Showing posts sorted by date for query women mathematics. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query women mathematics. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Welcome DIVERSITY in mathematics
As February on the calendar brings BLACK HISTORY month and March brings WOMEN'S HISTORY month, I invite you to explore the contributions of diverse groups to mathematics. In this blog, I celebrate links between a rainbow of math-people and poetry -- for example, in this posting, "Mathematicians are not just white dudes, (which includes links to math-poetry by Benjamin Banneker and Scott Williams).
Monday, January 13, 2020
The world of Math Girls . . .
This past weekend my oldest granddaughter turned sixteen -- and I intensely want every career door to be open to her and to my other granddaughters (and my grandson). The times are changing, new doors are opening for girls and women, Still, these syllable-square thoughts are on my mind this morning.
Math Girls
A math girl must be
smarter than the rest –-
yet must be modest
and never claiming.
Math-World is not fair.
And here are more of my mathy-perhaps-poetic thoughts.
When you’re a math girl you may be the only girl in the room.
A math girl must be three times as good to be equal.
Math Girls
A math girl must be
smarter than the rest –-
yet must be modest
and never claiming.
Math-World is not fair.
And here are more of my mathy-perhaps-poetic thoughts.
When you’re a math girl you may be the only girl in the room.
A math girl must be three times as good to be equal.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Browse Math-Poetry Links . . .
Today I invite you to browse -- to spend a moment reading titles, clicking on a title that intrigues you. ENJOY!
- TITLES OF POSTS (with links)
- January, 2020
- December, 2019
Thursday, December 5, 2019
Reaching for the stars . . . with science and poetry
Astronomer Beatrice Muriel Hill Tinsley (1941– 1981) made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the evolution of galaxies (See, for example, Wikipedia). California math teacher, editor and poet Carol Dorf celebrates Tinsley in the following poem.
Ask for a universe and what do you get?
a Golden Shovel for Beatrice Tinsley by Carol Dorf
For a while scientists' proposed loopholes
crossing the universe, wormholes a technique in
which to traverse distance to other worlds, this
unpleasant constraint which most reasoning
holds us to a single solar system or may
be, just perhaps a transit could exist
a Golden Shovel for Beatrice Tinsley by Carol Dorf
For a while scientists' proposed loopholes
crossing the universe, wormholes a technique in
which to traverse distance to other worlds, this
unpleasant constraint which most reasoning
holds us to a single solar system or may
be, just perhaps a transit could exist
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Enrich Mathematics Classes with Poems
In my mathematics classrooms, I have found it a challenge to include the history and spirit of mathematics -- and its people -- along with the math topics to be covered. Because I love poetry -- and also write some -- I gradually became aware of poems that could enrich my classes and I began to incorporate poetry in outside readings and essay topics and class discussions.
Here are links to poems that introduce the lives of four math-women:
Math Anxiety can be a hard topic for student or teacher to bring up -- but airing of views and healing might come from discussion. Poems to consider include:
Here are links to poems that introduce the lives of four math-women:
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Amalie "Emmy" Noether (1882-1935)
Grace Murray Hopper (1906 - 1988)
And here is a poem about four influential teachers of mine; three of them math-people; three of them women.
Math Anxiety can be a hard topic for student or teacher to bring up -- but airing of views and healing might come from discussion. Poems to consider include:
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics--a TREASURE
Online and available FREE, the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics is a wonderful source of poems and stories and articles that connect mathematics to life. Thanks to editors Mark Huber and Gizem Karaali who lead the effort to bring us new issues each January and July. Here is a link to the Table of Contents for the July 2019 issue. Included in this issue is a thoughtful article by Sarah Mayes-Tang entitled "Telling Women's Stories: A Resource for College Mathematics Instructors" -- and, related to this, here is a link to postings in this blog found using a SEARCH for "mathematics and women and poem." (Scroll down the list of postings to find individual poems.)
This current issue of JHM also offers a selection of five poems and also a folder with insightful reflections in both prose and poetry -- "A Life of Equations Shifting to a Life of Words" by Thomas Willemain.
This current issue of JHM also offers a selection of five poems and also a folder with insightful reflections in both prose and poetry -- "A Life of Equations Shifting to a Life of Words" by Thomas Willemain.
Follow the links. And enjoy!
