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MLA Faculty

Paula Findlen

"There is nothing like teaching a group of mature students who come to an evening seminar after a full day of having a life outside of the university. They are among the best, most engaged students I have worked with."

—Paula Findlen, Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of History and, by courtesy, of French and Italian

Study with Stanford Faculty

Pillar

Stanford's faculty is one of the most distinguished in the nation. It includes 17 Nobel laureates, 4 Pulitzer Prize winners, 16 National Medal of Science winners, 169 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 284 members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, 108 members of the National Academy of Engineering, and 26 members of the National Academy of Education.

MLA faculty, who are recruited from among Stanford University’s most distinguished professors, are eager to share their own enthusiasm for their subjects with this group of students. In the small group setting of MLA seminars, students have the opportunity to get to know their professors in a way that many students have never before experienced.

The following faculty will be teaching, or have recently taught, for the MLA Program:

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

B

  • Jonathan Berger

    Jonathan Berger

    The Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music and The William R. and Gretchen B. Kimball Fellow in Undergraduate Education

    Professor Berger is a composer and researcher at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.

    • MLA 286: Cheesecake or Peacock Feathers: Evolutionary Theories of Music
  • Jay Bhattacharya

    Jay Bhattacharya

    Associate Professor of Medicine and core faculty of the Center for Health Policy

    Professor Bhattacharya’s research focuses on the constraints that vulnerable populations face in making decisions that affect their health; he earned his BA in Economics, and an MD and PhD from Stanford.

    • MLA 262: The Economics of Life and Death

C

  • Albert Camarillo

    Albert Camarillo

    Leon Sloss Jr. Memorial Professor, Emeritus

    Professor Emeritus Camarillo’s research is in the experiences of Mexican American and other racial and immigrant groups in American cities. He is considered a founder of the field of Mexican American history and Chicano studies.

    • MLA 348: Race and Ethnicity in Modern America
  • James T. Campbell

    James T. Campbell

    Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States History

    Professor Campbell’s research focuses on African American History and the wider history of the black Atlantic.

    • MLA 330: Topics in African American History and Culture
    • MLA 344: Making and Unmaking of Apartheid: Topics in South African History
    • MLA 351: The Civil Rights Movement in History and Memory
    • Faculty leader for the 2019 MLA South Africa trip

  • Clayborne Carson

    Professor of American History

    Professor Carson has devoted most of his professional life to the study of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the movements King inspired. He is the Director of Stanford's Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, and was selected in 1985 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King to edit and publish the papers of her late husband.

    • MLA 308: Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Man, the Movement, the Legacy
  • Gordon Chang

    Gordon Chang

    Professor of American History and Director, Center for East Asian Studies

    Professor Chang’s research focus is in trans-Pacific relations and the inter-connections between East Asia and America

    • MLA 250: A History of United States-China Relations

D

  • James P. Daughton

    James P. Daughton

    Associate Professor of Modern European History

    Professor Daughton is an historian of modern Europe and European imperialism with a particular interest in political, social, and cultural history.

    • MLA 302: Paris: Capital of the Modern World

  • Alberto Diaz-Cayeros

    Senior Fellow, Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law and Director, Center for Latin American Studies
  • Bill H. Durham

    Bill H. Durham

    Bing Professor in Human Biology, Department of Anthropology, and Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment

    Professor Durham is an acclaimed human ecologist; among his specialties is indigenous ecotourism, and his contributions include co-founding the Center for Responsible Travel.

    • MLA 314: Social and Environmental Sustainability: The Costa Rican Case
    • MLA 299: Evolution and Conservation in the Galapagos
    • Faculty leader for the 2015 MLA Costa Rica trip
    • Faculty leader for the 2013 MLA Galapagos trip
     

F

  • Paula Findlen

    Paula Findlen

    Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of History and Professor, by courtesy, of French and Italian

    Professor Findlen specializes in Italian history, 1300-1800, and the early history of science and medicine.

    • MLA 347: Rome: From Pilgrimage to the Grand Tour
    • MLA 298: Heretics, Prostitutes, and Merchants: The Venetian Empire
    • MLA 322: Coffee, Sugar, and Chocolate: Commodities and Consumption in World History, 1200-1800
      Member of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee

G

  • Al Gelpi

    Al Gelpi

    Coe Professor of American Literature, Emeritus

    Professor Emeritus Gelpi taught at Stanford for over thirty years in the field of American literature, ranging from its Puritan beginnings to the present day.

    • MLA 345: William Faulkner and Eudora Welty
    • MLA 280: British & American Fiction in the 19th and Early 20th Century
  • Barbara Gelpi

    Barbara Gelpi

    Professor of English, Emerita

    Professor Emerita Gelpi is a Victorianist by training, and also focuses on feminist theory and feminist literary criticism.

