Petition to relocate international math conference from Philadelphia garners over 2,000 signatures

A petition to relocate this year’s International Congress of Mathematicians from Philadelphia has received over 2,300 signatures.

The ICM, which has not been hosted in the United States in 40 years, is scheduled to take place in Philadelphia this July despite calls from some to boycott the event due to immigration and visa concerns for participants. Math Department Chair and professor Jonathan Block serves as the co-chair of the congress’ outreach committee.

Drafted by University of Toronto professor Ila Varma and Haverford College professor Tarik Aougab, the boycott petition states that the American government's “unbridled hatred of immigrants” has created a “serious concern that academics traveling to the US may be denied entry.” 

Signatories have agreed to boycott the event if it is not relocated outside the U.S.

Block — who described the conference as “the most prestigious event in the mathematics community” in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian — wrote that committee members “are working to ensure a safe environment for the participants,” adding that they “have not moved the conference or fundamentally changed the venue.”

“Many of the boycotters are motivated by a wide range of political positions,” he wrote. “There is deep frustration over U.S. ‘export control’ and sanction laws that have blocked scholars from certain countries (like Iran) from even accessing the registration site.”

In a press release shared earlier this month, the petition’s organizers highlighted that the International Mathematical Union moved the 2022 ICM out of Russia in response to a petition that received around 400 signatures.

“Now, despite a petition over five times that size, the IMU refuses to act,” the release added.

In a statement to the DP, Aougab emphasized the importance of ensuring that mathematicians from all around the world are included in events like the ICM. 

“Crucially, the spirit of the ICM is that this knowledge sharing should be taking place across cultures,” Aougab wrote. “Such a goal is fundamentally impossible to achieve in an environment where researchers from over 70 countries can’t even acquire a visa for visiting the host nation.”

Varma also wrote to the DP that maintaining the conference’s presence in the U.S. is “antithetical” to the goal of keeping the community “as open and accessible as possible.”

“To resist this sort of behavior by an increasingly fascist state can only be effectively resisted when every sector comes together and thinks about what they are particularly in a position to do,” he wrote. “Over 2300 mathematicians have come together to say no to the outsized influence of American imperialism on our discipline.”

Despite the controversy, Block wrote that the conference’s organizers will continue to “celebrate internationalism” and “use the platform to showcase that mathematics transcends borders.”

“Mathematics is one of the most international of subjects, transcending language and cultural differences,” he added. “It is important, especially at this time, to demonstrate that international cohesion is possible, important, and desirable.”

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