{"id":10756,"date":"2019-02-07T14:43:44","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T22:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/?p=10756"},"modified":"2019-02-07T14:48:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T22:48:26","slug":"mathematics-professor-invited-to-teach-in-west-afica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2019\/02\/mathematics-professor-invited-to-teach-in-west-afica\/","title":{"rendered":"Mathematics professor invited to teach in West Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor of Mathematics Tevian Dray<\/a>\u00a0recently returned from three weeks in West Africa. \u00a0Through the Visiting Lecturer Program of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), he was invited to teach a graduate course in Lorentzian Geometry and General Relativity at the Institut de Math\u00e9mathiques et de Sciences Physiques (IMSP) of the Universit\u00e9 de Abomey-Calavi in Benin.<\/p>\n

The IMSP is an African Centre of Excellence in the Mathematical Sciences, sponsored by the World Bank, with additional support from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics. The IMSP attracts students from across West Africa; Dray’s course was attended by students from Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Guin\u00e9e, Mauritania, and Togo, in addition to B\u00e9nin. The working language at the IMSP is French, although the course was given (mostly) in English. While at the IMSP, Dray also gave a colloquium entitled “Using active engagement to teach mathematics,” which led to several extended conversations about pedagogy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

View of the grounds at IMSP<\/p><\/div>\n

Dray has extensive international experience teaching mathematics, including several previous stays in India, although this was his first visit to West Africa. He was very well taken care of by his hosts, but was only starting to figure out how to manage on his own by the time he left. Everything from the cuisine (fried cheese in spicy peanut sauce accompanied by pounded yams) to transportation (the only “taxis” in the capital city of Porto-Novo are motorscooters) to the scenery (a village on stilts in a lake \u2014 a World Heritage site) was new and different. Formerly known as Dahomey and a French colony until 1958, Benin is the birthplace of the voodoo religion and\u00a0was the historical departure point for most slaves originating in West Africa.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Water village near Cotonou<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMy most vivid impression of the trip was the apparent lack of friction between different groups– rich and poor, Catholic and Muslim, boss and employee, shopkeeper and customer, and, last but not least, tourist and local,” said Dray.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dray is a\u00a0geometer whose research interests include general\u00a0relativity, applications of nonassociative algebra to particle physics,\u00a0and student learning of “middle-division” mathematics such as vector\u00a0calculus. He is the author of several books on these topics, a Fellow\u00a0of the American Physical Society, and an award-winning teacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mathematician Tevian Dray taught a graduate course in Lorentzian Geometry and General Relativity at the Universit\u00e9 de Abomey-Calavi in Benin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6617,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1507,641666],"tags":[656332,705873,37185,1000],"class_list":["post-10756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-and-staff","category-mt","tag-diversity-in-science","tag-international-experiences","tag-stem","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6vHeb-2Nu","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11911,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2019\/09\/mathematics-professor-to-serve-as-nsf-program-director\/","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":0},"title":"Mathematics professor to serve as NSF Program Director","author":"farrisd","date":"September 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The National Science Foundation has selected Mathematics Professor Malgo Peszynska to serve as rotating Program Director within its Division of Mathematical\u00a0Sciences.","rel":"","context":"In "Faculty and Staff"","block_context":{"text":"Faculty and Staff","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/people\/faculty-and-staff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8526,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2017\/11\/edward-waymire-influential-professor-probability-retires\/","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":1},"title":"Edward Waymire, influential professor of probability, retires","author":"nayaks","date":"November 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Edward Waymire, a widely admired professor of mathematics, has retired after 36 years of teaching and research at Oregon State University.","rel":"","context":"In "Breaking News"","block_context":{"text":"Breaking News","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/news\/breaking-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1278,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2015\/04\/bio-math\/","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":2},"title":"Bio+Math","author":"nayaks","date":"April 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In the last two years, the College of Science has focused on augmenting its expertise in data and life sciences with strategic hires","rel":"","context":"In "Big Data"","block_context":{"text":"Big Data","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/category\/area\/big-data\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of David Hendrix","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/2121\/files\/2015\/04\/david-hendrix.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9038,"url":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/impact\/2018\/04\/statistician-receives-national-award-building-diversity-exceptional-mentoring\/","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":3},"title":"Statistician receives national award for building diversity, exceptional mentoring","author":"nayaks","date":"April 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Korvis Professor of Statistics Javier Rojo is the recipient of the 2018 Dr. Etta Z. 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