stanford university phd art history

ExploreDegrees Archive, 2011-12

Explore courses, alphabetical index, bulletin archive.

This archived information is dated to the 2011-12 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin .

Doctor of Philosophy in Art History

University requirements for the Ph.D. are described in the " Graduate Degrees " section of this bulletin. An expanded explanation of department requirements is given in the Art History Graduate Student Handbook.

In addition to University requirements, the department requires a research paper of approximately 15-20 pages demonstrating the student's capacity to pursue independent investigation of an art historical problem as part of the application. All applicants must have been awarded a B.A., B.F.A., or B.S. from an accredited university.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

To be eligible for the doctoral degree, the student must complete a minimum of three years of full-time graduate work in Art History, at least two years of which must be in residence at Stanford. Doctoral students must complete a minimum of 135 units. Of these 135, the student must complete at least 100 units of graduate course work at the 200 level or above, including all required courses, with a minimum of 62 units in Art History lecture courses and seminars.

• Collateral Studies— The student is required to take at least three courses in supporting fields of study (such as anthropology, classics, history, literature, or philosophy), determined in consultation with the department advisers. These courses are intended to strengthen the student's interdisciplinary study of art history.
• Graduate Student Teaching— As a required part of their training, graduate students in Art History, regardless of their source of funding, must participate in the department's teaching program. At least one, one-quarter assignment in ARTHIST 1, 2, 3, or FILMSTUD 4 is required (with concurrent registration in ARTHIST 610, Seminar in Teaching Praxis for ARTHIST 1 only). Students are required to serve as a teaching assistant for a minimum of four quarters. Further opportunities for teaching may be available.
• Admission to Candidacy— A graduate student's progress is formally reviewed at the end of Spring Quarter of the second year. The applicant for candidacy must put together a candidacy file showing that he/she has completed the requirements governing the M.A. program in the History of Art (see above), and at least an additional 18-24 units by the end of Winter Quarter of the second year. The graduate student does not become a formal candidate for the Ph.D. degree until he/she has fully satisfied these requirements and has been accepted as a candidate by the department.
• Area Core Examination (ACE)— All graduate students conceptualize an area core and bibliography in consultation with their primary adviser and two other Stanford faculty members, one of whom is drawn from a field other than Art History, or, if in Art History, has expertise outside of the student's main area of interdisciplinary concentration. Students are required to pass an area core examination, in either written or oral form, during Winter Quarter of the third year of study. To prepare for the exam, students may enroll in the 5-unit reading course (ARTHIST 620).
• Reading Committee—After passing the Area Core Examination (ACE), each student is responsible for the formation of a dissertation reading committee consisting of a principal adviser and three readers. Normally, at least two of the three readers are drawn from the department and one may come from outside the department.
• Dissertation Proposal—By the beginning of Autumn Quarter in the fourth year, students should have identified a dissertation subject and written a proposal in consultation with their principal adviser. To prepare the proposal, students may take one 5-unit independent study course (ARTHIST 640) and apply for a funded Summer Quarter to research and write the proposal. The proposal is submitted for approval by the Art History faculty at the beginning of the fourth year for comments. In the event that a proposal is not approved, the faculty establishes conditions for its resubmission and reconsideration at a later date.
• Dissertation—A member of the Art History faculty acts as the student's dissertation adviser and as chair of the reading committee. The final draft of the dissertation must be in all the readers' hands at least four weeks before the date of the oral defense. The dissertation must be completed within five years from the date of the student's admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. A candidate taking more than five years must apply for an extension of candidacy.
• Oral Defense Examinations—Each student arranges an oral examination with the four members of the reading committee and a chair chosen from outside the department. The oral examination consists mainly of a defense of the dissertation but may range, at the committee's discretion, over a wider field. The student is required to discuss research methods and findings at some length and to answer all questions and criticisms put by members of the examining committee. At the end of the defense, the committee votes to pass or fail the student on the defense. The committee also makes recommendations for changes in the dissertation manuscript before it is submitted to the University as the final requirement for the granting of the Ph.D. degree in the History of Art. After incorporating the changes, the manuscript is given a final review and approval by the student's principal adviser.

Ph.D. in Art History and Humanities

The department participated in the Graduate Program in Humanities leading to�a Ph.D. degree in Art History and Humanities. At this time, the option is�available only to students already enrolled in the Graduate Program in�Humanities; no new students are being accepted. The University remains�committed to a broad-based graduate education in the humanities; the�courses, colloquium, and symposium continue to be offered, and the Division�of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages provides advising for students�already enrolled who may contact Denise Winters at 650-724-1333 for further information. Courses are listed under the subject code HUMNTIES and may�be viewed on the Stanford Bulletin's ExploreCourses web site .

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Breaking barriers between people and art

In this episode of Imagine A World , Jaelynn Walls (2021 cohort) opens up about their cautious optimism for the future of art education, turning passion to action, and their number one piece of advice for anyone considering applying to Knight-Hennessy Scholars.

Listen and subscribe:

Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Amazon Music

• Art in Color , Jaelynn's YouTube channel
• How Imagine A World began

View the full transcript

Photo courtesy Micaela Go

Jaelynn Walls (2021 cohort), from Houston, Texas, is pursuing a PhD in art history at Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. She graduated from the University of Houston with a bachelor’s degree in art history and minor in African American studies. Jaelynn aspires to increase accessibility to art and art education for marginalized communities through alternative and digital spaces. She has worked in curatorial and education positions with The Blanton Museum of Art, Sugar Hill Museum in Harlem, The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and is the current Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

She independently curates exhibitions across Texas centering marginalized artists and created and hosts Art in Color, an educational art history video series focused on increasing knowledge and resources related to the works and lives of contemporary artists of color.

Imagine A World is hosted by Willie Thompson, left, and Taylor Goss, right.

Taylor Goss (2021 cohort), from Lacassine, Louisiana, is pursuing an MA in music, science, and technology and an MPP in public policy at Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. He graduated with college honors from Louisiana State University with bachelor's degrees in music and entrepreneurship. Taylor aspires to connect musicians and policymakers, using the arts to communicate societal needs and provoke policy change.

Willie Thompson (2022 cohort), from Griffin, Georgia, is pursuing a master's degree in business administration at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He graduated  summa cum laude  from Morehouse College with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a minor in Chinese Studies. He intends to create and contribute to organizations using the arts as a conduit for community building and intercultural education.

Imagine A World 's theme music was composed and recorded by Taylor Goss. The podcast was originally conceived and led by Briana Mullen (2020 cohort), Taylor Goss, and Willie Thompson, along with Daniel Gajardo (2020 cohort) and Jordan Conger (2020 cohort).

Special thanks to  Sanaa Alam ,  Rachel Desch ,  Sydney Hunt ,  Chan Leem ,  Kara Schechtman ,  Takondwa Priscilla Semphere , and Rahul Thapa .

Knight-Hennessy scholars represent a vast array of cultures, perspectives, and experiences. While we as an organization are committed to elevating their voices, the views expressed are those of the scholars, and not necessarily those of KHS.

Full transcript

Note: Transcripts are generated by machine and lightly edited by humans. They may contain errors.

Jaelynn Walls:

When I was writing on Wattpad, I just felt like, oh, I wrote this really dramatic poem about missing my friend who moved away. And people are responding to it and saying, "Oh, this reminds me of the death of a family member," or, "My relationship with X person." It's like, oh, wow. All these strangers from the internet have feelings about just a very personal experience that I was having. And I don't know, I think I caught the bug of the early, not early internet, but well, kind of. Early internet bug of like, oh, I'm communicating with so many more people than just the people at my tiny school that I go to.

And art can be something beyond a school assignment. It can mean something to many different people beyond myself. So I think that was kind of the start of my needing to share and create work.

I'm Jaelynn Walls, my pronouns are they/them. I'm a member of the 2021 cohort, and a third-year PhD student in the art history department. I study contemporary Black portraiture and its relation to early Renaissance. I imagine a world where kids of color can see themselves represented across art forms.

Willie Thompson:

Today we're speaking with Jaelynn Walls, a PhD candidate in art history. During our conversation, you'll hear Jaelynn's experience exploring creative writing and how it led to an interesting curation, developing a space to discuss contemporary artists of color, breaking barriers between people in art and so much more.

Taylor Goss:

Welcome to the Imagine A World Podcast from Knight-Hennessy Scholars. We are here to give you a glimpse into the Knight-Hennessy Scholar community of graduate students spanning all seven Stanford schools, including business, education, engineering, humanities, law, medicine, and sustainability. In each episode, we talk with scholars about the world they imagine and what they are doing to bring it to life.

Jaelynn, we really appreciate you joining us today for this episode of Imagine A World. Thanks for using your time and for being willing to share a bit of your really cool and really interesting story with us. I've really enjoyed our conversations we've had over the past couple of years about our shared perspective on art, and excited for you to be able to share that with the broader world.

Thank you so much for having me. It's just so exciting.

How's the week been? Are you getting things kind of wrapped up for the quarter at this point? Do you have finals?

Yeah. I gave three presentations this week, and now I have to come up with the papers related to those presentations. And so I'm writing a paper on a film called The African Desperate by the artist Martine Syms. And it's basically a satirical look at the MFA art school experience-

... for a Black woman.

Wow, topical.

I would say it's a very triggering film-

Sure it is.

... personally,

But I'm really excited to write about it and how nature factors into the sort of cinematic landscape.

Okay. Have you seen any of Rowan Ings' films?

Oh my gosh, yes. I love her so much.

Oh, yeah. Her film was really good.

So Rowan Ings in the 2021 Knight-Hennessy cohort. Dear friend of mine and a documentary filmmaker.

She studied the whales-

... and how they explode the whales.

Exactly, right. So all these whales that die along shipping channels in the Bay Area. And so the film was called Sentinels. And I did the sound design for it.

So all the sound was audio from whales sort of messed up beyond recognition. And then a little bit of whale song in there just to give the people what they want.

That's the Knight-Hennessy way.

The collaboration.

It is. Really is.

Collaboration

Between you, Karishma. I mean, we're getting a lot of the arts here.

Arts, yeah.

And which I feel is probably a little bit different than what people expect from Stanford. I'm pretty sure they would probably would've thought, we get the engineers in here, which-

We have them.

... don't worry, guys. Don't worry.

We have them and we love them.

We got y'all. You'll be here. You're on the docket. But it's really good to have folks from the arts world here.

It is a skewed perspective, though. We are the minority in the-

This is true.

... Knight-Hennessy community.

