An education professor provided a lecture in early January at a major mathematician meeting that explained college mathematics as "white" and "cisheteropatriarchal.".

" Undergraduate Mathematics Education as a White, Cisheteropatriarchal Space and Opportunities for Structural Disruption to Advance Queer of Color Justice" was the full title of the lecture offered by Luis Leyva, associate teacher of mathematics education at the Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University.

Leyva provided the lecture Jan. 4 in Boston at the Joint Mathematics Meetings 2023. The summit is the "biggest mathematics gathering on the planet," according to its website.

" Cisheteropatriarchal" is a term in ethnic studies referring to "a system of male, directly, conforming-to-assigned sex system power," teacher and curriculum designer R. Tolteka Cuauhtin told the Los Angeles Times in a 2019 article.

Leyva's "findings portray [ed] how Black, Latin *, and Asian QT [queer and transgender] students' stories of experience reflect types of intersectionality, or circumstances of oppression and resistance," according to his lecture's abstract. https://twitter.com/LuisLeyvaEdu/status/1610310781060407296The Fix left Leyva a voicemail asking for a remark or brief interview on the lecture by means of email or phone call. His email address was not publicly offered. Leyva did not return the call.

Leyva's research study followed the "academic experiences of 39 undergraduate queer and trans * (QT) students of color pursuing STEM majors throughout historically white and minority-serving universities in the United States," his abstract mentioned.

" I conclude by re-imagining undergraduate mathematics education with structural interruptions that advance justice for learners marginalized across crossways of gender, sexuality, and race," the abstract added.

Leyva is likewise an affiliate in Vanderbilt's Department of Gender & & Sexuality Studies, according to his faculty bio. His work" makes use of critical race theory, ladies of color feminisms, and queer of color critique to conceptually and methodologically ground his scholarship, which focuses traditionally marginalized voices in STEM higher education across crossways of sexuality, race, and gender.".

Leyva was called the 2022 LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year by Out to Innovate, a professional organization for LGBTQ+ individuals in STEM, Vanderbilt mentioned in a press release last May.

Leyva's social justice pedagogy questioned by mathematician, Vanderbilt student.

" [Leyva's] abstract checks out like an over-the-top caricature, another Sokal scam," Aryeh Kontorovich, a teacher of computer technology at Ben-Gurion University in Israel, told The Fix through email. "This one is all too real, I understand.".

" It is my viewpoint as a computer scientist/mathematician and trainer with over 14 years of experience that politics and social justice have no place in math pedagogy," Kontorovich said. "We can never all agree on what is simply, while we can (hopefully) settle on what is mathematically correct, so mathematics education ought to focus exclusively on the latter.".

Vanderbilt freshman Noah Jenkins likewise revealed issue.

" I stop working to see, in any shape, method, or form, how collegiate math education in the status quo represents a system of 'oppression and resistance,' especially in a field that is so unbiased," he told The Fix.

" Either you resolve the formula correctly, or you don't. It truly is that easy. It does not matter if a gay person, a trans individual, or whoever resolves the problem, 2 plus two will always equate to 4.".