Category Archives: cultural pressure in academia

The mathjob market is bad. But what else is new? A 2020 retrospective

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Tian An

Let me start by saying that it’s no news to anyone that the pandemic has affected the academic job market. At the same time, it’s nice to have some data to back up that feeling of doom. Especially for someone … Continue reading →

Posted in cultural pressure in academia, equity, graduate school, minorities in math | 2 Comments

Math, in pandemic and precarity

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Tian An

Today is the last day of my employment. I didn’t expect it to matter to me, because my relationship with my current institution has soured over the way the administration and tenured faculty have handled their response to the pandemic, … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Lives Matter, cultural pressure in academia, hiring | 10 Comments

Complicit Function Theorem

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Brian Katz

This week, I was separated by small degrees from two separate acts of terrorism motivated by hate. (1) Students and faculty/staff on my campus had set up a local version of The Clothesline Project, in which survivors of sexual violence … Continue reading →

Posted in bystander intervention, cultural pressure in academia, gender research, implicit bias, intersectionality, introduction, mental health, minorities in math, public scholarship, racism, sexism, social media, victim-blaming, women in math | Comments Off on Complicit Function Theorem

Why I’m leaving a Research I University for a Liberal Arts College

Posted on September 15, 2017 by Edray Goins

I knew at a pretty early stage in my life — my freshman year of college, to be exact — that I wanted to become a research mathematician.  I have degrees from fancy research universities and had visiting positions at fancy … Continue reading →

Posted in cultural pressure in academia, intersectionality, mathematics experiences, retention | 26 Comments

Get Off The Road

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Brian Katz

Many reliable mathematical models of the environment say we are destroying this planet with $CO_2$ (carbon dioxide) or at least making it uninhabitable for human culture as we know it within a couple of generations. What responsibility do we, as … Continue reading →

Posted in cultural pressure in academia, implicit bias, intersectionality, social justice | 1 Comment

Supremum/Supremacy

Posted on May 4, 2017 by Brian Katz

I’m going to say something political that some of you may not like. In the spirit of The Oatmeal, I’m going to ask you to read to the end before you decide that I cannot possibly have said what I … Continue reading →

Posted in cultural pressure in academia, equity, implicit bias, intersectionality, introduction, math education, social justice | 10 Comments

Two Days with a Chicano Mathematician: Bill Velez visits Purdue

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Edray Goins

When I was in graduate school in mathematics at Stanford University, I was very politically active on campus.  Not only was I an officer for the Black Graduate Students Association (BGSA), but I was an officer for the Chicano Latino … Continue reading →

Posted in cultural pressure in academia, mathematics experiences, participation, racism, social justice | 2 Comments

A different kind of problem

Posted on March 16, 2017 by Adriana Salerno

Sometimes I think that what makes me successful in math makes me kind of terrible in some aspects of “real life.” A few years ago, I wrote a post for PhD+epsilon about how close I came to having a car … Continue reading →

Posted in ableism, cultural pressure in academia, mental health | 7 Comments