Catalyst Conversations | Literature and Math: Considering Alice

May 16, 2023
Talk / Lecture
Public Program
Black and white graphic image of a scene from Alice in Wonderland with the main characters sitting at. along table with cups of tea.
Location
Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street Building E15, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Day & Time
-
Admission
Free, but registration required.
Register
Featuring

BU Associate Professor of English, Anna Henchman

Harvard Mathematician, Michael Hopkins

Special guest Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT Director, Debra Wise

In partnership with Catalyst Conversations, the List Visual Arts Center presents Literature and Math: Considering Alice with Anna Henchman, Michael Hopkins and Debra Wise. 

This panel discussion will explore and celebrate some of the subtexts, math and otherwise in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In a recent New York Times opinion essay, London based mathematician Sarah Hart celebrates the connection between mathematics and literature. She says, “Good mathematics, like good writing, involves an inherent appreciation of structure, rhythm and pattern. That feeling we get when we read a great novel or a perfect sonnet — that here is a beautiful thing, with all the component parts fitting together perfectly in a harmonious whole — is the same feeling a mathematician experiences when reading a beautiful proof.”

 

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