Karishma brought that up, and she also mentioned how helpful even being in an interdisciplinary space can be, even though being in the minority from a topical perspective is reality at the moment. So glad to have you here with us.

And before we talk about your imagine a world statement, which is very thought-provoking and is even reminding me of K's imagine a world statement from the first episode. But again, we'll get into that. Let's talk about the world you're born into and the world you've experienced thus far. So, Jaelynn, where are you from and what was your journey here?

I'm from Houston, Texas. I was-

Yes, H-Town, get down. I was born and raised there. I was born in 1998. Amazing year.

What a great year.

Thank you. A lot of good movies. A lot of Disney and Pixar films were really popping off at the time.

Golden era.

Wait, you've mentioned movies and Pixar.

What are the ones that come to mind for you when you think about that year?

I don't know that year specifically, but growing up, Toy Story was the most important film to me. I think the scene where Woody has to get fixed up by the toy repairman pretty much defined who I was as a person.

I was like, something about the cotton getting sewn in was so important to me.

Visual ASMR.

Early, they were so avant-garde. The Lion King. I was homeschooled actually. Not by my parents, but we called it homeschooling because I had like six classmates. And whoever did the best, both socially and also in academics early in the day, got to pick the movie that we watched during lunch. And I was unfortunately always doing wonderfully, and I would pick The Lion King every single time until one day this girl, Kiana goes, "We're not watching The Lion King, Jaelynn."

"I don't care. We're not watching-"

Strongly worded, Kiana.

Literally. So I had to repress my love. But The Lion King was very important to me.

Being homeschooled was a little bit strange, but I didn't know that it was strange. I feel like I got to embrace my love for writing, my love for reading very passionately, very intensely early on, because there just were not a lot of students. And so my teacher could sort of see, Mrs. Bailey, shout out-

Shout out to the teachers.

... that I had just a big love for words, vocabulary, reading, storytelling. And she just kind of let me do it. She was like, "Yeah, you got the math covered. Just sit in the corner and read."

So then when I went to public school in the third grade, I found myself kind of confused as to why I couldn't read all day and do whatever I wanted.

But I still carried that love for literature with me home, and art, and just being creative in any way that I could. My parents really embraced that when I was growing up. I feel like they kind of let me explore whatever I wanted to do if they had the means to let me do so.

I was definitely a kid who did everything. My sister and I, we were in gymnastics, ballet.

Good catch, good catch.

Thank you. Flute, cello. I played cello growing up. I did karate. We were all over the place. I think my parents maybe didn't have the opportunity to branch out and do all these things when they were kids, and so they kind of just let me and my siblings do whatever occurred to us, which was really nice.

Around middle school, I started writing much more intentionally. I don't know if y'all know what Wattpad is?

I've heard of it-

As in the measure of energy?

Or whatever-

Well, it is spelled W-A-T-T.

Okay. Run us through Wattpad.

The Wattpad. I had a LeapPad.

A leap? I had a LeapPad too!

I had a LeapPad too.

LeapPad was where it was at.

I used to tear a LeapPad up.

Absolutely.

Check out the cartridges from the library.

Nostalgia. Sorry.

I also had a LeapPad.

Wattpad, Wattpad.

No, Wattpad was this website. W-A-T-T-P-A-D. It was a website where you could just upload stories, poetry. It was a lot of fan fiction. It was right around like 2011, so it was a lot of Harry Styles is making out with another member of One Direction.

Right, sure.

And you could rise in the ranks of Wattpad, and have followers and things like that. And I started uploading really melodramatic poetry to Wattpad. And I became what was called quote, unquote, "Wattpad famous."

I had several thousands of followers leave comments on my poems and things.

And so I thought, I was like I can't believe I'm Maya Angelou. This is crazy, I'm 12.

Did you find that the response to your poems made you write differently?

No. No. I've been talking a lot about this actually in the different art history courses that I'm taking about if artists can consider themselves artists if they don't share their work with anyone? If they're writing for themselves, if they're painting for themselves, are they an artist? And I think the answer is very much yes.

And also I think that writing for yourself, creating work for yourself is also a very queer practice. But I think there's something about trying to develop your work in solitude and having a sort of self-contained practice that isn't performative or responding to something outside of yourself. And when I was writing on Wattpad, I just felt like, oh, I wrote this really dramatic poem about missing my friend who moved away. And people are responding to it and saying, "Oh, this reminds me of the death of a family member," or, "My relationship with X person." I was like, oh, wow. All these strangers from the internet have feelings about just a very personal experience that I was having. And I don't know, I think I caught the bug of the early, not early internet, but well, kind of. Early internet bug of like, oh, I'm communicating with so many more people than just the people at my tiny school that I go to.

So it's funny you mentioned being homeschooled because we have a connection there. I was homeschooled.

Yeah, I was homeschooled from first grade until high school graduation, honestly.

Yeah, actually. So the whole time.

I had no idea.

You were homeschooled for a relatively short period of time, but nevertheless, a pretty transformational time.

Early education. Did homeschooling affect the way that you found community or searched for community?

I think so. I feel like my homeschool teacher taught me very early on like, "Oh, you're weird, but that's so cool."

"You're really into this thing, but I think that's special and interesting. And you should stick with that." And so when I went to regular school, public school, I was kind of able to stand in that conviction that wanting to read through the dictionary during lunch was cool and interesting, and not weird and isolating and geeky. Or even if it was, I didn't care because I could feel that I was learning new things. And I was taught that learning new things is the way to move about the world in a meaningful way.

I think I just sort of gravitated towards other weirdos, especially, I mean, I went into my school, it was a school where you could learn how to play an instrument, the elementary school. So I was with a bunch of cello players, of course nerds. So I just sort of pulled towards them. People who were into theater, and the, arts and writing. And I went into public school and was like, "Okay, so at my old school, I used to put on plays. Do you guys want to be in my plays?"

It's like that was a weird thing to do, but I just sensed that it was fun, and I could pull people into my fun or what I thought was fun. So I'm extremely grateful for my homeschool experience. I think I'd be a completely different person.

I feel the same way. A lot of what you said resonates with me. I think the freedom that it gave me to sort of pursue passionate projects and the way that it taught you to do that, gave me a depth of experience and so much time to put into guitar playing and music for me. And as I brought in my social circle and made more friends in different walks of life, music or otherwise, there was just this fundamental sense of, oh, this is a thing that I love and I should spend time doing it regardless of what other folks around me are doing. So talking about sort of standing in that conviction, that really resonated with me.

Talking about your interest in cajoling people to join your plays, it also reminds me of what Karishma mentioned in our last episode around how she was dancing all the time, and dancing was sort of the entryway into art for her and storytelling. And as a result of that comparison, I'm wondering for you, how do we get into art and art history, and just pursuing that as a formal education undergrad through grad school?

From Wattpad to the stage.

So when it was time to go to high school, I applied to the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, which is a well-known performing art school. It's kind of selective. So they had just started a few years prior, the creative writing program. And I was getting encouragement from my teachers in middle school, "Oh, you're a pretty good writer. You could try to do this." So I applied. I got in. And I just started focusing really intensely on writing. It became my main thing. I wanted to be a screenwriter.

The setup of the school is that you would work on your art area for three hours a day and then take regular classes for the rest of the day. So I was doing a lot of writing. At the same time, the visual arts kids at my school kept talking about how they were on this thing called the Teen Council at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. I was like, ooh, all the art kids are kind of weird. They seem like a lot of them are queer. I want to hang out with them. So I applied to be on the Teen Council at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston as a writer. I wanted to write for their Tumblr blog. I was like, I don't know anything about art. I don't know anything-

Yeah, I know.

Might need to explain that term.

Oh my God. For their Tumblr blog.

I was like, I don't know anything about art or art history, but I can definitely write. And it'll give me opportunity to hang out with these weird art kids that I think might be my group, my community. So I started doing that.

And at the same time, the museum was run by a curator, Valerie Cassel. And she was sort of a game changer for the Houston art scene because she was putting on all of these fascinating radical exhibitions centering Black artists, queer artists. She kind of turned the whole museum around from where it was previously. She was kind of young and hip, and had this just really cool approach to curation.

So at the same time, she was putting on all these great shows and the Teen Council up the museum was meant to come up with teen shows, meet the artists that we're putting on shows in the museum. It's just an opportunity for students to get museum-related experience.

And sort of attract a younger demographic to the museum?

Right, because museums are, they're very intimidating.

Kind of typically white spaces. And so teen councils, which are something that have popped up all across the U.S. in different big museums are meant to sort of bring in people that otherwise maybe wouldn't have an interest in art and art history.

So I'm writing for the Tumblr blog. I'm having fun, but I'm also finding that all of these artists and their works are really interesting, and are sort of pulling me towards them. Especially as I'm writing about them, and meeting them, and interviewing them for the Tumblr. And I kind of just fell in love. I completely fell in love with the idea of curation, art history. And a lot of it did involve writing, so it felt kind of close enough to what I was already interested in. So that's how I got into art history.

And I started talking to Valerie, she became kind of a mentor to me. And I realized, if I'm going to get into this I have to study art history in college. And then after that, if I want to be a curator, head curator, I'm going to need a PhD, my goodness.

So I ended up at the University of Texas at Austin in the art history department.

Hook'em Horns.

Oh, yeah. Hook'em Horns.

Obligatory horns down from LSU.

Oh my goodness.

I'm from Bama, so we might see y'all in the championship.

I went there with my best friend and had a rip-roaring time. And I just got so deep into art history, but I still had this sort of love of creative writing, the less academic scholarly, create-a-citation type of writing. So I just kept that in my back pocket for a little bit. And then maybe we could talk about where that led to.

Happy to talk about where that led to, because I think just in knowing a little bit about your story and just how you navigated the space on the Teen Council, was that the start of Art in Color, in a way?

I started Art in Color my second year of college. So I mean indirectly, yes. But second year of college.

For the folks out there, what is Art in Color?

Art in Color is a YouTube channel that I have where I discuss contemporary artists of color and their practice, and different scandals in art history. And just try to communicate in an accessible way in a digital space about art and art history, and just try to pull people in who maybe otherwise wouldn't encounter this type of work.

When I got to Stanford, I made so many videos my first year, I was feeling really motivated. I would like, Knight-Hennessy helped me out a lot in terms of connecting me to someone to edit my videos and funding, things like that.

And then my second year, things got really intense. And I was like, whoa, grad school is hard. And I took a hiatus. And right now I'm kind of on the hiatus, but I have started talking again to my Knight-Hennessy friends and cohort and everything, and I'm going to relaunch the channel.

