Dr. Marissa Kawehi Loving
@MarissaKawehi
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Kānaka maoli & Black. Assistant Professor of Mathematics @ UW Madison. Usually tired (not sleepy). Forever dreaming of home (Moku o Keawe).
Joined March 2018
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Last Seen Profiles
Pinned Tweet
Grateful to be able to share, as handling editor, this post on the inclusion/exclusion blog by Tarik Aougab.
“X” in the time of Genocide
What does it mean to be a mathematician during genocide? What is our role in this? What is our responsibility?
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I’m thrilled to announce that I have accepted a tenure track offer from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin Madison beginning in Fall 2022!
This is a dream come true in so many ways and I am over the moon! 🥳🎊💃🏽
#BlackInMath
#IndigenousMathematicians
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When white men in math tell me that it will be easy for me to get a tt job since I'm a WoC do you think they have even the faintest conception of how much harder it is for me to even exist in mathematical spaces compared to them on a daily basis? 🤔
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I'm wearing my, "This is what a mathematician looks like" T-shirt to travel today (pictured below in a selfie from last month) and a white lady asked me incredulously, "Is it really??"
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Whenever I meet an academic whose parent(s) bought them a house/condo to live in during grad school I’m reminded of how uneven the playing field of “meritocracy” is.
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Remind me to never agree to be the only brown woman on an organizing committee every again. I've been in tears nearly all day. I wish I had even one person to back me up when I try raise concerns about the experiences of mathematicians of color. I feel like I'm going crazy.
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Oh what’s that??? I couldn’t hear you over my excitement at becoming one of TWO Indigenous mathematicians two currently hold a tenured or tenure track position at an R1 in the US while joining two other Black mathematicians at UW Madison!!!
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I hope people realize how awful it feels as a junior academic (especially grad student/postdoc/non-tenure track faculty) to know that senior faculty are surveilling your social media and complaining to each other about what you say while:
@MiaDoesAstro
A colleague sent me your tweet yesterday (the one linked to above), and I thought you might find a response from a Caltech faculty member of interest (albeit I don't speak on behalf of Caltech and my comments below are my personal opinions). 1/
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Notice anything?
The MAA recognizes mathematical contributions from women throughout the year, especially in March during Women’s History Month. The annual observance commemorates women’s vital role in history. This month we’ll be highlighting several women in mathematics.
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Ever seen this curve before? It was painted on the wall of the UC Berkeley Math Department by Bill Thurston and Dennis Sullivan in 1972! And its an example of a simple closed curved on a sphere with four punctures. 1/n
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Also you better cancel any trips to Hawai’i you have planned! This is no joke! We have been saying this for so long and enough is enough!
Tourists really need to gtfo out of Maui rn. Like we’ve already been saying don’t come to Hawai’i for a minute but what’s happening in Maui with the fire taking out Lahaina is extremely critical. There are not enough resources to support extra people who have homes to go back to.
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Hi everyone! I'm Marissa Loving (Kawehi is my middle name) and I'm one of the organizers of
#BlackInMathWeek
! I got my PhD last year from UIUC and am now an NSF Postdoc at Georgia Tech. My research is in geometric group theory, mostly mapping class groups.
#BlackInMathRollCall
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If you've ever wondered what I mean when I say "Meritocracy is a tool of white supremacy". This is it. There is no amount of excellence, no level of achievement, that can compete with the underlying notion that Black and brown people are inherently incapable and less than.
Wow. He just kinda said it. The whole thing. Out. Loud. 🥴
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Tourists really need to gtfo out of Maui rn. Like we’ve already been saying don’t come to Hawai’i for a minute but what’s happening in Maui with the fire taking out Lahaina is extremely critical. There are not enough resources to support extra people who have homes to go back to.
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White woman lecturer: so you just got here? What’s your position?
Me: Yeah, I’m a new assistant professor.
WW: What department?
