S4E10: Queering math w/ Dr. Anthony Bonato

Math Therapy

In our final episode of the season, Vanessa chats with math professor Dr. Anthony Bonato about what it means to be queer in - let’s face it - the historically snobby and closed-minded field that is math. But as soon as you hear Anthony in today’s episode, you’ll understand there will be no silencing his advocacy for diversity & inclusion in math … or for that matter his insistence that Adele’s album titles actually form a unique prime-numbers based mathematical sequence?! Anthony discusses how pop culture can be a tool to make math education more fun, and also how the richest mathematical problem solving that is needed to solve our world’s great challenges can only reach its full potential if we are involving EVERY person in the process.

*This episode was recorded in December 2021; Anthony mentions a potential invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which was being discussed as a possibility in the news at the time, but no invasion had begun yet.

About Anthony

Dr. Anthony Bonato is a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research interest is in graph theory, with applications to real-world complex networks and graph searching games such as Cops and Robbers. He is on the Editorial Board of Contributions to Discrete Mathematics, and was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Internet Mathematics. He serves on the Canadian Mathematical Society Board of Directors as Director-Ontario, the BIRS Board of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and the NSERC Mathematics and Statistics Liaison Committee.

Show notes:

• Read Anthony’s article about Adele’s mathematical sequence for naming her albums
• Check out the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences
• Read Anthony’s blog post: On being a gay mathematician
• Check out LGBTQ+ math day
• Check out LGBTQ+ STEM day
• Read Anthony’s article about making math fun
• Read Anthony’s latest book, “Limitless Minds: Interviews with Mathematicians.”
• Read Anthony’s blog: The Intrepid Mathematician

Connect with us:

• Anthony Bonato: (Twitter)
• Vanessa Vakharia: @themathguru (Insta, Twitter, TikTok)
• Math Therapy: @maththerapy (Twitter)

Chapters

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Pop culture & math (00:02:03)

3. Accessibility of education (00:08:52)

4. Confronting discrimination (00:13:24)

5. Q1: How math is taught in school (00:22:48)

6. Q2: I'm not a "math person" (00:23:34)

7. Outro (00:24:17)