Mathematically Uncensored

Aris and Pamela return for a FOURTH season! Topics include self-promotion, money, mental health, and how all of these intersect with being an effective mentor.

Aris and Pamela finish off the season talking about their visits to elite institutions and what it means to be "elite." This includes talk about the coordinates, study groups, grinding for qualifying exams, and the deliciousness of chocolate-banana slices.

What do you do when one of your role models messes up? Aris and Pamela talk about being the only woman or person of color in a room, and why the people in the majority need to speak up. They then discuss how their positionality changes from room to room, and the mistakes they've made in forgetting this.

Aris and Pamela talk about making mistakes: the mistakes they have made about gender inclusion, what to do when a mentee makes a mistake, and what mistakes they might make when going up for full professor.

Pamela and Aris talk about their work on mentoring mentors. They recap the Critical Issues in Math Education workshop at SLMath, talking about what was painful, what was successful, and the false dichotomy between success and pain.

It's Women's History Month! Pamela and Aris talk about including all women in Women's History Month and making sure to celebrate women of color. They then talk about the ways family is important to consider when going through graduate school and job applications, and how people of color are disproportionately affected. Finally, they talk about the legacy of the first female executive director of the AMS and how to prepare for the upcoming changes in leadership.

Aris and Pamela talk about the different ways power shows up in academic spaces: in classrooms, journal reviews, and in department google forms.

What do you do when a student says "I'm fine"? Pamela and Aris talk about mentorship, the challenges of supporting all the coordinates, and how to properly warn students away from toxic environments. They then give some updates on hotel room interviews and what the AMS is — and isn't — doing.

Aris and Pamela recap the Joint Mathematics Meetings. They talk about what obligations a conference has to support marginalized attendees, and give do's and don'ts, as well as some success stories from JMM. They also talk about mentorship, and why your mentee might not be taking your advice.

Aris and Pamela speak about the unspoken norms of academia. When can you ask for an honorarium? How much can you ask for? What does it mean to "quiet quit?" And how do all of these norms change—or get exacerbated—for people of color?