"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
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
Jonathan Berger
The Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music and The William R. and Gretchen B. Kimball Fellow in Undergraduate EducationProfessor 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
Associate Professor of Medicine and core faculty of the Center for Health PolicyProfessor 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
Albert Camarillo
Leon Sloss Jr. Memorial Professor, EmeritusProfessor 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
Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States HistoryProfessor 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 HistoryProfessor 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
Professor of American History and Director, Center for East Asian StudiesProfessor 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
James P. Daughton
Associate Professor of Modern European HistoryProfessor 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
Bing Professor in Human Biology, Department of Anthropology, and Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the EnvironmentProfessor 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
Paula Findlen
Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of History and Professor, by courtesy, of French and ItalianProfessor 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
Al Gelpi
Coe Professor of American Literature, EmeritusProfessor 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
Professor of English, EmeritaProfessor 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 CenturyMember of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee
Denise Gigante
Professor of EnglishProfessor Gigante teaches British Romanticism, as well as the longer historical tradition of poetry and poetics.- MLA 306: The Young RomanticsMLA 338: William Blake: An Exploration of the Illuminated Poetry
- MLA 355: Dante and the Romantics
Heather Hadlock
Associate Professor of MusicProfessor Hadlock specializes in 18th- and 19th-century French and Italian opera, feminist criticism and gender studies, and French Romanticism.
Allyson Hobbs
Assistant Professor of American HistoryProfessor Hobbs teaches courses on American identity, African American history, and 20th-century American history and culture.- MLA 320: Racial Identity in the American Imagination
Nicholas Jenkins
Associate Professor of EnglishProfessor Jenkins writes about and teaches 20th-century culture and literature.- MLA 332: London Past and Present – Exploring the City
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 ThoreauMLA
- 256: Brian Friel’s Human Comedy
Ari Kelman
Associate Professor of Education and, by courtesy, of Religious StudiesProfessor 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 AstronauticsProfessor 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
Jack Kollmann
Lecturer, Stanford's Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian StudiesDr. 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
Nancy Kollmann
William H. Bonsall Professor of HistoryProfessor Kollmann’s research focuses on how politics worked in early modern Russian autocracy.- MLA 305: Russia Encounters the Enlightenment: The Arts, Culture, and PoliticsMember of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee
Jon Krosnick
Frederic O. Glover Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor of Communication and of Political Science, at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and, by courtesy, of Psychology
Pavle Levi
Associate Professor of Film and Media StudiesProfessor 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 SciencesDr. 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
Peter Mann
Lecturer in MLA and CSPPeter Mann is a historian of modern Europe with a focus on 19th- and 20th-century literature and thought.- MLA 101A: Foundations IMLA 101B: Foundations IIMLA 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 UniversityDr. 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
Associate Professor of Modern Chinese HistoryProfessor 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
Alexander Nemerov
Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and HumanitiesProfessor 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
David Palumbo-Liu
Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of Comparative LiteratureProfessor 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 RightsMember of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee
Grant Parker
Associate Professor of ClassicsProfessor Parker teaches Latin as well as Roman imperial culture.- MLA 324: What is a Map?
- MLA 303: Cultures of Collecting
Linda Paulson
Associate Dean and Director, MLA ProgramDr. 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
David Riggs
The Mark Piggott OBE Professor of English, EmeritusProfessor Emeritus Riggs is a biographer and film critic who specializes in Renaissance literature.- MLA 288: Who was Shakespeare?
Jessica Riskin
Professor of HistoryProfessor 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 RevolutionMember of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee
Paul Robinson
Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities, EmeritusProfessor 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
Robert Siegel
Professor (Teaching) of Microbiology and ImmunologyProfessor 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 NewsMember of the MLA Faculty Advisory Committee
Matthew Sommer
Bowman Family Professor of History and, by courtesy, of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Peter Stansky
Frances and Charles Field Professor of History, EmeritusProfessor 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 1900-1956Member 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
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
Barton " Buzz" Thompson
Robert E. Paradise Professor in Natural Resources Law and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the EnvironmentBarton 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
Elaine Treharne
Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of HumanitiesProfessor Treharne’s research focuses on Early British manuscripts.- MLA 342: The Human Story in the Archives
- MLA 334: The Material Book: Ancient and Modern
Blakey Vermeule
Professor of EnglishProfessor 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 ScienceProfessor 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
Michael Wilcox
Senior Lecturer in Native American StudiesDr. 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
Professor of History and, by courtesy, of ClassicsProfessor Winterer is an intellectual and cultural historian of early America in its transatlantic contexts.- MLA 295: The American Enlightenment
Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano
Professor of Iberian and Latin American Cultures, EmeritaProfessor 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
