Info for Speakers 

We invite two accomplished mathematicians who are active leaders in supporting and advocating for marginalized mathematicians to give an inspiring 50 minute talk that ties together the conference themes of: career advancement, experiences of marginalized mathematicians, representation, and conference participants forming an allied community.

Note: please take care not to prepare a talk that fits the descriptions of "Our Stories" or "Crash Courses"

We invite eight research mathematicians with experience advising undergraduates in their field to give a 50 minute talk on their expertise.

The goal of these talks is to inspire curiosity and give students exposure to various areas of math, to help them decide which ones they want to investigate further or apply to programs in. We hope students who attend crash courses gain some insights about what different areas of math are like, so that when they apply to REUs, internships, and other programs, they know they’re applying to things in areas they have some interest in. We hope they come away from these talks with enough information to know whether they want to investigate the topic further, and some ideas for how to do so. 

The best crash course talks often involve a mix of less-technical, bird’s-eye-view material, and some more technical and specific material. The less technical material might broadly touch on the general ideas, processes, and tools involved in the field, as well as why the field matters and how it sits in the world of mathematics, relative to other areas. The more technical material might include examples of specific problems that are accessible to undergraduates, like those previous undergraduates have worked on, or open problems undergraduates might be able to make progress on. 

We invite four mathematicians who have experience teaching faculty how to support and advocate for students of marginalized identities to facilitate a 50 minute workshop on allyship. Each workshop will focus on experiences unique to people who share a specified identity, such as race, gender, or disability.

We hope faculty will leave with new tools and perspective to bring to their classrooms and mentorship relationships.

We invite twelve graduate students and recent PhD recipients with diverse identities and backgrounds to speak for 20 minutes about their significant experiences in mathematics, including candid, emotional struggles and victories that shaped their math career, especially experiences from their time as undergraduates which participants can use to inform their choices.

Our goal is to show participants many varied paths that mathematicians take from undergrad (or earlier) to their current career stages. Student attendees to these talks often gain both inspiration and concrete ideas for what kinds of programs and opportunities they would like to seek out to help them along the way. For many attendees, this is also an opportunity to see for the first time a mathematician who shares certain identities with them, which often instills a sense of belonging. 

Speakers are encouraged to prepare slides with images of meaningful experiences.

We invite five representatives of summer/semester programs (REU’s, internships, study abroad, counselorships, institutional research) to speak about their programs to help students understand how they can benefit from engaging with these opportunities.

The duration of the panel is 90 minutes.

We invite six current and recent undergraduate students to speak about their experiences with career-building programs such as REU’s, math study abroad programs, math camp counselorships, internships, and doing research projects with faculty at one’s own school. The panel will have a Q&A format, so speakers do not need to prepare anything in particular in advance.

Speakers may be asked questions such as

• What did you enjoy and dislike?

• Do you recommend this program?

• What do you wish you had known or thought about before attending?

• What was the application process?

The duration of the panel is 90 minutes.