Movie Stars aren’t often associated with mathematics; however, in my talk I will explore the rhetorical strategies used by actress Danica McKellar in her mathematical reference book Math Doesn’t Suck—which attempts to persuade middle school girls to value mathematics and embrace educational and career opportunities that involve it. Using audience response analysis, I’ll be investigating the impact of McKellar’s rhetorical efforts on her audience and exploring the perspectives on feminine virtues and values that emerge from public debate about McKellar’s strategies for attracting a young female audience. Through these investigations, I’ll make visible the important role of epideictic in constructing social attitudes about mathematics and highlight the importance of mathematical accommodations as a source for understanding social perspectives on feminine virtues and values.

Bio:

James Wynn is associate professor of English and Rhetoric in his tenth year at Carnegie Mellon University. His interests lie at the intersection of rhetoric, science, mathematics, public policy, and the digital humanities. His first book Evolution by the Numbers (2012) examined how mathematics was argued into the study of variation, evolution, and heredity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His second forthcoming book Citizen Science in the Digital Age (University of Alabama Press, January 2017) focuses on how citizen science with aid of digital technologies is reshaping the landscape of argumentation about radiation risk, climate change, and noise pollution as well as the relationships between laypeople, science, scientists, and policymakers. He teaches the courses Rhetoric of Science, Rhetoric and Public Policy, and Rhetoric, Science, and the Public Sphere which explore the rhetorical dimensions within the sciences and in the interactions between science, scientists, policy makers, and publics.