    • MLA 345: William Faulkner and Eudora Welty
    • MLA 280: British & American Fiction in the 19th and Early 20th Century
      Member of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee
  • Denise Gigante

    Denise Gigante

    Professor of English

    Professor Gigante teaches British Romanticism, as well as the longer historical tradition of poetry and poetics.

    • MLA 306: The Young Romantics
    • MLA 338: William Blake: An Exploration of the Illuminated Poetry
    • MLA 355: Dante and the Romantics

H

  • Heather Hadlock

    Associate Professor of Music

    Professor Hadlock specializes in 18th- and 19th-century French and Italian opera, feminist criticism and gender studies, and French Romanticism.

  • Allyson Hobbs

    Allyson Hobbs

    Assistant Professor of American History

    Professor Hobbs teaches courses on American identity, African American history, and 20th-century American history and culture.

    • MLA 320: Racial Identity in the American Imagination

J

  • Nicholas Jenkins

    Nicholas Jenkins

    Associate Professor of English

    Professor Jenkins writes about and teaches 20th-century culture and literature.

    • MLA 332: London Past and Present – Exploring the City
  • Charles Junkerman

    Charles Junkerman

    Associate Provost and Dean, Continuing Studies (1999-2018)

    Dr. Junkerman teaches courses on American literature as well as cultural studies and cultural history from the Enlightenment to the present.

    • MLA 346: Into the Woods with Thoreau
    • MLA 256: Brian Friel’s Human Comedy

K

  • Ari Kelman

    Associate Professor of Education and, by courtesy, of Religious Studies

    Professor Kelman's research focuses on the myriad ways in which people cultivate religious commitments. His research focuses on the ways that people learn religion across domains including schools, congregations, museums, camps, media, and online. 

    • MLA 353: The Fourth R: Religion, Education, and Schooling in America

  • Mykel Kochenderfer

    Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics

    Professor Kochenderfer is the director of the Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory (SISL), and is affiliated with the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) and the Human-Centered AI Institute. Of particular interest to him are systems for air traffic control, unmanned aircraft, and automated driving.

    • MLA 373: Artificial Intelligence and Society
  • Nancy Kollmann

    Nancy Kollmann

    William H. Bonsall Professor of History

    Professor Kollmann’s research focuses on how politics worked in early modern Russian autocracy.

    • MLA 305: Russia Encounters the Enlightenment: The Arts, Culture, and Politics
      Member of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee

  • Jack Kollmann

    Lecturer, Stanford's Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

    Dr. Kollmann studies and teaches the history of Russian culture, particularly Russian art, architecture, and religion.

    • MLA 305: Russia Encounters the Enlightenment: The Arts, Culture, and Politics

L

  • Pavle Levi

    Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies

    Professor Levi's primary areas of research and teaching include Eastern Europe cinema, aesthetics and ideology, and experimental cinema. He is also the faculty director of the Stanford Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

  • Joseph Lipsick

    Professor of Pathology, Genetics, and Biology (by courtesy)

    Professor Lipsick specializes in cancer genetics, and researches how mistakes in genes cause cancer.  

    • MLA 358: The Intersection of Medicine, Science, Public Policy, and Ethics: Cancer as a Case Study

  • James Lock

    Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

    Dr. Lock's research focuses on eating disorders in children and adolescents. He is also affiliated with Stanfor's Center for Biomedical Ethics and their Medicine & the Muse program. 

    • MLA 354: Intimations of Mortality

M

  • Peter Mann

    Lecturer in MLA and CSP

    Peter Mann is a historian of modern Europe with a focus on 19th- and 20th-century literature and thought.

     

    • MLA 101A: Foundations I
    • MLA 101B: Foundations II
    • MLA 101C: Foundations III

  • Abbas Milani

    Hamid & Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies; Professor, Adjunct Professor at the Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University

    Dr. Milani's expertise is U.S.-Iran relations as well as Iranian cultural, political, and security issues.

    • MLA 348: Modern Iranian Politics through Modern Iranian Art and Literature
  • Thomas S. Mullaney

    Thomas S. Mullaney

    Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History

    Professor Mullaney teaches courses on Chinese history and is the author of Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China and The Chinese Typewriter.

    • MLA 310: Modern Chinese History

N

  • Alexander Nemerov

    Alexander Nemerov

    Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities

    Professor Nemerov is a scholar of American art, and writes about the presence of art, the recollection of the past and the importance of the humanities in our lives today.

    • MLA 312: The Visual and Literary Culture of the American Civil War

P

  • David Palumbo-Liu

    David Palumbo-Liu

    Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of Comparative Literature

    Professor Palumbo-Liu’s fields of interest include social and cultural criticism, literary theory and criticism, and critical human rights.

