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Calendar
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Autumn Quarter: |
September 21 - December 4 |
Winter Quarter: |
January 4 - March 12 |
Spring Quarter: |
March 29 - June 2 |
Summer Quarter: |
June 21 - August 12 |
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| August 1 |
Enrollment for Autumn quarter begins |
| September 15 |
Online Application available |
| September 21 |
Classes Begin |
| November 23-27 |
Thanksgiving break |
As much as possible, the sequence of seminars is organized
to provide a sense of intellectual connection, whether disciplinary
(e.g., an historical sequence) or interdisciplinary (e.g., a cultural
studies sequence). Over several years, the seminars include offerings
from various disciplines including anthropology, art history, classics,
history, literature, music, urban planning, philosophy, history of science,
political science, and psychology. Following is the list of core courses
and MLA seminars offered during the 2009-2010 academic year. Click on
a link to skip to each quarter:
MLA 101A: Foundations I (Required of incoming students)
Wednesdays, 7 – 9:30 pm
This three-quarter foundation course (MLA 101A, 101B, and 101C) is required
of all students entering the MLA Program. The course will be primarily
a lecture course, with some opportunity for discussion. Its purpose
is to introduce students to a broad overview of the main political,
philosophical, literary, and artistic trends that inform our vision
of the world and that underlie so much of the liberal arts curriculum.
These courses will concentrate on the most significant features of the
western cultural tradition, but will also introduce some of the most
important non-western traditions. The first quarter of the Foundations
course (MLA 101A) will cover Antiquity from Babylonia to the beginning
of the Christian era. The second quarter (MLA 101B) will cover the Middle
Ages and Renaissance. The third quarter (MLA 101C) will take us from
the Enlightenment to the present. Non-western material will include
the Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic traditions.
Edward Steidle
Lecturer in English
Edward Steidle joined the Stanford English faculty in 1984. His area
of specialization is medieval art and literature. He is currently working
on comparative approaches to the study of ancient European, Asian, and
Central American cultures. He also leads travel groups to historical
sites in Italy and the Aegean.
MLA 102: The Plague: An Introduction to Interdisciplinary
Graduate Study
Wednesdays, 7 – 9:30 pm
Thematically, this course will focus on the historical, literary, artistic,
medical, and theological issues raised by the plague in history and
in our day. Practically, it will concentrate on the skills and the information
students will need to pursue MLA graduate work at Stanford: writing
a critical, argumentative graduate paper; conducting library research;
expectations of seminar participation. There will be frequent guest
lecturers. Readings will include selections from Homer, Thucydides,
Cyprian, Boccaccio, Defoe, Camus, Mann, and Kushner, as well as selected
sacred, scientific, and historical writings.
Linda Paulson
Associate Dean, Director of the MLA Program, Lecturer in
English
Linda Paulson has her PhD in Comparative Literature from UCLA. She has
taught at Stanford since 1985. Her research focuses on the Victorian
social novel, particularly on the works of Charlotte Bronte, Charles
Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Anthony Trollope; and on the development
of a British woman's novel from Jane Austen to Doris Lessing. In 1989,
she received Stanford's Dinkelspiel Award for distinguished teaching
and service to Stanford. She also leads travel groups throughout Great
Britain and France.
MLA 267: Wicked Witches of the West
Tuesdays, 7-9:30 pm
This workshop style seminar focuses on the complex way strong and powerful women are depicted in Classical Greece tragedy and in Shakespeare. Our reading will be structured around a series of comparisons of plays in Greek and in Shakespearean Tragedy. For example, we will compare the treatment of murderous women who revenge the deaths of their children in Hecuba and Titus Andronicus. In each class session we will devote some time to discussion of thematic, textual and historical issues, investigate the theatrical practices of the play, watch films if available, and do some light scene and direction work. No acting or theater background necessary.
Larry Friedlander
Professor of English
Larry Friedlander has been at Stanford since 1965, where his specialty
has been Shakespeare and performance. In addition to his academic and
critical activities, Friedlander worked in the professional theater
as an actor and director for many years. He has participated in major
research laboratories on a wide variety of projects connected to the
arts, technology, and education, including work at the Apple Multimedia
Lab developing innovative designs for the Globe Theater Museum in London.