Because you pitched it at the Keystone Ideas Festival. And I don't know if you knew this, Taylor, at the time, Jaelynn said that, I think you said you had 5,000 subscribers. Doing our research for the episode, you're almost a 10K or I believe you're maybe trying to get an additional 5K, but there's no small following for Jaelynn on Art in Color. And we would encourage folks who are listening to check that out. We'll include that in the show notes.

And I feel as if something you said about doing Art in Color, I've only taken a survey in visual arts class, and that was senior year of college. But I felt very empowered because of that class to have language to describe what's going on in a piece and using vocabulary to say, "Oh," I don't know, rhythm or something like that to-

Oh, composition.

Yeah, or something like that. Just to be able to discuss art in a way.

And I think something that you said, it might not have been Art in Color, but it's somewhere in the research we've done where I remember you saying that art belongs to people. And I found that particularly interesting because even as I was watching more of your videos, it sort of continued to ground me in what the artist is trying to do in terms of letting you know about who they are and how can you engage with that.

And as you mentioned earlier about just art and museums being places that are traditionally white and maybe highbrow, how do you think about bringing people into a conversation that they've always been a part of but have never been aware of their need to participate?

Absolutely. I think there is this idea that museums are a space where you can see very large Renaissance-type paintings of beautiful white women, and philosophers, and things like that, or people in war.

Lots of boats.

Yes, lots of boats.

Lots of landscapes.

For sure. But the truth is there has been such a huge movement recently to try to engage with artists of color, people who are creating work about their experiences, their own identities. And that's an attempt to bring in people who otherwise wouldn't visit museums. I think it sounds like me, art does belong to the people.

Museums are spaces where art is brought out of storage in order to have engagement with the public. It's not like when someone buys a work of art and then it either goes in their bedroom or it goes into storage so that it can accrue value, which we can't get into that. We can't get into that.

I kind of wish this is a video podcast because that was probably the hardest...

I'm so sorry.

You're good. You're good.

I saw the whites of your eyes there, Jaelynn.

I'm so sorry. I could feel my face doing that.

Anyway, but I think to tear down the illusion that there is some sort of barrier between people, especially people of color, and art, I think is one of the main points of the ethos of my personhood, essentially. I just am so drawn to artists that are creating meaningful, often extremely personal work about who they are typically as people of color. And allowing people to bear witness to these works and engage with them in a meaningful way, not only for themselves, but also for this sense of community and understanding that there is a certain level of universality to a lot of the struggles that an individual may have.

You spoke a little bit about getting to Stanford and being very productive, and then moving into a space where the challenge of Stanford, the challenge of grad school and life as a grad student. I think that's something that every grad student experiences, something just like the reality of the responsibility and the level of work that it takes to make it through. How have you felt about confronting that challenge of life as a grad student over time?

I definitely have been having a more deep, internal conversation about my purpose here, how I have moved from my original intentions and where I am right now.

I'm in an art history methods course with Professor Marci Kwon. And she asked us to do an intellectual biography essentially stating why we study what we study. And I read my admissions essay to reflect so that I could complete the assignment. And I just felt so nostalgic, but also like, aw, they're so naive. What a charming person this Jaelynn Walls of 2021 was.

I am currently in this moment where I am aware that my passion lies in connecting people to art and making meaningful threads between the quote, unquote, "art world" and the public. Simultaneously I think trying to bridge the gap between my previous passion for that and my ability to have action towards that, and then my present moment being fully aware that there are limits to this is kind of where I am right now.

I think just what you said, the reality of the situation of like, oh, I'm just one person. And even having access to all of these wonderful Stanford connections and blah, blah, blah, there are limitations to my ability to change the world for the better. But I need to hold onto the idealism of first-year Jaelynn in order to drive myself towards making even marginal amount of change.

And marginal changes is more than no change.

Speaking of idealism, I do want to make sure we get time to talk about your imagine a world statement, speaking of ideas. And I think sometimes it's interesting because a lot of times when people think about art history and art, they think about adults. And I feel as if what you talked about, even sort of you being, I think I remember you saying you got dropped off at museums as a kid, with your siblings, with your parents. And sort of how important children are when it comes to our understanding of anything in the world. I mean, I have a daughter right now so I'm very much realizing, oh, she's having to learn all this stuff through me and this making me...

Anyway, don't want to get into a whole thing about that. But I'd love to hear you talk more about that imagine a world statement. Why the focus on children and kids? And we know that you just published a book?

Just published a book. Love the publishing of a book. And talk a bit about how even some of that book relates to the importance of children and seeing themselves in whatever ways via art forms.

I think a lot of these ideas around who is supposed to enter museums, who is supposed to engage with art, who is art for, are built when you're very young. I think that's why there's so much effort on the part of major museums across the country, I mean even internationally, to bring in kids because the ways in which we engage with art are determined very young, I mean, just like anything else. Art is a really sort of exciting thing to engage with. Museums are really cool spaces. They're often in these really fantastical buildings, huge facades, amazing colors everywhere. And so if you're a kid and you come into this space and you see, oh, there's works that 100 times the size of me. And maybe there's a person of color in the painting, or there's a photograph of all these different ways to be a person in the world, or landscapes that I've never seen before. Then there's an inherent interest, inherent excitement in engaging with the space.

There's a field called museum education. Most museums have an education department that are structured to engage with children specifically because museums are not at their core for children, but they function as really exciting spaces for children. And so I think to have this foundation of accessibility, excitement, direct engagement with young people, especially thinking about elementary age school children, is probably the only way that museums are going to survive.

I mean, museums are supported internally, structurally by very wealthy, older people. The volunteers that work there are retired people who have time to walk around for free and talk about art. They are funded by people who have a lot of money and have some sort of appreciation for art. But what happens when those people move on? All you have are young audiences and younger curators who are trying to make sure that the legacy of a museum space continues on and on.

And how do you do that? By engaging with children, and making sure that there is a foundation of interest and not one of fear or disinterest from the very beginning. I mean, beyond the sort of institutional engagement in order for the legacy to continue, I just think some of the most interesting thinkers are children. You can talk with a bunch of scholars about a painting all day long, and then you do a museum tour with a kid, and they're like, "Why is this color like this?" And you're like, "Oh my God, I'd never noticed that. No one brought that up."

So I mean, I've had that experience dozens of times working in museums, doing tours, doing curatorial work where it's just like, oh, that fourth-grader had a much more meaningful engagement with this work than anybody I've talked to so far. So the creative grounds are with the children.

Are you optimistic about the ability to bring in this new generation? Like the institutions, the folks in power, and also the younger curators who are creating these spaces to be more available and welcoming, are you optimistic about their ability to bring a younger generation in?

Yes and no. I am optimistic that individual curators have passion, that museum educators have passion and interest in engaging with kids. I'm optimistic that kids will always and forever bring their creativity into institutional spaces.

Simultaneously, I am a little pessimistic about the powers that be funneling finances into accessibility for kids to see museums, to engage with art. It might not be as exciting to say, "We can fund museum visits for five different elementary schools." That's not as cool as like, "What if we paid $2 million for another Van Gogh?" So the answer is yes and no.

So to that point about yes and no, what are the things that need to happen to make a world where the yes is more emphatic and the no is less pronounced? Because for example, the Mellon Foundation I think recently announced they're going to donate a half a billion dollars to monuments around the U.S. And I think that's a very interesting approach to an interesting sort of option C when it comes to the national conversation of monuments. At least being from the South, do you count Texas as being a part of the south?

That's the fun thing about this. All three of us are from the South.

Yeah, we are all southern.

No accents. But it's sort of the conversation around Confederate soldiers-

... and monuments. And there seemed to be an option A, you keep them because people believe the Confederate... I'm not going to get into that. Or option B, you tear them down for the reasons that are publicly documented. And I feel like what the Mellon Foundation is doing is a nice option C of what if we just built more? And to balance the narratives that people have.

So anyway, that's I guess a side example to talk about. So what would it look like for you? And what would you need to see or feel like would need to happen for some of that optimism to be more robust?

I think just having, a lot of museums are run by boards. Boards are often just full of very wealthy people who do a lot of decision making about what a museum can and can't do. I think having boards, having directors engaged directly with curators who have exciting ideas, would just change museums so much.

I think there's, I don't know, is this like shop talk?

There's just a delineation, sorry, a separation in power structures in who is able to actually directly engage with and communicate with curators, and the public, and museum education people. It's like, why are the people that are giving the museum money not talking to the people that are putting on shows in the museum?

And so I think it's cool and exciting to have an announcement like 25-year-old Black female curator put into the insert whatever huge museum. But it's like, what does that actually mean? Are that person's ideas being heard and are they being executed in a meaningful way beyond a title or beyond just reifying the institutional work that's already existed before them?

And so, I think just direct engagement between financial people and creative people that are engaging with the public would be the emphatic yes. But of course, that's individual case, individual case, individual case from museum to museum. And so, I think that goes back to triumphing in the marginal successes.

And sort of turning from this discussion around the systematic to you as an individual and your creative pursuits. I know Willie mentioned earlier you've written a book. Would you talk a little bit about your book, about the process of writing it and maybe a bit about how it's connected to your research at Stanford, if at all?

Definitely. As I mentioned earlier, I always engage with creative writing as just as my outlet. I love storytelling. I love lying, making things up.

And so when I was in high school, I was trying to middle school, high school, I was really trying to figure out my identity, who I was, what was going on with me. And my way to do this was reading books and watching movies. I loved watching movies, especially about queer people, gay people.

And so I wrote this research paper my senior year of high school, basically just looking at queer stereotypes in American movies from the sixties to the present, which the present at that point would've been like 2016, '17. And the results were pretty bad. I would say the stereotypes were not great. And through writing that paper, I kind of wanted to create a solution, if you will. And so my response to that research paper was to write a film kind of against stereotypes. So it's like a very queer teen film dismissing all the negative stereotypes, instead embracing this more organic diverse narrative centered around people that were just basically like my friends. I was building characters based off of people that I knew around me.

And then I just had a movie script. And I wasn't going to make a movie, so I kind of just let it gather dust for a couple of years, the script. And then when I was in college, my friend, a couple of friends actually were like, "That script was interesting. You should do something with that." And I agreed. And I adapted it to a novel manuscript titled The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay. And I pitched it to some agents, got an agent, shout out to Garrett.

Shout out Garrett.

To Garrett.

Garrett, who's up in Washington. And then he pitched it to publishers. And I got my manuscript accepted to a publisher, Levine Querido. That is a publisher of children's books, primarily working with queer and Native authors, queer and Native stories. And then my book got published and it came out a few weeks ago, November 21st.

Congratulations.

