Assistant Professor of Mathematics Erica J. Graham '04 gave a lecture titled "Anti-racism in mathematics: Who, what, when, where, why, and how" at the 2021 Joint Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and Mathematical Association of America.
In her insightful presentation, Graham looks at the "five Ws and how" of anti-racist work in mathematics:
- Who should engage in this work?
- What does it take?
- When should it be done?
- Where should it be done?
- Why do it?
- How can it be done effectively?
For each question, Graham provides a "comfortable" and "uncomfortable" response.
"The comfortable response, although true, in my eyes doesn't really get to the heart of the matter," explains Graham. "So I feel the necessity of including the uncomfortable response as comfort is often provided as a means of placating those in power to the extent that those who lack it are forced to self censor."
Graham's approximately 45-minute long lecture is followed by the panel discussion "Finding and Amplifying Our Voices: Mathematically Gifted and Black, Lathisms, and Pacific Islanders in Mathematics."