MLA 269: The Meaning of Life: Moral and Spiritual Inquiry through Literature
Thursdays, 7– 9:30 pm
The purpose of this course is to explore the intellectual and physical milieus that produced one of the greatest thinkers in history. Students will use books by and about Charles Darwin as well as internet resources to explore topics related to Darwin's life. We will look at the intellectual foundations and individual characteristics associated with the development of the theory of evolution. We will also look at Darwin's travels both aboard the Beagle and within the United Kingdom and the impact these excursions had on Darwin's ideas.
Scotty McLennan
Dean for Religious Life
Dean McLennan's duties at Stanford include providing spiritual, moral, and ethical leadership for the university as a whole, teaching, encouraging a wide spectrum of religious tradiations on campus, serving as the minister of Memorial Church, and engaging in public service.
At Stanford, he has taught in the Ethics in Society program and with the Graduate School of Business. His primary research interests are in the interface of religion, ethics and the professions.
MLA 101B: Foundations II (Required of first-year
students)
Wednesdays, 7– 9:30 pm
The second quarter of the Foundations sequence will take us from the
early Middle Ages to the late Renaissance. We will discuss the origins
of the Christian West, the barbarian invasions of the 5th century, the
advent of Islam, and the great flowering of medieval culture from the
12th to the 14th century. We will then cover the early Renaissance in
Italy and the High Renaissance in Elizabethan England, and we will conclude
the course at the threshold of the Enlightenment with Milton and the
Baroque. We will also examine the major artistic trends of the periods
covered.
Edward Steidle
Lecturer in English
Edward Steidle joined the Stanford English faculty in 1984. His area
of specialization is medieval art and literature. He is currently working
on comparative approaches to the study of ancient European, Asian, and
Central American cultures. He also leads travel groups to historical
sites in Italy and the Aegean.
MLA 270: Authorial Selves
Day TBD, 7-9:30 pm
In this course we will examine the way in which a variety of novelists, poets, essayists, travel writers and autobiographers ranging from St. Augustine writing at the end of the fourth century to Graham Greene writing in the mid twentieth have treated the concept of identity, both their own and other people's. We will explore such questions as the following: Is the self a stable unchanging entity or a constantly shifting reflection of the external world? How is the "I" inside a literary text related to the authorial "I" who is composing it? Is it possible for a person to undergo a complete intellectual, spiritual, or emotional transformation? And, from the writer's point of view, which is the more effective way of revealing yourself to your readers: by showing them what the world looks like through your eyes or by focussing their attention on your own thoughts and feelings?
Martin Evans
Willaim R. Kenan Jr. Professor, English
Born in Cardiff, Great Britain, Professor Evans emigrated to the United States after earning his B.A., M.A., and D.Phil. degrees at Oxford University. His first post was as an Assistant Professor of English at Stanford, and he has been on the faculty here ever since. From 1977-1981 he served as Associate Dean of Humanities and Science, from 1981-1986 as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the English Department, and from 1988-1991 as Chairman of the English Department.
MLA 271: American Foreign Policy and the Challenges of the 21st century
Day TBD, 7-9:30 pm
Stephen Stedman
Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) and Senior Fellow at CISAC and FSI
MLA 214: Romanticism to Modernism in 19th & early 20th century Paris
Day TBD, 7-9:30 pm
This course will deal with the extraordinary set of cultural events in 19th century France, from the end of the Napoleonic era (1815) to the eve of World War I. By focusing on certain key leterary texts and pictoral representations, we will attempt to follow the develpment, in context, of the main trends: Romanticisn and Realism (in the novel and painting particulary), the aesthetic and moral principles of an enourmously fecund cultural era.
Marc Bertrand
Professor of French, Emeritus
Professor Marc Bertrand was raised in France and obtained his Ph.D. in Romance Languages at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of L'Oeuvre de Jean Prevost and editor, contributor, and co-author of a number of other publications concerning French and cultural history. He is working on Le Roman du bâtard, a book on the contemporary French novel. A recent essay in French Cultural Studies, "L'Ecrit et l'image populaires dans les études d'histoire culturelle," advocated the inclusion of new material from popular culture in the teaching of French cultural history. Professor Bertrand loves Paris past and present, and he has participated in the Stanford in Paris program, lecturing on contemporary French society and culture.