Thank you. The story follows three girls, Dawn, Georgia, and Edie. They're all living in Houston, Texas, which is where I'm from. And Dawn is trying to make a documentary about queer love so that she can get a scholarship to the radio, television and film program at UT Austin. So the story is very close to my heart and very much follows my path towards college with several twists and things made up as well.

Sure. But some autobiographical themes clearly.

Yes, autobiographical themes. And it's just about how friendship is a kind of love and how making deep connections, platonic or otherwise, when you're a teenager can sort of lead you towards your identity and help you survive as a queer kid in the south.

That sounds so beautiful. I'm excited to read it myself. And what's the best way for a listener to this podcast to get access to or purchase this book?

If you want to support a local indie bookstore, that's a pretty good option. I have tried my darndest to get it stocked across California. And it's also in indie bookstores pretty much everywhere in the U.S. But if that is too much or maybe you have some struggles finding it, it's also available online, bookshop.org, Amazon if you want to do that. IndieBound. There's also an audiobook which is available.

Are you reading the audiobook? Is it-

No, I have a professional.

Okay, okay.

We already said you're a professional.

You already are.

I see you speaking into a microphone right now.

I know, you're speaking right now. Do you want to do it right now?

It's already done. A really wonderful audio narrator named Tamika did it. She's an artiste of the Voice. That's available on Audible and all the other audiobook sites.

That's so exciting.

Barnes and Noble online, online.

You can order it into Barnes and Noble, but I'm still trying to figure that out.

Okay. That's so beautiful to me, where it started to what it became. And I'm sure because of how much time it took, and how much experience you gained over the time that you were writing it and the different forms that it took, I'm sure that all of that changed the story as time went on. So I'm sure it's very cathartic for you to have this out into the world. But it also sounds like in your description of the process of getting it published, you're really interacting with this area of commerce. You've been in the very public facing museum side of art. You've been in the academy with art. How did you feel about interacting with this realm of commerce and getting your book out to people and as a product to some degree? How do you feel about that?

It's very strange because the early part of publishing a book, when you get out the advanced, what are called advanced reader copies to people, those are not going to teenagers. Those are going to professional book reviewers who are adults. And so it's just strange to the very...

I've been sort of in my little corner working on this book for such a long time, and then the second I put it out into the world in any capacity, I am getting feedback from adults.

But the most meaningful element of, I guess the commercial aspect has been having it in libraries and getting feedback online from teenagers who are able to engage with a book for free because libraries, love that. Oh, you can also get the book from, I think it's available in 200 libraries across the U.S.

Check online, see if your library has it.

But the most gratifying part of this has been hearing what young people think about it. I really, I'm being honest, just don't care what any adult has to say about this book because I didn't write it for them. I wrote it for young kids and also indirectly, some younger version of myself, I'm sure. I'm excited as time goes on to hear back from more and more teens. And actually today I have an event at the San Francisco Public Library. They have a queer social hour for teenagers, and I'm going to be stopping by and signing books and meeting with kids. So this is perfect. It's exactly what I wanted when I initially wrote the book.

Speaking of timing, I know we're coming up on time now. I'm going to ask a couple of really quick questions before we wrap this conversation.

Well, one, I'm going to follow really quickly on Taylor's point around engagement with commerce and art. And I feel as if the common thread between whether you're writing a book, whether you're curating an exhibit at a museum, or whether you're being a PhD student, I think the common element across all those things is critique. There's always critique. There's always someone giving you some form of feedback. At the business school, they always say, "Feedback is a gift." And I think that most times it's true. Well, I mean, a gift is a strong word, depends on your perspective.

And I've heard some of the people on Art in Color talk about critique and how do you deal with critique? And I'm wondering what things do you do to build in your comfortability with being critiqued, and how do you keep that from making you cynical? Because I think that's the thing I continue to keep coming back to being in the academy in some way, shape, or form. It's almost if the bar of your success is how cynical you can be. I think Serena brought this up in our retreat for Knight-Hennessy. How do you think about that idea as someone who's in the space?

I think for creative work, it's much easier because I feel that if The Queer Girl is Going to Be Okay is useful for even one young queer person, then I feel happy. I think just keeping in mind who my work is for, what my intentions were when creating it, creatively, has kept me feeling very positive and even motivated to write another book.

In the academic sense, in the professional sense, that's tough. I think critique can sort of, I don't know, beat you down to build you back up in the academy. I think I found a lot of value in understanding the person giving me the critique as someone interested in making me or my work better. I think that's my method of not getting lost in the sauce of mean quote, unquote, "comments." I'm like, I think they said that because they desperately want me to be a star. I don't know if that's idealistic or delusional, but it's been my method of sustaining my sense of wanting to do scholarly work, is everyone at Stanford loves me and wants me to be amazing, and that's why they're saying this mean stuff to me. So that's how I've been feeling about critique lately.

I think I might take that framing just to give myself some solace cognitively of this person wants me to succeed, even if what you say sounds like you don't.

Exactly. And just the notion that regardless of critique, it's possible to still succeed. It's possible to hear the critique and then progress from it. The critique is not saying like, "This is you in a negative light, and this is how you'll always be." It's more, "Here's something for you to think about." And that, framing it the way that you've framed it, would allow me to think of, okay, how do I move forward? Not just what am I right now, but how do I move forward?

Yeah. That reminds me of Aaron Samuels, who came to one of my classes at the business school. He's the co-founder of Blavity and AfroTech. And he's Black and Jewish, and he started off with poetry. So he was a poet for a good part of his early career. He made this interesting point about someone giving you a note. He said, "Someone gives me a note on a piece that I'm working on." He said, "I don't always take the feedback as given, but I do realize..." Well, or maybe it's and. And he realizes that what they're communicating is something is not working. And that's what he tries to hone in on depending on how someone's giving him that feedback. And so I feel like that was an interesting way to think about it.

And to your point, Jaelynn, it's like, well, if someone's giving you feedback, let's say on your book, but you realize something's not working for them, but then you don't care about the thing that's not working for them, you're like all right, cool. You keep moving, right?

It doesn't feel as personal.

There's a triage to that. How severe is the problem actually?

I mean, don't get me to making, I'll make a decision tree if I have to.

Jaelynn, before we head out, two quick questions for you. This has been really great. So glad to have you here. First is got to get into some improbable facts. It's a hallmark the community here.

Improbable facts are something that everybody does in their Knight-Hennessy application. For me, it was the thing that took me the longest and probably that I thought the most about because it's so concise. So how did you feel about the process of deciding on your improbable facts? And would you be willing to share one or two of them with the-

The process was fun, actually, because I think I am a person who, unfortunately, as soon as I accomplish something or finish something that I've wanted to do, I am immediately moving on to the next thing. I'm like, that was cool, anyway. So having this mode of reflection was really valuable. And then also in the application, I think they suggest that you ask your friends and family, and so that was also cool to just ask my friends like, "What's something cool I've done?" Get feedback.

So my first one is that sophomore year of college at UT Austin, I won a drag ball judged by a famous drag queen, Monique Heart from RuPaul's Drag Race, which I think now she goes by Mo Hart. My best friend Sydney and I decided last minute to participate in this drag ball on campus, which is an event where people can show off their drag artistry. Their drag artistry, dressing up, putting on costumes, makeup. Not necessarily in the way that we would associate drag with feminine impersonation, but just in extravagance, and clothing, and things like that.

And so we both did the runway category. There are different categories like runway and lip-syncing. And we won first and second place. And it was very much in our wheelhouse because whenever we were invited to go to parties during college, if it was a lingerie-themed party or a Halloween thing, we would just do the extreme version for no reason at all.

Do the most.

We'd be like, okay, thank God someone invited us to Halloween party. We can start working on our costumes and sewing them three weeks early. It's like nobody asked us to do that.

And so this was just an actually appropriate space for us to exercise our creative talents. And I think that just, it's a really lovely memory I have with my best friend. He's still my best friend. He studies Russian, and translation and interpretation. He's living in France right now.

My next one or second one that I'll share is that famous poets often commission me to hand-stitch their poems' titles onto sweaters as gifts for themselves or friends. When I was in high school, I really loved this poem called Heart Condition. And I cut up some letters from a green fabric and sewed them onto a brown sweater. And it kind of went crazy on Tumblr. So different people started contacting me to make sweaters like this. I just thrifted sweaters and would hand stitch onto them. I was not a sewer or anything like that. I didn't have a machine. And then I realized, oh, these are the friends of the poets of the poem titles that I'm doing, which is kind of wild.

And then randomly, I would see online people posting, poets that I loved and respected, posting themselves wearing sweaters that I made, which is kind of bizarre. A lot of that was in high school, and in early college. But so it's completely random outside of anything that I do. It's just a random thing.

Another talent, another talent.

Before we go, last question. What advice do you have to anyone who's interested in being a part of Knight-Hennessy?

I would say make sure that you care about the world in a very specific way and are prepared to bring that specificity to the community.

I think talking to people in Knight-Hennessy is just always a magical experience because you meet them and they're like, "Oh, yeah, I'm taking this class. I'm so tired. My life is like this," blah, blah, blah. And then a few weeks later, they'll be like presenting about how they started some incredible organization to help people in such a specific community or specific way. And you're like, oh, you're a wonderful person in this very broad way, but then there's this specific way that you are interested in creating change that I have never engaged with or thought about. And it's obviously really meaningful, and you have such a passion. And I think that's the common thread amongst people in Knight-Hennessy, is just a deep, flowing passion that allows them to overcome idealism, and naivete, and the hardships and just fight for their little niche.

That is a beautiful description. And I think both Willie and I, that is something that we see in you and what you bring to the community. So thank you for sharing that.

In spades. For sure.

Oh, thank you.

So look, Jaelynn, it's been great. So glad to have you on this episode of Imagine A World and to close this out for this calendar year, which is crazy. So thank you so much for spending your time, your talent, your treasures with us for this time. Really appreciate it.

Yeah, the whole way through. All from Wattpad to Tumblr, to YouTube, to the San Francisco Public Library.

I can only imagine the amount of Googling that's going to be happening on the background.

I know. Go check out Jaelynn's book. You have some book touring coming up as well, right?

Oh, wow. Okay.

So I'm going to be holding events in Northern California, up in Oakland, in San Francisco in the new year. So you can definitely keep your eyes out for that. I'll be doing some stuff in Texas, Miami, New York. So I have a website. My middle name is Dale, so I go by Dale when I write. dalewallsauthor.com, I'll be updating everything there. My Instagram is the same, my Twitter is the same. And I post on there all the time about what I'm doing, where I'm going, virtual events, IRL events.

