Mathematics

Research and Scholarship in the Department of Mathematics
October 2, 2000

Introduction

We expect faculty members in the Department of Mathematics to be actively engaged as scholars.

We therefore endorse the guidelines for scholarly activity devised by the Division of Natural Sciences, as presented in the document >Research and Scholarship in the Natural Sciences Division. Our document is an elaboration of these guidelines that addresses issues germane to scholarship in Mathematics.

Publication

We expect our faculty to pursue peer-reviewed publication. In this respect, we agree whole-heartedly with our colleagues in the Division of Natural Sciences. Publication includes print and electronic journal articles, chapters in books, entire books (including textbooks), invited and contributed papers that appear in conference proceedings, and contributions to science literature for wider circulation (books, magazines, web encyclopedias, etc.).

We recognize, however, that the rate of publication varies from one academic discipline to another, from one subdiscipline of mathematics to another, and even from one scholar to another. Therefore, we expect that the department will comment on the appropriateness of the candidate's rate of publication in letters of evaluation.

Research with Students

Creative research with students is a valuable scholarly activity. By engaging in cooperative, innovative research with our students, we expand our professional horizons and involve our students in the wonderful process of mathematical discovery. The most valuable research project is one in which the collaborators cooperatively address mathematical questions whose answers are unknown and otherwise unavailable to them. Both the Kenyon Summer Science Program and the Honors Program in the Department of Mathematics provide excellent opportunities for cooperative research with students.

It is important to note that while the apprenticeship model for research (as described in the document from the Division of Natural Sciences) is sometimes viable for mathematical research, more often than not the theoretical and cumulative nature of the subject makes this a less useful model for us than it is for the other scientific disciplines.

Other Activities

Presenting at professional conferences, editing journals or books, writing grant proposals, and writing professional reviews are valuable scholarly activities.

Due to the cumulative nature of the discipline, even the basic definitions within some subfields of mathematics are completely inaccessible to undergraduates. Since our hope is to develop an on-going conversation between our scholarship and our work with students, we feel that the "pursuit of secondary fields of scholarly interest" is particularly noteworthy when it will result in students being more actively engaged in our research or when it will result in scholarly interests that more directly impact our teaching|even if this pursuit temporarily slows the rate of peer-reviewed publication.

Service to the discipline is important as a support to other scholarly activities. This service may take many forms, including but not limited to: chairing or organizing special sessions at professional meetings, serving on the committees of professional organizations or other professional committees, and grading advanced placement exams.

Additionally, we deem that professional consulting work done cooperatively with or on behalf of representatives from academia, industry, or government is a valuable scholarly activity, insofar as it is "active and active participation in one's field" and an "exchange of information, ideas, and techniques with [one's] peers."