When I joined Twitter back in 2009, I settled in on the following profile for myself: “I’m a video game developer turned educator, and hope to combine the two to make learning math FUN for people of all ages.”
At the time this seemed an appropriate description of myself, but I’ve been teaching for over a decade now and it seemed like time to update it. Many of the notions I had about teaching coming into the profession have since changed, as well as my very my sense of self-identity. I wanted a new Twitter bio to make a statement that would capture as much about my present day self as I could possibly fit in the 160 character limit. Here’s what I’ve settled on (for now):
“Professionally: mathematician, psychologist, programmer, & educator. Personally: atheist, socialist, musician, & gamer. Expect uncensored combo of both. He/Him.”
I think this is the first time I’ve publicly called myself a “mathematician”. I’ve always been too nervous to do so when I only have B.S. and not a Ph.D., but years of teaching has changed how I thought about this label. I want my students to feel comfortable calling themselves mathematicians. How could I possibly hope to communicate this when I was hesitant to do so myself?
I came to the conclusion that having a degree doesn’t make one a mathematician. Having mathematical thinking permeate every aspect of one’s being makes one a mathematician. Under that definition, this is most certainly is a label I would use to describe who I am. If unilaterally calling myself a mathematician helps to remove this stigma of not having a Ph.D. for others, than it’s about time I start doing so.
I started thinking about what other terms I wanted to normalize using and the rest of the bio just sort of fell into place. It’s kind of a liberating feeling to simultaneously challenge certain labels by expressing myself. If this is what it means to play “identity politics”, then not only am I going to play — but I’m going to play to win.
This one goes out to all the future mathematicians.