We'll put that in the show notes.

We'll make sure that folks can have access to that through show notes and the social media. So Jaelynn, thank you.

Thank you both. Great.

All right, that's it.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Imagine A World where we hear from inspiring members of the KHS community who are making significant contributions in their respective fields, challenging the status quo, and pushing the boundaries of what is possible as they imagine the world they want to see.

This podcast is sponsored by Knight-Hennessy Scholars at Stanford University, a multidisciplinary, multicultural graduate fellowship program providing scholars with financial support to pursue graduate studies at Stanford while helping equip them to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders who address complex challenges facing the world.

Follow us on social media @KnightHennessy and visit our website at kh.stanford.edu to learn more about the program and our community.

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Graduate Students

Learn more about our  students' research interests and dissertation projects.

CURRENT STUDENTS

Ph.D. Program

Stanford Ph.D. Program in History aims to train world-class scholars.

Every year we admit 10-12 promising students  from a large pool of highly selective applicants. Our small cohort size allows more individual work with faculty than most graduate programs in the United States and also enables funding in one form or another available to members of each cohort.

Fields of Study

Our graduate students may specialize in 14 distinct subfields: Africa, Britain, Early Modern Europe, East Asia, Jewish History, Latin America, Medieval Europe, Modern Europe,  Ottoman Empire and Middle East, Russia/Eastern Europe, Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine, South Asia, Transnational, International, and Global History, and United States. Explore each field and their affiliates . 

The department expects most graduate students to spend no less than four and no more than six years completing the work for the Ph.D. degree. Individual students' time to degree will vary with the strength of their undergraduate preparation as well as with the particular language and research requirements of their respective Major fields.

Expectations and Degree Requirements

We expect that most graduate students will spend no less than four and no more than six years toward completing their Ph.D. Individual students' time-to-degree vary with the strength of their undergraduate preparation as well as with the particular language and research requirements of their respective subfield.

All History Ph.D. students are expected to satisfy the following degree requirements:

• Teaching: Students who enter on the Department Fellowship are required to complete 4 quarters of teaching experience by the end of their third year. Teaching experience includes teaching assistantships and teaching a Sources and Methods course on their own.
• Candidacy : Students apply for candidacy to the PhD program by the end of their second year in the program.
• Orals:  The University Orals Examination is typically taken at the beginning of the 3rd year in the program.
• Languages: Language requirements vary depending on the field of study.
• Residency Requirement : The University requi res  135 units of full-tuition residency  for PhD students. After that, students should have completed all course work and must request Terminal Graduate Registration (TGR) status. 

Browse the Ph.D. Handbook to learn more .

The History Department offers 5 years of financial support to PhD students.  No funding is offered for the co-terminal and terminal M.A. programs. A sample Ph.D. funding package is as follows:  

• 1st year: 3 quarters fellowship stipend and 1 summer stipend 
• 2nd year: 2 quarters TAships, 1 quarter fellowship stipend, and 1 summer stipend 
• 3rd year: 2 quarters TAships, 1 quarter fellowship stipend, and 1 summer stipend 
• 4th year: 3 quarters fellowship stipends and 1 summer stipend 
• 5th year: 3 quarters fellowship stipends and 1 summer stipend

Knight-Hennessy Scholars

Join dozens of  Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences students  who gain valuable leadership skills in a multidisciplinary, multicultural community as  Knight-Hennessy Scholars  (KHS). KHS admits up to 100 select applicants each year from across Stanford’s seven graduate schools, and delivers engaging experiences that prepare them to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders ready to address complex global challenges. As a scholar, you join a distinguished cohort, participate in up to three years of leadership programming, and receive full funding for up to three years of your studies at Stanford. candidates of any country may apply. KHS applicants must have earned their first undergraduate degree within the last seven years, and must apply to both a Stanford graduate program and to KHS. Stanford PhD students may also apply to KHS during their first year of PhD enrollment. If you aspire to be a leader in your field, we invite you to apply. The KHS application deadline is October 9, 2024. Learn more about  KHS admission .

How to Apply

Admission to the History Graduate Programs are for Autumn quarter only.  Interested applicants can online at  https://gradadmissions.stanford.edu/apply/apply-now and submit the following documents: 

• Statement of Purpose (included in Application)
• 3 Letters of Recommendation
•  Transcripts are required from all prior college level schools attended for at least one year.  A scanned copy of the official transcript is submitted as part of the online application.  Please do not mail transcripts to the department.   We will ask only the admitted students to submit actual copies of official transcripts.
• 1 Writing Sample on a historic topic (10-25 pages; sent via  Stanford's online application system  only)
• The GRE exam is not required for the autumn 2025 admission cycle
• TOEFL for all international applicants (whose primary language is not English) sent via ETS. Our University code is 4704.
• TOEFL Exemptions and Waiver information
• Application Fee Waiver
• The department is not able to provide fee waivers. Please see the link above for the available fee waivers and how to submit a request. Requests are due 2 weeks before the application deadline.

The Department of History welcomes graduate applications from individuals with a broad range of life experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who would contribute to our community of scholars. Review of applications is holistic and individualized, considering each applicant’s academic record and accomplishments, letters of recommendation, and admissions essays in order to understand how an applicant’s life experiences have shaped their past and potential contributions to their field.

The Department of History also recognizes that the Supreme Court issued a ruling in June 2023 about the consideration of certain types of demographic information as part of an admission review. All applications submitted during upcoming application cycles will be reviewed in conformance with that decision.

Application deadline for Autumn 2025-26 is Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 11:59pm EST . This is a hard -not a postmark- deadline. 

All application material is available online. No information is sent via snail mail. Interested applicants are invited to view a Guide to Graduate Admissions at  https://gradadmissions.stanford.edu/ . 

Questions? 

Please contact  Arthur Palmon  (Assistant Director of Student Services).

Department Bookshelf

Browse the most recent publications from our faculty members.

Secret Cures of Slaves (Japanese Translation)

Visualizing Russia in Early Modern Europe

How the New World Became Old: The Deep Time Revolution in America

Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique

Italian Fascism in Rhodes and the Dodecanese Islands, 1922–44

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Giovanna Ceserani

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David Cohen

Sarah Derbew

Andrew Devine

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Richard P. Martin

Jody Maxmin

Reviel Netz

Josiah Ober

Grant Parker

Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi

Richard Saller

Michael Shanks

Jennifer Trimble

Ellen Tani, PhD '15, hired as Assistant Professor at RIT's School of Art

© Bria Fast Photography

Ellen Tani , explores the histories of contemporary art through a critical race studies lens, with a particular focus on conceptual- and performance-oriented practices. Artist-centric and collaborative in her curatorial and scholarly work, she examines how artists work to illuminate structures of exploitation and inequality that operate below and beyond the threshold of visibility. 

She joins the  School of Art  as assistant professor of  art history  after completing postdoctoral fellowships at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art. After earning her Ph.D. in art history from Stanford University, she worked as a curator at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the ICA Boston, where she organized exhibitions of Nina Chanel Abney, Tschabalala Self, and Yayoi Kusama. Her research has been supported by the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African and African American Studies at the University of Virginia, the Clark Art Institute, the Getty Research Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. 

Beyond her writing in exhibition catalogs and peer-reviewed publications, her current book project is the first scholarly monograph on the conceptual artist  Charles Gaines  ’67 MFA (art and design), who received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree from RIT in 2023. She lives in Rochester with her husband, toddler, and unruly dog.

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The arts have been a vital and dynamic presence on the Stanford campus since the university's founding over a century ago , growing from one department focused on applied drawing to a robust arts curriculum, from sporadic student activity to hundreds of student-run groups. Over the last two decades, Stanford has intensified its commitment to further integrate art and creativity into the curriculum and daily campus life, and it has worked to create the conditions for creative research and practice to flourish in new ways on campus.

In 2006, Stanford launched the Stanford Arts Initiative to make the arts a fundamental part of a Stanford education and build the resources and programs required to realize that vision. Thanks to the initiative, the university added new faculty positions in arts departments and programs, new graduate fellowships for PhD and MFA students, and many new arts programs and opportunities designed to ensure that every Stanford student, no matter their major, can have meaningful engagement with the arts. The university also added a new general education curricular requirement in Creative Expression, ensuring that every Stanford undergraduate must take at least one creative practice class to graduate.

The most visible part of the Arts Initiative was the creation of an arts district at the front of Stanford’s campus. In addition to the historic and renowned Cantor Art Center , the university built three new arts facilities on campus— Bing Concert Hall (2013), the Anderson Collection at Stanford University (2014), and the McMurtry Building for Art and Art History (2015)—and renovated various rehearsal and performance spaces on campus including the Roble Gym (2016), Pigott Theater in Memorial Auditorium (2019), and Frost Amphitheater (2019). These state-of-the-art facilities showcase various visual and performing arts exhibitions, concerts, and other academic programs. The proximity of these arts facilities to each other allows for productive interactions, and their location at the front of campus highlights the importance the university has placed on the arts.

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Together, we demonstrate the consequential creativity possible only at Stanford .

Self-portrait

While at SFMOMA with Stanford’s ITALIC program, I created this self-portrait to explore the merging of technology with my image of self.

Taken at Felt Lake during one of the field trips of MI 70Q: Photographing Nature, featuring a IntroSem student of the course.

Main Quad Blues

Original cover art for the Stanford Daily’s Vol. 257 autumn quarter issue.

Digital Illustration

Self-Portrait

This painting was an exercise to try and use simple, yet bold brushstrokes to capture the essence of the moment.

Oil paint on canvas

No RECAmpense

I made these photos at the abandoned Oppenheimer film set in Ghost Ranch, NM. Downwinders in NM harmed by test radiation remain uncompensated by RECA.

35mm Photography

˗ˏˋ safe ☽ ˎˊ˗

Two girls, Cloud and Moon, are safe in space.

This painting is an interpretation of Magritte’s surrealist painting “The Mysteries of the Horizon,” replacing the men with an aging ballerina.

Acrylic paint on canvas

Yanofsky’s Legacy

Vials of yeast samples are the remaining evidence of Dr. Charles Yanofsky, a noted faculty and geneticist who passed away in 2018.

Knowledge allows the mind to bloom.

Train Wreck

I use this artwork to ask, “What has become of our childhood innocence?”

ink on paper, collage

Academics and Research

African and African American Studies Department*

The Department of African and African American Studies provide students with an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of African, African American, and African descended people all over the world as a central component of American and world culture. The major offers a choice of three tracks: African American Studies, African Studies, and Global Black Diaspora Studies. Students will also participate in community engaged learning opportunities and language study. 

