Resources

This page has resources of various kinds, all of which I believe are relevant to the very human action of doing mathematics.

In Memoriam:

There have been two mathematicians close to me who have passed away during my mathematical career whose influence I hope will always remain apparent in my work.

One of whom is Tim Cochran (1955-2014), whose mathematics is beautiful and who built and nourished a supportive community at Rice. Tim has written many excellent papers, and some of my favorites are on Milnor's invariants, Conway's link polynomial, boundary links, and the fractal nature of knot concordance. He once wrote the following in an email to a number of us who recommended him for a mentoring award, which gives an example of how he participated in the mathematical community.

As mathematicians we are trained to be skeptical and precise. We are taught to abhor subjective statements. As men we are trained to not show our true feelings. As women you are trained that who you are is not enough. I encourage you to fight against your training: be the one who uses compliments (gratuitously if necessary) and gives positive support at every opportunity.

The other is Kenan İnce (1989-2023), who was a topologist, a poet, and one of Tim's graduate students. Kenan was a leader in social justice in mathematics while teaching, maintaining an active research program, and publishing poetry. At the time of their passing, Kenan was working on an open-source textbook called Quantitative Reasoning for Social Justice: An Active Learning Workbook. The project in draft form is still available on github here. All of the various aspects of Kenan's work influence their impact in our mathematical community, and with that in mind here is a poem of theirs published a few years ago called Chicxulub Köçekçe / Pioneer Species.

Important links:

Scott Williams

Mathematicians of the African Diaspora

Network of MIMS

Mathematically Gifted and Black

SACNAS

Advancing Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science

IndigenousMathematicians.org

Profiles of Indigenous Mathematicians

USTARS

Underrepresented Students in Topology and Algebra Research Symposium

AMS

Towards a Fully Inclusive Mathematics Profession

Allison N. Miller

Resources on Ethics in Mathematics

BASAC Training

Behavior Academics Should Avoid Completely

CUPA-HR

21 Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge

Francis Su

Mathematics for Human Flourishing

SFU

Overcoming Exam Anxiety Handout

Dan Margalit

Mathematics Students Resource

Math Blogs and Comics:

Various Authors

Inclusion/Exclusion Blog

Various Authors

Electric Handle Slide

Tom Hockenhull

The Inverse Homotopy

Things I've scanned that are hard to find online:

Betty Jane Gassner

On Braid Groups [Thesis]

Cameron Gordon

Some Aspects of Classical Knot Theory

Dale Rolfsen

Braids