MLA 358: The Intersection of Medicine, Science, Public Policy, and Ethics: Cancer as a Case Study
How has our approach to cancer been affected by clinical observations, scientific discoveries, social norms, politics, and economic interests? Approximately one in three Americans will develop invasive cancer during their lifetime; one in five Americans will die as a result of this disease. We will explore how society has attempted to understand and manage this problem using clinical trials, population studies, public health interventions, and laboratory research. We will also discuss how race, politics, economics, and ethics have affected the outcomes of these efforts.
Last offered: Winter 2024
| Units: 4
MLA 359: The Big Shift: Demographic and Social Change in America
What are the most pressing and challenging issues facing Americans today? Is the middle class shrinking? How do people who live at the extremes of American society- the super rich, the working poor and those who live on the margins, imagine and experience "the good life"? How does a soldier in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley (TRIBE/War), by Sebastian Junger) Valley come to experience friendship, kinship and masculinity? How does an African American researcher's experience living in a 'Whitopia' (Searching for Whitopia, by Rich Benjamin) change his preconceptions about race and class? How does modern agribusiness (Tomatoland, by Barry Estabrook) draw immigrants from around the globe and how do we deal with these invisible populations? In 'Tattoos on the Heart' by Father Greg Boyle we learn how a Jesuit priest in Los Angeles is literally turning lives around through compassion, business savvy and community engagement. What creative responses are generated to these problems by normal everyd
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What are the most pressing and challenging issues facing Americans today? Is the middle class shrinking? How do people who live at the extremes of American society- the super rich, the working poor and those who live on the margins, imagine and experience "the good life"? How does a soldier in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley (TRIBE/War), by Sebastian Junger) Valley come to experience friendship, kinship and masculinity? How does an African American researcher's experience living in a 'Whitopia' (Searching for Whitopia, by Rich Benjamin) change his preconceptions about race and class? How does modern agribusiness (Tomatoland, by Barry Estabrook) draw immigrants from around the globe and how do we deal with these invisible populations? In 'Tattoos on the Heart' by Father Greg Boyle we learn how a Jesuit priest in Los Angeles is literally turning lives around through compassion, business savvy and community engagement. What creative responses are generated to these problems by normal everyday people such as yourselves? This class uses the methods and modes of ethnographic study in an examination of American culture. Each of these narratives provides a window into the various ways in which Americans approach the subjects of wealth and the good life, poverty and the underclass, and the construction of class, race, and gender in American society. Students will not be required to have any previous knowledge, just curiosity and an open mind.
Last offered: Spring 2021
| Units: 4
MLA 360: The Impossibility of Love: Opera, Literature, and Culture
Opera has been called 'A Song of Love and Death,' and most plots feature love forbidden by family, rivals, or social rules. This seminar will study five operas from the Romantic era in which star-crossed love is not merely forbidden but impossible due to illness, psychology, divine law, or the boundary between humans and non-humans. In addition to being gorgeous in itself, each work represents a different language and national style and a stage in the development of opera across 19th-century Europe. We will see how opera responded to currents in literary romanticism, folklorism, national consciousness, and symphonic music. Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata (1853)Jules Massenet, Manon (1884)Richard Wagner, Die Walküre (1870)Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin (1879)Antonin Dvorak, Rusalka (1901)We will study the five works closely, spending about two weeks on each, and read scholarly interpretations from musical, literary, political, and socio-historical perspectives. You will learn to re
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Opera has been called 'A Song of Love and Death,' and most plots feature love forbidden by family, rivals, or social rules. This seminar will study five operas from the Romantic era in which star-crossed love is not merely forbidden but impossible due to illness, psychology, divine law, or the boundary between humans and non-humans. In addition to being gorgeous in itself, each work represents a different language and national style and a stage in the development of opera across 19th-century Europe. We will see how opera responded to currents in literary romanticism, folklorism, national consciousness, and symphonic music. Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata (1853)Jules Massenet, Manon (1884)Richard Wagner, Die Walküre (1870)Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin (1879)Antonin Dvorak, Rusalka (1901)We will study the five works closely, spending about two weeks on each, and read scholarly interpretations from musical, literary, political, and socio-historical perspectives. You will learn to recognize the building blocks of Romantic opera: solo showpieces, introspective soliloquies, love duets, trios and quartets of intrigue, grand and festive choruses, ballets, and of course death scenes. We will compare multiple stagings of certain scenes to see how decisions of directors and performers can transform the meaning of the drama and music. All works will be studied in translation and on video with subtitles. No prior musical knowledge is required.
