Chawne Kimber
Born1971 (age 52–53)
Frankfort, Kentucky
NationalityAmerican
TitleDean of the College
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Florida
Doctoral advisorJorge Martinez
Academic work
DisciplineMathematics
InstitutionsWashington and Lee University
Lafayette College
Wesleyan University

Chawne Monique Kimber (/ʃɔːn/ SHAWN;[1] born 1971)[2] is an African-American mathematician and quilter,[3] known for expressing her political activism in her quilts.[4][5] She was a professor at Lafayette College, where she headed the department of mathematics.[6] Kimber is now the Dean of the College at Washington and Lee University.[7]

Education and career

Kimber, a native of Frankfort, Kentucky,[8] comes from a family of cotton farmers and quilters in Alabama.[5][9] Although she writes that she "always loved math", she began her undergraduate studies at the University of Florida by studying engineering before switching to mathematics because she found it more fulfilling.[10] She earned a master's degree at the University of North Carolina in 1995, as a student of Idris Assani.[11] She returned to the University of Florida for doctoral studies, completing her Ph.D. in 1999. Her dissertation, Prime Ideals in Rings of Continuous Functions, connects abstract algebra with functional analysis and was supervised by Jorge Martinez.[12]

After a term as Van Vleck Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Wesleyan University, she joined Lafayette College as an assistant professor. In mathematics, she is known for incorporating concepts of social justice into her classroom teaching.[10][13] She was a Professor and then head of the Math Department.[14] In 2008, she along with Professor Sharon Jones began the Summer Program to Advance Leadership in STEM at Lafayette.[15] This six-week program where incoming students take college level writing and calculus address along with modules in STEM. Students are those who are identified as leaders from groups typically underrepresented in STEM fields.[16] In 2018, Kimber was one of six recipients of the prestigious Clare Booth Luce Scholarship to attend the HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) Institute.[17] While head of the Math Department, the department "worked to promote an inclusive culture based on the understanding that math is a gateway to many other fields in the sciences, technology and engineering".[18]

In May 2021, Washington and Lee University announced that Kimber would become the school's Dean of the College effective July 1, 2021.[7][19] She is responsible "for 21 departments and 13 interdisciplinary programs. The dean serves as chair of the Committee on Courses and Degrees and belongs to the Faculty Executive Committee. The dean reports to the provost and serves on the Provost's Academic Council as well as the President's Council".[7]

Quilting

still not (2019) at the Renwick Gallery in 2022

Kimber grew up with her great-grandmother's quilts[9] and her father considered these "quilts his most prized possessions".[20] Kimber began quilting in 2005, soon after completing her application for tenure at Lafayette, and her interest in quilting was renewed in 2007 by the death of her father.[9][20] Her quilts are influenced by her great-grandmother's work which "used the same patchwork style as those associated with Gee's Bend" – Kimber views her work as a "contemporary adaptation" of that style.[20] In 2008 she began creating highly politicized quilts and blogging about them,[9] beginning with a series of quilts inspired by George Carlin's seven dirty words and by racist and sexist graffiti on her college campus.[21][22] Her work has been associated with the "modern Quilting" movement, based on its geometric design and provocative content.[23] Her work includes varied subject matter that raise social issues including the killing of African Americans and sexual assault.[21] As well as quilting, Kimber has also exhibited quilting-inspired works of mathematical origami.[24][25]

Kimber's quilts are frequently included at quilting shows and museum exhibits of quilting. The Paul Mellon Arts Center put up a show of her works in 2018.[9][26] One of her quilts inspired by the death of Eric Garner won first place at QuiltCon West in 2016,[5] and was included with other pieces by Kimber in a show on "Quilts and Human Rights" at the Pick Museum of Anthropology at Northern Illinois University.[27] Her work, still not, was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the Renwick Gallery's 50th Anniversary Campaign.[28][29] This exhibition highlighted that the piece's fabrics were "sourced from mid-century textiles".[29] The description stated that "Kimber's choice to use vintage cloth and improvisational patterns draws on her memories and family history. Many of her enslaved ancestors in rural Alabama cultivated and ginned cotton. Her great-grandmother, Mamo, and other relatives expressed themselves through quilting. [...] Mamo's story was told through her quilts, and Kimber continues the thread".[29]

Elizabeth Landau, for The Washington Post in 2020, commented that Kimber "tries to keep her math and quilting worlds separate. Some of her quilts deliberately rebel against the patterns and orderly structures that dominate math. They are — like jazz music played with fabrics and stitches — improvisational. But the thread of challenging systemic inequalities runs through both of Kimber's endeavors. [...] Against the backdrop of persistent social injustices, Kimber's quilts are both timely and timeless".[20]

