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dark_crystal · 02-23-2017, 07:05 AM

From yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education:

Meet the Math Professor Who’s Fighting Gerrymandering With Geometry

A Tufts University professor has a proposal to combat gerrymandering: give more geometry experts a day in court.
Moon Duchin is an associate professor of math and director of the Science, Technology and Society program at Tufts. She realized last year that some of her research about metric geometry could be applied to gerrymandering — the practice of manipulating the shape of electoral districts to benefit a specific party, which is widely seen as a major contributor to government dysfunction.

[snip]

"Changes to voting rules that used to be considered by courts before they could be implemented," Ms. Duchin says, "are now implemented first and the courts consider them after the fact." Because of the increase in cases challenging new electoral maps, she says, there’s a need for expert witnesses who understand the mathematical concepts applicable to gerrymandering.

To meet that need, she’s spearheaded the creation of a five-day summer program at Tufts that aims to train mathematicians to do just that. The first three days of the program will be open to the public and available online, with lessons that put redistricting in legal, historical, civil-rights, and mathematical contexts. Attendees of the program’s final two days will participate in one of three specialized tracks on giving expert testimony, teaching, and working with geographic-information systems.

The summer program, created in partnership with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, was announced late in January. Already, Ms. Duchin says, over 900 people have indicated their interest by signing up for a mailing list.

From Ms. Duchin's wikipedia page:

Duchin went to Harvard University as an undergraduate, where she was active in queer organizing and finished a double major in mathematics and women's studies in 1998. As a graduate student in mathematics at the University of Chicago, she continued her feminist activism by teaching gender studies and pushing the university to add gender-neutral bathrooms, and was mentioned mockingly by name on the Rush Limbaugh show. She completed her doctorate in 2005, under the supervision of Alex Eskin. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis and the University of Michigan before joining the Tufts faculty in 2011.

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02-23-2017, 07:05 AM	#20
dark_crystal Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: jenny Preferred Pronoun?: babygirl Relationship Status: First Lady of the United SMH Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,445 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,532 Thanked 26,589 Times in 4,691 Posts Rep Power: 21474856	From yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education: Meet the Math Professor Who’s Fighting Gerrymandering With Geometry A Tufts University professor has a proposal to combat gerrymandering: give more geometry experts a day in court. Moon Duchin is an associate professor of math and director of the Science, Technology and Society program at Tufts. She realized last year that some of her research about metric geometry could be applied to gerrymandering — the practice of manipulating the shape of electoral districts to benefit a specific party, which is widely seen as a major contributor to government dysfunction. [snip] "Changes to voting rules that used to be considered by courts before they could be implemented," Ms. Duchin says, "are now implemented first and the courts consider them after the fact." Because of the increase in cases challenging new electoral maps, she says, there’s a need for expert witnesses who understand the mathematical concepts applicable to gerrymandering. To meet that need, she’s spearheaded the creation of a five-day summer program at Tufts that aims to train mathematicians to do just that. The first three days of the program will be open to the public and available online, with lessons that put redistricting in legal, historical, civil-rights, and mathematical contexts. Attendees of the program’s final two days will participate in one of three specialized tracks on giving expert testimony, teaching, and working with geographic-information systems. The summer program, created in partnership with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, was announced late in January. Already, Ms. Duchin says, over 900 people have indicated their interest by signing up for a mailing list. From Ms. Duchin's wikipedia page: Duchin went to Harvard University as an undergraduate, where she was active in queer organizing and finished a double major in mathematics and women's studies in 1998. As a graduate student in mathematics at the University of Chicago, she continued her feminist activism by teaching gender studies and pushing the university to add gender-neutral bathrooms, and was mentioned mockingly by name on the Rush Limbaugh show. She completed her doctorate in 2005, under the supervision of Alex Eskin. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis and the University of Michigan before joining the Tufts faculty in 2011. If you know this sister, shake her hand for me! __________________