Brittany Anne Shields (Author)
Lindee, M. Susan (Advisor)
This dissertation considers the career of the mathematician Richard Courant (1888-1972) and the development of New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences to study the manifold ways in which mathematics and science can function as objects of—and catalysts to—international cultural exchange in times of both peace and war. I trace the cultural history of this research and teaching mathematics institute, with a particular focus on the dynamic relationships between the Courant Institute mathematicians and their peers in the military, government, private foundations and academia – both in the United States and abroad. I examine the careers of the Institute’s founder, the German, Jewish émigré Richard Courant, and his colleagues as they fled from Nazi Germany, immigrated to the United States, and then negotiated the complex landscape of academic research and public service during the Second World War and in the postwar and Cold War eras. I argue that the Courant Institute mathematicians understood their own social roles and cultural identities to be more than academic. They were scientific ambassadors to postwar Germany and the Cold War Soviet Union; contracted scientific advisors and researchers to the military and government; and informants on the status of scientific life in other nations to the American government and private organizations. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that the Courant Institute mathematicians, engaged in what is widely understood to be a cerebral endeavor, were part and parcel of their social, cultural and political environment throughout the twentieth-century in the United States and abroad. Their history provides a unique view on not only the production of mathematical knowledge, but also on the role mathematicians have played in twentieth-century American culture and society.
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Article
Brit Shields;
(2016)
Mathematics, Peace, and the Cold War: Scientific Diplomacy and Richard Courant’s Scientific Identity
(/isis/citation/CBB987424049/)
Article
Nossum, Rolf;
(2012)
Emigration of Mathematicians from Outside German-Speaking Academia, 1933--1963, Supported by the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning
(/isis/citation/CBB001036231/)
Book
Laurent Mazliak;
Antonin Durand;
Rossana Tazzioli;
(2013)
Des mathématiciens et des guerres: histoires de confrontations (XIXe-XXe siècle)
(/isis/citation/CBB888303208/)
Article
Pavel Šišma;
Laurent Mazliak;
(2016)
The Moravian Crossroad: Mathematics and Mathematicians in Brno Between German Traditions and Czech Hopes
(/isis/citation/CBB759227619/)
Article
Sørensen, Henrik Kragh;
(2014)
Confluences of Agendas: Emigrant Mathematicians in Transit in Denmark, 1933--1945
(/isis/citation/CBB001214152/)
Book
Riehm, Elaine McKinnon;
Hoffman, Frances;
(2011)
Turbulent Times in Mathematics: The Life of J. C. Fields and the History of the Fields Medal
(/isis/citation/CBB001213651/)
Article
Turner, Laura E.;
Sørensen, Henrik Kragh;
(2013)
Cultivating the Herb Garden of Scandinavian Mathematics: The Congresses of Scandinavian Mathematicians, 1909--1925
(/isis/citation/CBB001213562/)
Article
Ioana Popa;
(December 2021)
Internationalized science and human rights activism during the late Cold War: The French Committee of Mathematicians
(/isis/citation/CBB490409817/)
Book
Emily S. Rosenberg;
Shanon Fitzpatrick;
(2014)
Body and Nation: The Global Realm of U.S. Body Politics in the Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB845427534/)
Article
Eghigian, Greg;
Killen, Andreas;
Leuenberger, Christine;
(2007)
Introduction: The Self as Project: Politics and the Human Sciences in the Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000772399/)
Book
Savage, Michael;
(2010)
Identities and Social Change in Britain since 1940: The Politics of Method
(/isis/citation/CBB001214385/)
Article
Tisdale, Daniel;
(2013)
Sieve of War: The Legacy of Jitsuro Nagura
(/isis/citation/CBB001213293/)
Book
Alexander, Amir;
(2010)
Duel at Dawn: Heroes, Martyrs, and the Rise of Modern Mathematics
(/isis/citation/CBB001020030/)
Book
Tapp, Christian;
(2005)
Kardinalität und Kardinäle: Wissenschaftshistorische Aufarbeitung der Korrespondenz zwischen Georg Cantor und katholischen Theologen seiner Zeit
(/isis/citation/CBB001021540/)
Book
Hudecek, Jiri;
(2014)
Reviving Ancient Chinese Mathematics: Mathematics, History and Politics in the Work of Wu Wen-Tsun
(/isis/citation/CBB001510064/)
Article
Michael Kent;
Peter Wade;
(2015)
Genetics against race: Science, politics and affirmative action in Brazil
(/isis/citation/CBB435483388/)
Thesis
Bass, Jeffrey D.;
(2000)
In exile from the self: Identity, politics, and psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires
(/isis/citation/CBB001562662/)
Book
Freund, Peter G. O.;
(2007)
A Passion for Discovery
(/isis/citation/CBB001250393/)
Book
Duda, Roman;
(2014)
Pearls from a Lost City: The Lvov School of Mathematics
(/isis/citation/CBB001510052/)
Book
Ted Hill;
(2017)
Pushing Limits: From West Point to Berkeley and Beyond
(/isis/citation/CBB497616672/)
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