Summer Pod Squad: Mathematically Uncensored

Episode Links:

• Spotify

• Apple Podcast

• Amazon Music

Episode Description:

"Pamela and Aris introduce you to Mathematically Uncensored, discuss the Center's mission, and take sides on whether mathematicians and statisticians of color can most benefit the community by taking on teaching positions or research positions."

Discussion Questions:

1. When faced with an injustice in our math/academic communities, do you take the time & energy to consider the point of view of the opposite side? When is this appropriate/inappropriate? In which ways could it be helpful? In which ways could it be detrimental?

2. In your professional/academic communities, how often do you feel that you need to censor yourself? In which ways do you feel you need to censor yourself?

3. In which ways is your professional/academic self different from your self outside of your profession/academia?

4. Have there been times where you genuinely felt like your whole, 100% uncensored, 100% unadulterated self in your professional/academic communities? What environmental factors led to that?

Quotes from the Competing Perspective section (19 minutes in):

In this section, Pamela Harris and Aris Winger debate over whether teaching or research positions are better suited for (1) improving diversity in mathematics and (2) for their personal careers. Aris describes this debate as "where do you want to make your impact?"

Pamela Harris was assigned to the side of research positions:

• She shared a conversation she had with the chair of her department that 'changed her life': "Oh, let me get this straight. So you're going to show them how to be a mathematician by being a teacher. Not by being a mathematician."

• She then says, "How am I going to look at these kids everyday and be like 'You can be a mathematician' ... but I am not doing my own research?"

• She also says, "The only way we're going to get more PhD mathematicians [of color] is by having more PhD mathematicians ... We don't go get these PhDs in math to not be doing math".

On the other hand, Aris Winger was assigned to the side of teaching positions:

• He shared a story about a professor and mentor of his, James Donaldson. Seeing Donaldson as a professor in his real analysis course made Aris realize that "this is who I'm trying to be!".

• He further elaborated, "At the time, [Donaldson] was presenting himself as a teacher, that his teaching was the thing that made me want to become a mathematician." As a student, Aris didn't know anything about research mathematics, how many papers Donaldson had published, etc.

• He also makes the point that "If we have our PhDs in mathematics only going to R1 institutions, then there's this huge swath of Liberal arts colleges who have people that can become mathematicians that don't get to see us [underrepresented mathematicians] ...They need to see me [and other underrepresented mathematicians]"

1. What are your thoughts on this debate?

2. How do you reconcile the demands of outreach, teaching and research? (Especially as a member of an underrepresented group?)

Other quotes:

Pamela Harris: "When we think of the word mathematician and close our eyes ... why is it that I close my eyes and don't see me?"

Pamela Harris: "I revved up my research, and I realized all of a sudden, people would listen to me."

Aris Winger [on visibility]: "Is this problem going to be settled by seeing more faces on its own, or will those faces actually have to speak up, and do some advocacy? ... Will simply our presence change the narrative?"

Episode Links:

• Spotify

• Apple Podcast

• Amazon Music

Episode Description:

"Pamela and Aris discuss ways in which we can open doors for ourselves, and different types of mentoring."

Discussion Questions:

1. In this episode, Pamela and Aris discuss applying to opportunities, scholarships, and positions, and the idea of "not closing the door on yourself".

a. How have you developed the mindset of "the door is open".

b. How have you developed the skill of promoting and advocating for yourself?

c. How do you balance investing time and effort into an application and then not being accepted/selected?

2. What have your mentoring relationships been like?

a. What do you need in a mentor?

b. What do you think you provide as a mentor?

3. Aris says that mentoring in mathematics should not be one dimensional, and that being a good mentor means being attuned to the entirety of your mentee.

a. What do you think about these ideas?

4. Pamela says, "You need to have a conversation with yourself about what is important for you, what you actually need to thrive. And to not fall prey to the belief system that the only thing of value is your mathematics."

a. How do you stand up for yourself academically?

Episode Links:

• Spotify

• Apple Podcast

• Amazon Music

Episode Description:

"Aris and Pamela debate whether we need power and capital before we voice our thoughts and opinions. They also talk about a facebook war on student assessment: Is $382.70 the same as 382.7 dollars?"

Discussion Questions:
Part 1: Competing Perspectives

1. In this episode’s ‘Competing Perspectives’ segment, Pamela and Aris debate the question of when one should speak up in response to someone else saying or doing something problematic in an academic setting.

   • If you're comfortable discussing this, have you ever seen someone speak up against someone else making a comment that was problematic? What was the response of the person who made the problematic comment? What was your body’s response (regardless of how you responded to the transgression)?

2. Throughout the episode, Pamela and Aris make reference to the idea of cultivating social capital in your academic spaces in order to have the ability to make change happen.

   • What are some ways to amass social capital in your academic spaces as a student?