Me: Mathematics
WW: So is the math department here even any good??
Me: 😶 *stunned, screaming internally* Yes, it’s a very strong department.
Black folks you ever have an interaction with a person that can’t believe you got something that a lot of white folks get?
Dude: So you’re a grad student?
Me: Professor.
Dude: Adjunct
Me: Tenure track
Dude: Really?! That’s really hard.
Me: Yep
😂🥴
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The way that women are required to maneuver their entire careers to protect themselves from men who have harmed them is absurd. 😡
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I’m a mathematician who does not believe that IQ is real and I go thru my life just fine “unable to tell the difference between smart people and d*mb people”. Like what practical use does that have in the real world aside from sorting people in a racist, classist, ableist way???
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Since they couldn't even be bothered to give this fellowship a name, I think the AMS should take the further step of renaming all the awards/fellowships that are given in overwhelming numbers to white and/or male mathematicians in the same way.
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As a topologist this makes me irrationally angry because obviously a shirt is a 4-holed sphere not a genus 3 surface and socks are disks not spheres. I can’t even comment on the “pants”. 😠
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Feeling very salty this morning. Wish folks gave a shit about the experience of Black and brown women in math spaces. Wish our voices were valued. And our absences were noticed. And that the folks excluding and mistreating us were recognized and held accountable.
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"I'm so impressed you have energy to think about all of these equity issues in your work." I actually don't have any energy at all. I feel like I'm dying all the time. I just don't believe in actively doing harmful things that I know how to avoid because hurting people is easier.
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Whenever I post about my math insecurities I lose followers. So I thought I should let everyone who is still here know that I live constantly w/ the feeling that I am a terrible mathematician who lacks the requisite command of my area & will probably never prove another thing. 😅
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It's always "What can we do? He has tenure."
Unless it's a postdoc, "That's just his personality, he didn't mean anything by it + I'm writing him a rec letter and coauthoring a paper with him."
Unless it's a grad student, "Well it's not fair to take away his *whole* future."
This is a real stain on the
@Harvard
astronomy program too. Toxic professors don't come from nowhere. Grad programs (and undergrad programs) need to recognize and eliminate this behavior before abusers have any power over junior scientists.
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Fuck this shit! Colonizers bragging about colonizing like they aren’t complete parasites on our ‘āina.
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I gave a research talk to my undergrads today and I started it by reading them this.
#MaunaKea
#ProtectMaunaKea
#AoleTMT
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I aspire to be able to say, "No. Not now. I'm not on your timeline, I'm on mine." in the way that Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka have done. The strength and self assurance it takes to put your own future first in the face of so many expectations. Absolutely incredible.
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Sometimes when I’m preparing a broad audience talk I worry that I’ve made it “too accessible” and the senior folks in the crowd won’t take me seriously.
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Non-Hawaiians should NOT just be moving to or “vacationing” in Hawai’i just because of what’s going on rn (or for most other reasons). Not only because the the US military is destroying our fresh water wells but also because many people there lack access to required medical care,
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It's getting really really really real. 😱😱😱
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A student took the time to write this comment on exam day... 😭😭😭
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They just said "necessary but not sufficient" on MSNBC. This is an intro to proof class now.
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Struggling today with the way that academia has separated me from my family and my homeland. Tired of the endless uprooting and how much I need to carry on my own.
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One of my Black students told me I’m the first Black professor she’s ever had in STEM. Made me realize I never had a Black professor for any of my math or science classes in undergrad or grad school. I hope my mentoring can make a small difference but structural change is needed!
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A white woman just tried to block me (with her car) from driving into the garage of my own apartment building because she didn’t see me “tap in” (which is pointless to do when the gate is already open!!!), but she’s just trying to “keep everyone safe”. I’m so mad I’m shaking.
