Looking back at 2025

Abstract: After a rich second year of Relatoria, and on the heels of a third successful in-person session, at the recent Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC, we are taking a look back at 2025 in our first Open Mic event. We invited our speakers back, to join us for a conversation about the lessons of compassionate mathematics. What have we learned collectively from the Relatorium experience? What themes emerge as connecting principles across the talks? How are the success and challenges of the year guiding our hopes for the future?

Speakers: The Relatorium Group

The Relatorium Group is a collective of more than a dozen researchers and practitioners in mathematics, computer science and philosophy from around the world. We have been exploring innovative modalities for communicating, teaching and learning mathematics. Our approach uses tools inspired from Applied Category Theory (ACT), which focuses broadly on the relational aspects of mathematics. We seek to leverage computational environments organized around principles of compositionality to support the perspectives of the learner in mathematical experiences.

Computer scienceMathematics

Audience: researchers in the topic

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Relatorium seminar

Series comments: The name "Relatorium" combines "relator" with the Latin root "-ium," meaning "a place for activities" (as in "auditorium" or "gymnasium"). This seminar series is a platform to relate ideas, interact with math, and connect with each other.

In this series, we explore math beyond what we usually hear in standard talks. These sessions fall somewhere between a technical talk and a podcast: moderately formal, yet conversational. The philosophy behind the series is that math is best learned by active participation rather than passive listening. Our aim is to “engage and involve,” inviting everyone to think actively with the speaker. The concepts are accessible, exploratory, and intended to spark questions and discussions.

The idea of relatability has strong ties to compassion — creating space for shared understanding and exploration - which is the spirit of this seminar! This is a pilot project, so we’re here to improvise, learn, and evolve as we go!

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