WMU Mathematics Education Matters

Congratulations to PhD candidate Offir Romero Castro for winning the 2025-2026 WMU College of Arts and Sciences Diversity and Inclusion Student Writing Prize for his paper, "The DisPer Framework: Describing Mathematics Teacher Perceptions Toward Disabilities and Students with Disabilities"! 👏

The first Arabic Edition of the Kalamazoo Math Carnival held this past weekend was a success!

This event was organized by Dr. Mariana Levin and WMU Math Ed Masters student Seham Al-Sidran and hosted by the WMU Math Department.

Seham is a gifted teacher in Saudi Arabia with a passion for mathematics and making mathematics accessible to others. After Seham and her children attended the Kalamazoo Math Carnival last November, Seham approached Dr. Levin about working together in the spring. They developed the idea of creating Arabic language versions of some of the materials from the first carnival and then piloting the materials in a small-scale culminating event for families in the Arabic speaking community in Kalamazoo as part of a course project. With the success of this first event, they are now dreaming about what is next!

Stay tuned for other events and join us Saturday November 7 for the next carnival.

.:: Celebration of Excellence ::.
Hosted by the WMU Office of Diversity and Inclusion

The celebration is held a week before commencement each fall and spring semester to recognize the challenges that international students from various regions around the world face and overcome to achieve this milestone.

Congratulations to all graduates! We’ll see you on May 2nd at Miller Auditorium as you walk across the stage together! 🎓🤎💛

For more information about this celebration, please visit: https://wmich.edu/diversity/events/celebration

Please note that a few Math Department graduates attended the morning session. Featured in these photos (left to right) are:

🇮🇳 Rit Chatterjee (PhD in Math ’26, Summer)
🇦🇪 Enas Shatnawi (MA in Math Ed ’26, Spring)
🇮🇳 Irene Barejiya (MS in Applied and Computational Math ’26, Spring)
🇹🇭 Nitchada Kamlue (PhD in Math Ed ’26, Spring)

Not pictured:
🇳🇬 Isaac Adeoye (MA in Math Ed ‘26, Spring)
🇮🇩 Pujiyanto (PhD in Math Ed ‘26, Summer)

💡 Nitchada Kamlue (PhD ’26; 2024 MI-AMTE Graduate Student Representative) invites you to join the 2026 MI-AMTE Graduate Student Experience Panel Discussion, where she will facilitate a conversation with panelists about their lives as graduate students in the U.S. 🇺🇸

🗓️ When: Friday, May 8 at 3 PM EST on Zoom

Register here: http://tinyurl.com/2026miamtepaneldiscussion

To view the 2025 panel discussion, please visit: https://youtu.be/GR1p2_3ikqM?si=GDBsDEwT40RtWk3M

🎉 Congratulations to Dr. Mariana Levin on receiving the 2026 Excellence in Research Scholarship Award from the WMU Office of Research and Innovation.

💡 Dr. Levin is an expert on methodologies for studying mathematical learning processes. She is passionate about promoting public understanding of mathematics and in her role as a teacher educator, understanding how recreational mathematical experiences can support future teachers in deepening their relationship to mathematics.

✨ The WMU Graduate Student Association (GSA) hosted the 2026 GSA Year-End Gala on April 17 at the Fetzer Center.

Graduate students from our Math Department joined the celebration to recognize a year of hard work, collaboration, and achievement.

We thank the GSA for organizing such a wonderful event and for creating an opportunity to connect with graduate students across disciplines.

💛🤎

For more information about the GSA, please visit: https://wmugsa.org

💡 You’re invited to the Mathematics Department Colloquium at Western Michigan University on Wednesday, April 15, at 2:30 PM in Rood 2271.

💡 On April 9, 2026, Dr. Nitchada Kamlue (MA ’22; PhD ’26) presented part of her dissertation research on productive struggle to undergraduate students and faculty from various disciplines at the Hope College Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium.

We thank Dr. Gina Kling (BA ’00; MA ’02; PhD ’23) for inviting Nitchada to share her work at Hope College in Holland, MI. 🌷

For more information about Nitchada’s work, please visit: kamlue.com