gender, race, and our cultural understanding of mathematics /
First Statement of Responsibility
Sara N. Hottinger
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
ix, 205 pages :
Other Physical Details
illustrations ;
Dimensions
24 cm
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-186) and index
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Introduction -- The discursive construction of gendered subjectivity in mathematics -- Mathematical subjectivity in historical accounts -- The role of portraiture in constructing a normative mathematical subjectivity -- The ethnomathematical other -- Conclusion
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
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