PRIME Welcomes New Doctoral Students and Faculty for Fall 2024

Sep 10, 2024
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PRIME is delighted to welcome our outstanding first-year mathematics education doctoral students and new mathematics education faculty members this fall. The incoming students are Ayesha Bundy, Sara Elakesh, Kira Morris, Sadrack Pagiling, and Seth Ricarte. The new math ed faculty are Taylor McNeill and Matthew Voigt.

Their educational background and current mathematics education research interests are summarized below. We will be featuring each one individually in a spotlight post throughout the fall semester. Stay tuned!

First-Year Doctoral Students 

Ayesha Bundy has 2 degrees in Economics: a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delhi, India and a master’s degree from Amity University in India. She also has a master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Maine. Ayesha’s research interests are to explore undergraduate students’ identities and how these may interact with different pedagogical approaches, as well as how these interactions may affect student learning, perception of mathematics, and sense of belonging. Before arriving at MSU, Ayesha was a full-time instructor at the University of Maine.

Sara Elakesh has a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of California, Riverside, and just completed a master’s degree in Mathematics in May 2024 from California Polytechnic University, Pomona. Sara is interested in Middle Eastern students’ experiences in mathematics regarding a sense of belonging, math persistence, and mathematical identity. She is also interested in how international students adjust when coming to the US, and in particular, how differences in language and culture affect mathematics learning. 

Kira Morris earned two bachelor's degrees from the University of Arizona in May 2024: one in mathematics with an applied emphasis and another in Deaf studies with a focus on educational interpreting. Fluent in American Sign Language, Kira’s research interests revolve around the intersection of mathematics education and accessibility, especially within the Deaf community. She aims to create an educational environment where communication barriers are eliminated and contribute to a more equitable and accessible landscape in mathematics education.

Sadrack Luden Pagiling has a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics Education from Universitas Kristen Indonesia Toraja in 2015. He also holds a master’s degree in mathematics education from Universitas Negeri Surabaya in 2017. Before coming to MSU, Sadrack was a lecturer and researcher in the mathematics education department at Universitas Musamus in Indonesia since 2019. He is interested in mathematics education research pertaining to secondary teachers’ mathematics knowledge and teachers' beliefs about the nature of mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning. He wants to develop and design differentiated mathematics instruction based on technology, including digital tools, to accommodate individual differences in mathematics learning.  He has researched and published some scholarly works, including students’ visuospatial reasoning, lower-secondary students’ mathematical representations, teachers’ conceptions about mathematical representation, Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK), and pre-service mathematics teachers’ beliefs.

Seth Ricarte completed an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of California, San Diego, and a master’s degree in Mathematics from California State Polytechnic University: Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). This past year, he was a lecturer at Cal Poly Pomona, as well as at Citrus College and University of La Verne. Seth is interested in undergraduate student thinking and how it manifests itself in their mathematical proof, and student-centered instructional practices that increase both the ceiling and floor of student success. He also is interested in game use in the classroom, homework practices, and flipped or inquiry-based classrooms to foster equitable outcomes/increase student learning and understanding. 

New Faculty

Taylor McNeill has a Ph.D. in Learning, Teaching, & Diversity from Vanderbilt University, A Ph.D. in Mathematics from Rice University, and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Astronomy from Smith College. Taylor's research explores the implicit workings of whiteness and cisheteropatriarchy in mathematics, which can perpetuate racial and gendered exclusion while simultaneously maintaining the appearance that mathematics is a socially-neutral discipline. Focusing on postsecondary mathematics faculty as needed change agents, they examine how mathematics shapes faculty's critical consciousness of inequities in instruction and departmental practices. Through this work they seek to reconceptualize mathematics and mathematics department practices in ways that enable minoritized students and faculty to experience mathematics as liberatory.

Matthew Voigt came to PRIME after serving in a faculty position at Clemson University in the department of Engineering and Science Education. Matt has a Ph.D. in Mathematics and Science Education from San Diego State University & University of California-San Diego, a master’s degree in Mathematics with Emphasis in Mathematics Education from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Psychology from Saint John’s University & College of Saint Benedict’s. His research interest examines issues of equity and inclusion in undergraduate STEM education. Currently he has projects examining: ethical research with LGBTQIA+ human subjects, systemic change efforts in math departments, co-equitable partnerships to support low-income STEM transfer students, and examining the experiences of queer students in STEM. He grew up in a rural farming community in Minnesota and is a proud first-generation college student and Queer researcher!