Inventing the mathematician : gender, race, and our cultural understanding of mathematics / Sara N. Hottinger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hottinger, Sara N., 1976- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mathematics--Social aspects.

Mathematics.

Mathematics--History.

Mathematicians.

History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 205 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2016]

Summary:

Considers how our ideas about mathematics shape our individual and cultural relationship to the field. Where and how do we, as a culture, get our ideas about mathematics and about who can engage with mathematical knowledge? Sara N. Hottinger uses a cultural studies approach to address how our ideas about mathematics shape our individual and cultural relationship to the field. She considers four locations in which representations of mathematics contribute to our cultural understanding of mathematics: mathematics textbooks, the history of mathematics, portraits of mathematicians, and the field of ethnomathematics. Hottinger examines how these discourses shape mathematical subjectivity by limiting the way some groups--including women and people of color--are able to see themselves as practitioners of math. Inventing the Mathematician provides a blueprint for how to engage in a deconstructive project, revealing the limited and problematic nature of the normative construction of mathematical subjectivity. Sara N. Hottinger is Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Keene State College.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter 2 The Discursive Construction of Gendered Subjectivity in Mathematics 15

Chapter 3 Mathematical Subjectivity in Historical Accounts 49

Chapter 4 The Role of Portraiture in Constructing a Normative Mathematical Subjectivity 89

Chapter 5 The Ethnomathematical Other 125

Chapter 6 Conclusion 159.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438460093

1438460090

OCLC:

907931463