Meeting Abstract

P3.124  Tuesday, Jan. 6  Hypatia of Alexandria: A Comparative Perspective on her Role in History CLEMENT, M.L.*; LEA, J.M.; PHAM, L.L.; SMITH, B.R.; SMITH, D.C.; WAGNER, N.A.; SIMMONS, C.K.; BARTHELL, J.F.; Univ. of Central Oklahoma; Univ. of Central Oklahoma; Univ. of Central Oklahoma; Univ. of Central Oklahoma; Univ. of Central Oklahoma; Univ. of Central Oklahoma; Univ. of Central Oklahoma; Univ. of Central Oklahoma jbarthell@ucok.edu

Hypatia was a philosopher and mathematician during the 4th and 5th centuries AD. Her role in history has been debated over time, but during the last 15 years at least two books have addressed her role from differing perspectives. We formed an interdisciplinary undergraduate seminar that included a group composed of students from the sciences and mathematics to compare two such perspectives. The first of these was the recent contribution by M. A. B. Deakin entitled "Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr" (published in 2007). We also reviewed the work by M. Dzielska entitled "Hypatia of Alexandria" (published in 1995) which is directly referenced in Deakin’s book. Our efforts focused on differences in the way in which these authors appear to be influenced by their own backgrounds (in mathematics and history, respectively) and the way in which Hypatia’s gender is relevant to the interpretation of her professional contributions. Like a recent historical counterpart in the biological sciences, Rosalind Franklin, we find that a degree of ambiguity is added to the interpretation of Hypatia’s work in accordance with the gender of the author. In addition to developing a comparison of these studies of Hypatia, the seminar provided at least three outcomes for student participants that included 1) linking critical thinking exercises with the peer-review publication process, 2) the opportunity to discuss history and nature of mathematics and science, and 3) discussion of gender issues in relationship to careers in mathematics and science.