Benjamin Braun, Department of Mathematics
Brad Elliott, Department of Mathematics
Cindy Jong, Department of STEM Education
David Murrugarra, Department of Mathematics
Pooja Gupta Sidney, Department of Psychology
The Math Community and Ethics (MCE) working group is open to any faculty and graduate students at the University of Kentucky. During the academic year, we meet to discuss and learn about issues related to community and ethics in the mathematical sciences and to develop practices informed by these discussions. Members of the working group have the option to also participate in subgroups focused on specific projects or activities.
We announce meetings and share materials through our listserv. To sign up for the listserv, send an email to listserv@lsv.uky.edu with "subscribe UKMATHETHICS-L YourFirstName YourLastName" in the message body (not the subject line). The subject line should be empty. The email address you send this from is the one that will be subscribed to the list.
Sept 11: Welcome meeting
Oct 9: Discuss the article: Kim, Minhyong (2025). History, Identity, and Ownership in Mathematics. Notices of the AMS, 846-853. https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202508/rnoti-p846.pdf
Oct 30: Discuss the article: Park H, Manley ED. Using ChatGPT as a proof assistant in a mathematics pathways course. MATHEDU 2024;63:139-163. https://doi.org/10.7468/mathedu.2024.63.2.139
Nov 20: Discuss the blog post: Dolorfino, Mallory (26 Aug 2025) Grades are Violent: A Reflection on the Negative Impacts of Grades, MAA MathValues blog, https://maa.org/math-values/grades-are-violent-a-reflection-on-the-negative-impacts-of-grades/
Feb 6: Discuss the article: Sidney, P. G., & Matthews, P. G. (2024). Fostering diversity in mathematics cognition. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 244, Article 105955. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105955
Feb 27: Discuss the talk "Toward Fairer-ness in Machine Learning" by Deanna Needell from 2024 MAA Mathfest
Mar 27: Discuss the article: Leyva, L. A. (2024). The rights of undergraduate queer and trans* students of color as STEM majors. Theory Into Practice, 64(1), 73–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2024.2389015
April 10: Discuss the article: Burn, Helen (2025). Contextualizing Introductory Statistics: Exposing the Dark Side. AWM Newsletter 55(1), 12-14.
Sept 12: Welcome meeting
Oct 3: Discuss David Bressoud's blog post "Calculus as Preparation for Calculus" https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/calculus-as-preparation-4-calculus
Oct 17: Discuss Yvonne Lai's 2024 JMM talk on math and math education https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAuLxNZPIQ4, article version on pages 5-9 of the Sept-Oct 2024 AWM newsletter https://awm-math.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/AWM-News-Sept-Oct-2024-WEB.pdf
Nov 7: Discuss paper: Leo Pedraza & Rong Chen (2022) Examining Motivator Factors of STEM Undergraduate Persistence through Two-Factor Theory, The Journal of Higher Education, 93:4, 532-558
Dec 5: Watch and discuss Kamuela Yong's 2024 JMM talk "When Mathematicians Don't Count" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-gHq38_4XU
Jan 25: Discussion of DEI bills in KY state legislature
Feb 15: Discussion of Washington Post Op-Ed by Danielle Allen regarding DEI on campus: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/10/antisemitism-campus-culture-harvard-penn-mit-hearing-path-forward/
Feb 29: Discussion of Rehumanizing Mathematics framework, specifically the article "The stories we tell: Why unpacking narratives of mathematics is important for teacher conocimiento" by Gutierrez, Myers, and Kokka.
Mar 28: Guest speakers: Anne Cawley, Cal Poly Pomona, and Robin Wilson, Loyola Marymount University
Apr 18: Discussion of blog post by Dave Kung: https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/pushing-for-affirmative-action-equity-success-for-all-in-todays-fraught-political-climate-part-ii
Aug 31: welcome meeting
Sept 14: Guest speaker: Juan Gutierrez, University of Texas at San Antonio
Oct 12: Guest speaker: Ellen Abrams, McGill University
Oct 26: Discussion of the article "Women Scientists Were Written Out of History. It's Margaret Rossiter's Lifelong Mission to Fix That" from Smithsonian Magazine in Oct 2019, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/unheralded-women-scientists-finally-getting-their-due-180973082/
Nov 9: Discussion of NCTM Principles to Actions teaching practices
Feb 2: Nathan Reingold (1981) Refugee mathematicians in the United States of America, 1933–1941: Reception and reaction, Annals of Science, 38:3, 313-338, DOI: 10.1080/00033798100200251
Feb 23: Chris Germer (2020) The Near and Far Enemies of Fierce Compassion, https://mbsr.website/news/near-and-far-enemies-fierce-compassion
March 30: Guest speaker: Jenn Hunt, UKY Gender and Women's Studies and Psychology
April 20: Guest speaker: Deniz Sarikaya, University of Copenhagen
Sept 1: organizational meeting and review of definitions of equity, inclusion, justice, and diversity
Sept 15: Chen, C. Y., Kahanamoku, S. S., Tripati, A., Alegado, R. A., Morris, V. R., Andrade, K., & Hosbey, J. (2022, July 1). Decades of systemic racial disparities in funding rates at the National Science Foundation. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/xb57u
Oct 6: Discussion of video of March 2022 MSRI Critical Issues in Math Education panel: https://www.msri.org/workshops/1028/schedules/30984
Nov 10: "Why the math community struggles with equity & diversity and why there's reason for hope", talk by Dave Kung at the April 2022 Virtual Joint Math Meetings: https://youtu.be/6MeAQByAgyA
Book club:
Pamela Harris and Aris Winger. (2020) Asked and Answered: Dialogues on Advocating for Students of Color in Mathematics.
