from the event webpage:

“The question of why women are under-represented in mathematics is complex and there are no simple answers, only many contributing factors. I will focus on character traits, and argue that if we focus on this rather than gender we can have a more productive and less divisive conversation. To try and focus on characters rather than genders I will introduce gender-neutral character adjectives “ingressive” and “congressive” to replace masculine and feminine. I will share my experience of teaching congressive abstract mathematics to art students, in a congressive way, and the possible effects this could have for everyone in mathematics, not just women. I will present the field of Category Theory as a particularly congressive subject area, accessible to bright high school students, and contrast it with the types of math that are often used to push or stimulate those students. No prior knowledge will be needed.”