    • MLA 323: What Can Literature Tell Us About Human Rights
      Member of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee
  • Grant Parker

    Grant Parker

    Associate Professor of Classics

    Professor Parker teaches Latin as well as Roman imperial culture.

    • MLA 324: What is a Map?
    • MLA 303: Cultures of Collecting
  • Linda Paulson

    Linda Paulson

    Associate Dean and Director, MLA Program

    Dr. Paulson’s research focuses on 19th-century British, French, and German literature.

    • MLA 102: Introduction to Interdisciplinary Graduate Study
    • MLA 398: MLA Thesis in Progress

R

  • David Riggs

    David Riggs

    The Mark Piggott OBE Professor of English, Emeritus

    Professor Emeritus Riggs is a biographer and film critic who specializes in Renaissance literature.

    • MLA 288: Who was Shakespeare?
  • Jessica Riskin

    Jessica Riskin

    Professor of History

    Professor Riskin teaches courses in early modern science, politics and culture, and the history of scientific explanation

    • MLA 337: Science and Law in History
    • MLA 328: The Scientific Revolution
      Member of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee
  • Paul Robinson

    Paul Robinson

    Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus

    Professor Emeritus Robinson’s research and teaching focus on the history of European and American thought in the 19th and 20th centuries.

    • MLA 102: Introduction to Interdisciplinary Graduate Study
    • MLA 247: European Intellectual and Cultural History in the 20th Century: Freud to Foucault
    • MLA 293: Darwin, Marx, and Freud

S

  • Robert Siegel

    Robert Siegel

    Professor (Teaching) of Microbiology and Immunology

    Professor Siegel teaches courses on the environment, and the impact of environmental factors on infectious disease.

    • MLA 326: Nature through Photography
    • MLA 352: Virus in the News
      Member of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee

  • Matthew Sommer

    Bowman Family Professor of History and, by courtesy, of East Asian Languages and Cultures
  • Peter Stansky

    Peter Stansky

    Frances and Charles Field Professor of History, Emeritus

    Professor Emeritus Stansky has written extensively on modern Britain, particularly about William Morris, George Orwell and the Bloomsbury Group.

    • MLA 292: The Bloomsbury Group
    • MLA 281: The Arts as History: Britain 1900-1956
      Member of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee

  • Stephen J. Stedman

    Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute For International Studies, and, Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science

T

  • Barton " Buzz" Thompson

    Robert E. Paradise Professor in Natural Resources Law and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment

    Barton H. “Buzz” Thompson, Jr., JD/MBA ’76 (BA ’72) is a leading expert in environmental and natural resources law and policy.

    • MLA 304: The Colorado River: A Case Study of the History & Future of Western Water
    • MLA 335: A Tale of Three Rivers

     

  • Stuart Thompson

    Stuart Thompson

    Professor of Biology (Hopkins Marine Station)

    Professor Thompson’s research is in neurobiology and signal transduction, and he teaches courses on marine biology, and sensory ecology of marine animals.

    • MLA 331: The Biology of Monterey Bay
  • Elaine Treharne

    Elaine Treharne

    Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of Humanities

    Professor Treharne’s research focuses on Early British manuscripts.

    • MLA 342: The Human Story in the Archives
    • MLA 334: The Material Book: Ancient and Modern

V

  • Blakey Vermeule

    Blakey Vermeule

    Professor of English

    Professor Vermeule’s research includes cognitive and evolutionary approaches to art, philosophy and literature, British literature, and the history of the novel.

    • MLA 339: The Human Predicament in Three Masterpieces

  • Peter Vitousek

    Clifford G. Morrison Professor in Population and Resource Studies, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Earth System Science

    Professor Vitousek's research interests are in the areas of conservation biology and ecology.

    • MLA 297: Islands as Model Systems: Geology, Evolution, Ecology, and Human Societies

W

  • Michael Wilcox

    Senior Lecturer in Native American Studies

    Dr. Wilcox has been on the faculty of Stanford since 2001, first as an Assistant and Associate professor of Anthropology and currently as a Senior Lecturer in Native American Studies in the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. 

    • MLA 359: The Big Shift: Demographic and Social Change in America
  • Caroline Winterer

    Caroline Winterer

    Professor of History and, by courtesy, of Classics

    Professor Winterer is an intellectual and cultural historian of early America in its transatlantic contexts.

    • MLA 295: The American Enlightenment

Y

  • Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano

    Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano

    Professor of Iberian and Latin American Cultures, Emerita

    Professor Emerita Bejarano teaches courses on race and nation, critical concepts in Chicano/a literature, and representations of race, sexuality and gender in cultural production by Chicanas/os and Latinas/os.

    • MLA 316: Latin@ Literatures

  • Ali Yaycioglu

    Associate Professor of History

.