Friday, March 29, 2019
Celebrate Karen Uhlenbeck, Abel Prize winner
Celebration is everywhere (including here in The New Yorker ) -- mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck has recently won the Abel prize for her revolutionary work: " . . . pioneering achievements in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory and integrable systems, and for the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry, and mathematical physics."
Here (pulled from The New Yorker article also cited above) are some of Uhlenbeck's poetic words about women in mathematics:
It's really hard for me to describe
to people who are not somewhat near me in age
what it was like for women then ... and it was only
because of the women's movement and books like
Here (pulled from The New Yorker article also cited above) are some of Uhlenbeck's poetic words about women in mathematics:
It's really hard for me to describe
to people who are not somewhat near me in age
what it was like for women then ... and it was only
because of the women's movement and books like
Monday, March 18, 2019
Looking back . . . titles, links to previous posts
For your browsing pleasure,here are titles and links to previous blog postings. Below are listed linked-titles of posts from 2018 and up-to now in 2019 and here is a link to a list of titles and links for posts prior to 2018.
- March 13 An Interview of/by a Mathy Poet
- March 11 Celebrate Pi-Day on 3.14
- March 6 Celebrate Math-Women with Poems!
- March 4 Math in 17 Syllables
- Solving for X, Searching for LIFE
- Stories of Black Mathematicians (event postponed)
- All Numbers are Interesting . . .
- George Washington, cherry tree, lifespan . . .
- Musical sounds of math words -- in a CENTO
- If 2017 was a poem title . . .
- Mathematics and Valentine's Day
- Speed flunking math . . . NO, NO!
- Quantum Lyrics -- Poems
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Mathematical motherhood -- keeping count
The Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, with new issues coming twice a year, late in January and July, is a wonderful resource. Their latest issue (July 2018) was themed "Mathematics and Motherhood" and is an example of their wonderful support for expanding our images of mathematicians to recognize the vital contributions of women.
From that issue, here are opening stanzas of a poem by Nevada scientist and mathematician Marylesa Howard -- lines that offer a mathematical description of the constant adjustments of parenthood. Several decades ago, when I was a math professor and parent of young children, I needed to keep details of parenting away from my profession -- a divided life. I'm glad things are different now.
From that issue, here are opening stanzas of a poem by Nevada scientist and mathematician Marylesa Howard -- lines that offer a mathematical description of the constant adjustments of parenthood. Several decades ago, when I was a math professor and parent of young children, I needed to keep details of parenting away from my profession -- a divided life. I'm glad things are different now.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Celebrate a Science Woman -- and offer friendship!
Last weekend's Washington Post used the headline
When Nancy Grace Roman requested permission
to take a second algebra course in high school,
the teacher demanded to know, "what lady
would take mathematics instead of Latin?"
But Roman persisted in the challenging studies and was not dissuaded by biases. The obituary quotes an interview from Science magazine in which she said:
Astronomer celebrated as the 'mother' of the Hubble Space Telescope
for the obituary of Nancy Grace Roman. It opens with this sentence:When Nancy Grace Roman requested permission
to take a second algebra course in high school,
the teacher demanded to know, "what lady
would take mathematics instead of Latin?"
But Roman persisted in the challenging studies and was not dissuaded by biases. The obituary quotes an interview from Science magazine in which she said:
Monday, December 17, 2018
Examining boundaries for Math-Women
Mathematician Ursula Whitcher is a versatile and interesting person -- and currently an editor for the American Mathematical Society's Mathematical Reviews. It was my pleasure to meet and work with her at a conference on "Creative Writing in Mathematics . . ." in Banff in 2016. Like me, Whitcher writes some poetry -- and here is one of her poems -- this one recognizing the isolation of math-woman Sophie Germain.
Boundary Conditions by Ursula Whitcher
Royal Academy of Science, Paris, 1823
This is her moment of triumph:
a seat at the center, a node.
Mademoiselle Germain sits silent,
head upright, chaperoned.
Academy members rise
or dip; the speaker drones.
Boundary Conditions by Ursula Whitcher
Royal Academy of Science, Paris, 1823
This is her moment of triumph:
a seat at the center, a node.
Mademoiselle Germain sits silent,
head upright, chaperoned.
Academy members rise
or dip; the speaker drones.
