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. Hamdan, M. (2025) From curves to surfaces: a guided intuitive expansion. For the Learning of Mathematics, 45(3), 42–44.
2. Hamdan, M. (2022) Story of a limit point. For the learning of Mathematics, 42(3) 47-49 https://flm-journal.org/index.php?do=show&lang=en&vol=42&num=3
3. 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
4. Hamdan, M. (2017), Learning Proofs, learning new language, Far East Journal of Math Education Volume 17, Number 2, Pages 95-103
5. Hamdan, M. (2012) Genetic Decomposition of Integration, Proceedings of the RUME XV conference, Portland, OR, 2012. http://sigmaa.maa.org/rume/crume2012/RUME_Home/RUME_Conference_Papers_files/RUME_XV_Conference_Papers.pdf
6. Hamdan, M. (2006) Equivalent Definitions for Equivalence Classes, The Educational Studies in Mathematics, (2006) Volume 62, No. 2.
7. Hamdan, M. (2005) Nonlinear Learning of Linear Algebra: Active learning through Journal Writing, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, (2005) Volume 36, Number 16.
8. Hamdan, M. (2003) Promoting Building a Definition: The Case of a Vector Space. International Journal of Applied Mathematics, vol. 14, No 4 (2003), pp. 317-324
9. Hamdan, M. (2005) Radial Distribution of Zeros of Entire Functions and Sections of their Power Series of Entire Functions”, Comptes Rendus Mathematiques, Vol. 27 (2005), pp 8-13.

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.