ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Old Problems, New Angles: Toward a Global History of Mathematics

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

English Abstract

The History of Mathematics continues to debate what exactly we are writing histories of and what it means to historicize mathematics. As a result, the field has its own uneven relationship to the ‘global turn’ and to the integration of global approaches. What would it look like, intellectually and practically, to pursue genuinely plural and global histories of mathematics, what challenges accompany such efforts, and what is at stake in attempting to do so? This roundtable brings together scholars working across diverse regional, linguistic, and scholarly traditions to investigate the difficulties involved in realizing such histories and combating historiographic norms. Speakers will assess how funding structures, disciplinary divides, professionalism, and epistemic frameworks shape what counts as legitimate scholarship and who is authorized to speak as an expert. In addition, panelists will evaluate how disciplinary boundaries between the history of mathematics and the broader history of science have contributed to the field’s present configuration.

The discussion will explore how methods attentive to material culture, pedagogy, and local epistemologies might complicate familiar narratives and expand accepted evidentiary practices. A central concern is the identification of portable epistemic virtues, institutional arrangements, collaborative models that can work across plural academias, and publication infrastructures capable of sustaining engagement across unequal research environments and career stages. By placing scholars from different methodological traditions and institutional contexts in conversation, the roundtable aims to surface the obstacles that have constrained plural historiographies and to outline plausible directions for their future development. This session has been supported by the International Association for Science and Cultural Diversity and the British Society for the History of Mathematics.

Sub Unit

• Roundtable

Chair

• Karine C. C. Chemla, University of Edinburgh and SPHERE, CNRS-UPC

Participants

• Dhruv Raina, Jawaharlal Nehru University

• Marouane ben Miled, Université de Tunis El Manar, École Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Tunis

• Brigette Stenhouse, The Open University

• Alexis Trouillot, University of Kansas

• Madeline Muntersbjorn, University of Toledo

Session Organizers

• Julia Tomasson, Rice University

• Ε. A. Hunter, University of Chicago