MLA 101C: Foundations III (Required of first-year
students)
Wednesdays, 7-9:30pm
Foundations III examines the Enlightenment, its legacy and its critics
over the past two centuries. The principal topics include the primacy
of reason, the discovery of history, critiques of conceptual thinking
(Marx and Nietzsche), the nature of modernity, and twentieth-century
explorations of reason, domination, and freedom. Course meetings typically
combine lecture format and discussion of assigned texts. A term paper
will be required.
Charles Junkerman
Associate Provost and Dean, Stanford Continuing Studies
Charles Junkerman received his PhD in comparative literature from UC
Berkeley, and has been at Stanford since 1983. He has taught in the
departments of English, History, and Anthropology on subjects ranging
from John Cage and Gary Snyder to Native American photography, English
and American literature, and cultural theory.
MLA 272: Morris and Orwell
Day TBD, 7-9:30pm
Peter Stansky
Frances and Charles Field Professor of History, Emeritus
MLA 273: Enlightenment in Russia
Day TBD, 7-9:30pm
This course examines a period of dynamic change in the social values, political ideology and cultural expression in Russia in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It focuses on how Russians encountered and absorbed ideas emanating from various "Enlightenments" - first, a wave of social and cultural reforms from Poland through Ukraine; next, the early eighteenth-century Geman Enlightenment, finally, the French Enlightenment. These trends were most influential in changing concepts about the individual, state and society and the relationship of the individual to the state, so we will track these themes throughout. Some attention will also be given to literacy, education and printing, as we assess the emergence of new cultural practices and literary genres and the depth of their impact.
Nancy Kollmann
William H. Bonsall Professor in History
MLA 275: Shakespeare through Performance XI
Days and times TBD
Shakespeare's works were written for the theater, and their style, structure,
and power are only fully revealed in performance. In this workshop-style
class, students will gain an intimate understanding of the process of
theater by producing a short version of two plays. Our goal will be
to understand better how a unified interpretation and theatrical style
emerges from the collaborative efforts of an entire production team.
Students do not need to have a background in acting but must be willing
to participate fully in all areas of production. Students will write
a paper which applies their experience of production to a more conventional
reading of a play.
Larry Friedlander
Professor of English
Larry Friedlander has been at Stanford since 1965, where his specialty
has been Shakespeare and performance. In addition to his academic and
critical activities, Friedlander worked in the professional theater
as an actor and director for many years. He has participated in major
research laboratories on a wide variety of projects connected to the
arts, technology, and education, including work at the Apple Multimedia
Lab developing innovative designs for the Globe Theater Museum in London.
MLA 262: The Economics of Life and Death
Days and times TBD
This course is a survey of economic perspectives on issues of life and death. The central idea of economics is that scarcity and constraints are unavoidable facts of life. While economists traditionally focus on the role of scarcity in decisions that people make about work, saving, and spending (among other topics), the role of scarcity extends to a much broader range of decisions, including to fundamental decisions about health, life, and death. The analytic framework of economics helps to explain many puzzling facts about life and death decisions. In this course, we will apply this framework to a diverse set of topics, including abortion, fertility, famines, obesity, life insurance, HIV disease, disease eradication, smoking, suicide, and the value of life.
Jay Bhattacharya
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Jay Bhattacharya's research focuses on the constraints that vulnerable populations face in making decisions that affect their health status, as well as the effects of government policies and programs designed to benefit vulnerable populations. He has published empirical economics and health services research on the elderly, adolescents, HIV/AIDS and managed care. He is also working on a project examining the labor-market conditions that help determine why some U.S. employers do not provide health insurance. He worked for three years as an economist at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., where he also taught health economics as a visiting assistant professor at the University of California-Los Angeles. He received a BA in economics, an MD and PhD from Stanford University.
_______
"If you are a professor, you live a life of learning.
Most of us are not professors. The MLA program provides partial access
to such a life for the rest of us, and complements the day-to-day with
something very rare and remarkable. I'm not kidding." - Mason
Tobak ‘02, M.D.
last updated: August 31, 2009
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