Research and products

Lab members, research affiliates, and friends of the lab in bold.

  1. Alexander, N. N., Turner, B. O., Wallace, D., Kyles, C., Leatherwood, D., & Payne, R. (forthcoming). From Theory to Practice: Exploring Critical Orientations in Professional Learning Programs in Mathematics Education.
  2. Alexander, N. N. (forthcoming). Measuring School Desegregation: A Critical Quantitative Replication.
  3. Alexander, N. N., Thompson, B., Piercy, V., & Diaz Eaton, C. (forthcoming). Towards a Praxis of Critical Inquiry in Undergraduate Mathematics Classrooms.
  4. Fletcher, N., Alexander, N. N., Kang, B., Kebreab, L., Marshall, B., Martinez, J., Sundrani, A., & Velasco, R. (forthcoming). Programs and Opportunities for Early Career Mathematics Education Scholars.
  5. Alexander, N. N., Appling, T., Banuelos, M., Bello, G., Brown, A., Century, J., Connor, K., Ji, H., Levy, R., Mitchell, P., Mongeau, D., Mysliwiec, M., Niu, J., Paykin, S., Quarkume, A., Schiffman, J., Skinner, L., Uminsky, D. & Zhong, P. (2024). Data Science for Social Impact in Higher Education: First Steps. Data.org Playbook. Available at: https://data.org/playbooks/data-science-for-social-impact-in-higher-education/
  6. Ballenger, H. J., Washington, T., Clark, R., Lockhart, J. W., Adebowale, J., Hearn, D., Dotson, E., Gaines, J., Bennett, V., Teodorescu, D., Alexander, N. N., Gilbert, N., Lamar, T., Morris, M., Neely, A., Borum, V., Ellis, V., & Johnson, K. (December 2023). Atlanta University Center Data Science Initiative - Data Science for K-12 Listening Session Report. Available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4493108
  7. Jones, Q., Vindas Meléndez, A. R., Mendible, A., Aminian, M., Brooks, H. Z., Alexander, N., Diaz Eaton, C., & Chodrow, P. (2023). Data science and social justice in the mathematics community. Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
  8. Voigt, M., Hagman, J. E., Gehrtz, J., Ratliff, B., Alexander, N. N., & Levy, R. (Eds.) (2023). Justice through the lens of calculus: Framing new possibilities for diversity, equity, and inclusion. MAA Press, Notes, Vol. 96.
  9. Alexander, N. N., Ratliff, B., Levy, R., Voigt, M., Hagman, J. E., Gehrtz, J. (2023). Cross-cutting inquiries: Moving Towards a Systems-critical Practice. In M. Voigt, J. E. Hagman, J. Gehrtz, B. Ratliff, N. N. Alexander, & R. Levy (Eds.). Justice through the lens calculus: Framing new possibilities for diversity, equity, and inclusion. MAA Press, Notes, Vol. 96
  10. Alexander N. N., Diaz Eaton C., Shrout A. H., Tsinnajinnie B., & Tsosie K. (2022). Beyond ethics: Considerations for centering equity-minded data science. Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, 12(2), 254–300. https://doi.org/10.5642/jhummath.OCYS6929
  11. Jang, H. R., Quinones-Marrero, J., & Hincapie-Castillo, J. M. (2022). Environmental scan of COVID-19 infection dashboards in the Florida public school system. Frontiers in Public Health, 10, Article 925808.
  12. Alexander, N. N. (2022). A Legacy of Literacy: Mathematics Teachers and the Quests for Racial Justice. In D. C. Hucks, Y. S. Ruiz, V. Showunmi, S. C. Carothers, & C. W. Lewis (Eds.), Purposeful Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts: Implications for Access, Equity and Achievement (pp. 3-23). Charlotte: IAP.
  13. Alexander, N., Teymuroglu, Z., & Yerger, C. (2019). Critical Conversations on Social Justice in Undergraduate Mathematics. PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Math Undergraduate Studies, 29(4), 396-419.
  14. Alexander, N. N. (2019). Daija’s awakening: Critical race theory and Afrofuturism in mathematics education. In J. Davis & C. Jett, Critical Race Theory in Mathematics Education (pp. 56-74). Routledge.
  15. Alexander, N. N. (2013).Gender Inequality: Mathematics. In J. Ainsworth (Ed.), Sociology of Education: An A-to-Z Guide, SAGE Publications: London, UK.

