Research/Areas of Interest:
Geometry of groups and surfaces
Education
- PhD, Mathematics, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States, 2005
- MS, Mathematics, University of Chicago, United States, 1999
- BA, Mathematics and Women's Studies, Harvard University, United States, 1998
Biography
My pure math research is in geometric group theory and geometric topology, with tools from dynamics. I look at the metric geometry of groups and surfaces, often by zooming out to the large scale picture. I've been thinking about ways to do coarse geometry more "finely" by paying attention to properties that are destroyed by usual notions of large-scale equivalence.
Since 2016 I have been deeply involved in studying the mathematics of redistricting---ever since teaching Math of Social Choice, our entry-level voting theory course, for the first time. Over the next few years, I founded the MGGG Redistricting Lab (mggg.org), which grew out of an informal collective called the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group. We are based at the Tisch College of Civic Life, where our team includes expertise in geometry, modeling and computation, graph algorithms, geography, policy, law, and civics. We bring techniques like Markov chains to the study of fair redistricting, but always in conversation with the real-world applications. In the 2021 redistricting cycle, we'll be doing major participatory mapping projects in ten states around the country.
At Tufts, I was one of the faculty who founded the interdisciplinary Science, Technology, and Society program, and a large portion of my work crosses over in an STS direction. I like to think about the social foundations of authority, about technology and law, and about mathematical interventions for racial justice.