References

  1. ↑ "The Beautiful Mind of Chawne Kimber - MQG Community", community.themodernquiltguild.com
  2. ↑ Birth year from WorldCat identities, retrieved 2019-09-22
  3. ↑ Lamb, Evelyn (October 11, 2018), "Math, Quilting and Activism: Mathematician Chawne Kimber shares her favorite theorems and quilts that make a statement", Scientific American
  4. ↑ Hlohowskyj, Maria (February 2, 2017), "The Colorful, Radical Quilts of Chawne Kimber", Women Arts
  5. 1 2 3 Gelt, Jessica (February 20, 2016), "These quilts with messages about gun violence and racial injustice issues aim to discomfort", Los Angeles Times
  6. ↑ Chawne Kimber, Lafayette College, archived from the original on 2018-10-12, retrieved 2018-10-11
  7. 1 2 3 "Chawne Kimber Named Dean of the College at Washington and Lee University". The Columns (Press release). 2021-05-05. Archived from the original on 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2021-06-07.
  8. ↑ "Chawne Kimber | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Neitz, Katie (Summer 2018), "Beautiful and Powerful: Prof. Chawne Kimber stitches messaging about censorship, social injustice, and racism into layers of colorful cotton", Lafayette Magazine, Lafayette College
  10. 1 2 Lum, Lydia (May 3, 2011), "Scholar Combines Math and Social Justice in the Classroom", Diverse: Issues in Higher Education
  11. ↑ Williams, Scott W., "Chawne Kimber", Black Women in Mathematics, University at Buffalo, retrieved 2018-10-11
  12. ↑ Chawne Kimber at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  13. ↑ Grose, Ben (October 28, 2013), "Adding Diversity to Curricula, Starting in the Classrooms", The Chronicle of Higher Education
  14. ↑ Kimber, Chawnee, "Math Department", Lafayette College, archived from the original on 2018-10-12
  15. ↑ "Featuring the summer program to Advance Leadership in STEM @ LAfayette", Lafayette College Center for the Integration of Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship, October 31, 2019
  16. ↑ "Advancing Leadership and Social Justice", Lafayette McDonough Report, Winter 2009
  17. ↑ "Lafayette STEM Stars", Lafayette College News, 5 November 2018, retrieved 2 June 2020
  18. ↑ Flaherty, Colleen (November 19, 2019). "Mathematician comes out against mandatory diversity statements, while others say they continue to be useful -- with some caveats". www.insidehighered.com. Archived from the original on 2019-11-19. Retrieved 2021-06-07.
  19. ↑ Brantley, Max (2021-06-04). "Another win for the Lost Cause: Washington and Lee University won't change its name". Arkansas Times. Retrieved 2021-06-07.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Landau, Elizabeth (December 23, 2020). "'I can't breathe': How one Black quilter channels social justice into her work". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  21. 1 2 Dampier, Cindy (April 4, 2017), "Uniting politically divided quilters, stitch by stitch", Chicago Tribune
  22. ↑ May, Rachel (2014), "Chawne Kimber: How Words Matter", Quilting with a Modern Slant: People, Patterns, and Techniques Inspiring the Modern Quilt Community, Storey Publishing, pp. 82–83, ISBN 9781612120638
  23. ↑ Cox, Meg (May 9, 2013), "'Modern Quilters' Stress Simplicity, Edgy Subjects: Quilting's new-wave movement focuses on provocative material; fury at the 'F' word", The Wall Street Journal
  24. ↑ "Chawne Kimber and Ethan Berkove: Weaves and Whorls", Mathematical Art Galleries: 2014 Joint Mathematics Meetings, The Bridges Organization, 2014, retrieved 2018-10-11
  25. ↑ Bruce, Kathy; Okaya, Michiko (2013), Crease, Fold, and Bend (PDF), Lafayette Art Galleries, p. 18
  26. ↑ Bocek, Sasha (January 26, 2018), "Not Your Grandmother's Quilt: Chawne Kimber's Radical Knits", The Choate News
  27. ↑ "Pick Museum unveils quilt exhibit with a visit from Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr.", NIU Today, Northern Illinois University, September 25, 2017
  28. ↑ Savig, Mary; Atkinson, Nora; Montiel, Anya (2022). This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World. Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum. pp. 228–238. ISBN 9781913875268.
  29. 1 2 3 "still not". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
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