I was recently invited to write a piece for MAA Focus responding to the decision to keep MathFest in Tampa in the midst of numerous legislative attacks against trans existence in the state. It’s out now in the June/July issue, and I invite you to read it there in context with several other pieces.1 However, I’m republishing it here, because there is one place I’d like to add a very specific link in response to an editorial decision. See if you can, y’know, spot it, and see if you can tell what specific word the editor asked me to avoid saying.

MathFest in Tampa: Upholding Our Values

Florida is a troublesome state these days. Currently working their way through the Florida legislature are bills prioritizing the rights of the state over those of individuals; bills that outlaw certain forms of healthcare, artistic expression, and education that the hard-right politicians in power find distasteful. What’s happening in Florida is wrong, and we shouldn’t pretend otherwise. We should say out loud that what’s happening in Florida is wrong.

Nevertheless, MAA MathFest 2023 is going to be held in Florida; on August 2, mathematicians from across the country will descend upon Tampa Bay to do math together for a couple days. The ship has sailed, the contracts are signed. I won’t waste my breath trying to pretend otherwise.

Instead, I wish to consider what a mathematical conference might look like if it acknowledged the bad things that were happening outside the doors of the convention center. I wish to resist the impulse to let the potential positives outweigh the risks of direct harm to our members. I wish to ponder how an organization like MAA, whose values are in opposition to the political climate of the place where its signature conference is scheduled, might work to uphold its values and protect its members – in a way that goes beyond lip service.

What’s happening in Florida is wrong

Let’s start with a survey of just a few of the oppressive bills making their way through the Florida legislature, as of the time I’m writing this. HB 1521 attacks trans people’s freedom to use the bathroom (and a legislator speaking about this bill referred to trans people as “demons” and “mutants”). HB 1423 would prohibit a form of artistic expression called “drag shows” (which, if definitions are interpreted in bad-faith ways, could outlaw trans professors teaching their math classes). SB 254 would outlaw scientifically-validated healthcare for trans children (but not for cis children undergoing precocious puberty). SB 300 would introduce a near-total ban on appropriate abortion healthcare. All these efforts are wrong, and we should say so.

Since we’re a community devoted to high-quality education, let’s zoom in there. At the K-12 level, it’s currently questionably legal for gay teachers (like me) to display photographs of their families, because of 2022’s HB 1557. Bookshelves at Bayshore High School in Manatee County, just across the bay from Tampa, are currently covered with wrapping paper and signs that read, “sorry, we are closed in accordance with House Bill 1667.” Mathematics textbooks have been challenged on the basis of their attention to socio-emotional learning. At the university level, professors who serve on DEI committees are being informed that their emails will be searched by the state. Colleges and universities are complying with state directives to provide information about services they have provided to their trans students. The board of the New College of Florida has been radically altered with a new cohort of right-wing trustees, rendering the New College of Florida all but unrecognizable. All these efforts are wrong, and we should say so, especially if we are a body of professionals in the field of teaching and learning, especially if we value the academic freedom that’s the linchpin of our profession.

All of these issues – not just the educational ones – do matter to mathematical societies. I’m reminded of the story of Dr. William Claytor, the third African-American man to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics, whose life is a study on the effects of abject racism on members of professional mathematical societies. Dr. Claytor could not accept an invitation to take a fellowship to IAS, due to the pervasive anti-Black racism of Princeton. He gave well-received presentations at AMS meetings, but was unable to stay in the conference hotels because of racist Jim Crow laws.

I’m suggesting that maybe professional organizations haven’t learned all the available lessons from the story of Dr. Claytor. I’m suggesting that we’re, distressingly, not particularly far from a trans mathematician being unable to give a talk at MathFest due to abject transphobia. What do we believe the AMS should have done for Dr. Claytor, back then? Whatever our answer to that question, is the MAA willing to do those same things now?

What should MathFest look like?

The MAA has suggested, in its recent article about site selection, that we can “use our presence in Tampa to demonstrate our support of our core values, and our opposition to legal barriers to the pluralism our modern society should embrace.” This is a lovely sentiment, but it raises many questions for me.

What are the MAA’s “core values,” anyway? According to the list on the MAA website, they include inclusivity, diversity, broadening access, and communicating the role of mathematics in a changing society. Further, through its actions surrounding MathFest 2023, the MAA has shown that fiduciary responsibility and order – and “business as usual” – are tacitly included in this list. This isn’t wrong! These are important values for a professional society to have. I am left, though, to wonder: when these values come in conflict, which of them will the MAA act most strongly to preserve?

What might it look like, meaningfully, in practice, to “demonstrate our support of our core values”? I very much appreciated Alicia Prieto Langarica’s recent article on MAA’s Math Values blog, “MathFest in Tampa: A Different Perspective.” Dr. Prieto writes: “Imagine a week of activities where we focus on different things that challenge the status quo. We can show how to use mathematics to assess the damage to women’s health that can come from abortion bans. We can show the faces of Black, brown and LGBTQ+ mathematicians in positions of prominence and power. Imagine visiting K-12 institutions and establishing collaborations to bring important voices to the classrooms, or even better, talking with them and together finding ways that we can contribute.” These are beautiful, affirming, powerful ideas, and I am glad Dr. Prieto has suggested them. Which of them will happen during August 2-5 in Tampa? Where are they on the conference schedule? Which K-12 schools have we identified to visit; which speakers have we recruited to speak on gerrymandering and women’s health; when are the plenary sessions from MGB, Lathisms, and Spectra?

In the article discussing site selection for MathFest, the MAA suggests that laws on the books in Florida do not “limit our members’ ability to engage in peaceful protest.” Will the MAA be organizing peaceful protests as part of the MathFest conference program, or will members have to find time for that on their own?

I’m also concerned about the safety of our members who choose to attend this conference. What contingency plans are in place in case an MAA member needs emergency healthcare that is prohibited by the state? Will our trans colleagues be safe coming to Florida to participate in Project NExT or the other valuable networking opportunities MathFest presents? What measures have we taken to help ensure their physical safety? Which perspectives are invisibly missing, in fact, because those who would bring them can’t come?

Looking ahead, I was surprised by the absence in MAA’s site selection article of any reflections on potential improvements to the site selection process. What language can we include in our future contracts that would allow us to move away from hostile political climates when necessary without incurring the financial penalties that prohibit us from doing so this year?

MathFest 2023 will be in Florida. (MathFest 2024 will be in Indiana; I could write a very similar article next year.) The ship has sailed; the contracts were signed. Therefore: Let’s make it a different kind of conference. Let’s speak out against what’s wrong, let’s protect our most vulnerable members, and let’s stand up for our values.

Note: Many thanks to Brian Katz for valuable feedback on drafts of this piece.

  1. Look for a future blog here responding in particular to the well-intentioned remarks from Hortensia Soto, MAA President. ↩