Last offered: Spring 2021
| Units: 4
MLA 361: History of Modern Turkey
This course focuses on the Ottoman Empire, its transformation, collapse, and the emergence of the Republic of Turkey. In the first half of the class, we will discuss the multi-ethnic and multi-religious character of the Ottoman world, spread over three continents, as well as several themes such statecraft, public life, art and architecture, music, family, and sexuality. Then we will discuss how this imperial order collapsed because of complex global and regional developments. In the second half we will focus on emergence and transformation of Modern Turkey in the 20th century and visit themes such as secularism and Islam, Turkey's relations with Europe, the USA, NATO and the Middle East, ideological movements such as nationalism, liberalism and socialism, as well as the recent crisis of Turkish democracy.
Last offered: Summer 2021
| Units: 4
MLA 362: Darwin, Evolution, and the Galapagos
The tiny, remote islands of Galápagos have played a big, central role in the study of evolution. Not surprisingly, they have also been important to the study of conservation. The fascinating adaptations of organisms to the isolated ecosystems of the islands have left them particularly vulnerable as the outside world has come crashing in to the archipelago. Drawing on lessons learned from Darwin's time to the present, this seminar explores evolution, conservation, and their connection among the organisms of this remote Pacific outpost. Using case-study material on finches, iguanas, tortoises, boobies, cacti, Scalesia plants and more, we will explore current theory and debate about adaptation, sexual selection, speciation, adaptive radiation, and other topics in evolution. Similarly, we will explore the special challenges Galápagos poses today for conservation, owing to both its unusual biota and the increasing human impact on the archipelago.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| Units: 4
MLA 363: Living on the Edge: Literature of the Western Fringes
What does it feel like to live on the edge, facing an expanse between you and the next place? Who has lived on the Western fringes of Britain and America? Who has named, formed, and been inspired by that land? Whose voices are silenced in the (re)making of a place? Shaping the landscape through the words we use or the features we build and imagine is as old as recorded time. In this course, we'll investigate how the land is conceived, defined, settled, and delimited through history and literature, with particular reference to Wales and California. We'll focus on specific elements in the landscape, Water, Hill, Tree, Stone, and Border, looking at a sequence of locations through historical, archaeological, placename, literary, and artistic analyses. Students will produce close readings of literary descriptions of landscape, and will read indigenous writers' work alongside those of settlers and colonisers. Among the authors studied will be John Muir, John Steinbeck, Beth Piatote, Linda Noel, Dylan Thomas, R. S. Thomas and Gwyneth Lewis.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
| Units: 4
MLA 364: A Short History of Security
This course interrogates what people mean when they talk about security. Security justifies inconveniences like passwords that are nearly impossible to memorize, and metal detectors to enter sporting events, political talks, and airports. Security is said to be central to processes leading to war: the pursuit of security by one state may imperil the security of another, leading to a spiral of conflict that international relations scholars call "the security dilemma." Sometimes we are asked to ignore impolite, nasty, or thoughtless behavior because someone suffers from the absence of security. Yet despite its importance and centrality in social and political life, security suffers from vagueness and imprecision. It can connote freedom from fear, or freedom from threat. Security's modifiers are abundant and suggest a wealth of objects to be secured; a non-exhaustive list includes human, social, national, international, nuclear, cyber, food, economic, energy, and homeland. In this course we will investigate how the meanings of security have shifted throughout history. We will ask why security becomes a societal preoccupation at different times in history. We will ask whether our current preoccupation with security will be permanent.
