On October 27th, we welcomed Dr. Corrine Yap from Georgia Tech for our Fall Duke Math DEI Colloquium. Dr. Yap performed a one-woman play called Uniform Convergence that took place in Physics 128. More than 60 people were in attendance, including undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty at Duke Math, as well as colleagues and students from Duke Theater Studies and UNC Math. The performance was inspiring and everyone had a chance to connect with Dr. Yap at a reception following the play.
Uniform Convergence is a one-woman play, written and performed by mathematician Corrine Yap. It juxtaposes the stories of two women trying to find their place in a white male-dominated academic world. The first is of historical Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya, who was lauded as a pioneer for women in science but only after years of struggle for recognition. Her life’s journey is told through music and movement, in both Russian and English.
The second is of a fictional Asian-American woman, known only as “Professor”, trying to cope with the prejudice she faces in the present. As she teaches an introductory real analysis class, she uses mathematical concepts to draw parallels to the race and gender conflicts she encounters in society today.
