazing research, profound scholarship, perspicuity and eloquence of expression, painstaking accuracy, and big ideas. My aim is to be clear and evocative, for in this way I feel more in touch with my subject that is very interesting.