Ismar Volić
@ismarvolic.bsky.social
Professor at Wellesley College Mathematics Department
Director of Institute for Mathematics and Democracy
Author of Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation
https://ivolic.wellesley.edu/
Director of Institute for Mathematics and Democracy
Author of Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation
https://ivolic.wellesley.edu/
Thank you Mathematical Association of America and Allison Henrich for letting me write this article. Our involvement is needed now more than ever.
digitaleditions.walsworthprintgroup.com/article/Inst...
digitaleditions.walsworthprintgroup.com/article/Inst...
MAA FOCUS December 2025/January 2026: Institute for Mathematics and Democracy: A Call to Our Community
I had one of those fabled latchkey upbringings of the 1970s and 1980s where the street did most of the parenting. We roamed freely, unsupervised and carefree, …
digitaleditions.walsworthprintgroup.com
January 2, 2026 at 1:06 PM
Thank you Mathematical Association of America and Allison Henrich for letting me write this article. Our involvement is needed now more than ever.
digitaleditions.walsworthprintgroup.com/article/Inst...
digitaleditions.walsworthprintgroup.com/article/Inst...
My piece on ranked choice voting in New York City made it to the Cognoscenti's best of 2025 list! (And another piece on my immigrant story got a shoutout).
www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
Cognoscenti's best stories of 2025
The 230-odd pieces Cog published this year were personal and political. We worked with new writers and bestselling authors, wrote dozens of newsletters, produced live events, dabbled in video and made...
www.wbur.org
December 20, 2025 at 2:18 PM
My piece on ranked choice voting in New York City made it to the Cognoscenti's best of 2025 list! (And another piece on my immigrant story got a shoutout).
www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
An article I cowrote with Andy Schultz and David McCune providing some highlights from a research project that analyzed various voting systems.
theconversation.com/ranked-choic...
theconversation.com/ranked-choic...
Ranked choice voting outperforms the winner-take-all system used to elect nearly every US politician
Ranked choice voting largely avoids the pitfalls of plurality voting, giving voters the power to express their true candidate preferences rather than being strategic.
theconversation.com
December 2, 2025 at 8:03 PM
An article I cowrote with Andy Schultz and David McCune providing some highlights from a research project that analyzed various voting systems.
theconversation.com/ranked-choic...
theconversation.com/ranked-choic...
November 21, 2025 at 4:21 PM
An op-ed written by a group of amazing high school and college students I mentor through the Carnegie Youth Leaders for Civic Preparedness program at the Institute for Citizens & Scholars.
thefulcrum.us/governance-l...
thefulcrum.us/governance-l...
Too Young to Vote, Not Too Young to Fix Democracy
We are high schoolers. We are college students. We are redrawing the lines. For people our age, gerrymandering is a short lesson in AP Government class, a flashcard temporarily memorized for an upcomi...
thefulcrum.us
November 10, 2025 at 8:24 PM
An op-ed written by a group of amazing high school and college students I mentor through the Carnegie Youth Leaders for Civic Preparedness program at the Institute for Citizens & Scholars.
thefulcrum.us/governance-l...
thefulcrum.us/governance-l...
I have two heroes: Keith Jarrett and Haruki Murakami. I was lucky to have met one of them. I told him that his writing is very close to a mathematician's heart; like his characters, we constantly slip in an out of the surreal, the otherworldly – that's what doing abstract mathematics requires.
November 5, 2025 at 7:48 PM
I have two heroes: Keith Jarrett and Haruki Murakami. I was lucky to have met one of them. I told him that his writing is very close to a mathematician's heart; like his characters, we constantly slip in an out of the surreal, the otherworldly – that's what doing abstract mathematics requires.
"There's my mathematician!," Clinton said when she saw me. We had a lovely conversation about math, democracy, my book, and Bosnia.
Also met and chatted with @repemilyrandall.bsky.social, another amazing Wellesley alumna.
Also met and chatted with @repemilyrandall.bsky.social, another amazing Wellesley alumna.
November 4, 2025 at 12:36 AM
"There's my mathematician!," Clinton said when she saw me. We had a lovely conversation about math, democracy, my book, and Bosnia.
Also met and chatted with @repemilyrandall.bsky.social, another amazing Wellesley alumna.
Also met and chatted with @repemilyrandall.bsky.social, another amazing Wellesley alumna.
Odličan razgovor, pet puta sam se preznojio pokušavajući da pariram sjajnom Draganu Markovini.
podcastoslobodjenje.ba/ismar-volic-...
podcastoslobodjenje.ba/ismar-volic-...
Ismar Volić: Nikada nisam osjećao pripadnost naciji, religiji ili nekom pasošu - U kontru - Oslobođenje Podcast
U novoj epizodi podcasta U kontru s Draganom Markovinom gostovao je Ismar Volić, redovni profesor matematike i direktor Instituta za matematiku i demokratiju na Wellesley Univerzitetu u Bostonu. U pod...
podcastoslobodjenje.ba
November 2, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Odličan razgovor, pet puta sam se preznojio pokušavajući da pariram sjajnom Draganu Markovini.
podcastoslobodjenje.ba/ismar-volic-...
podcastoslobodjenje.ba/ismar-volic-...
I was elected a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Thank you AMS and the mathematics community.
@amermathsoc.bsky.social
@amermathsoc.bsky.social
November 2, 2025 at 12:02 AM
I was elected a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Thank you AMS and the mathematics community.
