Author info...

[Jason Belnap]

Hey all,
In one of the classes I teach, we frame the development of math education & theories of learning by reading key research pieces through the decades. I’ve been trying to find some basic info on authors, like even a photo so they can imagine the person that wrote the piece they are reading. I’m finding that in some cases, it is extremely difficult to find any information on the individuals online or to tell where they are/were working. Any ideas on how to find such information?

For example, one that we are studying is the Conceptual & Procedural piece by James Hiebert & Patricia Lefevre. With some work I was able to track down a picture of James & some information on his career, because he’s emeritus at U.Delaware, but for the life of me, I can’t track down anything on Patricia. Having never known her personally, I have no idea how to tell who she is from a google searches and can’t tell anything about what her career involved. Any insights into her or how I might find such info on other authors as well?

Thanks,
Jason Belnap
UWO

[Christopher Charlie Jett]

Hello Colleagues,

Jason brings up a great point. This issue is more complex when searching for images of some women and scholars from minoritized groups who experienced varying levels of discrimination and exclusion when attempting to publish their work. 

I experienced this issue when searching for information about Black scholars from HBCUs who subsequently earned their doctorates. For my study with the cohort of math majors at Morehouse, I had to partner with a librarian with a specialty in archival records. That was extremely helpful, as so much of that historical information wasn't available online, including photos.  

Interesting topic in light of contemporary discussions about representation and equity in our field as well as the broader society!     

 

Chris

Christopher C. Jett, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Mathematics Education

Email: cje...@gsu.edu 

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Subject: [External] [RUMEmail] Author info...

 

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[Mina SJ]

Hi Jason, Chris, and all!

This is such an interesting and important point. I’m aware of the Mathematics Genealogy Project for mathematicians — do we have anything comparable in mathematics education? If not, perhaps we could consider developing one to document scholarly lineages and highlight contributions in our field. I would be very happy to collaborate on thus team to help make this happen. Thoughts?

Best,

-Mina

 

Mina Sedaghatjou, PhD (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor of STEM ( Math/ CS) Education

 

Rowan University | College of Education
Department of Early Childhood, Elementary Education & Critical Foundations (EEC)

📍 James Hall, Room 2057 | Glassboro, NJ 08028
📞 856-256-4500 ext. 5379

Sedag...@rowan.edu 

 Zoom link, Passcode: Passcode: 2164436

 

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rume_list/PH0PR05MB86719FF2452B203A1EE416619F6BA%40PH0PR05MB8671.namprd05.prod.outlook.com.

[Tommy Dreyfus]

Hi Mina,

Thanks for volunteering, but why setting up a separate project? The Math Genealogy project works great and is well moderated. I have been listed there since 1975, and have entered my (so far 13) PhD graduates. The same is true for many colleagues in mathematics education, including Jeremy Kilpatrick (54 graduates), Alan Schoenfeld (32), Rolf Biehler (17), Michael Otte (13), Gabriele Kaiser (32), Les Steffe (15), Pat Thompson (9), Jean-Luc Dorier (24), David Tall (22), Chris Rasmussen (7), Pat Herbst (11), Ted Eisenberg (8), ...

Other colleagues are listed without having listed their descendants; they include Abraham Arcavi, Michèle Artigue, Kaye Stacey, ...

Still others have some but not all of their descendants listed, for example Richard Noss.

All it would take is encouraging colleagues to let themselves and to encourage their colleagues and students. Such encouragement could be started in RUME and then extended to INDRUM, PME, ERME, ICMI, and other professional organizations. 

Regards,

Tommy

--

On 21 Feb 2026, at 2:43, Mina SJ <mina.sed...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Jason, Chris, and all!

This is such an interesting and important point. I’m aware of the Mathematics Genealogy Project for mathematicians — do we have anything comparable in mathematics education? If not, perhaps we could consider developing one to document scholarly lineages and highlight contributions in our field. I would be very happy to collaborate on thus team to help make this happen. Thoughts?

Best,

-Mina

L 

Mina Sedaghatjou, PhD (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor of STEM ( Math/ CS) Education

 

Rowan University | College of Education
Department of Early Childhood, Elementary Education & Critical Foundations (EEC)

📍 James Hall, Room 2057 | Glassboro, NJ 08028
📞 856-256-4500 ext. 5379

Sedag...@rowan.edu 

 Zoom link, Passcode: Passcode: 2164436

 

 

From: 'Christopher Charlie Jett' via RUME_list <rume...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Friday, February 20, 2026 at 3:20 PM
To: rume...@googlegroups.com <rume...@googlegroups.com>, Jason Belnap <bel...@uwosh.edu>
Subject: Re: [External] [RUMEmail] Author info...