Lab features

  1. Nature (April, 2025). Creating an ‘all comers’ research group in quantitative history.
  2. NC State Data Science Academy (June, 2022). “Who gets to learn are the people with the opportunity.”: Equity in Data Science Education.
  3. CNN (May, 2021). United Shades of America with Kamau Bell: S6 E2 - Black to the Future.
  4. Abolition Science Podcast (March, 2020). Afrofuturism and Math Education.
  5. Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation (March, 2019). When Empathy Goes Viral.

Recent lab presentations and posters

  1. Davis, K. (2025, April). Fighting The Frame: How Framing Police Brutality Influences Blame. Poster presentation at the 2025 Morehouse College Dream Makers Summit, Atlanta, GA.
  2. Williams, Z. & Alexander, N. N. (2025, April). Examining Racial Disparities in Capital Punishment. Poster presentation at the 2025 Howard University Research Month Symposium, Washington, DC.
  3. Jackson, J. & Alexander, N. N. (2025, April). A Systematic Scoping Review of the Research Literature on Factors Influencing Black Male Educator Retention. Poster presentation at the 2025 Howard University Research Month Symposium, Washington, DC.
  4. Gupta, J. & Alexander, N. N. (2025, April). Parts of a Patchwork Nation: Designing an Open Source Tool to Investigate Demographic Shifts in Urban and Rural Communities. Poster presentation at the 2025 Howard University Research Month Symposium, Washington, DC.
  5. Alexander, N. N., Onabajo, B., Gupta, J., Nichols-Smith, K., & Jang, H. (2025, March). Mapping Multidimensionality: Using Census Data to Understand Neighborhood Communities. Talk at the 2025 DC Open Data Showcase, Washington, DC.
  6. Alexander, N. N. & Gupta, J. (2024, December). Ancestral Mathematics. Workshop at the 2024 HBCU Alumni Alliance and 100 Black Men STEM Day. University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC.
  7. Alexander, N. N. & Williams, Z. (2024, October). What Happened to Chocolate City? Understanding Neighborhood Communities in DC. Workshop at Nubian HueMan, Anacostia, Washington, DC.
  8. Alexander, N. N., Davis, K., Ghali, B., Stewart, Q., & La Cour, G. (2024, April). Data Wells: Race and State Violence in the United States from 1892. Invited talk at the 2024 Bob Moses Conference, Virtual.
  9. Alexander, N. N. (2024, April). Overview of the Quantitative Histories Workshop: A Curriculum & Software Development Research Collective. Proceedings of the Howard University Center for Applied Data Science and Analytics (CADSA) Research Symposium. Washington, DC.

Grants and funding

  1. Open Research Community Accelerator (ORCA). Expansion of an Open Source Community for Faculty and Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Nathan Alexander (PI). Catalytic Awards Program, 2025-2026. (Funded, $15,000)
  2. STEM Research Initiative for Diversity and Equity (STRIDES). Designing Radical and Equitable Approaches with Mathematics Educators, Researchers, and Students. Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) with Blake O’Neal Turner (PI), and Malik Henfield (Co-PI). Marquette University, 2025-2026. (Funded, $10,000)
  3. Public Interest Technology Network. Integrating Community Knowledge and Equity into Integrated Admin- istrative Data Systems for Research and Education in Data Science for Social Impact. Subaward with Francisca Garcia-Cobian (PI) and Patty Dare (Co-PI). University Network, 2025-2026. (Funded, $10,000)
  4. Sloan Foundation. Open Source Workshops and Lesson Development for Faculty and Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Nathan Alexander (PI) with Hye Ryeon Jang (Co-PI) and Kari Jordan (Co-PI). Open Source Software Development, 2023-2024. (Funded, $249,705)
  5. New Ventures Fund. Development of Community-based Experiential Learning Programs in Data Science. Nathan Alexander (PI), Data.org Capacity Accelerator Network. 2022-2023. (Funded, $115,000)
  6. Microsoft Corporation. Summer Research Experience in Data Science and Critical Mathematics (DSCM). Nathan Alexander (PI), 2022-2024. (Funded, $47,000)
  7. AUC Data Science Initiative. Initial Development of a Problem-based Active Learning Framework for Data Science. Nathan Alexander (PI), Summer Research Grant. 2022. (Funded, $3,000)
  8. Associated Colleges of the South (ACS). Teaching Social Justice Mathematics. Nathan Alexander (Co-PI) with Dr. Viveka Borum (PI) and Dr. Zeynep Teymuroglu (Co-PI). Diversity & Inclusion Faculty Grant, 2019-2020. (Funded, $27,765)