@amermathsoc.bsky.social
@amermathsoc.bsky.social
Kellie, Chipo, Jen, Stacie... this panel is going to be fire!
October 23, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Kellie, Chipo, Jen, Stacie... this panel is going to be fire!
Panel discussion on the role of quantitative research in political reform featuring Ariel Procaccia of Harvard University, Alma Steingart of Columbia University, and Rob Richie of Expand Democracy. Moderated by me, with remarks by @wellesley.edu president Paula Johnson.
youtu.be/uFq6sjf19NI?...
youtu.be/uFq6sjf19NI?...
The Democracy Code panel discussion
YouTube video by The Institute for Mathematics and Democracy
youtu.be
October 22, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Panel discussion on the role of quantitative research in political reform featuring Ariel Procaccia of Harvard University, Alma Steingart of Columbia University, and Rob Richie of Expand Democracy. Moderated by me, with remarks by @wellesley.edu president Paula Johnson.
youtu.be/uFq6sjf19NI?...
youtu.be/uFq6sjf19NI?...
You always wanted to save democracy but wished you could do it over a beer? Now you can, just come to my Lectures on Tap!
Tickets here:
www.eventbrite.com/e/lectures-o...
Tickets here:
www.eventbrite.com/e/lectures-o...
October 21, 2025 at 2:42 PM
You always wanted to save democracy but wished you could do it over a beer? Now you can, just come to my Lectures on Tap!
Tickets here:
www.eventbrite.com/e/lectures-o...
Tickets here:
www.eventbrite.com/e/lectures-o...
It's a huge honor to be giving this talk at one of the largest math conferences in the world.
@amermathsoc.bsky.social
jointmathematicsmeetings.org/meetings/nat...
@amermathsoc.bsky.social
jointmathematicsmeetings.org/meetings/nat...
October 21, 2025 at 11:10 AM
It's a huge honor to be giving this talk at one of the largest math conferences in the world.
@amermathsoc.bsky.social
jointmathematicsmeetings.org/meetings/nat...
@amermathsoc.bsky.social
jointmathematicsmeetings.org/meetings/nat...
Between Two Ferns with Zach G.? No, just an amazing discussion about the role of academic research in democracy reform.
October 17, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Between Two Ferns with Zach G.? No, just an amazing discussion about the role of academic research in democracy reform.
I was interviewed for this article about gerrymandering, but don't really know what it says since it's behind a paywall. I'm assuming it says gerrymandering is bad and math is the only thing that can save us.
expresso.pt/internaciona...
expresso.pt/internaciona...
'Gerrymandering': Trump quer impedir Partido Democrata de ganhar a Câmara dos Representantes, e tem forma de o conseguir
Que vocábulo é este que junta o nome de Elbridgre Gerry, antigo governador do Massachusetts, e a palavra salamandra? Saiba de que forma poderá interferir nas eleições americanas para o Congresso daqui...
expresso.pt
September 29, 2025 at 7:49 PM
I was interviewed for this article about gerrymandering, but don't really know what it says since it's behind a paywall. I'm assuming it says gerrymandering is bad and math is the only thing that can save us.
expresso.pt/internaciona...
expresso.pt/internaciona...
Sprawling new report on a research project examining ranked choice voting.
mathematics-democracy-institute.org/empirical-an...
mathematics-democracy-institute.org/empirical-an...
EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF RANKED CHOICE VOTING METHODS - Institute for Mathematics and Democracy
In 2024-25, a team of IMD researchers analyzed approximately 4,000 real-world ranked ballot elections. including some 2,000 political elections from the U.S., Australia, and Scotland; this is believed...
mathematics-democracy-institute.org
September 23, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Sprawling new report on a research project examining ranked choice voting.
mathematics-democracy-institute.org/empirical-an...
mathematics-democracy-institute.org/empirical-an...
La démocratie en équation
url:https://laviedesidees.fr/La-democratie-en-equation
url:https://laviedesidees.fr/La-democratie-en-equation
September 10, 2025 at 11:42 PM
La démocratie en équation
url:https://laviedesidees.fr/La-democratie-en-equation
url:https://laviedesidees.fr/La-democratie-en-equation
There are still a few more days left to register for our conference!
mathematics-democracy-institute.org/2025-social-...
mathematics-democracy-institute.org/2025-social-...
September 7, 2025 at 1:49 PM
There are still a few more days left to register for our conference!
mathematics-democracy-institute.org/2025-social-...
mathematics-democracy-institute.org/2025-social-...
Exactly 30 years apart.
August 24, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Exactly 30 years apart.
Reposted by Ismar Volić
Celebrating the 2025 Euler Book Prize winner: @ismarvolic.bsky.social's Making Democracy Count. So much talk at #MAAthFest re gerrymandering, ranked choice voting & where we go from here. Thanks to @joinmaa.bsky.social. @princetonupress.bsky.social is honored to be a part of it. #ItAllStartsWithMath
August 9, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Celebrating the 2025 Euler Book Prize winner: @ismarvolic.bsky.social's Making Democracy Count. So much talk at #MAAthFest re gerrymandering, ranked choice voting & where we go from here. Thanks to @joinmaa.bsky.social. @princetonupress.bsky.social is honored to be a part of it. #ItAllStartsWithMath
