Marcia Alper Ascher (April 23, 1935 – August 10, 2013) was an American mathematician, and a leader and pioneer in ethnomathematics. She was a

professor emerita ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of mathematics at

Ithaca College Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and go ...

Life

Ascher was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the daughter of a glazier and a secretary. She graduated from

Queens College, City University of New York Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body ...

in 1956, and married Robert Ascher, an anthropologist graduating from Queens College in the same year. They both became graduate students at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

; she completed a master's degree in 1960, and moved with her husband to

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

, where he had found a faculty position at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. She joined the mathematics department at Ithaca college in 1960, as one of the founders of the department. She retired as full professor emerita in 1995. She died on August 10, 2013.

Books

With her husband, Ascher co-authored the book '' Code of the Quipu: A Study in Media, Mathematics, and Culture'' (University of Michigan Press, 1981); it was republished in 1997 by Dover Books as ''Mathematics of the Incas: Code of the Quipu''. She was also the sole author of two more books on ethnomathematics, ''Ethnomathematics: A Multicultural View of Mathematical Ideas'' (Brooks/Cole, 1991) and ''Mathematics Elsewhere: An Exploration of Ideas across Cultures'' (Princeton University Press, 2002). The Basic Library List Committee of the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

has recommended the inclusion of all three books in undergraduate mathematics libraries. ''Mathematics Elsewhere'' won an honorable mention in the 2002

PROSE Awards The PROSE Awards (Professional and Scholarly Excellence) are presented by the Association of American Publishers’ (AAP) Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division. Presented since 1976, the awards annually recognize distinguished prof ...

in the mathematics and statistics category.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ascher, Marcia 1935 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American women mathematicians Ethnomathematicians Queens College, City University of New York alumni Ithaca College faculty 20th-century American women 21st-century American women