Somewhere in a high school English class was a small topic that intrigues me still -- "questions that expect the answer 'yes'." A door opened. Letting me see that what we say has expectations as well as information. In graduate school math classes we considered the warning word "obviously" -- in a proof, it was likely to mean "I'm sure it's true but am not able to explain."
As I muse today about language I am wondering how unsaid words affect the population of women in mathematics, affect the numbers (too small) of women publishing mathematics. Thinking about this in the light of a wonderful time on Saturday greeting visitors to an AWM (Association for Woman in Mathematics) booth at the biennial USA Science and Engineering Festival. Temple University professor and AWM member Irina Mitrea did an amazing job planning and coordinating the AWM booth where hundreds of young people got some hands-on experience with secret codes and ciphers.
Showing posts with label Irina Mitrea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irina Mitrea. Show all posts
Monday, April 28, 2014
Words that warn
Labels:
AWM,
cipher,
code,
elliptical,
Harryette Mullen,
Irina Mitrea,
mathematics,
poem,
Poetry Foundation
Monday, November 12, 2012
Finding fault with a sphere . . .
On November 9 I had the pleasure (hosted by Irina Mitrea and Maria Lorenz) of talking ("Thirteen Ways that Math and Poetry Connect") with the Math Club at Temple University and, on November 5, I visited Marion Cohen's "Mathematics in Literature" class at Arcadia University. THANKS for these good times.
This
Fib
poem
says THANK-YOU
to all those students
from Arcadia and Temple
who participated in "math-poetry" with me --
who held forth with sonnets, pantoums,
squares, snowballs, and Fibs --
poetry
that rests
on
math.
My Temple host, Irina Mitrea, and I share something else besides being women who love mathematics -- the Romanian poet, Nichita Stanescu (1933-83), is a favorite for both of us. My October 23 posting ("On the Life of Ptolemy") offered one of Sean Cotter's recently published translations of poems by Stanescu and below I include more Stanescu-via-Cotter -- namely, two of the ten sections of "An Argument with Euclid." These stanzas illustrate Stanescu at his best -- irreverently using mathematical terminology and expressing articulate anger at seen and unseen powers of oppression.
This
Fib
poem
says THANK-YOU
to all those students
from Arcadia and Temple
who participated in "math-poetry" with me --
who held forth with sonnets, pantoums,
squares, snowballs, and Fibs --
poetry
that rests
on
math.
My Temple host, Irina Mitrea, and I share something else besides being women who love mathematics -- the Romanian poet, Nichita Stanescu (1933-83), is a favorite for both of us. My October 23 posting ("On the Life of Ptolemy") offered one of Sean Cotter's recently published translations of poems by Stanescu and below I include more Stanescu-via-Cotter -- namely, two of the ten sections of "An Argument with Euclid." These stanzas illustrate Stanescu at his best -- irreverently using mathematical terminology and expressing articulate anger at seen and unseen powers of oppression.
Labels:
Arcadia,
argument,
cube,
economy,
Euclid,
freedom,
Irina Mitrea,
Maria Lorenz,
Marion Cohen,
maximum,
minimum,
Nichita Stanescu,
poetry,
postulate,
Sean Cotter,
space,
sphere,
square,
Temple,
women
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