The History of Mathematics Working Group is an international, community-driven forum devoted to the study of the mathematical sciences in their historical contexts. Organized through the History of Science Society’s Forum for the History of Mathematical Sciences (FoHMS), the working group’s central premise is that the study of historical mathematics requires attention to diverse mathematical practices and modes of reasoning. The group approaches the interpretation of historical mathematics not as a linear development leading to modern form but as a plurality of practices whose significance emerges from their local contexts of production and use. Meetings include discussions of primary sources, recent scholarship, works in progress, and thematic conversations on topics such as proof and demonstration, notation and symbolism, diagrammatic reasoning, computation, mathematical style, historiography, and the relationship between mathematics and science.
While rooted in the history of mathematics, the group actively seeks conversation with adjacent fields including the histories of astronomy, physics, mechanics, statistics, and book history. We welcome scholars at all career stages, including those who may not primarily identify as historians of mathematics but whose work engages with mathematical knowledge, practice, or representation.
Group Conveners
E.A. Hunter
E. A. Hunter is a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago in the Committee on the Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science. Hunter studies the history and historiography of ancient Greek mathematics, with particular attention to processes of canon formation and the historical construction of ancient Greek intellectual authority. She is also a rare books assistant at the John Crerar Library.
Brit Shields
Brit Shields is a historian and sociologist of science, mathematics, and technology whose research examines the cultural history of scientific communities, institutions, and ideas. She is a Practice Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science. Her scholarship and teaching focus on the history and sociology of science, engineering ethics, and the societal dimensions of emerging technologies.
Julia Tomasson
Julia Tomasson is an Assistant Professor of Premodern Science and Technology at Rice University. She is currently working on her first monograph, Polygons and Polyphony: Arabic Mathematics and the Search for Non-Euclidean Geometries, which is a longue durée global history of Arabic geometric traditions after the so-called Golden Age through colonial and anti-colonial encounters in the 19th century. In both her research and teaching, Tomasson is interested in the surprising histories of concepts we take for granted—such as evidence, proof, and reasonableness—and how ideas and practices of knowledge have changed across times and cultures. She holds an A.B from the University of Chicago in History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine (HiPSS) and a M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in History from Columbia University.