Stephen Chrisomalis

My name is Dr. Stephen Chrisomalis, and I am a linguistic anthropologist who specializes in the anthropology of mathematics and the interaction of language, cognition, and culture. My four-field anthropological training includes work in cultural, cognitive, archaeological and linguistic anthropology.

My new book, Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History, published by MIT Press in 2020, investigates numbers and mathematics as both sociocultural and cognitive phenomena.  Numbers are not just mathematical objects - they are ways of representing, understanding, and manipulating aspects of the world.  My previous book, Numerical Notation: A Comparative History, published by Cambridge University Press in 2010, is a cross-cultural cognitive analysis of written numerals over the past 5000 years. I investigate the relationship between individual cognition and broader social, political, and economic processes. Understanding how number words and number symbols interact in specific contexts - how they are used rather than simply how they are structured - helps us to rethink assumptions such as the widely-held belief that we are now at the 'end of history' of numbers. I also publish and supervise work on cross-cultural methods and theories in anthropology, the anthropology of writing, literacy, and numeracy, and the history of anthropology. I am the author of the academic blog, Glossographia.

Since 2008, I have been undertaking linguistic and ethnographic research with the Math Corps at WSU, aiming to understand how Detroit middle school students acquire and use mathematical concepts.  I am working under a National Science Foundation grant to support this research along with colleagues at four institutions. My other new research projects include a sociolinguistic investigation of changes in the English numeral system since 1800.

Research interest(s)/area of expertise

Linguistic anthropology, cognitive anthropology, anthropology of mathematics, numeral systems, writing systems and literacy

Research

I am actively recruiting M.A. and Ph.D. students who are interested in linguistic anthropology, the anthropology of science and mathematics, cognitive anthropology, writing and literacy, and the anthropology of education. Contact the department for more information about our graduate programs, or email me to discuss the possibility of coming to study with me at Wayne State.

Education

  • Ph.D., Anthropology, McGill University, 2003
  • B.A., Anthropology, McMaster University, 1996

Awards and grants

Developing and studying the replication of Math Corps, an out-of-school-time mathematics program for urban youth ($2,999,922), National Science Foundation (AISL: Advancing Informal STEM Learning), award #1612400 (2016-2021)

Selected publications

 

Citation index

Courses taught by Stephen Chrisomalis

Fall Term 2024 (current)

Winter Term 2024

Fall Term 2023

Winter Term 2022