Talking about impact: A handbook for pre-tenure humanists and social scientists

A handbook outlining frameworks, concepts, and strategies that pre-tenure humanists and social scientists can employ when making the case for the impact of their scholarship. In place of the suite of metrics and approaches used to evaluate research in the natural and physical sciences, engineering and medicine, more suitable ways of producing verifiable, comprehensible material for the preparation of tenure and promotion files are demonstrated

The Lexiculture Papers: English Words and Culture

The Lexiculture Papers is a collection of scholarship on English words and culture. Each of the 62 chapters was originally authored by a student-scholar in the course, Language and Culture, at Wayne State University, between 2013 and 2020. Each chapter is a short social and historical description of a single English word in its cultural context, principally since 1800. Using a combination of historical linguistics, etymology, corpus linguistics, and discourse analysis, the papers analyze English-speaking social life through the lens of specific words

The cultural challenge in mathematical cognition

In their recent paper on “Challenges in mathematical cognition”, Alcock and colleagues (Alcock et al. [2016]. Challenges in mathematical cognition: A collaboratively-derived research agenda. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 2, 20-41) defined a research agenda through 26 specific research questions. An important dimension of mathematical cognition almost completely absent from their discussion is the cultural constitution of mathematical cognition. Spanning work from a broad range of disciplines – including anthropology, archaeology, cognitive science, history of science, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology – we argue that for any research agenda on mathematical cognition the cultural dimension is indispensable, and we propose a set of exemplary research questions related to it

The writing of numbers

Various, sometimes complex, numerical notations are found in a large number of cultures. They allow the graphical representation of numbers. Although distinct from writing and spoken language, they coexist with these two traditions and borrow much from them. Counting marks (for example, drawing sticks) and calculating tools (such as the abacus) are other ways of handling numbers. Rethinking the writing of numbers makes it possible to better understand their origin and their evolution: this article considers it primarily as a semiotic or representational system among others, rather than as a tool in the service of arithmetic operations.Diverses, parfois complexes, les notations chiffrées se rencontrent dans un grand nombre de cultures. Elles permettent la représentation graphique des nombres. Quoique distinctes de l’écriture et de la langue parlée, elles coexistent avec ces deux traditions et leur empruntent beaucoup. Les marques de dénombrement (en traçant par exemple des bâtons) et les outils de calcul (comme le boulier) sont d’autres façons de manier les nombres. Repenser l’écriture des nombres permet de mieux comprendre leur origine et leur évolution : cet article la considère avant tout comme un système sémiotique ou représentationnel parmi d’autres, plutôt que comme un outil au service d’opérations arithmétiques

The comparative history of numerical notation

Numerical notation systems are structured, visual, and primarily non-phonetic systems for representing number. This study employs a diachronic and comparative framework to examine over 100 systems used during the past 5000 years. The historical context of each system's origin, transmission, transformation, and decline is traced, linking systems together into phylogenies, but according priority to neither analogical or homological explanations. Structural aspects of numerical notation systems are compared and the limits of variability among them are established. A two-dimensional typology is presented that analyzes the intraexponential and interexponential structuring of each system, in addition to one or more numerical bases. In previous approaches, the only relevant factor considered was the presence or absence of positionality, which led inevitably to unilinear and progressivist conclusions. The analysis of historical relations among numerical notation systems permits a direct approach to questions of how and why they changed. The application of a multilinear cultural evolutionary framework reveals both synchronic and diachronic regularities among numerical notation systems. Where possible, these cross-cultural regularities are related to principles of cognitive psychology. Full explanations of the cultural evolution of numerical notation must also take account of social factors because changes in systems are always the product of decisions made in particular social contexts. Most numerical notation systems are used only for recording and communication, not computation, so it is illegitimate to evaluate their usefulness for functions for which they were never used. A model is presented that relates structural features of numerical notation systems to the contexts of their use and transmission. Because positional systems are most useful for functions related to administrative and scientific institutions that promote cultural hegemony, the observed trend towards positional numerals is a consequence of the dominance of societies that possess such institutions rather than the numerals' inherent superiority

Numerical Notation: A Comparative History

This book is a cross-cultural reference volume of all attested numerical notation systems, encompassing more than 100 such systems used over the past 5,500 years

The Deep History of Information Technologies: a Cognitive Perspective

Cognition constrains and influences human cultural productions, among which are information technologies. Information technologies, because of and through their intensive use, can be expected to reflect human cognition particularly well. Cognitive approaches to information technologies have the potential of informing both cognitive science and historical disciplines. Beyond high ecological validity, we demonstrate the relevance of real-world data in testing and informing theories about how the mind works, through four different case studies and contexts: how we represent the world and space around us (Riggsby), how we represent more abstract -number- concepts (Chrisomalis), how we optimize written characters for our visual system (Miton), and coinage to minimize possible errors (Morin). Discussion and moderation will be assured by Valeria Giardino, a philosopher whose main research topic is reasoning with diagrams and the role of cognitive artifacts in improving thought