Andrew Fiss

Contact

afiss@mtu.edu
906-487-2574
Walker 345

Associate Professor of Technical & Professional Communication

Ph.D. History & Philosophy of Science, Indiana University
A.B. Mathematics, Vassar College

Biography

I work at the intersections of STC (scientific & technical communication) and STS (science, technology, and society), and I enjoy writing about unexpected texts held in college archives. My articles have appeared in the journals Science & Education, the History of Education Quarterly, New York History, Peitho, Configurations, The Mathematical Intelligencer, and Technical Communication Quarterly. My book, Performing Math: A History of Communication and Anxiety in the American Mathematics Classroom (Rutgers, 2021), uses archival research to argue that we must understand mathematics as communication-based, particularly in light of Americans’ widespread math hatred and high rates of math anxiety. Looking to historical developments in higher education, it brings together nineteenth-century instructions for reading mathematics textbooks, manuals for speaking at the blackboard, debates about written testing, with student funerals for mathematics textbooks and student-written mathematical plays. Performing Math has been favorably reviewed and was recognized with the Best Book Award in Technical or Scientific Communication 2023 from the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

I teach courses that contribute to the BS and BA majors in Scientific and Technical Communication. At the graduate level, I teach and advise for the MS and PhD in Rhetoric, Theory, and Culture, with classes in Technical & Scientific Communication; and Public Understandings of Science.

Links of Interest

Google Scholar Profile

Specialties

Technical Communication
STS (Science and Technology Studies; Science, Technology, and Society)
Science Communication
History and Philosophy of Science and Math
History of Higher Education

Recent Publications

Fiss, A. “The half-burned Collegiate Algebra: College Cultures and Chance Preservation.” The Mathematical Intelligencer (April 2024), doi: 10.1007/s00283-024-10344-3.
Fiss, A. "'For Computing Is Our Duty': Algorithmic Workers, Servants, and Women at the Harvard Observatory." In Algorithmic Modernity: Mechanizing Thought and Action, 1500-2000, edited by M. Mazzotti and M.G. Ames. Oxford University Press, 2022, pp.127-143.
Bessette, D., C. Schelly, L.S. Oblabisi, V.S. Gagnon, A. Fiss, K.L. Arola, E. Matz, R. Ong, and K.E. Halvorsen. "Energy democracy in practice: Centering energy sovereignty in rural communities and Tribal Nations." In Routledge Handbook of Energy Democracy. Routledge, 2021, pp.408-419.
Fiss, A. "Ridicule, Technical Communication, and Nineteenth-Century Women Performing College Math." Technical Communication Quarterly 30, no.2 (2021): 143-156.
Schelly, C., V. Gagnon, K. Arola, A. Fiss, M. Schaefer, and K.E. Halvorsen. “Cultural imaginaries or incommensurable ontologies? Relationality and sovereignty as worldviews in socio-technological system transitions.” Energy Research & Social Science 80 (October 2021): 102242.
Schelly, C., D. Bessette, K. Brosemer, V. Gagnon, K.L. Arola, A. Fiss, J.M. Pearce, and K.E. Halvorsen. "Energy Policy for Energy Sovereignty: Can Policy Tools Enhance Energy Sovereignty?" Solar Energy 205 (15 July 2020): 109-112.
Fiss, A. "Mathmagics of Media Princesses: Informal STEM Learning, STEM Rhetorics, and Animated Children's Movies." Peitho 22.1 (Fall/Winter 2019): 128-142.
Fiss, A. and L.K. Fiss. "Laughing Out of Math Class: The Vassar Mathematikado and Nineteenth-Century Women's Education." Configurations 27.3 (Summer 2019): 301-329.
Fiss, A. "Structures of Antifeminism: Drugs and Women’s Education in the Texts of Dr. Clarke." Peitho 21.1 (Fall/Winter 2018): 81-103.
Fiss, A. "Studying Objects, Objectifying Students: Natural History at Women's Colleges in Postbellum New York State." New York History 98.2 (Spring 2017): 205-229.
Fiss, A. "Mathematics and Mourning: Textbook Burial and Student Culture Before and After the Civil War, 1853-1880." History of Education Quarterly 57.2 (May 2017): 221-246.
Fiss, A. and M. Vest. “Broadcasting Science Writing: Media Translations in Liberal Arts Pedagogy.” NITLE’s Special Issue on Digital Collaboration and Blended/Hybrid Learning (August 2014), https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5z70m6sh.
Fiss, A. "Cultivating Parabolas in the Parlor Garden: Reconciling Mathematics Education and Feminine Ideals in Nineteenth-Century America." Science & Education, Special Issue on the History and Philosophy of Mathematics Education. 23, no.1 (2014): 241-250.
Chaney, J., A. Fiss, P. Carey, and F. Iacobelli. "Graduate School and Family." In GPS for Graduate School: Students Share Their Stories. Purdue: Purdue University Press, 2014.
Fiss, A. "Problems of Abstraction: Defining an American Standard for Mathematics Education at the Turn of the Twentieth Century." Science & Education 21, no.8 (2012): 1185-1197.

