Writing a feminist genealogy of automathographies

Why have there been so few women mathematicians? Why do women remain on the margins of mathematical sciences well into the twenty-first century, and how can we reimagine their role in the future? These questions have driven my Leverhulme-funded research project of writing a feminist genealogy of automathographies, tracing the process of becoming a woman mathematician, scientist, and philosopher in early and late modern Europe.

To explore these issues, I excavate, study and analyse the personal, literary, and philosophical writings of six women mathematicians: Émilie Du Châtelet (1706-1749) and Sophie Germain (1776-1831) from France, Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) from Italy, Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780-1872) from Scotland, Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) from England, and Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891) from Russia. Through this genealogical approach, I revisit the theoretical and methodological aspects of writing feminist genealogies to map the development of the female self in education, with a particular focus on science and mathematics.

In this context, the chapter unfolds in three sections: first I present and explicate the notion of automathographies in relation to the area of women in mathematics, then I revisit the epistemological grounds and methodological moves of writing a feminist genealogy of automathographies and finally I map the effects of writing a feminist genealogy of automathographies, not only in the field of cultural historiography, but also in re-imagining women’s radical futures in science and mathematics education.

This is a draft chapter/article. The final version is available in A Modern Guide to Education, Gender and Sexuality edited by Moreau, M-P. & Hoskins, K., published in 20xx [forthcoming], Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/978[forthcoming]

It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.