Dr. May Hamdan is an associate professor of Mathematics at the Lebanese American University. She has published scholarly works in pure mathematics (complex analysis) as well as in mathematics education and epistemology.

Research Interests

Her current research interests involve exploring the relationship between students’ natural thinking and their conceptual development of formal mathematics, highlighting the role of natural language in this process. Starting from the mathematics register, language operates together with mathematical images and related symbols for the purpose of creating mathematical meanings. This is why linguistic properties are expected to match grammatical features of mathematical symbolism and images. This in turn leads to a multimodal mathematics register to supplement the existing language-based component of the register. The multimodal approach has significant implications for communicating mathematics as well as for learning it.

SDGs Research Mapping

Dr. May Hamdan conducts research relevant to the following SDGs:

Other Interests

Dr. Hamdan is a self-taught painter who has been developing her art over the past years. She held her first exhibition in 2007, and participated in collective shows ever since. Her latest exhibitions were showcased in Zico House (2015) and in Galerie Plus ou moins dix (2017). She also had a collection of her paintings showcased in London, Paris and Japan (summer 2017). Her work includes paintings with mixed media, mostly acrylics and pastels. She enjoys making playful and whimsical fabric patchwork pieces. She is a also a rising writer. 

Selected Publications

1. “Combinatorial Approach for a Scheduling Problem”, Mathematical Sciences Research Journal, (2004), Volume 8 (2) pp 47-54
2. “Promoting Building a Definition”: The Case of a Vector Space. International Journal of Applied Mathematics, vol. 14, No 4 (2003), pp. 317-324
3. “Universal Obstacles in Proof Writing”, International Journal of Applied Mathematics, (2004), vol. 16, Number 3 pp. 315-322
4. “Nonlinear Learning of Linear Algebra: Active learning through Journal Writing” International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, (2005) Volume 36, Number 16.
5. “Equivalent Definitions for Equivalence Classes” The Educational Studies in Mathematics, (2006) Volume 62, No. 2.
6. “Concentration or Lack of it” Appeared in the proceedings of the Mathematics Education into the 21st century Project Conference, North Carolina, USA     September 2007
7. “One Concept; Two Narrations, The Case Of The Logarithm”, Primus, Vol. XVIII, Number 6, 2008
8. “Transcribing an Animation: the case of the Riemann Sums”, (2009) proceedings of the 10th international Conference “Models in developing Mathematics Education, pp 223-227, Dresden, Germany
9. Genetic Decomposition of Integration, Proceedings of the RUME XV conference, Portland, OR, 2012.
10. Hamdan, M. (2012) Intuitive Generalizations, Far East Journal of Math Education, Volume 9(2)
11. Taming Abstraction through Classification, 12th International Conference of the Mathematics Education for the Future Project in Montenegro, 2014
12. May Hamdan (2017) Beyond the Given: Stretching Mathematical Thinking Through Journaling, PRIMUS, 27:10, 916-925, DOI: 10.1080/10511970.2016.1260078
13. Hamdan, M. (2017), Learning Proofs, learning new language, Far East Journal of Math Education Volume 17, Number 2, Pages 95-103
14. May Hamdan (2019) Filling an area discretely and continuously, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 50:8, 1210-1222, DOI: 10.1080/0020739X.2019.1617440

Academic Degrees

• PhD in Mathematics (complex analysis), Syracuse  University, US.
• MS in Mathematics, American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
• BS in Mathematics, American University of Beirut, Lebanon.