Workshop on Creating a Diversity Statement for the Academic Job Market, 15 August 2022:
Jan 18: Reinholz, D. L. (2021). "Disability, mathematics, and the Goldilocks conundrum: Implications for mathematics education." For the Learning of Mathematics.
Feb 1: Jessica Ellis Hagman (2021) The Eighth Characteristic for Successful Calculus Programs: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Practices, PRIMUS, 31:1, 70-90
Feb 22: Essays 1, 11, 19, 21, and 30 in Living Proof https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/ebooks/pdf/LivingProof_WEB.pdf
Mar 22: Academe has a lot to learn about how inclusive teaching affects instructors, by Chavella Pittman and Thomas J. Tobin, 7 February 2022, Chronicle of Higher Education https://www.chronicle.com/article/academe-has-a-lot-to-learn-about-how-inclusive-teaching-affects-instructors
Apr 5: Mathematically Uncensored podcast, Season 2 Episode 31: https://minoritymath.org/mathematically-uncensored/
April 26: Brainstorming and planning for Summer 2022 and for 2022-2023.
Aug 31: Martin, Danny. "Rethinking Equity and Inclusion as Racial Justice Models in Mathematics." MSRI Workshop on Mathematics and Racial Justice, 16 June 2021. https://www.msri.org/workshops/1012/schedules/29801
Sept 14: Damarin, S. (2008). Toward Thinking Feminism and Mathematics Together. Signs, 34(1), 101-123. doi:10.1086/588470 (available via UK library JSTOR -- will also be shared via our listserv)
Oct 12: Erica Graham's JMM talk "Anti-Racism in Mathematics: Who What When Where Why and How?". The talk starts at the 3:45 mark and ends at the 48:00 mark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H51ctIpKkAI
Oct 19: "Mathematics Education Through the Lens of Social Justice: Acknowledgment, Actions, and Accountability", a 2016 joint position statement from the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics and TODOS: Mathematics for ALL. https://www.todos-math.org/assets/docs2016/2016Enews/3.pospaper16_wtodos_8pp.pdf
Nov 9: "Equity traps and tropes" blog post by Jamila Dugan: https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/beware-of-equity-traps-and-tropes
Nov 30: Laursen, S. (2020, June 11). What does the research say? Learning and teaching in inquiry-based undergraduate mathematics. A summary for educators. Video: Youtube. (23 minute video presentation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_HK6b3RGOc
Book club:
Cathy O'Neil. (2017) Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. Broadway Books, New York.
Syllabus Review Workshop, 18 August 2021: schedule and information
In Spring 2021, we discussed the following articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos.
Ardila-Mantilla, Federico (2020). CAT(0) geometry, robots, and society. Notices of the American Mathematical Society (67), 977-987. https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202007/rnoti-p977.pdf
Barany, Michael J. (2020). “All of These Political Questions”: Anticommunism, Racism, and the Origin of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, Volume 10 Issue 2, pages 527-538. Available at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/vol10/iss2/24
Burton, Leone. (1998) The Practices of Mathematicians: What Do They Tell Us About Coming to Know Mathematics?. Educational Studies in Mathematics 37, 121. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003697329618
Leyva, L., Quea, R., Weber, K., Battey, D., & López, D. (2021). Detailing Racialized and Gendered Mechanisms of Undergraduate Precalculus and Calculus Classroom Instruction. Cognition and Instruction, 32. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2020.1849218
Lai, Yvonne. (2020) “The Calculus of Context.” AMS Blog on Teaching and Learning Mathematics. https://blogs.ams.org/matheducation/2020/11/30/the-calculus-of-context/
"Engaging Teachers in the Powerful Combination of Mathematical Modeling and Social Justice: The Flint Water Task." Mathematics Teacher Educator Podcast. 11 September 2019. https://mtepodcast.amte.net/8
Uri Treisman's 2013 NCTM Equity Address "Keeping Our Eyes On The Prize". The video is at https://vimeo.com/65731353 and the talk itself is around 43 minutes long.