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Ummmm...so I found out yesterday that my grant proposal has been recommended for funding!!! This is a HUGE professional milestone and I'm really excited!!! 🥳🥳🥳
Submitted my first grown-up NSF grant (i.e. an NSF standard grant) today! Whether I get it or not, this feels like a pretty significant professional milestone.
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I wonder if the racist trolls in my mentions have any idea of the caliber of mathematician I am? (Of course not because they think I got where I am by being a WoC lol) I'm exhausted.
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I cannot believe that I'm included on this list of distinguished mathematicians who I admire so much. 😭
#goals
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I was inspired by
@kareem_carr
to make a thread of some of the replies I got over the past few days to my very mild tweet about a particular example of racism in math.
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My first student defended!!! 🥳 Congratulations, Dr. Becky Eastham!
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It's always "how do we get more (white) women into math".
It's always "how do we get more women into math" and never "how do we get more misogynists out of math"
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I like how the notes for my topics course are coming along so far!!! 😊
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I'm very excited to announce that this summer Siddhi Krishna (
@5iddhi
) and I will be running a *virtual* REU through the School of Math at Georgia Tech:
Our REU group is entitled "Braids, Surfaces, and Low Dimensional Phenomena".
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It’s not about the image!! It’s about the fact that everyone who worked on/approved/saw this image and didn’t say anything all have the same thing in mind when they think of “women in math” and it’s clearly not me or any of the amazing melinated women mathematicians I know!
@MarissaKawehi
@MarissaKawehi
, We deeply apologize for this mistake and for sharing an image that doesn’t represent the racial and ethnic diversity in our community. We’re committed to being more mindful of the images we use.
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When a teaching award is based solely on teaching evals and then only men get it.
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Love seeing senior white mathematicians ridiculing the way that junior Black and brown mathematicians are able to use twitter to build community, advocate/agitate for change, and have authority in their own spaces. Really makes me feel like a worthy member of the math community.
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Fucking sick of the disrespect I’m just supposed to swallow in academia because the undercurrent of white supremacy will never allow me to be seen as a full human being.
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a) doing nothing to address your concerns; and/or b) using what you tweet as an excuse to double down on their bad behavior; and/or c) retaliating against you for publicly calling out departmental/institutional issues.
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I’m really proud of how the full notes for this course turned out. You can check them out here:
I like how the notes for my topics course are coming along so far!!! 😊
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I'm so excited to launch the twitter account for our Indigenous Mathematicians Network!! Please follow along and share widely!
Indigenous Peoples Exists in Mathematics!!!
Learn more in this article written by one of the founders of the Indigenous Mathematicians Network, Dr.
@KamuelaYong
! This pieces appeared in the April 2022 issue of the Notices of the
@amermathsoc
.
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Turns out what math is seen as worthwhile, whose proofs are deemed as valid, who is invited to conferences, & who is given jobs (not to mention admitted to & supported through grad school + a postdoc & the tenure process) is all subject to people’s emotions & biases.
@MarissaKawehi
@BarbaraFantechi
What it got with with mathematics?? I always though that beauty of math is that u can put ur emotion aside and do the proof and thereoms in an objective manner.
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Truly think that the only person in math right now who should be naming (or calling) mathematical objects "Hawaiian [blah]" is me or one of the four other Hawaiians with PhD's in math (and I'm the only topologist). I am not taking any questions at this time.
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I put this together quickly between making my morning coffee and starting office hours so I'm sure some things got left off. But here are the primary things that occupy my time as a professional (pure) mathematician who is currently a research postdoc with a 1-1 teaching load.
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So many of the NSF GRFP reviews are flat out RACIST! After reading some of the reviews that
@lgebrah
received on their STELLAR proposal, I totally lost faith in the review process. Like this is absolutely unacceptable!
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I’m supposed to get some big job news later today and I honestly don’t know how I will be able to focus at all until I hear something. 😭😭😭 I’ve also pre-planned what will either be a celebratory or consolation dinner with the husband. Really hoping for the former. 🤞🏾🤞🏾🤞🏾
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Just an fyi, there is absolutely no hope to "I don't see color" our way out of the pervasive, systemic racism in math.
