RUME 28
2026
Alexandria, Virginia
Living as Abstract Nonsense: Ontological Tensions in Trans Experiences of Mathematics
Page: 277
Ontology—the recognition or erasure of ways of being—is a justice issue in mathematics, intersecting with race, gender, sexuality, and disability. Despite growing scholarship on liberatory ontologies in mathematics education, little is known about how such paradigms might be enacted in postsecondary contexts, or how trans mathematics-doers experience ontological tensions uniquely. We address this gap by analyzing a mathematical representation of trans experience created by a transfeminine, graduate student of color in mathematics, and the ontological tensions it draws from us as trans mathematician-researchers. Our findings identify ontological erasure, disembodiment, and categorization as features of mathematics that conflict with trans ways of being. We propose ontological possibilities for postsecondary mathematics that affirm trans and other marginalized realities, and invite further exploration of postsecondary mathematics as a site for ontological justice.