The long-standing success of international collaborations in the natural sciences, highlighted by the thriving contributions of scientists and engineers from diverse origins working abroad, underscores the existence of a common language enabling effective communication. This success contrasts with the humanities and social sciences, where non-native speakers and individuals from foreign backgrounds often face significantly greater barriers to integration and success.

This relative ease in the natural sciences stems from their reliance on mathematics—a universal language expressed through equations, numbers, and graphics that function as both communicative tools and epistemic objects facilitating intercultural exchange (Pronskikh 2018). Therefore, decolonizing mathematics and allowing for distinct mathematical systems across cultures could lead to diverging scientific practices, standards, and technologies. Such changes might affect STEM education, which is currently essentially standardized globally, and create challenges for international cooperation and the mobility of scientists, resembling the difficulties observed in the humanities.

Simultaneously, the stagnation in high-energy physics has been linked to a dependence on narrow, universal mathematical frameworks rooted in aesthetic principles (Hossenfelder 2018). This raises important questions about the tension between internationalization and scientific progress. In my contribution to the roundtable, I will explore this apparent opposition and its implications for the future of global science.

Pronskikh, Vitaly. "Linguistic Privilege and Justice: What Can We Learn from STEM?" Philosophical Papers 47, no. 1 (2018): 71–92.

Hossenfelder, Sabine. Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray. New York: Basic Books, 2018.

Growing research indicates that STEM learning outcomes improve when humanistic perspectives are integrated into STEM coursework; however, there is currently limited guidance for historians and scientists on how to successfully achieve this integration. In 2022, as part of an NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education grant, our team of scientists from three universities, alongside a historian of science, began developing a curricular framework for the integration of humanistic knowledge into STEM courses. In particular, our goal is to utilize these case studies to incorporate more diverse and inclusive perspectives into STEM courses.

For this discussion, two of our team members – a historian of science and a geologist – propose to highlight a historical case study that they have developed for an environmental science course on sustainable watersheds. This case study explores Aztec conceptions and knowledge about water, and links historical Aztec water management practices in Tenochtitlan with contemporary water management in Mexico City. This case study – and others – are part of the methodology that we developed to blend scientific and historical knowledge in STEM courses. We will also offer an overview of the methodology and collaborative process that we have developed and implemented, to show how our team members have collaborated across disciplines to begin decolonizing STEM courses.

Prof Sharon Locke