Friday, December 7, 2018
United by ice cream -- the sphere and cone
During recent months I have been part of an online course that has helped me and a dozen others to learn steps for editing Wikipedia -- with the goal that we will be able to add biographies of "Women in Science and Mathematics" to that enormous online encyclopedia (in which, currently, less than 18% of the biographies feature women). The course has led me to SEARCH Wikipedia using names of women I admire -- and it will be my intent to work toward addition of those missing. One such woman -- a mathematics PhD, a talented teacher, a poet -- is Katharine O'Brien (1905-1986). I introduce her below with one of her mathy poems (first published in The Mathematics Teacher in 1968).
Einstein and the Ice Cream Cone by Katharine O'Brien
His first day at Princeton, the legend goes,
he went for a stroll (in his rumpled clothes).
He entered a coffee shop -- moment of doubt --
then climbed on a stool and looked about.
Beside him, a frosh, likewise strange and alone,
consoling himself with an ice cream cone.
Einstein and the Ice Cream Cone by Katharine O'Brien
His first day at Princeton, the legend goes,
he went for a stroll (in his rumpled clothes).
He entered a coffee shop -- moment of doubt --
then climbed on a stool and looked about.
Beside him, a frosh, likewise strange and alone,
consoling himself with an ice cream cone.
Monday, October 22, 2018
Describing a scene with numbers
Lana Hechtman Ayers is a versatile and accomplished poet who also has a degree in mathematics -- in her poem below, she paints a picture with numbers.
Algebra by Lana Hechtman Ayers
4 women
of 3 generations
are walking along
2nd Street together
in the rain
without any number
of umbrellas.
Algebra by Lana Hechtman Ayers
4 women
of 3 generations
are walking along
2nd Street together
in the rain
without any number
of umbrellas.
Monday, June 18, 2018
Choose the right LINE
Recently, looking through my copies of POETRY Magazine, in the September 2008 issue I found this quote (used as an epigraph) from a poet whose work I greatly admire, British poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985):
The whole point of drawing is choosing the right line.
Finding the Larkin quote led me to look back in my blog for poems that feature the concept of line -- with its multiple meanings -- and I offer this link to search-results that offer a variety of choices for poems with line for you to explore.
The whole point of drawing is choosing the right line.
And here are links to a couple of my own recent attempts to choose the right line:
The online journal TalkingWriting has recently interviewed me
The online journal TalkingWriting has recently interviewed me
and a link to their ten-minute video is available here. In it I read
a portion of my poem, "My Dance is Mathematics,"
that stars mathematician Emmy Noether.
"They Say She Was Good -- for a Woman," features that same poem
and some additional reflections on the struggles of women in mathematics.
Friday, June 15, 2018
NOTHING is SOMETHING
Thinking today about ZERO -- zero tolerance, zero fear!
These findings take me back to the 1980's and "affirmative action" at Pennsylvania's Bloomsburg University (where I was a member of the Mathematics Department). The University had an Affirmative Action Officer who worked to help faculty and staff develop behaviors and policies that endeavored to end discrimination against women and minorities. One important test of the appropriateness of an activity was a "symmetry test" -- if a remark or act did not seem proper when the roles of two participants were reversed, then the original was probably something to avoid. In those days, my male colleagues needed to reconsider some of their behaviors and I needed to overcome my fear of speaking up.
The concept of zero as "something" that signifies "nothing" is an ever-thought-provoking one. In support of ZERO TOLERANCE -- with a goal of NOTHING, I offer the following poem, "The Zero," by Israel Har.
Friday, April 13, 2018
Interview with mathy poets . . .
Philadelphia mathematician and poet Marion Cohen has worked with Sundress Publications to prepare an interview offering MATH-POETRY viewpoints from three other mathematician-poets and herself -- including me and Sarah Glaz, recently retired in the mathematics department at the University of Connecticut, and Gizem Karaali, in the mathematics department at Pomona College. All of these math-women have numerous books, articles, and so on -- and I invite you to follow the links associated with their names and also to go here to read the Sundress interview (which does, at the end, include several poems).
Each of these math-poetry women has been featured often in this blog -- and, in addition to reading the interview, I urge you to click on their names to explore these links: Marion Cohen Sarah Glaz Gizem Karaali
I close with a link to an article of mine, "Mathematics in Poetry, " published by the MAA a bit more than ten years ago -- an easy read that has generated some recent attention.