*Note: Students will be able to declare majors and minors in the new Department of African and African American Studies starting Sept. 1, 2024. 

African and African American Studies Program*

African and African American Studies (AAAS) provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of peoples of African descent within societies worldwide. Courses promote research across departmental boundaries, allowing students to explore the intersections of gender, class, race, religion, and other dynamics.

The first ethnic studies program developed at a private institution in the United States, AAAS has established a network of scholars who bridge such fields as anthropology, art, economics, feminist studies, history, linguistics, and literature. It is closely associated with Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and many other centers on campus that support social progress though the expansion of knowledge.

View highlights of the AAAS program's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate AAAS alumni.

*Note: Students can declare the AAAS interdisciplinary program major and minor through Aug. 31, 2024 (the AAAS IDP remains in H&S but will no longer accept new majors and minors after Sept. 1). Students will be able to declare a major or minor in the Department of African and African American Studies beginning Sept. 1.

American Studies

The interdisciplinary program in American Studies promotes a broad understanding of U.S. culture and society. It connects scholars of English literature, performance studies, education, sociology, and many other disciplines whose work examines the past and present of the United States and also shapes how the nation imagines its future.

Students design their own course of study while investigating the many dimensions of U.S. life—race, gender, technology, religion, and mass media, for example. Because the program spans many disciplines, students benefit from access to faculty in economics, history, music, and other departments. American Studies offers endless opportunities to apply the full range of Stanford’s resources to the project of understanding the U.S. in a global context.

Anthropology

Stanford’s Department of Anthropology focuses on the study of human beings and societies through the examination of social, historical, ecological, and biological change across time. Known for its innovative approaches, the department focuses on the full span of human history and full range of human societies and cultures, including those in marginalized parts of the world.

Students are encouraged to integrate theory and research methods as they explore a range of related subfields that include archaeology, ecology, evolution, linguistics, medical anthropology, political economy, and science and technology. Areas of faculty and student research include questions of social, cultural, and biological diversity and issues of power, identity, and inequality.

View highlights of the anthropology department's undergraduate offerings.

Applied Physics

The Department of Applied Physics focuses on solving technological and scientific challenges through the lens of physics. The department has a long tradition of building tools, from solid-state lasers to the atomic force microscope, with many advances becoming foundational in new fields of research and industries. Applied Physics has four main research areas: nano science and quantum engineering, lasers and particle accelerators, condensed matter physics, and experimental and theoretical biophysics.

Through collaboration and joint appointments with electrical engineering, biology, chemistry, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, faculty and graduate students work on innovative concepts in foundational and applied physics that advance the boundaries of science.

Archaeology

Drawing methods and ideas from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, archaeology introduces students to robust, multifaceted analyses of material culture and human societies. Coursework intersects with history, biology, earth systems, classics, anthropology, and other disciplines.

Stanford archaeology advances innovative research across the globe. The Archaeology Center on campus supports interdisciplinary collaboration as a venue where Stanford faculty and visiting scholars work to make the experiences of people, from the ancient past to the modern era, accessible in new ways. Students can apply what they learn in the classroom by participating in summer field schools in Europe, South America, and California.

Art and Art History

The Department of Art and Art History at Stanford encompasses the history of art, the practice of art in the studio, and film and media studies. Courses investigate the historical development of images and media and their influence on society, as well as their relationship to other disciplines such as literature and music.

Critical thinking and technical skills learned in the classroom inform the creation of artwork in studios, labs, screening rooms, and galleries on campus. Between lecture series, symposia, gallery exhibits, film screenings, and design presentations, the department participates in more than 60 events a year.

View highlights of the art and art history department's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate art and art history alumni.

Asian American Studies

Center for comparative studies in race and ethnicity (ccsre).

Asian American Studies (AAS) is dedicated to understanding Asian peoples in the U.S. from contemporary and historical points of view. With a broad range of interests and expertise, faculty in AAS take an interdisciplinary approach to studying the complex, diverse, and ever-changing cultures that constitute the Asian American experience.

Undergraduates at Stanford may earn a major or minor in Asian American Studies by taking courses in many departments, including history, English, anthropology, and music. The program is a home for students exploring every dimension of Asian American life from art and literature to social and cultural history to politics and policy. It provides an excellent foundation for appreciating complexity within a diverse, interdependent world.

Stanford’s top-ranked Department of Biology encompasses many sub-disciplines ranging from molecular biology to ecology. Through a core set of courses and specialized electives, undergraduate students study and analyze the building blocks of life, from molecules and cells to organisms and ecosystems. 

Undergraduates and graduate students work with renowned faculty specializing in ecology, plant and animal physiology, population biology, genetics, immunology, neurobiology, cell and developmental biology, molecular biology, and biochemistry. In addition to working in labs on campus, students can pursue research at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains and at Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula (which is part of the Doerr School of Sustainability).

View highlights of the biology department's undergraduate offerings.

Graduate joint degree offered: MD/PhD

The Stanford Biophysics Program is an interdisciplinary, interdepartmental graduate training program that leads to a doctoral degree. It brings together faculty from more than a dozen departments in the Schools of Humanities and Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering, as well as the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. Research in Biophysics applies the principles of chemistry and physics to solving biological problems with the help of the latest methodologies, such as computational biology and molecular analysis.

The program trains students to approach biological problems quantitatively. With the benefit of advanced coursework and exceptional facilities—including the Lucas Center for Imaging, which houses multiple whole-body MRI systems—students develop the skills needed to direct their own research to address critical problems in the field.

Through courses and lab work that promote collaboration and active learning, Stanford’s undergraduate program in chemistry teaches fundamental concepts key to advancing the molecular sciences. The department’s mission is to explore and advance new chemical frontiers in the life sciences, physical sciences, medicine, energy, and materials and environmental sciences through collaborative research and scholarship.

Undergraduate and graduate students have opportunities to work with leading faculty who study atomic and molecular systems, create new forms of matter, and develop experimental and theoretical tools to understand and control the behavior of electrons, atoms, molecules, and materials for the benefit of science and society.

View highlights of the chemistry department's undergraduate offerings.

Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies

The program in Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies deals principally with the important and growing population in the United States that originates from Mexico, Latin America, and South America. In the interest of understanding this population in its cultural, economic, and political dimensions, the program supports collaboration among faculty in a variety of disciplines.

Undergraduates who pursue a major or minor in Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies take an interdisciplinary approach to the full range of experiences relevant to the lives of Chicanas/os and Latinas/os in the U.S. today. Courses on topics such as poetry, film, childhood development, and educational policy are offered along with opportunities for learning through service. It is an intellectually rigorous course of study that addresses issues of major social significance.

Stanford’s Department of Classics takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the literature and culture of the ancient world. Students examine history, language, literature, art, philosophy, and archaeology in courses that situate Greece and Rome in relation to other ancient societies.

At Stanford, classics is a dynamic field in which faculty and students employ diverse methods of study across media, genres, and time. Coursework delves into specialized fields such as ancient economics, law, and science to illuminate the relationships between various cultures and the ancient world’s influence on the contemporary one. Classics also collaborates with the Department of Philosophy to offer undergraduate and graduate joint programs in ancient philosophy.

View highlights of the classics department's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate classics alumni.

Communication

Stanford’s Department of Communication focuses on studying the ways that communication techniques and technologies shape who we are, how we govern ourselves, and what kinds of cultures we inhabit as a society.

For undergraduate majors and coterminal master’s students, the department offers a broad introduction to the social and psychological power of communication. Master’s students in journalism pursue an intensive year-long program that emphasizes multimedia storytelling, data-driven reporting, and experimentation in immersive journalism about public affairs issues. Graduates work everywhere from Google News to The Washington Post. Doctoral candidates work with faculty within and beyond the department, developing their own research programs.

View highlights of the communication department's undergraduate offerings.

Graduate joint degree offered: JD/PhD

Comparative Literature

Division of literatures, cultures, and languages (dlcl).

Comparative Literature (part of the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages) provides students the opportunity to study literature in all its forms. While other disciplines focus on works of literature as parts of specific national or linguistic traditions, comparative literature examines the nature of literary phenomena themselves by drawing together texts from around the globe and from different historical periods. The department focuses on literary forms such as narratives, performance, and poetry, as well as cinema, music, and new emerging media.

Along with the traditional model of comparative literature that juxtaposes two or more national literary cultures, the department supports teaching and research that uses specialized tools of inquiry such as literary theory, the application of philosophy to literature (and vice versa), and other methods that enrich literary study.

Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity

Undergraduate students interested in exploring race and ethnicity from an interdisciplinary perspective may choose from a diverse array of courses as part of a major or minor in CSRE. Faculty in fields such as anthropology, economics, and philosophy teach in the program. In addition to coursework, students are encouraged to pursue their interests through internships, engagement with the community, and original research.

The Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity supports scholarship that illuminates how race and ethnicity are essential aspects of society today. As a hub for interdisciplinary research and teaching, the center fosters a deep understanding of the past and develops tools to address current social problems in the interest of creating a more just and equitable world.

View highlights of the CSRE program's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate CSRE alumni.

Data Science

Stanford’s Program in Data Science provides foundational knowledge for tackling data-driven problems in science, industry, and society. Students learn mathematical modeling, inferential thinking, and computational strategies. They consider the ethical use of data and technology and explore applications of data science to scientific challenges and social problems.

Students take courses in multiple departments, including mathematics, statistics, computer science, engineering, and the social sciences (BA). Electives allow students to define their own intellectual pathway. Capstone experiences provide opportunities for individual research projects or collaborative work with partners from industry, government, and nonprofits to put knowledge into action.

View highlights of the data science program's undergraduate offerings.

Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law

Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (DDRL) is an honors program available to undergraduate seniors in any department or program at Stanford. Students in DDRL work closely with affiliated faculty and enjoy special opportunities to engage with visiting policymakers and government officials.

With the help of specialized instruction in research methods and regular workshops that facilitate collaboration, students who earn honors in DDRL produce original theses on such topics as technology’s impact on the political process, the history of immigration and border control, and global solutions to malnutrition.

The Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (DLCL) is home to the departments of Comparative Literature, French and Italian, German Studies, Iberian and Latin American Cultures, and Slavic Languages and Literatures. The division’s faculty are expert teachers of numerous modern languages and scholars of culture, literature, history, politics, and philosophy in a wide range of traditions.

In courses on campus and in the Bing Overseas Studies Program, DLCL students learn to think critically and globally about how people use language to make sense of the world, to claim an identity and a place in history, to entertain, and to persuade. In addition to its majors, DLCL offers an undergraduate minor in Medieval studies and a PhD minor in philosophy, literature, and the arts.

