The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a national professional organization devoted to promoting equal opportunity and equal treatment of women and girls in the mathematical sciences. There are over 100 student chapters at colleges and universities across the country.
The AWM chapter at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville aims to encourage and support underrepresented groups with an emphasis on women to be active in the mathematical sciences and to promote a culture that fosters equal opportunity and equal treatment of all students and faculty in the Department of Mathematics at UTK through advocacy, mentorship, and community engagement. In particular, we bring together undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty members in the Department of Mathematics to provide mutual support and to increase the visibility of women in mathematics. Some of the activities of our organization include inviting speakers to discuss issues relating to women in math and providing online resources for underrepresented groups in math. We also seek to expand the future community of women mathematicians through outreach to local students in grades K-12.
Our goals as an organization at UTK are:
- to create a network of students and faculty to help each other as they continue their education or progress in their career
- to celebrate the accomplishments of female and underrepresented students, faculty, and staff
- to learn by attending conferences and inviting speakers
- to promote women in STEM both on- and off-campus.
Our chapter provides a forum for individuals of all gender identities at the university to address the imbalance of women pursuing careers in the mathematical sciences and to discuss some of the subtle ways that inequality may appear in academia and other professional careers. We aim to foster a sense of community that facilitates the building of relationships between students and faculty of all gender identities and ages, with the goal that all members will find support and encouragement in their work and studies, especially among female-identifying mathematicians. We encourage individuals of all gender identities to pursue mathematics and focus on a greater understanding of the contributions of women in the mathematical sciences.
Our chapter was established in the Spring of 2019 and is supported by the UTK Department of Mathematics. Membership is open to all undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty members regardless of gender identity or expression, race, color, religion, age, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability. The title of our Chapter is the Association FOR Women in Mathematics; NOT the Association OF Women in Mathematics. As such, any member of the UTK community who is “for” women in mathematics is welcome to be involved with the organization.
The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Association for Women in Mathematics, the University of Tennessee, or the UTK Department of Mathematics. For more information or suggestions, please email math_awm@utk.edu.
Chapter Bylaws
To appear soon!
Current Chapter Officers
President Cara Sulyok csulyok@vols.utk.edu
Vice President Jack Ryan jryan23@vols.utk.edu
Secretary Kelly Buch kbuch@vols.utk.edu
Faculty Advisor Suzanne Lenhart slenhart@utk.edu
Upcoming Events
An important goal of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s AWM Chapter is fulfilled through sponsoring events that provide an opportunity to gather individuals from divergent mathematical backgrounds so that they can offer inspiration and support to one another toward shared academic and career goals.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019: 12:20 pm
Luncheon with Provost Manderscheid
On behalf of the department’s chapter of The Association for Women in Math (AWM), we are honored to invite you to our first event of the year! We are thrilled to have Dr. David Manderscheid join us! Dr. Manderscheid serves as the Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor; he is also a Professor of Mathematics. You can learn more about Dr. Manderscheid at https://provost.utk.edu/provost/.
We have asked Dr. Manderscheid to talk about his mathematical journey, his transition to administration, and the ways in which we can work together to promote diversity and inclusion within our department, college, and university. (For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Manderscheid has taken a very active role in increasing diversity/inclusion at his previous institutions and at the University of Tennessee.)
The event (which is open to EVERYONE) will take place on Wednesday, September 18 at 12:20 pm in Ayres 308H. We will be serving lunch. To help us order the appropriate amount of food, we ask that you RSVP here by Friday, September 13 at 5:00 pm. Please bring your own beverage.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at math_awm@utk.edu. We hope to see many of you there.
Public Lectures
Public Lectures
The goal of our lectures is to inspire and empower individual students, faculty, and researchers and to work to bring institutional and societal change benefiting all.
List of Speakers
“Education Research 101 for Mathematicians” – Anne Ho, Ph.D.
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Mathematics and Education are departments that often fall in two completely separate colleges at universities. However, math education is an area of overlap that can be of interest to both educational researchers as well as mathematicians. Some mathematicians have teaching components to their jobs and are interested in implementing evidence-based teaching methods in their own classrooms. Some are stakeholders in the public education system and are curious about the academic work which influences educational policy. Some are even interested in conducting their own math education research projects. In this talk, I will outline a method for how education research can be executed, and I will draw parallels to the way that a mathematician might think about mathematics research. In the second half of the talk, I will discuss my experiences as a female mathematician, number theorist, and math education researcher. Some of these experiences were challenges and some were opportunities, but both have influenced my career choices and research projects. To conclude, I will provide concrete recommendations for supporting women in math and math education.
Helpful Links
AWM – Association for Women in Mathematics, the official website.
Women Do Math – AWM blog connecting women in mathematics.
Inclusion/Exclusion – An AMS blog about underrepresented groups in mathematics.
EDGE – Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education.
Mathematically Gifted and Black – A website celebrating and highlighting the accomplishments of black scholars in the mathematical sciences.
Lathisms – A website celebrating and highlighting the research and mentoring contributions of Latinxs and Hispanics in different areas of the mathematical sciences.
Join the AWM
As a benefit of being a member of our student chapter, you will receive free membership in the professional organization. To take advantage of this benefit, visit https://awm-math.org/membership/ and follow the directions below:
- Click “Join AWM”.
- Select “Student Chapter Membership” from the list of membership options.
- Enter your contact information and, if prompted, select our student chapter from the drop-down list.
- You will be prompted to review your information before you submit your application. Once accepted, you will see a confirmation page stating that your membership has been processed.
Note: A follow-up email may be sent to confirm your affiliation with the University of Tennessee.