MATH 7520: Berstein Seminar in Topology: Groups and their Geometries (Spring 2010)

Instructor: Karen Vogtmann

In this course the class will work together through a fundamental book, paper or sequence of papers in geometric group theory. The course will be run as a seminar, in which students present the material in informal talks to each other. Questions and discussion will be actively encouraged. The exact topic will be decided upon at the first class meeting, but will involve studying groups and the spaces they act on. Examples of such topics include mapping class groups and their action on Teichmuller space, outer automorphisms of free groups and their action on Outer space,and hyperbolic and CAT(0) spaces and groups.