View highlights of DLCL's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate DLCL alumni.

East Asian Languages and Cultures

In Stanford’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, students study China, Japan, and Korea through coursework on language, linguistics, literature, film, cultural studies, and visual arts. Small classes are led by faculty and visiting scholars whose specialties range from traditional poetry to modern politics.

Intense language training and cultural immersion are cornerstones of the department. Students can also participate in Stanford’s overseas program in Kyoto, where they can explore topics such as religion, art, and the culture and economy of contemporary Japan.

View highlights of EALC's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate EALC alumni.

East Asian Studies

Stanford global studies (sgs).

Stanford’s master’s degree program in East Asian Studies combines language training, interdisciplinary area studies, and a disciplinary concentration. Students construct a course of study suited to their interests and career aspirations.

The program is designed for those who want to concentrate on East Asia at the doctoral level but have not selected a specific discipline, or for those who wish to pursue intensive area studies and language training before moving on to advanced study. Stanford offers a joint degree program in East Asian Studies and law and dual degree programs with education or business. The program also attracts students who plan to specialize in East Asian Studies for careers in fields such as government service or journalism.

Graduate joint degree offered: JD/MA

Stanford’s prestigious Department of Economics trains undergraduates and graduate students in the methods and ideas of modern economics. It collaborates with the medical school, the business school, and departments across campus. The department leverages Stanford's strengths in big data and machine learning methods to deepen the insights of the field, and its groundbreaking interdisciplinary foundational and applied research is expanding our understanding of broad issues such as social mobility and education.

Students can extend their education through research assistantships with faculty within the department and at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, where economists collaborate with leaders in business, technology, health care, and government on policy-oriented research.

View highlights of the economics department's undergraduate offerings.  

Graduate joint degrees offered: JD/MA, JD/PhD, and MPP/PhD

In Stanford’s top-ranked Department of English, students analyze the culture of the written word through literature, focusing on traditions in English across a range of media. Coursework emphasizes interpretive thinking and creative writing; literary and cultural history; literary form and genre; and reading, writing, and critical analysis. The graduate program involves intensive training in the research and analysis of British, U.S., and other Anglophone literary histories and texts, preparing students to produce original scholarship and teach literature at the highest levels.

The department is also home to Stanford’s renowned Creative Writing Program, which offers workshops and tutorials in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in addition to a reading series featuring prominent contemporary writers.

View highlights of the English department's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate English alumni.

Ethics in Society

Ethics in Society offers undergraduates in any major the chance to earn honors by writing a thesis that applies moral and political philosophy to important social problems. Recent theses have focused on topical subjects such as inequality in education and the ethics of finance.

Students may also pursue a minor in Ethics and Society, engaging with moral issues, both personal and public. Choosing from a range of elective courses, students develop a foundation in ethical reasoning that may be applied to a particular theme, such as medicine, the environment, or technology.

Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary program that provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to investigate the significance of gender and sexuality in all arenas of human life. Students learn to think critically about gender roles, relations, and identities and also how gender intersects with other social constructs such as class and ethnicity. The program offers outstanding support and opportunities through close partnerships with the Clayman Institute for Gender Research and the Stanford Women’s Community Center.

The program offers an undergraduate major and a minor, as well as the opportunity for students in any major to earn honors with a research paper or creative project. A doctoral minor is also available for students who desire a rigorous foundation in the field. Students are encouraged to design their own plans of study to align with their identities, interests, and goals.

View highlights of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program's undergraduate offerings.

French and Italian

The Department of French and Italian offers students the opportunity to pursue coursework in language, culture, literature, and intellectual history within the French and Italian traditions. The undergraduate programs in French and Italian provide a comprehensive study of their respective literatures and cultures, establishing a solid basis for further study in literature or history.

The curriculum is designed to benefit students at all levels of language proficiency and to meet a wide range of interests. Students who wish to explore international relations, European history and literature, film studies, philosophy, and post-colonial studies will find many relevant course offerings.

German Studies

The undergraduate program in German equips students with the language skills and analytic capacities needed to understand the cultures of German-speaking Europe. Students learn how to interpret complex literary and philosophical works, evaluate historical change, and immerse themselves in new cultures and societies. Students majoring in German often combine courses in the department with offerings from other fields in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.

The doctoral program provides training in the full range of German literary history, along with opportunities to pursue specialized research topics. All students participate in an ongoing colloquium for sharing writing and research, as well as in language teaching and other professionalization opportunities.

Stanford’s top-ranked Department of History teaches students to make sense of humanity’s past, present, and future while developing critical analytical skills and sophisticated ways of thinking. Courses teach students to evaluate original source material as well as synthesize information from multiple sources and formats in order to communicate its importance in clear, persuasive writing.

The department’s faculty has expertise in a wide range of historical periods, national histories, and regional studies. Its research explores such topics as law, race and ethnicity, and science and medicine in many historical contexts. The graduate program trains scholars who earn distinction in teaching and research, while undergraduates go on to pursue careers in law, government, medicine, and technology.

View highlights of the history department's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate history alumni.

Graduate joint degrees offered: JD/MA and JD/PhD

Human Biology

Human Biology offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human beings from biological, behavioral, social, and cultural perspectives. Through teaching and research on topics such as environmental policy, genetics, and child development, the program promotes the welfare of humans as well as the world at large.

Students take courses in many departments, developing a strong, integrated foundation in the biological and social sciences, as well as statistics. Capstone projects in research or community service allow students to pursue an area in great depth. In addition to offering a major and a minor, the program also awards honors to undergraduates who write a thesis based on their own research.

Human Rights

Stanford global studies.

The Center for Human Rights and International Justice offers an undergraduate minor in human rights open to students in any major or program. At Stanford and throughout the world, the center works to advance the cause of justice and human dignity. Students who pursue the minor work closely with experienced scholars and practitioners in the field of human rights in courses that apply history, philosophy, and political science to advocacy and experiential learning. For a capstone project, students may write a research paper, develop practical tools for the collection and analysis of data, or undertake creative work.

Iberian and Latin American Cultures

Studying Iberian and Latin American cultures means engaging in a deep and compelling exploration of the languages, literatures, and cinema of the Iberian Peninsula (primarily Spain and Portugal), Latin America, Brazil and Lusophone Africa, and Latina/o populations in the United States. The program balances an emphasis on literary studies with philosophical, historical, and social approaches to cultural issues.

As a result of its focus on critical thinking, open discussion, and close textual analysis, the undergraduate curriculum provides excellent preparation for a large number of professional fields. The graduate program provides rigorous and highly individualized advanced training in the analysis of Iberian, Latin American (including Brazil), and Latina/o literatures.

Interdisciplinary Arts

Stanford arts institute.

Open to students in any major, the Interdisciplinary Arts Minor and Honors in the Arts programs support students in completing original projects under the guidance of academic and creative mentors. The programs support a diverse range of interdisciplinary experiences: Students are free to design projects that incorporate multiple arts disciplines and to integrate non-arts interests into either artistic practice or research. The minor requires 27 units of core and elective classes in addition to a capstone project. Honors student participate in weekly workshops during their senior year as they develop a creative thesis project.

International Policy

The Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy (MIP) is an interdisciplinary program devoted to rigorous analysis of international issues in diplomacy, governance, security, global health, and environmental policy. The program integrates perspectives from political science, law, economics, history, and other disciplines, with a focus on implementation and administration of solutions to global problems.

The MIP program combines research and scholarship with practical training designed to prepare students for careers in public service and other settings where they can have an impact on international issues. The program allows students to specialize in cyber policy and security; energy, natural resources, and the environment; global health; governance and development; or international security.

Graduate joint degrees offered: JD/MA and MA/MPP

International Relations

International Relations is an interdisciplinary undergraduate program focusing on the changing political, economic, and cultural relations within the international system in the modern era. The program explores how global, regional, and domestic factors influence relations between groups around the world, drawing on the expertise of faculty in economics, political science, and history.

Students gain a foundation in comparative politics, U.S. foreign policy, and economics, then specialize in a region or topic of their choosing, along with a relevant foreign language. There are also rich opportunities to become involved with ongoing research projects and work directly with faculty mentors.

International Security Studies

This program offers students, regardless of major, the opportunity to earn honors in international security studies. After coursework on national and international security and relevant technologies, students undertake a substantial research project, which they complete with the help of personalized guidance from faculty in a variety of disciplines. Recent graduates have written on such issues as religious extremism, missile defense, and climate change. Students in the program benefit immensely from access to the vibrant intellectual environment of Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), a hub for leading researchers in the field.

Jewish Studies

This interdisciplinary program offered by the Taube Center for Jewish Studies promotes research on Jewish literatures, languages, religion, politics, and history. In addition to traditional strengths in history and religious studies, the program also comprises scholarship on the role of the arts, especially music and theater, in Jewish culture.

Courses offer a rich understanding of the many areas of Jewish studies, such as Jewish history, Israeli culture, religious literature, and the Hebrew and Yiddish languages. Undergraduates may earn a major or minor in Jewish studies. The Taube Center also supports graduate students and visiting scholars as part of its mission to educate the broader community, Jewish and non-Jewish, through lectures and other public events.

Latin American Studies

Stanford Global Studies offers a master’s degree in Latin American Studies. The curriculum is based on courses surveying the history, politics, culture, and ecology of the region. Students enjoy opportunities to interact with leading scholars, including distinguished visitors from Latin American or Iberian countries who come to Stanford each year as Tinker Visiting Professors.

Stanford’s Center for Latin American Studies oversees programs for students, coordinates a range of conferences and lectures, and provides fellowships and funding to support research by faculty in many fields of study. Training in the languages of Latin America, including indigenous languages such as Nahuatl, and coordinating resources and services for immigrants are important parts of its mission.

Linguistics

In Stanford’s undergraduate program in linguistics, students analyze the structure of language with close attention to sound, meaning, words, and sentences and learn how these structural patterns vary over time. Courses also draw connections between linguistics and anthropology, psychology, and cognitive and computer sciences, among other disciplines.

The graduate program emphasizes theoretical work based in empirical language data. Research and teaching explore a range of topics that includes computational linguistics, historical linguistics, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, semantics, and sociolinguistics. Linguistics also collaborates with Stanford’s departments of computer science, philosophy, and psychology to offer interdisciplinary doctoral study in cognitive science.

View highlights of the linguistics department's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate linguistics alumni.