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My name is Marissa Kawehi Loving (Math PhD). I am a
#HawaiianScientist
. I was raised on the slopes of Mauna Kea. The ocean and the land are my home and they give me strength and hope. I stand in solidarity with my people, both those on the Mauna and across the world, against TMT.
#HawaiianScientists
chime on in!
"I am a scientist and I know that standing for this mountain means standing for science...I am a Hawaiian Scientist and if I don't stand now, the Hawaiian scientists after me won't have a choice" -
@_waiokeola
#kapualoha
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My Hawaiian grandmother was sterilized without her consent after her third child was born and my Puerto Rican great grandma grew up in Hawai'i (so was luckily spared the awful "experimentation" [eugenics] that was done to women in PR).
I wonder... have the Hawaiian women experienced the ATROCITIES done to the Puerto Rican women?
Ex. Sterilization, birth control, and all that.
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I received my first ever invitation to give a 🌟plenary🌟 lecture this week. I'm quite excited!!! 🎉🎉🎉
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Me rising out of the mist to haunt every mathematician who passively or explicitly supports the notion that you can have an “apolitical” math research org or that the creation of such an org can be treated as politically neutral:
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Also I paid 70 (!!!!!) dollars for this hoodie at the student union at the end of my interview with the wild hope that I would eventually be able to make this announcement so y'all better share this everywhere!!! 😂😂
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When people in my professional circles ask me for recs for their vacations to Hawai'i (in the midst of a pandemic!!!) I want to scream, "Don't go!!" But instead I say this & cry inside at the ongoing expulsion of my people from our land to feed an endless appetite for "paradise".
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Don’t worry. Mathematicians have proved that you can’t hear the shape of a drum!
i’m SO mad, the Texas heat melted my kick drum while it was on the delivery truck 🤬
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Math departments out here doing implicit bias training so they can pretend their faculty isn't being straight up explicit with their bias.
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I think this is bad advice. Many of the students who I mentor are precisely those who are constantly told that *others* cannot imagine them in math and so it’s crucial that I am able to do some of that imagining and future building with them.
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I just got a very nice congratulatory email from the new chair at UIUC!! Funny that this is the first time my grad department has ever recognized anything I’ve ever done in my mathematical career. lol
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If I leave math in the next couple of years it is 100% because of the way I have been treated by my postdoc department along with senior people in my field who would rather support their own than advocate for or support me.
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Fawn passed away tonight. She was 15 years old and had been winding down these past few weeks, but I still can't believe she's gone. She was Ming's "best buddy" ever since we brought her to Atlanta from Hawai'i. We're going to miss her so much.
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To the folks mansplaining in my mentions, could you just not? I am an actual practicing mathematician and did not express any confusion whatsoever.
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One of my students was saying how he appreciates my teaching & I thought he was talking about how there aren't late penalties, so I was explaining why. He said, "Oh no, I don't mean that. I mean that's great too. But I was talking about how you actually care about us." 😭😭😭
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Will mathematicians (and the math community as a whole) ever stop knowingly supporting men who perpetually degrade and harass women???
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Apparently, I am not allowed to ask my students to keep their distance from me when we are in person next week. Like what??? I get to have my own freaking personal bubble, pandemic or no.
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Structural problem (a lack of ramps and accessible architecture in general) meet expensive, inaccessible, and individualized solution. 🙃
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I ask my students to address me by Dr. Loving. I also respect their requests for how I address them. I always want my students to feel respected by me and vice versa. I fail to see how having my students address me by my first name would improve the class environment.
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Reward for speaking up about faculty misconduct? Being intimidated and harassed by high ranking institutional administrators while in the middle of the busiest semester ever. Love it here at Georgia Tech!!
