Squaring the circle: the challenge of public engagement with the modern history of mathematics

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• Sarah Hart (Birkbeck, University of London)
• Friday 02 May 2025, 11:45-12:45
• Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.

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MHMW02 - Modern History of Mathematics: Looking Ahead

The increasingly specialised nature of mathematics means that even academic mathematicians are unlikely to be able to follow the details of research papers outside of their own small area. In this talk, we’ll look at the implications for the broader societal conversation with mathematics. For example, mathematical allusions abound in classic literature, from The Canterbury Tales to Middlemarch. Is it becoming impossible for literature to engage with current mathematical ideas in the way it once did? And more broadly, in the field of public communication, how should mathematicians and historians go about telling the story of modern mathematics when the public perception is often that there is no common ground between “mathematics” and “culture”? As a mathematician, writer and lecturer, I will offer my perspective on the challenges and how I try to address them in my work.

This talk is part of the Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series series.

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