Dr Rehan Shah engaged in pursuing mathematics education scholarship research at the prestigious Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI) in Cambridge as part of the academic mathematicians' retreat programme held this summer from 28th June to 4th July 2026.

INI Retreats offer mathematical scientists a welcoming and conducive space for a week-long retreat to re-immerse themselves in research or make progress on a project away from their usual commitments. Researchers are based in INI’s bespoke building in Cambridge and provided with dedicated office space and accommodation in INI flats.

Dr Shah used the retreat to meet with his research collaborator, Dr Maurice Chiodo (Assistant Research Professor in the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge) to work on his ongoing mathematics scholarship research project that is dedicated to understanding the need for the consideration of wider societal aspects within mathematics and to outlining some of the ways in which we can incorporate the teaching of ethics and sustainability within mathematics courses at university. The final output involves the compilation of a teaching resource toolkit, which will be published by Open Book Publishers, as an open-access book, containing a set of varied mathematical problems across different topics with key ethical and sustainability aspects embedded within them for use by lecturers and educators.

Dr Shah also used his dedicated office space and facilities to work on another of his mathematics scholarship research project focused on undertaking a systematic landscape literature review of mathematical anxiety faced by UK HE students studying mathematics degree programmes as documented over the past 50 years, with his academic collaborator, Dr Ric Crossman (Associate Professor, University of Durham). In addition to pursuing his research endeavors, the retreat also afforded Dr Shah significant opportunities for networking and interaction with other programme participants, to build valuable cross-institutional collaborations.