Diversity, equity, and inclusion at the JMM 2019

The year is coming to a close, and for mathematicians that means that the Joint Mathematics Meetings are just around the corner. This year, the meetings will be held in Baltimore from January 16-19, and we are expecting about 5000 people to descend on Charm City.

I was recently told by someone that they were “eagerly awaiting” the inclusion/exclusion roundup of diversity and inclusion events, talks, panels, receptions, happening at the meetings, similar to what we did for the last JMM. Not ones to disappoint our readers, we are happy to comply.

Luckily, the AMS did their own roundup, available in this handy flier.  We combed through the schedule, and found a few additions. Just like last year, we chose either events that were explicitly about equity, inclusion, diversity, and social justice, or events promoted by groups that primarily support underrepresented mathematicians (like the Association for Women in Mathematics and the National Association of Mathematicians). By “events” we mean invited addresses, special sessions, panels, and social events. We are also only including the events not in the AMS flier (so please check that out too!).

If you know of any events we may have missed, please share in the comments section below.

Wednesday January 16

  • MAA Invited Paper Session on Building successful communities in Mathematics, 8am-10:50am. Room 323, BCC.
  • MAA General Contributed Paper Session on Outreach, 9am-9:25am, Room 301, BCC.
  • MAA-SIAM-AMS Hrabowski-Gates-Tapia-McBay Session: Lecture, 9am-9:45am, On the discrete Hilbert transform, Rodrigo Banuelos, Purdue University. Room 307, BCC.
  • AWM Reception and Awards Presentation, 9:30pm, Room 327/328, BCC.

Thursday, January 17

  • MAA Contributed Paper Session on The EDGE program: Pure and Applied talks by Women Math Warriors, 8:45am-10am (Session I), Room 322, BCC & 1-3:35pm (Session II), Room 323, BCC.
  • AWM-AMS Noether Lecture, 10:05am-10:55am, Dynamics of systems with low complexity, Bryna Kra, Northwestern University, Ballrooms I & II, 400 level, BCC.
  • NSA Women in Mathematics Society Networking Session, 6-8pm, Paca, Hilton.
  • Spectra reception for LGBT Mathematicians and Allies, 6-8pm, Harbor Ballroom, Marriott.

Friday, January 18

  • AMS Special Session on If You Build It They Will Come: Presentations by Scholars in the National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in the Mathematical Sciences, 9-10:50am (Session I) and 1pm-5:50pm (Session II), Room 327, BCC.
  • MAA Contributed Paper Session on Ethnomathematics: Ideas and Innovations in the Classroom, 8am-10:35am, Room 301, BCC.
  • NAM Haynes-Granville-Browne Session of Presentations by Recent Doctoral Recipients, 1pm-4:30pm, Room 333, BCC.
  • AWM Workshop: Poster Presentations by Women Graduate Students and Reception, 5pm-6:15pm, Pratt St. Lobby, adjacent to JMM registration, BCC.
  • NAM Banquet, 6-8:40pm. (Tickets need to be purchased, Cox-Talbot Invited Address immediately after dinner). Holiday Ballroom 6, Hilton.

Saturday, January 19

  • AWM Workshop: WinCompTop: Applied and computational topology, 8am-12:20pm (Session I) & 2-4:50pm (Session II), Room 307, BCC.
  • MAA Invited Address, The Inclusion Principle: the importance of community in mathematics, Deanna Haunsperger, Carleton College, 10am-10:50am, Ballrooms I & II, 400 Level, BCC.
  • NAM Claytor-Woodard Lecture, On Mathematics Problems in Geometric Optics, Henok Mawi, Howard University, 1pm-1:50pm, Room 316, BCC.
  • MAA-AMS-SIAM Gerald and Judith Porter Public Lecture, 3-3:50pm, Big data, inequality, and democracy, Cathy O’Neil, ORCAA, Ballrooms I & II, 400 Level, BCC.

Bonus features:

  • Here is a recent interview of Edray Goins about his upcoming invited address, by Mike Breen. (This talk is a must-see if you’re interested in matters of inclusion and equity.)
  • A group of people are organizing events related to the Women’s March happening in D.C. and Baltimore on Saturday, January 19. Email me (asalerno@bates.edu) for more information.
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5 Responses to Diversity, equity, and inclusion at the JMM 2019

  1. Tim McEldowney says:

    Thank you for this list of equity events to attend. It looks like both this list and the AMS list has missed the MAA Poster Session: Mathematical Outreach Programs, organized by Betsy Yanik, Emporia State University; Thursday, 10am–12pm. Most of the projects at this poster session are supported by MAA Tensor and SUMMA grants. Thus they are on the ground and active equity initiatives from across the country. Please be sure to attend if you can find the time in between the 4 other events at the same time and day. (And not just because I am presenting a poster on my equity program: called the Advanced Mathematics Program.)

  2. Chad Topaz says:

    Also this session, “MAA Invited Paper Session on Inspiring Diversity in Mathematics: Culture, Community, and Collaboration” (https://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/meetings/national/jmm2019/2217_program_mipag.html#title)

    • Adriana Salerno says:

      Thanks for pointing this out, Chad. It IS in the PDF the AMS already compiled, but it’s good to re-highlight some sessions.

  3. Matilde Lalin says:

    I’ve just wanted to add the following.

    Association for Women in Mathematics Panel: Promoting Inclusion in STEM, organized by Talia Fernos, University of North Carolina Greensboro; Wednesday, 2:15– 3:40 pm.

    The #metoo movement has underscored the magnitude and prevalence of sexual harassment and how it impacts women’s lives and careers. This topic is too often left out of conversations about attrition rates of women in STEM. In this panel discussion, we will examine what kinds of persistent issues contribute to underrepresentation in STEM, and brainstorm what measures can be taken to effectively overcome them.

    Examples of underrepresented groups in STEM fields are cis and trans women, and gender minorities; racial and ethnic minorities, particularly people with African, Latin, and Native America descent; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people; people coming from economically disadvantaged backgrounds; people with disabilities.

    Attendees of the panel are expected to be respectful and sensitive to the issues faced by such individuals. Furthermore, because social stigmas and prejudice are major contributing factors to underrepresentation, attendees shall refrain from propagating stereotypes, or disparaging these groups. Everyone is encouraged to participate, independent of gender identity or expression, race, ethnicity, color, religion, age, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability.

    This session is open to all JMM attendees. Panelists include Pamela Barnett, University of Pennsylvania. Harrison Bray, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Piper H, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Autumn Kent, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and other panelists to be announced. Talia Fernos, University of North Carolina Greensboro will be the panel moderator.

  4. Rachel Cywinski says:

    I would like to see more applied mathematics regarding equity and inclusion. It could fill a great void in the information available for use by public decision-makers.
    For instance, there is data to show that people with disabilities have higher rates of unemployment of any minority group, and even higher in some subgroups. But people with disabilities are also excluded from those statistics in various ways so that the actual rate of unemployment is under-counted.
    What is the actual unemployment rate of people with disabilities? How does this correlate to economic impacts on persons with disabilities and on local communities? Estimates in some areas may be that 20-25 percent of the population has a “disability” by federal definition. How are those areas affected by having so many people unemployed or underemployed but excluded from the official statistics? Etc.

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