Associate Professor of Mathematics Sally Cockburn has been awarded the Class of 1963 Faculty Fellowship. Cockburn received the award for her proposal to develop a new senior mathematics seminar, "Philosophical Foundations of Mathematics."
This award, established by the Class of 1963 on the occasion of its 30th reunion, provides "members of the faculty with inspiration and incentive to become better teachers by developing additional areas of expertise during the summer months."
With a dramatic increase in declared math majors in 2004 and a high demand for more math seminar classes, Cockburn decided that the time was right to add a new mathematics seminar class that combines mathematical knowledge and the humanities in both material and assessment.
Cockburn envisions developing the course to have two distinct halves, beginning with a standard mathematical treatment of advanced set theory, and ending with readings from classic articles regarding the philosophical foundations of mathematics, including non-fiction readings from Russell, Hilbert, Kant and Quine, and fiction readings authored by Barth and Borges.
Posted December 16, 2004