Each of these math-poetry women has been featured often in this blog -- and, in addition to reading the interview, I urge you to click on their names to explore these links: Marion Cohen Sarah Glaz Gizem Karaali
I close with a link to an article of mine, "Mathematics in Poetry, " published by the MAA a bit more than ten years ago -- an easy read that has generated some recent attention.
Friday, March 23, 2018
Happy Birthday -- Emmy Noether!
Born March 23, 1882. Amalie Emmy Noether (1882-1935) was an outstanding mathematician. Three years ago GOOGLE celebrated her birthday. At this link is a poem I wrote about her. And for more about her and other math-women, go to this article in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.
Monday, March 19, 2018
Math and poetry -- shout out the connection!
Recently I came across a fun-to-read posting here in the blog "math for grownups" about connections between math and poetry -- blogger Laura Laing is a freelance writer who was a math major (here is her personal webpage) and she offers strongly positive remarks about poetry and math and women and . .
Following the theme of positive connections, I offer a sample of work by Theoni Pappas, taken from a recently-republished collection math talk: mathematical ideas in poems for two voices (Wide World Publishing, 2014). Here are the opening lines of the first poem of the collection -- it is fittingly entitled "Mathematics."
Following the theme of positive connections, I offer a sample of work by Theoni Pappas, taken from a recently-republished collection math talk: mathematical ideas in poems for two voices (Wide World Publishing, 2014). Here are the opening lines of the first poem of the collection -- it is fittingly entitled "Mathematics."
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Math-minorities -- stories needing to be shouted
One of my favorite Facebook communities is Women in Maths -- a group energized by Susanne Pumpluen at the University of Nottingham and a site that consistently offers must-read items concerning math-women. One of the important blogs on my reading list is the American Mathematical Society Blog, inclusion/exclusion -- a diverse group of bloggers, headed by Adriana Salerno that discuss issues pertaining to marginalized and underrepresented groups in mathematics. A February posting by Piper Harron focuses attention on the question "What does it feel like not to belong?" -- treating exclusion issues with important frankness. As someone who felt uncomfortable without speaking out about it, I admire Harron's expression of her views.
For a poetic comment on this situation I turn to the final stanza of a poem of mine about Emmy Noether, a verse that illustrates the oft-repeated habit of praise that actually is a put-down.
Today, history books proclaim that Noether
is the greatest mathematician
her sex has produced. They say she was good
for a woman.
Readers interested in reading a bit more are invited to visit my 2017 article in the online Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, "They Say She Was Good for a Woman: Poetry and Musings."
For a poetic comment on this situation I turn to the final stanza of a poem of mine about Emmy Noether, a verse that illustrates the oft-repeated habit of praise that actually is a put-down.
Today, history books proclaim that Noether
is the greatest mathematician
her sex has produced. They say she was good
for a woman.
Readers interested in reading a bit more are invited to visit my 2017 article in the online Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, "They Say She Was Good for a Woman: Poetry and Musings."
Labels:
Adriana Salerno,
Emmy Noether,
Piper Harron,
Susanne Pumpluen
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Blog history -- title, links for previous posts . . .
My first posting in this blog was nearly eight years ago (on March 23, 2010). If, at the time, I had anticipated its duration, I should have made a plan for organizing the posts. But my ambitions were small. During the time I was teaching mathematics at Bloomsburg University, I gathered poetry (and various historical materials) for assigned readings to enrich the students' course experiences. After my retirement, I had time to want to share these materials -- others were doing well at making historical material accessible to students but I thought poetry linked to mathematics needed to be shared more. And so, with my posting of a poem I had written long ago celebrating the mathematical life of Emmy Noether, this blog began. Particular topics featured often in postings include -- verse that celebrate women, verses that speak out against discrimination, verses that worry about climate change.
You're invited to:Scroll through the titles below, browsing to find items of interest
among the more-than-nine-hundred postings since March 2010
OR
Click on any label -- a list is found in the right-hand column below the author profile
OR
Enter term(s) in the SEARCH box -- and find all posts containing those terms.
For example, here is a link to the results of a SEARCH using math women
And here is a link to a poem by Brian McCabe that celebrates math-woman Sophie Germain.
This link reaches a poem by Joan Cannon that laments her math-anxiety.
This poem expresses some of my own divided feelings.
2017 Posts
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