Arezoo Islami

Arezoo Islami

Assistant Professor and B.A. and Minor Advisor
Philosophy of Science and Mathematics, Logic
Phone: (415) 405-3790
Email: arezooi@sfsu.edu
Location: Humanities 359
Office Hours:
Tue: 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.--Zoom
Wed: 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.--HUM 359
Biography

Arezoo Islami (Ph.D. Stanford University, 2016) joined SF State after teaching for two years at Stanford University during her postdoctoral studies, and was lecturer faculty at CCNY in 2013 while she completed her Ph.D. work.

Islami (pronounced EHS-laa-mi) works on the relationship(s) between mathematics and other sciences. Her research uses historical case studies to address the possibility and the ramifications of the match between mathematics and other sciences (especially modern physics).  She wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on the applicability of mathematics to quantum mechanics, critiquing Eugene Wigner’s “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences”. 

Islami has been a recipient of the Marcus Early Career Research Award, Marcus Undergraduate Research Grant, and LCA Extraordinary Ideas Grant(s). Additionally, she is the recipient of the 2024 Faculty Research Fellowship by the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies for her project, “Infinite Freedom: Science and Mathematics in the Iranian Diaspora”. Her work has been published in SyntheseMetascienceJournal of Applied Logics, and Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology.

Courses Taught

PHIL 111 - The Art(s) of Quantitative Reasoning

PHIL 350 - Philosophy of Science

PHIL 696 - Directed Reading: Learning Outcomes

PHIL 715 - Seminar in Philosophical Writing

PHIL 846 - Seminar on the Philosophy of Mathematics

PHIL 850 - Seminar in the Philosophy of Science