Events
Upcoming Events:
1st Friday of every month, 14.00-15.00 Online Reading Group.
To be notified of details, join our JISCmail list
Friday 15 May, 14.00-15.00 Seminar by Rowena Ball (Australia National University)(online)
Title: ‘Empirical Mathematics in Australian Indigenous Smoke Telegraphy’. Details will be circulated on the JISCmail list (join)
7-8 September 2026, 2-day workshop on creating and curating history of mathematics resources at University of Manchester.
This workshop will run from mid-morning (11.00 coffee, 11.30 session start) on Monday 7 Sept., until mid afternoon (15.00 finish & tea) on Tuesday 8 Sept. We hope this will enable many participants to attend with only one night away from home. Registration will be free and we hope to be able to contribute towards travel and accommodation expenses.
The workshop will
• introduce what HIDIM achieved over its funded period, its activities, impact and future plans
• reflect on the approaches used, especially staff-student co-creation both of resources and of aRepository tool custom-built in 2025
• introduce participants to the Repository itself, indicating open questions (with chances to getinvolved), development possibilities such as improved remix capabilities, and enhanced metrics forbuilding impact cases
• discuss further historical episodes around which mathematics activities could be created
We encourage in person attendance, but if you are unable to make it to Manchester and would like to join online this will be possible.
Past Events:
8-9 September 2025, 2-day workshop on creating and curating history of mathematics resources at University of Manchester.
The workshop focused on creating resources, building and curating a resource bank. Zoe Tompkins and Amaninder Singh from the Decolonising Computing project spoke about their experiences of working with students to create resources and the resource bank they are populating. Owen Byrne and Troy Astarte from Swansea University demonstrated the repository they have developed for the History for Diversity Network, and we trialed and gave feed back on the resource creation templates, and requirements for making the resources easily discoverable.
Teaching group theory with a historical perspective talk given by Rebecca Waldecker (online) 19 May 2025.
Abstract: My research as a mathematician has group theory at its heart, and for many years this meant that I proved theorems about finite groups, worked on applications of such results or explored arguments for computational group theory. This changed around 2019 when I was invited to participate in a project in the history of mathematics, my focus being on historical aspects of group theory. The work that I have been doing since, with Volker Remmert and others, has given me tremendous joy, and it has changed my view on group theory and on how mathematicians work.
In two consecutive terms, I have taught group theory with an explicit focus on historical aspects and the diversity of the research community. In my talk I want to briefly explain my idea and intention behind these two courses, how they were similar, how they were different, how the students responded and what I learned. In the discussion, I would like to explore potential, opportunities, surprises, and also challenges and risks.
Find a recording of the talk here.
2-day event at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge 4-5 February 2025.
Della Dumbaugh (Richmond), John Tucker (Swansea), Maurice Chiodo (Cambridge) and Jiří Hudeček (Prague), presented leading to a discussion on the contributions of non-western cultures or under-represented groups to modern mathematics, and how these might be embedded in HE mathematics teaching to enhance inclusion and diversity in the curriculum. Find more information on the event here.
Meeting on sharing experiences of using history of mathematics in teaching (online) 10 December 2025.
Brigitte Stenhouse (The Open University) and Rehan Shah (Queen Mary), and Stefania Lisai (St. Andrews) presented on their experiences of involving history of mathematics in teaching.
2-day workshop on working with history of mathematics resources at University of Manchester 5-6 September 2024.
Discussions and activities around embedding aspects of historical resources into teaching materials, looking at specific requirements and constructively critiquing some of the existing materials.
Panel discussion of approaches to using history of mathematics in mathematics teaching (online) 15 April 2024
Ciarán Mac an Bhaird (Maynooth), Ric Crossman (Durham) and Pierre-Philippe Dechant (Leeds), presented their experiences of using history of mathematics in varied ways and contexts, and led a discussion.
Student focus groups
During spring 2024 we hosted a series of 2-hour focus groups for HE mathematics students at various locations across the UK. These explored students’:
- Understanding / experience of EDI
- Experience of historical content in mathematics degree
- In what ways has this historical content supported or inhibited E
Report and discussion of staff focus group outcomes (online) 14 Dec 2023
Discussion was based around this overview of focus group outcomes. The outcomes are now being analysed in more depth.
Staff focus groups
During the autumn of 2023, the Network hosted a series of 1-day focus groups for HE mathematics teaching staff at locations across the UK and Republic of Ireland. They addressed these questions:
- In what ways are current HE maths curricula experienced as exclusive?
- What examples are there of using history to make the curriculum more inclusive?
- What support do practitioners need in using history to diversify the curriculum?
Focus groups were held at:
- Maynooth, 29th of August 2023
- Leeds, 6th of September 2023
- Oxford, 29th September 2023
- Edinburgh, 5th October 2023