Workshops: 2008-2009

• About the Workshop [+]
  This workshop seeks to create a bridge between philosophy and literature. Topics addressed include: the relations between particular philosophers and literary works; the use of philosophical frameworks in interpreting literature or works of visual art; and philosophical readings of literature and literary readings of works of philosophy.
• Coordinators [+]
  Faculty Coordinator
  R. Lanier Anderson
  
  Graduate Student Coordinators
  Ben Wolfson
  
  

• About the Workshop [+]
  How exactly does language work? How does it interact with the other cognitive processes that shape the human experience? The investigation of language and thought is an endeavor that necessarily includes a number of disciplines, including linguistics, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and computer science. This workshop encourages and facilitates communication among these diverse approaches to the study of the same central question, focusing on particular topics which are at the cutting edge of this broad area of research.
• Coordinators [+]
  Faculty Coordinator
  Stanley Peters
  
  Graduate Student Coordinators
  Alistair Isaac
  Thomas Icard

• About the Workshop [+]
  This workshop examines how space and place serve as conceptual categories structuring our understanding of Asia. The workshop will draw on concrete objects and sites such as landscapes, maps, architecture, townships, and iconography. Using ideas and methods from multiple disciplines, it will seek a more multifaceted understanding of Asia by considering how space is perceived, conceived, lived, and practiced in different cultural contexts.

• About the Workshop [+]
  This workshop provides a venue for addressing new developments in the treatment of meaning in linguistic theory, philosophy, literary analysis, and language education.

• About the Workshop [+]
  This workshop will investigate both environmental narratives and paradigms, considering fundamental concepts such as nature, preservation, evolution, species, biodiversity, purity/impurity, and pollution. In addition to literary ecocriticism, this workshop will engage with the fields of philosophy, history, and science and technology.
• Workshop Coordinators [+]
  Faculty Coordinator
  Ursula Heise
  
  Graduate Student Coordinator
  Justin Eichenlaub
  Heather Houser

• About the Workshop [+]
  This interdisciplinary workshop examines various normative frameworks for environmental ethics and policy, and the influence of institutions on them. We will draw on recent works of scholars in economics, political philosophy, natural sciences, law and public policy to discuss how to address conflicts between economic development and the environment. This year, we have several discussions on climate change, with other sessions on pollution and health, marine resource regulation, ecosystem services, biofuel ethics, international legal regimes and others.
  
  The workshop is discussion-oriented. Participants are expected to read posted papers in advance of the workshop. A commentator will initiate the discussion with comments on the paper, to which the author responds, after which a general discussion follows.
  
  Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP to Rachael Garrett (rachaelg@stanford.edu).
  
  Time: Thursdays, 12pm-2pm (except cross-listed events hosted by others)
  Location: Y2E2, Rm 299 (Note some exceptions in schedule)

• About the Workshop [+]
  The French Culture Workshop has a national reputation as a forum for the exchange of ideas on all aspects of modern French society. The workshop focuses on the period from 1700 to the present, placing particular emphasis on topics related to the research of current Stanford graduate students, such as political and intellectual history, imperialism and colonialism, gender and women, nationalism and national identity, immigration and minorities, and francophonie.
• Workshop Coordinators [+]
  Faculty Coordinators
  Dan Edelstein
  J.P. Daughton
  
  
  Graduate Student Coordinator
  Melanie Conroy

• About the Workshop [+]
  This workshop examines questions of global justice including: poverty, inequality between nations, oppressive regimes, identity, human rights, and our duties to one another. The workshop brings together faculty and graduate students from across the university to investigate the complexities of these questions and to discuss possible answers.
• Workshop Coordinators [+]
  Faculty Coordinator
  Joshua Cohen
  
  
  Graduate Student Coordinators
  Ruth Kricheli
  Rob Barlow

• About the Workshop [+]
  Ethics codes in archaeology have been framed within nation states such as the USA, Canada, and Australia. But issues of cultural preservation cut across national boundaries and involve minority and indigenous groups that are often in conflict with state authorities. How should archaeologists and policy makers deal with nations within nations or indigenous minorities? How can we ensure that their interests are adequately represented? This workshop aims to bring international experts in law, human rights, indigenous issues, and policy into discussion with archaeological practitioners facing these issues and tensions on the ground.

• About the Workshop [+]
  Law and history are essential to understanding past societies as well as contemporary ones in comparative perspective. This workshop will bring together graduate students and faculty who will focus on the transplantation of legal institutions in different historical contexts. This historical work will represent a timely inquiry into current issues related to the “rule of law” and the implementation of democracy in transitional societies.

• About the Workshop [+]
  Study of the medieval and early modern period is by definition interdisciplinary, comprising languages and literatures, history, art history, musicology, philosophy, religion, and other related fields. This workshop brings together faculty and graduate students working on the long and important centuries between the ancient world and the modern era, who will share perspectives and enrich each other’s work. The workshop also provides a forum for those working toward creating a Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Stanford.

• About the Workshop [+]
  The Philosophical Reading Group is now in its twentieth year of existence at Stanford and has long been a Humanities Center workshop. The PRG meets weekly to discuss philosophical texts chosen in advance. Graduate students and faculty present and analyze philosophical work, and graduate students have the opportunity to relate their own research to philosophical questions raised by the text.

• About the Workshop [+]
  This workshop promotes an interdisciplinary dialogue on the contemporary city through the lens of the postcolonial, broadly conceived. It brings together scholars from the humanities, the social sciences, and the professional disciplines to reexamine notions of urbanism in light of the growing importance of urban spaces throughout the world.

• About the Workshop [+]
  The Enlightenment and Revolution workshop crosses national boundaries and disciplines by bringing together a variety of eighteenth-century scholars with different research interests and methods to investigate an extremely rich historical period, with a focus on the categories of “Enlightenment” and “Revolution.”

• About the Workshop [+]
  This workshop brings together scholars from disciplines such as philosophy, political science, economics, and law to discuss the norms that guide the behavior of individuals and groups. The workshop addresses foundational issues in the study of normative ethics and integrates relevant empirical research from psychology, political science, and economics.

• About the Workshop [+]
  Several essential musicological questions about the composition, production, and consumption of music will frame the discussions throughout the year.
  
  What kinds of values does music accommodate? How does it contain these values? What roles do performers and listeners play in determining the value of any given music object? This workshop will examine these and other questions about the value of music from a multi-disciplinary perspective.
• Coordinators [+]
  Faculty Coordinator
  Tom Grey
  
  Graduate Student Coordinators
  Kiri Heel
  Byron Sartain
  Kwami Coleman

• About the Workshop [+]
  The Workshop in Poetics is concerned with the theoretical and practical dimensions of the reading and criticism of poetry. The workshop has been active since winter, 2006.
  
  Contact the graduate coordinators for more information: Harris Feinsod (hfeinsod [at] stanford [dot] edu) or Kathryn Hume (khume [at] stanford [dot] edu).