Mathematics: History and Culture

As a result of a number of requests primarily from students for the reinstatement of a ‘History of Mathematics’ module that fell by the wayside when a member of staff retired two years ago we started to offer a new Level 3 (final year) course at the School of Mathematical Sciences. This was aimed to provide:

• A chance for students to hear about and reflect on historical and cultural aspects of Mathematics.
• A way for students to enrich their experience of independent research and writing prose and of group and presentation work while remaining close to the core material of the Mathematics Honours degree programmes.
• A pathway for non-mathematics students to learn about mathematics and its relation to the arts and humanities. In particular we decided that we would restrict the mathematical content essentially to only ‘A’ level prerequisites. The module was first taught