Numbers and Narratives

Reviews / Votes

'What does it mean to uncover the sorry history of women mathematicians? A history littered with marginalisation and even now revealing a struggle of women mathematicians in the present. Maria Tamboukou presents an important, detailed and moving analysis of the lives of some of these women. But most important for us is how we understand that assemblage of feminist genealogies in what it tells us of the present and not only how we got here but what trajectories are open to us to think the future differently, not only in terms of women working as mathematicians but also what those sensibilities bring to our understanding of mathematics and indeed, urgently, our world, itself.'

Professor Valerie Walkerdine, Cardiff University, UK

'Negating, silencing and erasing women mathematicians -along with other marginalized people and communities- as key contributors to the emerging epistemic cultures in mathematics, science and philosophy remains a core symptom of current democratic societies. The book Numbers and Narratives: A Feminist Genealogy of Automathographies written and narrated eloquently by Professor Maria Tamboukou, offers a critical feminist genealogy concerning women's agonistic assemblages for becoming mathematicians during the long 18th and 19th centuries. Based on archival epistolography, she brings these genealogies into conversation with feminist theory, science studies and new materialism, Tamboukou offers a unique contribution toward unfolding the gendering of mathematics and mathematics education.'

Professor Anna Chronaki, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece and Malmoe University, Malmoe, Sweden

'This inspiring feminist genealogy combines meticulous attention to the lives of six women mathematicians with nuanced accounts of the entangled contexts of their work, bringing conceptual and biographical richness to these histories.
In her characteristic style, Maria Tamboukou brings an intimacy to the writing - we can feel her discovery, the immediacy of the archive, the unfolding of threads and the weaving together of new storylines and connections. This is feminist writing at its best, surfacing new and muted histories and opening up other ways of seeing women and mathematics, and of understanding the history of gender and disciplinary fields.'

Professor Julie McLeod, University of Melbourne, Australia