The Learnables: Towards the Reform of Mathematics in a Liberal Arts Curriculum
August 6-7 at Augustine Institute, St. Louis, Missouri
Although many strides have been made in reviving the humanities portion of a liberal education, mathematics and the sciences have lagged behind. Many obstacles lie in the way of programmatic change – ancient vs. modern math; the lack of a historical guide to integration of the sciences into a liberal arts curriculum; the external expectations of colleges and parents. To help those ready to engage in this labor, our symposium will bring together theoretical and practical experts in liberal approaches to mathematics education, ancient and modern, to help us understand the difficulties and recognize opportunities.
Registration is $175, which includes all meals two nights’ stay at the Augustine Institute. The conference begins with dinner on Wednesday and lasts through Thursday evening. Please register early, as space is limited. If you have any questions, please contact office@boethiusinstitute.org.
This conference is made possible by a generous grant from the St. John Henry Newman Institute.
Speakers
Dr. Sean Collins earned his Ph.D.at the Université Laval in 1987. He has devoted his life to teaching and learning as a Tutor at St. John’s College (Santa Fe) and Thomas Aquinas College (California). He has thought deeply about the relationship between ancient and modern mathematics and science. In his upcoming monogram The Search for Cosmic Meaning: Modern Science and the Pursuit of Wisdom he reflects on language and symbolism, force and mechanism, and the role of mathematics in modern science.
Dr. Merrill Roberts received his Bachelor’s in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College in 2003. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from The Catholic University of America in 2018, where he has also served as a Lecturer in Physics, teaching multiple courses, including a course in Solar Physics designed for students planning to teach in primary and secondary schools. He worked for over a decade as a researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, where he studied solar coronal transients and performed forward modeling for the Parker Solar Probe mission. He is a Regular Member of the Society of Catholic Scientists. Dr. Roberts is a Senior Faculty Consultant for the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education (ICLE), giving workshops and developing curriculum centered around the Quadrivial Arts since 2013. He combines his passions for nature and education as the Nature Studies teacher at St. Jerome Academy in Hyattsville, MD, where he has instructed 5th through 8th graders since 2010. He is also, along with his wife Elizabeth, the Co-director of Music at St. Jerome’s Parish, where he strives to emphasize the beauty and truth inherent in the Mass. Merrill and Elizabeth live in Hyattsville, MD, and are blessed to be the parents of six boisterous, inquisitive children.
Peter Ulrickson is an assistant professor of mathematics at The Catholic University of America (CUA). His research interests include algebraic topology and functorial quantum field theory, and he has contributed to the understanding of spaces of quantum field theories and their connections to cohomology theories, as well as algebra related to the study of knots.
At CUA, Ulrickson teaches courses and engages with students to promote a pedagogical culture capable of transmitting the quadrivium in today’s educational context. He has published two works for high school mathematics, “A Brief Quadrivium” and “Teaching the Quadrivium: A Guide for Instructors,” which aim to balance traditional and modern approaches to mathematics education, emphasizing the importance of proof and engaging students in fully mathematical activities.
Jeffrey S. Lehman is co-founder and Dean of Fellows at the Boethius Institute and Professor of Philosophy and Theology and Director of the M.A. in Catholic Education program at the Augustine Institute’s Graduate School of Theology. He earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Dallas. He is the founder and President of the Arts of Liberty Project, a Founding Fellow of the Center for Thomas More Studies, and he has served on the teaching faculty at Biola University, Thomas Aquinas College, Hillsdale College, and the University of Dallas. He has several publications on a wide array of authors, including Augustine: Rejoicing in the Truth and Socratic Conversation: Bringing the Dialogues of Plato and the Socratic Tradition into Today’s Classroom.
Michael Austin graduated from Thomas Aquinas College in 2002 and pursued further studies in Philosophy from the University of Dallas, where he received his master’s degree. He currently serves Great Hearts Academies as Director of Curriculum for the Upper School. Prior to this, he served for many years at Veritas Preparatory Academy as teacher and administrator. He has a wide love for the whole of the Great Hearts Curriculum, from the study of Shakespeare’s Sonnets in Grade 6 to the proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus in Grade 12.
Dr. John Nieto received his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in 1998 and over the past 30 years has taught the entire Great Books curriculum at Thomas Aquinas College. A man of wide experience, talent, energy, and commitment, he has been a political activist, a playwright, a poet, a man of prayer, a schola director, an acclaimed amateur chef, a whiskey connoisseur, a linguist, a dedicated and revered teacher. Above all, he has been a student of the great minds—ancient and modern, theological, philosophical, mathematical, scientific, poetical, and musical—in a particular way of St. Thomas and Aristotle.
Some of his many articles and talks can be found on The Aquinas Review website and his blog Half-Baked Books. He has published a volume of poetry, titled Glossa/The Gloss. He is currently working on an extended commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, the introductory volume of which will be entitled Wisdom as Life.