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SUMMARY:Towards an Ecological Mathematics - Dr Siddharth Unnithan Kumar
DTSTART:20240507T120000Z
DTEND:20240507T130000Z
UID:TALK219082@talks.cam.ac.uk
DESCRIPTION:Mathematics has an awkward relationship with the more-than-hum
 an world\, their thresholds of correspondence sedimented with apparent dic
 hotomies between abstraction and embodiment\, transcendence and immanence\
 , quantitative and qualitative. In this talk\, I would like to explore wha
 t it might mean to ecologise mathematics and reorient its presence in the 
 world at a time of great precarity for the biosphere.\n\nWe begin by looki
 ng at the development of mathematical methods in ecology\, wherein biologi
 cal phenomena have been conceptualised in the image of theories from the p
 hysical sciences. To elicit a malleability in the relationship between mat
 hematics and more-than-human world\, we turn to ethnomathematics for bring
 ing to light the cultural factors guiding the evolution of mathematical th
 ought\, and we question how abstraction might be used to enliven and make 
 vivid\, rather than mute and eclipse\, the nonhuman Other. This leads us t
 o the world-making powers of language and metaphor in shaping one's percep
 tion of and relationship with the living landscape\, and the reciprocity b
 etween richness of language and richness of thought. Finally\, we draw on 
 topological concepts from the humanities\, social sciences and mathematics
  to approach questions of space and time in environmental research.\n\nBio
 graphy: Dr Siddharth Unnithan Kumar\n\nAfter training in mathematics\, Sid
 dharth has worked closely with geographers\, ecologists\, anthropologists\
 , and Indigenous scholars\, among others. Following the completion last ye
 ar of his doctorate\, with a thesis titled 'Mathematical ecology in a more
 -than-human world'\, Siddharth has recently started a postdoctorate with t
 he University of Exeter's Renew programme\, working with ecologist Kevin G
 aston to develop the uses of mathematics in environmental research. This h
 as involved bringing mathematical methods into correspondence with embodie
 d experience of nature through the concept of a 'personalised ecology'\; a
 nd writing a mathematical model for the spatial prioritisation of nature r
 ecovery. Alongside this\, Siddharth is exploring what it might look like t
 o ecologise mathematics\, with particular attention to the reciprocal rela
 tionship between inner and outer worlds of human experience.\n\n
LOCATION:Venue to be confirmed
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