Course info for Math 636 (Topics in Differential Geometry: Moduli of Curves) is available here.

As the semester progresses, I will post references and scheduling notes here. There will also be 2-3 problem sets posted here (will be graded fairly informally).

Problem Set 1
Problem Set 2 (due Tuesday, April 21, by e-mail to me at pixton@umich.edu)

Schedule/References:
Teichmuller theory (Jan 14, Jan 16, Jan 21, Jan 23): some possible references: Curt McMullen's notes (sections 3 and 4), Izzet Coskun's notes (section 1), A Primer on Mapping Class Groups by Benson Farb and Dan Margalit (part 2)
The mapping class group and its cohomology (Jan 28, Jan 30, Feb 4, Feb 6, Feb 11): main reference is A Primer on Mapping Class Groups, also some papers of Harer (e.g. Harer-Zagier)
Algebraic curves and the algebraic construction of M_g (Feb 13, Feb 18, Feb 20, Feb 25, Feb 27): some of the stuff I'm doing is fairly standard algebraic geometry, but for moduli stuff one reference is Moduli of Curves by Joe Harris and Ian Morrison (chapters 1,2,4)
Moduli of stable curves (Mar 10, Mar 17, Mar 19, Mar 24, Mar 26): I like pages 6-9 of this article by Ravi Vakil as an informal introduction here; the book of Harris and Morrison mentioned above has many more details, most of which we will not need
Cohomological field theories (Mar 31, Apr 1, Apr 3, Apr 8, Apr 9, Apr 10, Apr 14, Apr 16, Apr 21): Section 1 of these notes by Constantin Teleman is a nice introduction to topological field theories, while this paper by Simone Chiarello is a nice exposition of Teleman's proof of the classification of semisimple cohomological field theories

My current plan of how to continue this class remotely (beginning March 16): I will post 2-3 recorded videos of lectures each week covering roughly the same material that I would have covered in normal lectures. I will also have virtual office hours replacing my regular office hours - for now, I am keeping the same schedule for these office hours (as posted below), but do let me know if having one of them at a different time of day would be better.

Both of these things (recorded lectures and virtual office hours) will be done via the Canvas website for this class. I believe you should be able to use this link to get there, or you can navigate there from canvas.umich.edu. If you are having trouble accessing or finding the Canvas website, let me know and I'll see what I can do - I haven't used Canvas before, so I may make mistakes setting things up.

All of this is potentially subject to change, so let me know if there's anything that you think isn't working very well in the transition to an online class and I'll think about ways of improving things or alternate setups for the class.

My current office hours: TWR 2:30-3:30pm in the Conferences section of the Canvas site. My final office hour of the semester will be on Thursday, April 23. You are also welcome to e-mail with any questions or to schedule a Skype call (or similar) at another time.