Last offered: Spring 2025
| Units: 4
MLA 365: The Poetry of Animality: Romantic to Contemporary
Animals have always appealed to the human imagination. This course provides basic a rubric for analyzing a variety of animal poems in order (1) to make you better readers of poetry and (2) to examine some of the most pressing philosophical questions that have been raised in the growing field of animal studies. The animals that concern us here are not allegorical, the serpent as evil, the fox as cunning, the dove as a figure for love. Rather, they are creatures that, in their stubborn animality, provoke the imagination of the poet. On the theoretical side of things, we will examine: the concept of the autobiographical animal defined here as a creature that provides the poet with an opportunity for self-reflection; the ontology of nonhuman animals that remain 'other' and opaque to the questioning, curious human; the nature of animal aesthetics that emerge in creaturely poems; the nature of pathos and sympathy in the relation between humans and nonhuman animals; the ethics of animality; t
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Animals have always appealed to the human imagination. This course provides basic a rubric for analyzing a variety of animal poems in order (1) to make you better readers of poetry and (2) to examine some of the most pressing philosophical questions that have been raised in the growing field of animal studies. The animals that concern us here are not allegorical, the serpent as evil, the fox as cunning, the dove as a figure for love. Rather, they are creatures that, in their stubborn animality, provoke the imagination of the poet. On the theoretical side of things, we will examine: the concept of the autobiographical animal defined here as a creature that provides the poet with an opportunity for self-reflection; the ontology of nonhuman animals that remain 'other' and opaque to the questioning, curious human; the nature of animal aesthetics that emerge in creaturely poems; the nature of pathos and sympathy in the relation between humans and nonhuman animals; the ethics of animality; the 'rights of brutes' (animal rights), and transhumanism. Our goals will be: (1) To become a better reader of poetry; (2) to develop a critical skill set regarding the representation of animals; (3) to enjoy engaging in dynamic group discussion about ethic, aesthetic, and philosophical questions and issues.
Last offered: Spring 2022
| Units: 4
MLA 366: Critical Approaches to Literary and Historical Approaches
This seminar aims to introduce students to the complexities of the primary source in its broadest sense, focusing principally on the written word, on images, and on material remains from 1000CE to the present day. We shall investigate how meaning is formed by text in its various physical and historical contexts. Among the major themes that we shall analyse is textual mouvance or variance (how texts change over time at the hands of successive users, whether annotators, readers, performers, editors, translators, or copyists); how paratextual features, such as illustration, typography, codicology and layout both affect and effect our interpretation; and the ways in which meaning can be said to derive from combinations of textual production, reception, and ideological or performative interactions. This course will involve hands-on experience with original sources, and will examine key scholarly approaches to material history.
Last offered: Summer 2022
| Units: 4
MLA 367: Muwekma: Landscape, Archaeology, and the Narratives of California Natives
This is a service based, field oriented, Integrative Learning course. California supported the greatest population density of Native people in all of North America, and was one of the world's most diverse linguistic regions. This class will review the history of California Indian scholarship, the ways in which anthropological and archaeological theory impacted native communities in California, the early exploration and history of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the struggle for sovereignty by Bay Area and other California native communities. The course will involve examination of primary historical documents located in archives in the San Francisco Bay Area, visits to local museums, working with descendent communities, and involvement with local archaeological sites and materials. Depending upon the size the class this course will have a heavy component of field trips, and field work. One of the primary goals of the class is to expose students to the methods materials and techniques th
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This is a service based, field oriented, Integrative Learning course. California supported the greatest population density of Native people in all of North America, and was one of the world's most diverse linguistic regions. This class will review the history of California Indian scholarship, the ways in which anthropological and archaeological theory impacted native communities in California, the early exploration and history of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the struggle for sovereignty by Bay Area and other California native communities. The course will involve examination of primary historical documents located in archives in the San Francisco Bay Area, visits to local museums, working with descendent communities, and involvement with local archaeological sites and materials. Depending upon the size the class this course will have a heavy component of field trips, and field work. One of the primary goals of the class is to expose students to the methods materials and techniques that anthropologists, historians and archaeologists use to understand contemporary Indian communities. We will be working with Muwekma leaders to accomplish collaborative and service-oriented projects. Lab and field trip days: This course is intended to be a hands-on, experiential learning experience. We will complete the requirements for the course in a short two- week period. The most important attendance will be on weekends- Saturday and Sunday at a site in the foothills above Stanford, on Midpeninsula open space lands. This means that you will need to have transportation to the field site and engage in archaeological survey and excavation. These are outside- outdoors fieldwork days. It will require some degree of physical activity but we have opportunities for otherly-able bodied people.
Last offered: Summer 2022
| Units: 4