Editorial: Let Us Hear Your Voice

By Deanna Haunsperger

When I took over as Editor of this Math Values blog site in January of 2021, we were still in the midst of the pandemic, and I, and I assume all of you, sorely needed connection with others. I said to the Board of Directors at that time that I wanted to expand and diversify the number of voices represented on our blog site. After all, the MAA has nearly 12,000 members, including high school teachers, undergraduates, faculty, and people working in business, industry, and government. A blog is a natural platform to hear from a wide range of people about a variety of topics.

When I started as editor, Keith Devlin (Devlin’s Angle) and David Bressoud (Launchings) had already been blogging for nearly a quarter century. Newer to the scene was the blog edited by Audrey Malagon, Erin Moss, and Jana Talley (DUE Point) which highlighted programs in the NSF’s Division of Undergraduate Education and the blog edited by Jacqueline Brannon-Giles, Jamylle Laurice Carter, Nadia Monrose Mills, Zerotti Woods, Anisah Nu’man, and Omayra Ortega (National Association of Mathematics), which was retired in 2021.

Over the past three years, we have added five new blog streams:

Living Proof, stories of resilience, based on the book by the same name, and edited by Allison Henrich, Matthew Pons, Jennifer Bowen, Susan Crook, Anisah Nu’Man, and Sarah Bryant.
Learning Through the Ranks: A Graduate Student Blog, tales of navigating the unique and critical experiences of graduate school, edited by Jasmine Camero
Testimonios: Stories of Latinx and Hispanic Mathematicians, autobiographies from the book, edited by Pamela Harris, Alicia Prieto-Langarica, Vanessa Rivera Quiñones, Luis Sordo Vieira, Rosaura Uscanga and Andrés R. Vindas Meléndez.
Dana Center Connections, reports regarding research-based ideas for ensuring all students have the opportunity to succeed – and find joy – in mathematics, edited by Dave Kung
Still Learning from My Mistakes, practical advice and interesting perspectives on teaching, edited by Lew Ludwig

Thanks to the hard work of my Editorial Board (Tim Chartier, Becky Swanson, Haydee Lindo, Allison Henrich, Erica Winterer, Melinda Lanius, and deputy editor Shanise Walker), and the editors of the regular blog streams, we have published nearly 400 blogs in the past three years. These have included mathematical histories of people and ideas, stories of heartache and embarrassment, career profiles, teaching techniques, outreach to non-mathematicians, DEI work, failures and successes, the struggles of both students and faculty, advice, advances in research, current research on teaching, and so much more. That is, these blog posts have helped to tell the stories of our community. Our successes and our aspirations. Our dark moments and our light. Our humanity.

My time as Editor of Math Values draws to a close in a few days, but the next editor, Kira Hamman, is also keenly interested in hearing from our readers. Contact her at blogs@maa.org.

I am looking forward to reading how Math Values continues to grow and develop. But I want to leave you with one important idea:

Everyone has a blog post in them. Tell us a story, share a teaching technique that you tried, describe your non-academic career which uses math, elucidate your DEI work in your department, process with us your attempts at welcoming a wider variety of people into our mathematical community and telling them that they belong.

Deanna Haunsperger has been the Editor of Math Values since 2021. She has also served as a former president of the MAA. She is currently Professor of Mathematics and the John E. Sawyer Professor of Liberal Learning at Carleton College.