Rate My Professor Joseph Spivey

Joseph Spivey serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics at Wofford College, having joined the institution in 2008 on a tenure-track position following the completion of his doctoral studies. He earned both his M.A. and Ph.D. in Mathematics from Duke University in 2008. His Ph.D. thesis, titled "Twisted Cohomology of Mapping Class Groups," was directed by Richard Hain and explored advanced topics in algebraic topology, including the properties of mapping class groups and related moduli spaces.

At Wofford College, Spivey is particularly interested in inquiry-based learning, a method that involves students collaborating in small groups on guided tasks to discover mathematical principles independently. This approach informs his teaching of courses such as calculus. In collaboration with colleague Matthew E. Cathey, he co-authored the self-published digital textbook "Calculus: An Integrated Approach" in 2015, which covers a comprehensive two-semester calculus sequence tailored for Wofford students and is freely accessible under a Creative Commons license via Wolfram Player. Spivey has shared his innovative pedagogical strategies through presentations at national conferences, including "Calculus in Context: An Innovative Approach to Calculus" at MAA MathFest 2018 with Cathey, a contributed paper on transition courses from AP to college calculus at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, and "A Scaffolding Spectrum for IBL" at MathFest 2023. His commitment to teaching excellence is recognized by awards such as the Roger Milliken Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Science presented at Commencement 2022 and the Professor for Affordable Learning award in 2019, shared with Cathey for courses including Calculus I, Calculus II, and Appreciation of Mathematics. As department chair, Spivey has led efforts to diversify the faculty by recruiting from broad applicant pools to better represent and support underrepresented groups in mathematics. Beyond academia, he holds the position of Executive Director of Shared Worlds, a summer world-building workshop for high school students hosted at Wofford College.