Emily Hamilton

Assistant Professor Emily Hamilton specializes in the history of science, technology, and medicine, focusing on modern U.S. and Europe. Her book manuscript, The Math Mafia: How a Persistent Group of Reformers Standardized American Education is scheduled to be published in the NEXUS series at the University of Alabama Press in 2026. The Math Mafia examines the social and political history of mathematics education reform in the United States with a focus on how 20th century politics and culture shaped contemporary K-12 mathematics curricula and, at the same time, ushered in the educational standards movement across disciplines. She is also editing a historiographical volume on the history of mathematics with Springer Press, which should be released online and in print in 2027. Hamilton teaches widely in the history of science, technology, and medicine, including courses such as “Science, Technology, and War in 20th Century US and Europe.” Hamilton is UMass's health humanities convener and contributes to the UMass Medical Humanities program in developing and teaching the course “History of Health Care and Medicine in the United States,” a requirement for the certificate. This class also contributes to the certificate program in Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice. Her interest in pandemics and teaching about historical flu prevention has proven, unfortunately, particularly relevant.

Prior to joining the History Department at UMass, Hamilton worked for five years with the Regional Oral History Office (Now the Oral History Center) at the Bancroft Library, conducting oral history interviews with prominent scientists—including the two longest recorded interviews conducted at the OHC!—and helping lead the Advanced Oral History Summer Institute. Here at UMass, Hamilton continues to conduct oral histories, helped create online teaching modules in oral history, and helps lead workshops in oral history for the larger community of scholars and practitioners in New England. Prior to arriving at UMass, Hamilton spent time as a fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy and as an instructor at California State University. She has received both conference paper awards and teaching awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the University of California. When not musing about mathematics and the flu, her interests range from food science and policy to early Cold War culture to the politics of biology textbooks. Hamilton’s anticipated next projects will explore the cultural history of the New Math and the ways in which educational programming brought mathematics instruction to television.

Professor Hamilton is an affiliated faculty member in the Public History and American Studies programs at UMass Amherst. She is currently serving a three-year term as Treasurer of the History of Science Society, and serves as co-chair and treasurer of the Americas Section of the International Study Group on the Relations Between History and Pedagogy of Mathematics.