Hello Colleagues,

Jason brings up a great point. This issue is more complex when searching for images of some women and scholars from minoritized groups who experienced varying levels of discrimination and exclusion when attempting to publish their work. 

I experienced this issue when searching for information about Black scholars from HBCUs who subsequently earned their doctorates. For my study with the cohort of math majors at Morehouse, I had to partner with a librarian with a specialty in archival records. That was extremely helpful, as so much of that historical information wasn't available online, including photos.  

Interesting topic in light of contemporary discussions about representation and equity in our field as well as the broader society!     

 

Chris

Christopher C. Jett, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Mathematics Education

Email: cje...@gsu.edu 

<Outlook-hr1qcbzg.png>

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rume_list/SJ0PR03MB5872829E804006198235FD9EFB69A%40SJ0PR03MB5872.namprd03.prod.outlook.com.

--
Tommy Dreyfus 🎗️
tom...@tauex.tau.ac.il 
https://english.tau.ac.il/profile/tommyd 

[Pat Herbst]

I am glad this discussion is happening. I agree with Tommy that, as far as genealogy goes, we'd be better off building on what already exists than starting something new. The Mathematics Genealogy Project is one place where many of us are listed, and they welcome everybody. Another genealogy place is Academic Tree, which is cross-disciplinary and also allows connecting postdocs to mentors.

But I thought the intention behind the original question and its follow up was about finding richer information about people in our field. A wiki could do that job and wikipedia is not open to all. I've been saving obituaries and pictures of people lost to us for the last few years and would be happy to contribute to such an effort.  

Pat Herbst

Professor of Mathematics Education

Marsal Family School of Education | University of Michigan

610 East University Avenue | Room 4117

Ann Arbor, MI | 48109-1259 

734.763.3745 | pghe...@umich.edu

   

Director, GRIP Lab

2400 SEB

University of Michigan

https://www.gripumich.org/

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[Jason Belnap]

Thanks Chris. I agree. It didn’t seem fair for me to be able to share info on one but not the other author—and it did bother me that it was a woman too.  Not that I’m suggesting that this situation is due to that, but still. I would be nice if there were a way of helping people connect with or know about people in the field.  Not sure what that might take.

Jason

On Feb 20, 2026, at 2:17 PM, Christopher Charlie Jett <cje...@gsu.edu> wrote:

Hello Colleagues,

Jason brings up a great point. This issue is more complex when searching for images of some women and scholars from minoritized groups who experienced varying levels of discrimination and exclusion when attempting to publish their work. 

I experienced this issue when searching for information about Black scholars from HBCUs who subsequently earned their doctorates. For my study with the cohort of math majors at Morehouse, I had to partner with a librarian with a specialty in archival records. That was extremely helpful, as so much of that historical information wasn't available online, including photos.  

Interesting topic in light of contemporary discussions about representation and equity in our field as well as the broader society!     

 

Chris

Christopher C. Jett, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Mathematics Education

Email: cje...@gsu.edu 

<Outlook-hr1qcbzg.png>

[Sandra Laursen]

For the specific instance of the problem, I’d probably try writing to Prof Hiebert to ask more about his collaborator as a person.

For the general version of the problem, maybe it could be turned into an assignment for students?  Perhaps a good vehicle to learn how to get information that existed before the internet. :)  Could be published as Wikipedia entries.

I also want to be sure the broader RUME community knows about a new collection of video biographies of Black mathematicians that is housed at the NAM archival collection at the Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center. I have been slowly working my way through them and learning a lot.

 https://radar.auctr.edu/national-association-mathematicians-collection

- Sandra Laursen

On Feb 23, 2026, at 7:53 AM, 'Jason Belnap' via RUME_list <rume...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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[Nina White]

I am not an expert on wikipedia "write-ins", but I know that folks get organized and come together in person or online (often with the help of librarians) to make sure that important people (from underpresented groups) have the wikipedia pages. It's often a full day or full weekend event. 

Nina

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rume_list/70697A93-5BB6-4620-9301-82731AD7047B%40colorado.edu.