Pieper-Seier - Research
Research
1. | Life and work of Ruth Moufang, 1905-1977 The life and work of mathematician Ruth Moufang is to be researched in such a way that an edition of her collected works with comprehensive commentaries and a biographical essay can be published to mark her 100th birthday. Ruth Moufang's publications must be made accessible to today's readers through explanations and, if necessary, new formulations. Statements by former students and contemporary witnesses as well as the estates of contemporaries must be analysed. Ruth Moufang was severely discriminated against in her academic career during the Nazi era. Her academic work was severely impaired by the denial of her habilitation and a job at the university. Her achievements between her dissertation and habilitation thesis show an unusual creative potential and methodological skills. |
2. | On the development of subject-related strategies, attitudes and assessments of female mathematics students in the degree programmes "Diplom-Mathematik" and "Lehramt an Gymnasien" funded by the Lower Saxony Research Network for Women's and Gender Studies in Natural Sciences, Technology and Medicine, together with Prof. Dr K. Reiss Although there is a not insignificant proportion of female students in the subject of mathematics compared to engineering and natural sciences, for example, this proportion of women does not translate into their presence at university after their first degree. Women are much less likely than men to aspire to a doctorate or habilitation. The project aims to contribute to determining the causes at various levels. To this end, maths students will be surveyed at three different points in time, namely at the beginning of their studies, after the intermediate diploma or intermediate examination and shortly before their exams. On the one hand, the content will be their personal view of maths. This includes aspects such as attitudes towards the subject, expectations of the degree programme and one's own performance, the discrepancy between expectations and the reality of studying and the respective image of mathematics. The project is intended to help determine whether and how - especially future female teachers - are enabled to counteract gender role stereotypes through their studies. These stereotypes, according to which "maths is not for girls and women", are also passed on through school. On the other hand, these aspects are related to subject-specific expertise. The primary aim here is not to establish them in terms of the product, i.e. the solution of tasks. Rather, the aim is to look at which processes are favoured when solving tasks. The results will be interpreted from a comparative gender perspective. The project will provide impetus for changes in university teaching in order to encourage and promote more women to pursue an academic career in mathematics and to enable future teachers to teach mathematics to girls and boys as a subject that is meaningful beyond school. |
3. | Commutative semi-bodies Commutative semi-bodies occur as coordinate domains of projective planes with transitive abelian collineation groups. The construction and classification of such structures, especially over algebraic number fields and function fields, are at the centre of interest. |