Book

Fiss, Andrew. Performing Math: A History of Communication and Anxiety in the American Mathematics Classroom. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2021.
- Winner of the Best Book Award in Technical or Scientific Communication, Conference on College Composition and Communication (2023).
- Reviewed: David E. Dunning, British Journal for the History of Science 56, no. 3 (2023): 411-412; Devin Kennedy, Isis 113, no. 4 (2022): 882-883.

Recent Presentations

“Mathematics Olympiads on Screen: Televised Performance and Movie Adaptation.” Invited Workshop Leader for Chronicles of Brilliance in Performing Mathematically: International Mathematics Olympiad, its Nature and Narratives, and Influence on Global Mathematics Community, at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh, UK, March 2025.
“‘Dos y dos son cuatro’: Reassessing the place of Spanish-language sources in histories of American mathematics education,” History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Mérida, Mexico, November 2024. (Sponsored Session from the Forum for the History of Mathematical Sciences)
“Portfolio Assignments 10+ Years Later: Liberatory Pedagogy to Program Assessment?” ATTW 2024, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing Conference, Virtual, June 2024.
“‘Compute, observe, and mark my word’: Collaborative Mathematics and Joint Authorship through Harvard’s Observatory Pinafore, 1879.” Invited Contribution to the Special Session on the History of Mathematics, Joint Mathematics Meetings 2024, San Francisco, January 2024.
“Singing Songs of HSS: Joking about the Standards of the Discipline, 1960s-1980s.” History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Digital Festival, December 2023.
“The Sound of Science: College Songs and Rhetorical Ridicule in 1880s America.” Feminisms and Rhetorics 2023, Spelman College, Atlanta, October 2023.
“Computing between Languages and Mathematics: Technical and Professional Writing of Grace Murray Hopper and Winifred ‘Tim’ Asprey.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, February 2023.
“Genetic Algorithm between Biology and Computational Mathematics: Dispute at the University of Michigan, 1967-1970.” History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, November 2022.
“Writing Welcome: Recruitment as intentional invitation to inclusive spaces in graduate education,” with Jen Almjeld, Karen Kuralt, Kailyn Shartel Hall, Eric Leake, and Matthew Moberly. Conference on College Composition and Communication, Online, March 2022.
“The Paper for Practical Men: Transnational Constructions of Engineering Identities through Periodicals,” with Laura Kasson Fiss. History of Science Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans and Online, November 2021.
“Invitation Stories: Program profiles as recruitment tool,” with Jennifer Almjeld, Karen Kuralt, Kailyn Shartel Hall, Eric Leake, and Matthew Moberly. CPTSC (Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication) Annual Conference, Virtual, October 2021.
“‘Pioneer of the Technical and Trade Press of the World’: Mining Periodicals in the Holdings of Michigan Technological University,” with Laura Kasson Fiss and Michelle Jarvie-Eggart. Conference of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals, Virtual, September 2021.
“Toward a History of Math Anxiety: From Oral Examination to Written Testing in American Redefinitions of Student Performance.” International Congress of History of Science and Technology, Virtual, July 2021.
“Convergence Evaluation for Convergence Research: Reflection, Transdisciplinarity, and Team Science.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Virtual, April 2021.
"Sounds of Sound Health: Historical Traditions of Student Singing about Health and Science," Conference on College Composition and Communication (Virtual) 2020.
"Professional Symbols: Parody and the Broader Reach of Local Mathematics." For the British Academy Workshop "Universals' Locales: The International and Global History and Sociology of Modern Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences," the University of Edinburgh, January 2020.
“Turning Health Fears into a Joke: Vassar Students’ Covert Rhetorics of Ridicule, 1860s-1880s,” International Society for the History of Rhetoric, New Orleans, July 2019.
“Religious Mourning and Mathematical Achievement: Burying Anna Lytics at 1870s Bowdoin College (and Bates College),” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Kansas City, March 2018.
Andrew Fiss and Laura Kasson Fiss, "Female 'Mathematikados': Parodying the Patriarchy in 19th-century STEMM Education." Invited Lecture for the British Science Festival, British Association for the Advancement of Science, September 2017.
“‘For Computing Is Our Duty’: How Women Became Computers.” Lecture for the Algorithmic Thinking Symposium, UC Berkeley Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society, Social Science Matrix, Institute of International Studies, May 2017.

Podcast Appearances

with Miranda Melcher. “Performing Math: An Interview with Andrew Fiss.” Produced by The New Books Network. New Books Network. November 9, 2022. Podcast, audio, 44:10, https://newbooksnetwork.com/performing-math.
with Stephen Harris, Amy C. Chambers, and Laura Kasson Fiss. “17: Science by the Seaside.” Produced by The Conversation UK. The Anthill. September 13, 2017. Podcast, audio, 35:40, https://theconversation.com/anthill-17-science-by-the-seaside-84008.