Journeys of Black Mathematicians

Forging Resilience

Co-presented by San Francisco State University Mathematics Department,
Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath) & Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival

Post screening panel with Director George Csicsery & USF Associate Professor Of Mathematics & Statistics, Emille Davie Lawrence

Journeys of Black Mathematicians: Forging Resilience is part one of two films produced by Zala Films as part of the Journeys of Black Mathematicians project.

Forging Resilience traces the evolution of a culture of Black scholars, scientists and educators. The film follows the stories of prominent pioneers, showing how the challenges they faced and their triumphs are reflected in the experiences of today’s working Black mathematicians. Their mathematical descendants in turn are contemporary college students, and K-12 children across the U.S. who are learning that they belong in mathematics and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Today’s Black students have more opportunities to engage with mathematics than any of their predecessors had. Yet there are powerful headwinds: lingering racial prejudice and internal cultural resistance to math and STEM in the community, are just two.