   • What does having enough social capital look like?

3. In reference to graduate programs seeking to diversify, Aris says “You don’t get to be a place that is welcoming to us without proving that to us first. There need to be methods [through] which schools can demonstrate they are places where people of color can go before we say, ‘That's a place where we should be sending somebody.’"

   • What are examples of things departments could do that could be useful in this direction?

   • What are examples of misguided things departments could do that are NOT useful in this direction?

Part 2: Education Segment

4. In this segment, Aris brings up a Facebook post depicting a student’s answer of ‘382.7 dollars’ being marked incorrect (the ‘correct’ answer was ‘382.70 dollars’ despite no instructions to write the answer this way).

   • In which forms does this kind of nitpicking exist in academia? In grad school? Who does this target?

   • Pamela brings up a quote, “Cuentas claras, amistades largas,” which for her means “If we have clear expectations, our friendships will be long lasting.”

     • Which expectations do you decide to make clear for students in the classes you teach? When do you choose to leave expectations unclear?

     • For those who are further along, have you encountered or learned of expectations in academia that you wish were made clearer? What were those expectations?

Episode Links:

• Spotify

• Apple Podcast

• Amazon Music

Episode Description:

"Aris and Pamela discuss whether minority mathematicians are better off working on their own or within established organizations, like the AMS. They also discuss what role sympathy should play in mathematics education."

Discussion Questions:

Competing Perspectives

In this episode’s Competing Perspectives segment, Pamela and Aris discuss the following listener question: should we work with large, established organizations, or should we start from scratch and build our own?

1. What are the bureaucratic policies adopted by organizations like the AMS/MAA that slow or prevent change and justice? Is there a typical way that changes and efforts towards justice are made at this level? Who’s in charge of this and how does one get there?

2. Can organizations as large as the AMS and MAA effectively change? How could one even begin to incite change in an organization as large as the AMS/MAA? What are some successful examples of change?

3. Regarding the AMS and MAA, what are examples of things that they got right? What are some actions that the AMS and MAA have taken that could convince someone that these institutions might be worth working with?

Quotes of the Week

In this segment, Aris discusses a Facebook thread in which educators were expressing their diminishing compassion towards students who were failing to participate during the pandemic. One educator wrote, “It’s so hard to continue having compassion for our students in these times when some of them are pulling this ****.”

1. What does compassion in the classroom look like to you?

2. As educators and TAs, what are the things on our end that lead to lower compassion? How do we pull ourselves out of a rut when we feel that we are not being as compassionate as we’d like to be?

Extra Reading

• Adriana Salerno’s AMS blog post on apologizing: https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2021/01/19/what-is-a-four-part-apology/

• The March 2021 report by the AMS Task Force for Understanding and Documenting the Historical Role of the AMS in Racial Discrimination: https://www.ams.org/about-us/understanding-ams-history

Episode Links:

• Spotify

• Apple Podcast

• Amazon Music

Episode Description:

"Pamela and Aris discuss what an ally looks like and how they should interact with Uncle Fred on Thanksgiving. They also discuss whether a successful minority should go back to the community they group up in after they have 'made it'."

Discussion Questions:

The first portion of the podcast is dedicated to the question of how someone could be an ally against injustice, especially in mathematics. In particular, surface-level conversations about statistics and other people’s stories are not helpful. Instead, allies should be committing to hold themselves accountable to act or say something when faced with an act of injustice (e.g., Thanksgiving dinner with Uncle Fred).

1. Let’s keep it real: within our podcast club, how often do we have surface-level conversations that could go deeper? What are the harder, more important conversations we could be having? E.g., what are we failing at? Where do we fail in our department? What is our department not doing that it should be?

2. What are the reasons that a lot of us are quiet during certain conversations? Is it the feeling of burdening others? The feeling of ignorance? Inability to find the right words? Inability to relate to the situation? When those feelings arise and we find it difficult to lend our voice to the conversation, what do we do?

3. What makes having our conversations worthwhile? What are the actionable takeaways that we walk away with after having these conversations? How could we be doing better in this direction?

Near the 9 minute mark, Aris mentions that he’s been wondering two things: which are the graduate programs we should not be sending students of color to, and which are the top 25 graduate programs that we should be sending students of color to? These should be graduate programs that pass the litmus test of taking action when faced with injustice.

4. Are we on the list of 25 grad school programs we should be sending students of color to?

In the Competing Perspectives segment, Aris and Pamela debate whether or not one should return to their communities after receiving their PhD, and how we carry our communities with us along our journeys.

5. How have you carried your community with you during your graduate studies, and how has your community affected you in this journey? Did your experiences in your community affect your decision to pursue graduate studies in mathematics?

6. Do you have any plans to 'come home'? What does coming home mean to you?