The main aim of this symposium is to analyze and compare historical processes of the institutional organization of mathematicians whether in national or in transnational associations. The participants will put emphasis on the way in which each particular association tackled issues such as mathematics in education, research mathematics, applied mathematics, mathematics in the development of a country, the international organization and cooperation of mathematicians, and other related themes. In short, we will analyze and compare knowledge at work in the specific area of mathematics in different historical contexts, and in connection with the institutionalization of this domain of knowledge and the foundation of national societies.

To this end, we have invited a comprehensive group of distinguished historians from countries in Europe, Asia, America and Africa, and we hope for a successful symposium highly relevant to contemporary historical inquiry. We are aware that important countries have been omitted as regards mathematics, but we are limited by the number of speakers that a symposium can have in a Congress like this, and we believe that our choice allows us to have a sufficient variety of historical situations to permit the analysis of the major issues from different angles and from different historical contexts.