Victoria S Akin, Assistant Professor of the Practice

I am an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Mathematics Department. I work primarily on teaching and math education. I am currently interested in the retention of women in STEM fields and the effect of intervention programs on girls' attitudes and beliefs about math. I am co-directing the Girls Exploring Math (GEM) program as part of this research effort. Additional interests include grading systems and their impact on student anxiety and satisfaction, as well as professional development programs and their effect on graduate student teaching.

My thesis work is in mapping class groups of orientable surfaces. In particular, can a subgroup of the mapping class group with a natural topological or geometric definition be characterized purely algebraically? Does the algebraic characterization reveal properties of the mapping class group? I am interested in characterizing the disk-pushing subgroup, handle-pushing subgroup, and braid group inside of their respective mapping class groups.

Contact Info:

Office Location:
Office Phone:	(919) 660-2869
Email Address:
Web Page:	https://services.math.duke.edu/~toriakin/

Teaching (Spring 2021):

• MATH 111L.001, LABORATORY CALCULUS I Synopsis

  TBA, -

• MATH 111L.03L, LABORATORY CALCULUS I Synopsis

  Online ON, TuTh 12:00 PM-01:15 PM

• MATH 111L.04L, LABORATORY CALCULUS I Synopsis

  Online ON, TuTh 01:45 PM-03:00 PM

• EHD 396T.01, BASS CONNX EDUC & HUMAN DEV Synopsis

  Gross Hall 270, Th 03:30 PM-04:45 PM

• EHD 796T.01, BASS CONNX EDUC & HUMAN DEV Synopsis

  Gross Hall 270, Th 03:30 PM-04:45 PM

Office Hours:

111L: Spring 2021
TBA

EHD 396: Spring 2021
TBA

Education:

Ph.D.

The University of Chicago

2017

Keywords:

Education and instruction in mathematics • Geometric group theory

Recent Publications

1. Akin, V, An algebraic characterization of the point-pushing subgroup, Journal of Algebra, vol. 541 (January, 2020), pp. 98-125 [doi]  [abs]
2. Akin, V; Viel, S, Interpreting Student Evaluations of Teaching, edited by Maki, D; Bookman, J; Jacobson, M; Speer, N; Murphy, TJ (2019)
3. Akin, V; Johnson, C; Nasserasr, S, TP_k completions of partial matrices with one unspecified entry, Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra, vol. 27 no. 1 (June, 2014), University of Wyoming Libraries [doi]
4. Handel, A; Akin, V; Pilyugin, SS; Zarnitsyna, V; Antia, R, How sticky should a virus be? The impact of virus binding and release on transmission fitness using influenza as an example., Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, vol. 11 no. 92 (March, 2014), pp. 20131083 [doi]  [abs]