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Reading and discussion of selected works of contemporary literature (fiction) and philosophy that engage concepts of modern physics grounded in relativity and quantum theory. This is intended as a seminar that mixes students from physical sciences and the arts/humanities, with no specific prerequisites-- we will discuss the physics invoked by works of fiction and philosophy in a conceptually rigorous but non-mathematical way. How do writers of speculative fiction make sense of challenging ontological claims from empirical science, what implications do they explore, and how is the worldview of theoretical physics augmented or contested?

dynamic between popular and established cultural forms, the formation of alternative and minority spiritualities, gender and historical representation, the relation of literary, religious, and political forms, and the advent of sentimentalism.

Survey of Woolf's major works, including novels, essays, reviews, and short fiction, including her role as self-publisher, and its impact on the recent turn in feminist book history and contemporary women's writing in new media.

Introduction to media theory by way of some of its key texts and themes, with particular emphasis on how questions of medium, media, and mass media might be useful to literary studies in particular - that is, the study of predominantly textual artifacts. Works by Innis, McLuhan, Derrida, Adorno, Kittler, Hayles, Flusser and others.

This new graduate seminar examines the question of whether a new canon of theoretical monographs-as opposed to influential standalone essays or papers-has coalesced in recent years. We focus on a post-Foucaultian, post-1989 moment, understanding theory as an autonomous, interdisciplinary enterprise that is not subservient or reducible to philosophy or literary criticism but shares many of the core concerns of each discipline. The seminar provides students with a safe space to discuss cutting-edge ideas, arguing for, with, and against influential trends. We will study six to eight monographs in great detail, at least two of which will be determined by class vote. Of special interest are conceptual formations and methodologies that do not have an institutional home or pursue a narrow political agenda. Topics include anticolonial thinking, new materialism, affect studies, and the shadow of the linguistic turn. We may draw from a roster of thinkers such as Bruno Latour, Saidiya Hartman, Verónica Gago, Sianne Ngai, Rob Nixon, Sara Ahmed, Martin Hägglund, Arturo Escobar, Mark Fisher, Wendy Brown, and Fred Moten. Previous experience with theory is recommended. Assignments sequence short papers with revisions, short student presentations, and a final paper. Stanford faculty and outside guests will be a mainstay. Broader community engagement with theory, as well as student integration of the subject matter towards their independent research projects, will be central goals. Open to co-terms, masters, and PhD students in the humanities and social sciences.

How has Western culture constructed the world's oceans since the beginning of global ocean exploration? How have imaginative visions of the ocean been shaped by marine science, technology, exploration, commerce and leisure? Primary authors read might include Cook, Banks, Equiano, Ricketts, and Steinbeck; Defoe, Cooper, Verne, Conrad, Woolf and Hemingway; Coleridge, Baudelaire, Moore, Bishop and Walcott. Critical readings include Schmitt, Rediker and Linebaugh, Baucom, Best, Corbin, Auden, Sontag and Heller-Roazen. Films by Sekula, Painlevé and Bigelow. Seminar coordinated with a 2015 Cantor Arts Center public exhibition. Visits to the Cantor; other possible field trips include Hopkins Marine Station and SF Maritime Historical Park. Open to graduate students only.

What happens in the year 12,021 when future generations seek to understand the extensive record of human endeavour, experience, and life, today and previously? What will constitute a future Rosetta Stone that makes accessible surviving monuments, texts, and languages of 2021; that ensures future people will know how to avoid the deadly nuclear dumps and climate breakdown created now? How can we seek to guarantee in the present that the technologies upon which we rely will be legible and accessible in even mere decades to come?This course will focus on the recording and preservation of, and access to, human communication through its long history and into the next century. How is communication created, produced, and received? How sustainable are the many media and devices through which it is transmitted? What are the key components to sustaining an understanding of the human record without which one might argue very little really matters?

This seminar explores the rich and enduring tradition of the Tristan and Isolde story, from its medieval imagining to modern retellings. We will examine how different versions of the story - literary, visual, and operatic - construct and complicate the story's themes of love, loyalty, betrayal, and fate, among others. Through close readings of key texts from authors such as Beroul, Gottfried of Strassburg, and Thomas of Britain, as well as the operatic adaptation by Richard Wagner, we will interrogate how different themes are shaped by cultural expectations and ideological tensions. Students are invited to consider critical perspectives from feminist, psychoanalytic, queer, and other theory to illuminate the texts. No prior knowledge of medieval literature is required, but a willingness to wrestle with challenging texts and complex questions is essential. Students are also encouraged to explore retellings of the Tristan and Isolde story in other cultural traditions. This seminar concludes with a one-day conference at which students will present their work.

an advanced introduction to concepts and debates within the multi-disciplinary field of comparative studies in race and ethnicity.