Kenneth
G. Valente
Associate Professor of Mathematics
& the Liberal Arts CORE Program
University Professor of First-Year Seminars and CORE Distinction
B.S., California State University, San
Luis Obispo, 1979
Ph.D., University of Oregon, 1985 (Advisors: David K. Harrison and
Marie A. Vitulli)
Area of mathematical specialization: Algebraic structures
Other areas of interest: History of science, mathematics and technology
c. 1870 - 1930
Courses recently taught
MATH 102 / CORE 143 (Scientific
Perspectives): Introduction to
Statistics
MATH 113: Calculus III (Multivariable Calculus)
MATH 250: Number Theory & Mathematical Reasoning
MATH 320: Abstract Algebra I
MATH 421: Abstract Algebra II
CORE 121 (Scientific Perspectives): Mathematical Innovation and
Social Contexts
CORE 303 (Distinction): Speaking Its Name: Gay and
Lesbian
Identities since the Nineteenth Century
Teaching Fall 2008
FSEM
141 (CORE 121 / Scientific
Perspectives): Mathematical Innovation and
Social Contexts
MATH 250: Number Theory
& Mathematical Reasoning
Professional memberships
British Society for the History of
Science (BSHS); History of Science
Society (HSS)
Recent scholarship
& current research interests
"Who will explain the explanation?": The ambivalent reception of higher
dimensional space in the British Spiritualist press, 1875-1900.
Victorian
Periodicals Review 41 (Jun 2008): 124-49.
Triangulating the contributions of George Salmon to Victorian disputes
on mathematics, evolution, and liberal theology. Forthcoming in
Nineteenth Century Contexts
31 (Mar 2009).
A
portion of this research was presented in January 2004 as part of
Colgate University's Division of
Natural
Sciences & Mathematics Colloquium Series.
Portions were also included in the program of the annual
conference of the BSHS, June 2004, Liverpool.
The fourth dimension in early modern theosophical discourse. In
review.
Giving wings to logic: Mary Everest Boole's propagation of a
legacy. In
preparation.
A
portion of this research was presented at Connecting
Disciplines: The Sixth Joint Meeting of the BSHS, Canadian Society
for the History and Philosophy of Science, and HSS, July 2008, Keble
College, Oxford.
Contesting the 'New Infinite' in Spiritual Contexts, 1880-1920.
In
preparation.
Public and lay engagements with mathematical innovations c.
1870-1930.
Last revised August
2008. All rights reserved.
Mail to: kvalente@mail.colgate.edu