I study how people perceive and reason with mathematical diagrams, drawing on embodied and enactive approaches to cognition.
Contact: julien.putz < at > berkeley < dot > edu
About Me: I am a PhD candidate in the Graduate Group in Science and Mathematics Education (SESAME) at UC Berkeley, with a Designated Emphasis in Cognitive Science. I study how people perceive and reason with mathematical diagrams in contexts of proving and problem solving. My work draws on embodied and enactive approaches to cognition and integrates first-person descriptions from micro-phenomenological interviews with third-person measures such as eye-tracking. I am originally from Luxembourg and received my undergraduate education at the University of Glasgow, where I majored in Mathematics and Theatre Studies. My honors thesis explored the role of “theatrical” elements—such as narrative, multimodality, and movement—within the domain of mathematics, which inspired my ongoing interest in the kinaesthetic and perceptual dimensions of mathematical thinking and learning. I later in 2020 earned a master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Luxembourg, where I specialized in industrial mathematics.
Research interests: mathematics education, diagrammatic reasoning, embodied cognition, enactivism, first-person methods, (micro-) phenomenology, eye-tracking, design-based research.
Hobbies: climbing, theater, aerial acrobatics, (trail-) running, plant-based cooking.
Select Publications and Presentations:
Putz, J. (2025, September). More than meets the eye: first-person methods. Oral presentation at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Belval.
Putz, J. (2024, October). A micro-phenomenological approach to the study of diagrammatic reasoning. Oral presentation at the Mind & Life Europe – ICP workshop, Le Reposoir.
Putz, J. (in press). A micro-phenomenological approach to the study of diagrammatic reasoning. To appear in Proceedings of the 15th International Congress on Mathematical Education. Sydney: ICME.
Putz, J. (2024, April). Negotiating first-person and third-person perspectives in micro-phenomenological research on diagrammatic reasoning. In D. Abrahamson (Chair) & S. Gerofsky (Discussant), In-sight out: Challenges and opportunities in learning mathematics through negotiating egocentric and allocentric perspectives. Symposium presented for the SIG Research in Mathematics Education at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Philadelphia, April 11–14.
Putz, J. (2022, April). A micro-phenomenological approach to the study of mathematical problem solving. Poster prepared for Research Day, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley.
Putz, J. (2021, April). Linear algebra conceptions as movement and perception in motor-control tasks. Poster prepared for Research Day, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley.
Teaching:
Teaching Assistant, Educ 130: Knowing and Learning in Mathematics and Science (with Dor Abrahamson), UC Berkeley, Spring 2025
Teaching Assistant, Educ 130: Knowing and Learning in Mathematics and Science (with Michelle Wilkerson), UC Berkeley, Fall 2024
Teaching Assistant, Educ 130: Knowing and Learning in Mathematics and Science (with Sarah Pedemonte), UC Berkeley, Spring 2024
Graduate Student Instructor, Data 144/Educ 244: Data Mining and Analytics (with Zacharay Pardos), UC Berkeley, Fall 2023
Graduate Student Instructor, Math 1B: Calculus II (with Zvezdelina Stankova), UC Berkeley, Spring 2023
Teaching Assistant, Micro-Phenomenology Program (with Claire Petitmengin), online course, Fall 2022
Graduate Student Instructor, Cognitive Science 1: Introduction to Cognitive Science (with Paul Li), UC Berkeley, Spring 2022