Jessica K. Sklar

Statement

Via my art, my scholarship, and my teaching, my goal is to share my love of mathematics, and to invite others to enjoy the playful, beautiful, and humanistic aspects of math. I’m passionate about the fact that math doesn’t just live in textbooks and classrooms, but is also found in our neighborhoods, our galleries, and our stories. Whether I am writing about math and popular culture (https://tinyurl.com/sklarandsklar), Mad Veterinarian problems (https://tinyurl.com/madvetprob), or my love of math itself (https://tinyurl.com/jksdisciple), my hope is that others will see that math is a vibrant subject that can speak to both the child and the aesthete in each of us.

Artworks

This sculptural still life is a tribute both to my dissertation advisor, Frank Wylie Anderson, and to mathematics itself. It features my beloved copy of Frank’s book "Rings and Categories of Modules" (Springer, 1974, with Kent Wiley Fuller) and a cup of coffee—mathematics grad student fuel. At the center of the piece is a print of "Disciple," my love poem for mathematics (originally published in the "Journal of Humanistic Mathematics," 7(2), July 2017, 418). The chalkboard features content from my 2001 dissertation, "Binomial Rings and Modules."