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Conference says talks are not political but about welcoming all
Attendees at an upcoming math conference can participate not only in discussions on “Conic Optimization for Extremal Geometry,” but also enjoy a meal at the “LGBTQ+ Allies Lunch” or learn about “ecological justice.”
The International Congress of Mathematicians will host its annual conference in July in Philadelphia. While most presentations focus on academic math topics, a few appear more focused on identity politics.
“Is Mathematics Education Responsive to Ecological Justice: with Embodied, Entangled, ‘Popular’ Knowledges,” asks the presentation slated for July 24.
“We interrogate the import of 21st century discourses for mathematics education, that reinforce hierarchies of ‘skills’ vs ‘knowledge,’ to sort and segregate, and maintain a global division of work between the ‘ethereal’ and the material worlds,” according to the description.
“We bear witness to regimes of standardization and homogenization of mathematics curricula ascribing large populations of young people as ‘low performers,’” according to the presentation by Professor Anita Rampal.
The University of Delhi professor says participants will “explore intercultural imaginaries and co-constructions of mathematics for school and work-based (not vocational) education, that are responsive to livelihoods, places and the planet, with a commitment to ecological justice.”
Reached for comment, Professor Rampal said her presentation is an example of practically applied education.
“Our education policies since we gained independence have called upon work-based education for all by bringing together knowledge of the hand and the mind,” she told The Fix. She also noted that “addressing policy and looking at people’s knowledges is an essential part of policy/curriculum/educational studies.”
None of the members of the committee that chooses events responded to emailed requests for comment sent in the past two weeks.
The president of the International Mathematical Union says his group does not pick the topics, only the speakers.
Hiraku Nakajima, president of the academic association, said anyone can organize a reception at the conference in response to questions about the LGBT lunch. However, he did not specifically address questions about the ecological justice talk in his emailed response to The Fix.
The Fix asked Najakima about potential criticism that the hard sciences were being politicized.
He said the focus of the conference is on “mathematical excellence” but that includes allowing mathematicians “from many countries and many backgrounds [to] participate fully and professionally.”
Conference events that may seem political in nature are rather an effort to ensure the “mathematical community is open, collegial, and free from discrimination or harassment,” he told The Fix.
His group does not want to push a particular political agenda but encourage “professional respect.”
“I see this not as politicizing the hard sciences, but as supporting the human conditions that allow excellent mathematics to flourish,” he said.
However, a mathematician at Queen Mary University in London who is involved with Heterodox Academy criticized the political events.
Commenting on the ecological justice lecture, Professor Abhishek Sah told The Fix via email, “there are many costs, and no serious benefits, to inserting political ideology into a scientific conference.”
He said politics and science have different goals.
“Politics concerns how we believe society should be organized,” he said. “Science, by contrast, concerns what is true: its claims must be judged by scientific merit alone.”
However, the professor did make similar comments to Professor Rampal, who will deliver the ecological justice talk. He said, “the only place where politics may legitimately play a role in science is not in the actual conduct of science, but in decisions by governments about which scientific areas to fund.”
“It is legitimate for the state to use political priorities to decide whether to fund one scientific area rather than another,” he said.
However, insertion of any ideology in a mathematical or scientific setting “introduces ideological standards alongside intellectual ones.”
There are broader ramifications to the politicization of sciences.
“It undermines public trust in the discipline, narrows the space for open inquiry, and is antithetical to the advancement of knowledge.”
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