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The world if I could do math without constantly being gaslit, sidelined, and abused by people in my research community and department.
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I spent all of grad school dreaming of having a community like this in my research area but it seemed out of reach. I can’t believe that I now have this crew of incredible Black & brown women & nonbinary folks to be in community with as I get ready to start the tenure track. 😭🥰
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“Mathematical proofs are not an objective measure of truth. Proofs are an attempt to communicate an idea, and, like all writing, their perceived readability and effectiveness is dependent on social and cultural context.” 🔥🔥🔥
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After class today one of my students said he’s never had a math professor like me. One who explains things so clearly and doesn’t just sweep the details under the rug. And I just…. 😭❤️😭❤️
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Oh look! It's a shrinking wedge of circles!
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I keep forgetting to announce that I have an exciting new collaboration in progress! Hoping to wrap up part one of this project sometime in May 2024. 🤞🏾
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This is how I’ve been feeling. Like Hawai’i is not a real place and Hawaiians are not real people to them. We are just figments of their colonial imagination of “paradise”. It makes me so mad.
Hawai’i could be wiped off the map tomorrow and you fakas would still wanna come down here on a fckn boat to snorkel and look our corpses.
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Every single white academic (and especially every white mathematician following me) needs to read this thread and reflect on the way Black faculty, postdocs, and students are treated in their department and research area, as well as other minoritized folks of color.
Even though I was heavily recruited by University of Kentucky, I’ve dealt with lies, theft, sabotage, racism, sexism, and two miscarriages. God has blessed me w/ a baby in my belly that has made it to the 9th month in spite of UKs continuous harassment.
#IKnowTheLordWillSeeMeThru
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And yet...despite all this...I am still crushing it. If only excellence shielded folks from racism/sexism and all the other forms of nonsense that are harming people in the academy.
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Siding with Jeff Bezos and a dead colonizer over your own faculty member??? How are you not embarrassed???*
A statement regarding recent social media posts by Uju Anya.
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I feel incredibly honored to be spotlighted by Mathematically Gifted and Black!!! 🥰🥰🥰
Today MGB spotlights Marissa Kawehi Loving, an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Read more about Marissa Kawehi Loving at
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I think most white mathematicians do not appreciate just how exhausting it is to navigate mathematics as a Black or Indigenous person who is aware of the systems of oppression that our profession upholds. Some days it it just feels like too much to bear.
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As the first Native Hawaiian woman to earn a PhD in mathematics I feel deeply that it is my kuleana to stand in solidarity with Palestinians against the destructive forces of settler-colonialism.
#IndigenousMathematicans
On this global day of action in solidarity with the Palestinian uprising, the JMC is calling on mathematicians to honor the Palestinian-led call for academic boycott. See our statement here () and sign on here ()
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I’m not ready to share all the details quite yet, but I got really good news!!! Like really really good!!! 🥳🥳🥳 Thanks to everyone who has been watching this post for updates and who left me kinds words and encouragement!!! 💜 More soon!!
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A man started following, & yelling angrily at, my (Chinese) husband while on his walk home from work through midtown Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. At the time we wondered if it was motivated by anti-Asian sentiment. After what happened today, I am scared for him to walk to work.
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I cannot over emphasize how absolutely ludicrous this is. Deducting points for using a triangle to solve a trig question??? Punishing students for deriving algebraic expressions using geometric methods ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Brandis, I need a word with your course coordinator. 😤
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📢 A call to defend bodily autonomy in the mathematics community 📢
An open letter and a call to action:
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I often have a few students (not necessarily the same ones) show up to lecture late (anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes) and it honestly makes me really happy that they find enough value in our classroom to prioritize participating even if they can only be there part of the time.* **
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Me: I'm excited to be joining this department! I can't wait to grow professionally & contribute to building equitable & just academic spaces!
Dept before I arrived: We value your excellence & will support you & your work!
Dept after I arrived: You'll love our new logo! 😍
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