Participant Info

First Name
Charlotte
Last Name
Pollet
Country
Taiwan
State
Affiliation
National Chiao Tung University
Website URL
Keywords
history of sciences, mathematics (algebra, combinatorics, geometry), history of sciences education, historiography, translation of texts written in classical Chinese or Sanskrit.
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Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

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About Me

Charlotte Pollet is assistant professor in National Chiao-Tung University (Taiwan). She received her dual Ph.D in history, philosophy and didactic of mathematics from Paris 7 University (laboratory SPHERE, Paris) and National Taiwan Normal University (mathematics dpt.) in 2012. She now teaches courses on philosophy and history of sciences.

Her research interests concern the transmission and elaboration of mathematical objects and procedures in Asia. She relies on philological technics to investigate pre-modern mathematical texts written in Chinese or Sanskrit and their historiography. She studies the diversity of expressions of proof and generality and the interaction of algorithm and deduction especially in Song-Yuan dynasties and 14th century India. She also studied how texts from these areas were interpreted in term of cultural essentialism and how they were excluded from world history. She is the author of the forthcoming book “The Empty and the Full: Li Ye and the Way of Mathematics” and she now collaborates with the IISER (Pune, India) to translate the Bījagaṇitāvataṃsa written by Nārāyaṇa in 14th Century.

She also has interest in education and development psychology. She introduces and develops philosophy for children and active pedagogy in Taiwan.

She received several awards from France and Taiwan for her cross disciplinary work and her teaching approach.

Recent Publications

1- Pollet. C; Ying J-M. One quadratic equation, different understandings: the 13th century interpretation by Li Ye and later commentators in the 18th and 19th centuries” Journal for History of Mathematics. Korean Society for History of Mathematics. Vol. 30 No.3 (June 2017), 137-162.
2- Pollet. C. “Reading Algorithms in Sanskrit: How to Relate Rule of Three, Choice of Unknown and Linear Equation?” In: Computations and Computing Devices in Mathematics Education before the Advent of Electronic Calculators. “Mathematics in Digital Era”, Springer Publishers, A. Volkov and V. Freiman (Eds.), 2016.
3- Pollet. C. “Interpreting Algorithms written in Chinese from the Point of View of Comparative History” In: Computations and Computing Devices in Mathematics Education before the Advent of Electronic Calculators. “Mathematics in Digital Era”, Springer Publishers, A. Volkov and V. Freiman (Eds.), 2016.
4- Pollet C. The influence of Qing dynasty editorial work on the modern interpretation of mathematical sources: the case of Li Rui’s edition of Li Ye’s mathematical treatises. In: Science in Context (SSCI). 27(3), 385-422 (2014). Cambridge University Press 2014.

5- Comparison of Algebraic Practices in Medieval China and India. Thesis submitted for PhD degree in history of sciences and epistemology. UNIVERSITY PARIS 7-DIDEROT. Nov. 2012 pp. 855. Adviser: Karine Chemla (CNRS)

6-Exploring Chinese Mathematical Culture: Song Dynasty Algebra. Thesis submitted for PhD degree in mathematics education. National Taiwan Normal University. June 2012. Pp. 120. Adviser: Horng Wann-Sheng.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
China, India
Expertise by Geography
Asia, China, France, India
Expertise by Chronology
Ancient, Medieval, Pre-17th century, 17th century, 18th century, 19th century
Expertise by Topic
Material Culture, Pedagogy, Science, Technology