Kenneth G. ValenteValente's picture

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

Transgression and transcendence: Flatland as a response to "A New Philosophy." Nineteenth Century Contexts 26 (Mar 2004): 61-77.

"A finite universe?": Riemannian geometry and the Modernist theology of Ernest William Barnes.  British Journal for the History of Science 38 (Jun 2005): 197-217.

A portion of this research was presented at the annual conference of the BSHS, July 2003, York.

"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.

A portion of this research was presented at the annual conference of the HSS, November 2006, Vancouver B.C

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.



Rainbow triangleLast revised August 2008.  All rights reserved.

Mail to: kvalente@mail.colgate.edu