Master of Liberal Arts

A part-time master's degree program for adults, Stanford's Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) offers the opportunity to pursue an interdisciplinary course of study through evening classes and a flexible academic schedule.

Mathematical and Computational Science*

The program in Mathematical and Computational Science (MCS)* serves undergraduates who want to pursue data science and applied mathematics. Its faculty are drawn from computer science, engineering, and statistics, and the curriculum provides an understanding of mathematics in the context of the information sciences.

Students in MCS gain skills in computation, probabilistic modeling, statistical inference, and optimal decision-making. Thanks to the program’s interdisciplinary design, students learn to apply their expertise to problems in science and technology, as well as management and the social sciences. Graduates pursue professions that demand high competence within diverse technical frameworks and social environments.

*The MCS program will no longer be accepting students for the major and minor as of Aug. 31, 2022. The Data Science major  replaces MCS effective Sept. 1, 2022. Currently enrolled MCS majors and minors will be able to complete their degrees.

Mathematics

The undergraduate mathematics program encompasses the full range of pure and applied mathematics. The major is flexible at incorporating math-related coursework in nearby areas such as physics, machine learning, cryptography, and finance. The department provides students with opportunities for extensive experience with logical reasoning, generalization, and proofs to communicate sound arguments, as well as the creation and interpretation of mathematical models for reliable data analysis (such as in computer science and computational biology). Undergraduates can earn a major or minor in mathematics. Many mathematics majors earn a double major followed by either graduate school in mathematics or nearby fields, or a career in the corporate sector, tech industries, or government agencies.

The expertise among the faculty covers the traditional areas of pure mathematics (algebra, analysis, and geometry) along with fields nearer to computer science (such as probability and combinatorics) and applied mathematics. There are graduate courses in a wide array of areas at the introductory and advanced levels due to the breadth of the faculty, some of whom have a joint appointment in the statistics department. The department hosts many distinguished visitors throughout the year and there are numerous weekly seminars on topics related to contemporary research.

View highlights of the mathematics department's undergraduate offerings.

Medical Humanities

Undergraduates with any major may pursue a minor in Medical Humanities. Combining the field of medicine with art, literature, film, history, policy, and the social sciences, the minor explores the rich terrain of the human experience as students learn to appreciate the human body and medical issues from multiple disciplinary and aesthetic perspectives.

Medically inclined students can use the minor to broaden their interpersonal knowledge and skills, but it is also relevant for undergraduates interested in the meaning and experience of diagnosis, the way that medicine is an art form as well as a science, and the way institutions and culture shape how illness is identified, experienced, and treated.

Modern Thought and Literature

Modern Thought and Literature (MTL) is an interdisciplinary graduate program directed by faculty in art history, English, media studies, comparative literature, and law, among others. The program, which explores critical approaches to modernity, supports research in literature, film, popular culture, technology, ideology, and more.

MTL students are trained in literary and cultural studies as well as disciplines such as anthropology, gender studies, or sociology. The program expects that many of its alumni will go on to become innovative teachers and scholars in all areas of the humanities.

Through courses based in theory, musicianship, analysis, and history, Stanford’s Department of Music trains students for careers as composers, performers, teachers, and scholars. The department supports a culture that is not only firmly rooted in history and tradition but also vigorously engaged with the technological and artistic evolution of sound. Resources include the Archive of Recorded Sound—where students can explore the progression of music on formats from wax cylinders to streaming media—and the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, a multidisciplinary facility that serves composers and researchers collaborating at the crossroads of technology and art.

Campus-wide, the department also promotes the enjoyment and understanding of music through private lessons. Students enjoy extraordinary opportunities to participate in ensembles, chamber groups, and major productions.

View highlights of the music department's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate music alumni.

Native American Studies

Native American Studies supports scholarship on Native communities in the interest of preserving and appreciating their unique social systems, languages, and natural resources. Its courses are housed across campus departments and schools including sociology, education, anthropology, archeology, English, art history, linguistics, and law.

A major or minor in Native American Studies introduces students to a broad range of approaches to the academic study of indigenous cultures while promoting understanding of both the traditions and the continuing experiences of Native American peoples and communities. Students may pursue a plan of study that integrates specialized courses with the methods of other disciplines such as history and psychology.

Stanford’s Department of Philosophy offers rigorous programs in the traditional core areas of philosophy as well as opportunities to explore subfields including feminist philosophy and aesthetics. Its traditional strengths in logic and the philosophy of science are complemented by strong programs in action theory, ethics and political philosophy, language, mind and epistemology, and the history of philosophy, especially ancient philosophy and Kant studies.

Students of philosophy learn to think critically about the sources of knowledge and value, to express difficult ideas with clarity, and to make strong arguments. For undergraduates the department offers a general course of study as well as special programs in the history and philosophy of science and in the intersection of philosophy and literature. Graduate students are welcomed into a vigorous intellectual community where they participate in workshops, in reading groups, in colloquia, and in nearly all aspects of department life on an equal basis with the faculty.

View highlights of the philosophy department's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate philosophy alumni.

Stanford’s undergraduate physics program offers a solid foundation in classical and modern physics in a top-ranked department. Courses in physics reveal the mathematical beauty of the universe at scales ranging from subatomic to cosmological. The program also includes labs in which students can develop their own experiments. Astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology courses are also offered through the department.

Graduate students have opportunities to pursue research in astrophysics, cosmology, particle physics, atomic and laser physics, and condensed matter physics. In addition to working with leading faculty in both physics and applied physics, students collaborate with researchers in the schools of engineering and medicine and at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

View highlights of the physics department's undergraduate offerings.

Political Science

Stanford’s top-ranked Department of Political Science offers students the opportunity to study domestic and international political systems through courses on governance, public policies, political behavior, and institutional design. The undergraduate major focuses on political systems within the context of global forces, international conflicts, social movements, ideological systems, and diversity. Students study a variety of research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, and develop effective written and oral communication skills. The department trains students to be citizens prepared for a range of careers that require analytical thinking and knowledge of sophisticated research methods.

Departmental research areas include U.S. politics, comparative politics, international relations, political methodology, and political theory.

View highlights of the political science department's undergraduate offerings.

Stanford’s renowned top-ranked Department of Psychology has a long-standing tradition of groundbreaking theoretical research that also has a powerful impact in the real world. The department supports teaching and research devoted to a better understanding of human nature and behavior. Areas of research include cognitive and developmental psychology, neuroscience, social psychology, and the study of emotion.

The undergraduate program offers excellent training in understanding human behavior using scientifically rigorous methods. Students have opportunities to become research assistants in faculty labs and also work at Stanford’s Bing Nursery School and SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions), the department’s “do tank” that creates and shares social psychological insights to help improve society.

View highlights of the psychology department's undergraduate offerings.

Graduate joint degrees offered: JD/PhD and MPP/PhD

Public Policy

The program brings together economics, political and moral philosophy, psychology, and legal studies with the aim of understanding public policy. Faculty from across the university have expertise in topics such as health care, education, national and international security, and criminal justice.

Along with an appreciation of ethical and pragmatic issues, students learn how to approach and evaluate major public policy challenges. Courses provide a foundation in economics and political science as well as opportunities to study policy in relation to energy, the environment, technology, and urban development. Seniors demonstrate their capacity to understand and solve pressing problems through seminars or independent research. The program also offers opportunities for graduate study.

Graduate joint degrees offered: JD/MA, JD/MPP, MA/PhD, MBA/MPP, MD/MPP, MPP/MS, and MPP/PhD

Religious Studies

Stanford’s Department of Religious Studies provides a range of perspectives on the history, literature, thought, and practice of religious traditions. In addition to housing core faculty with strengths in the study of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism, the department collaborates with a number of programs on campus. These include the Department of Philosophy, the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies, the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, and the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

The department also supports the study of languages needed to understand sacred texts and interpretive traditions, as well as research at Stanford’s overseas centers, where religions can be observed and experienced in their appropriate cultural contexts.

View highlights of the religious studies department's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate religious studies alumni.

Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

The Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES) advances interdisciplinary approaches to a vast region stretching from the Berlin Wall to the Bering Strait. In addition to supporting undergraduate and doctoral students, it offers a one-year master’s program providing intensive study for students with an academic background in the region.

Degree programs in CREES combine language and area courses with work in the social sciences and humanities. Students' professional interests include  government, journalism, business, and non-governmental organizations. CREES also attracts students pursuing doctoral or professional degrees who desire intensive area studies and language training.

Science, Technology, and Society

The interdisciplinary program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) offers a modern liberal arts education by bringing together scholars from fields such as anthropology, computer science, and sociology to explore the impact of scientific discoveries and how people understand their relationship to technology.

Through courses in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering, students acquire technical skills along with an understanding of the history of science as well as the values and economic forces that guide technological change.

Slavic Languages and Literatures

The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures teaches Russian language, literature, and cultural history, with a strong emphasis on literary theory and criticism. From freshman and sophomore seminars, which do not require specialized knowledge or knowledge of Russian, to advanced graduate seminars in Russian, the department offers courses that serve a wide range of interests.

Students pursuing majors in the department will become experts on a region that plays an important role in the world today and acquire the knowledge of philosophy, history, and cultural studies that will allow them to put this expertise to use. Along the way they can expect to master not only the Russian language but also the critical thinking, analytic, and writing skills necessary to succeed in a wide range of professional fields.

The Department of Sociology, one of the best in the nation, teaches students how to understand and address social issues that affect everything from interpersonal relations to global warming. Students develop a broad grasp of fundamental sociological theories and the methodological skills used to evaluate human behavior and social organizations.

The faculty also lead respected university centers such as the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. 

View highlights of the sociology department's undergraduate offerings.

Graduate joint degree offered: JD/PhD and MPP/PhD

The Stanford Global Studies Division (SGS) is home to 14 centers and programs dedicated to exploring issues, societies, and cultures in regional and global perspective. SGS equips Stanford students with the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills essential to leading in a global context and fosters innovative research that deepens society’s understanding of critical regions and global issues.

SGS offers a minor in global studies, which is available to any undergraduate student who desires an intensive program of study dedicated to one of several global regions. Students enrolled in the minor can specialize in African studies, European studies, Iranian studies, Islamic studies, Latin American studies, or South Asian studies. Students are encouraged to undertake training in languages appropriate to their interests and to complement their coursework through one of many opportunities offered by the Bing Overseas Studies Program.

Learn more about SGS’s academic programs .

Stanford’s top-ranked Department of Statistics gives students a foundation in the role of probabilistic and statistical ideas and methods in science, medicine, technology, and the humanities. Faculty provide instruction in the theory and application of commonly used techniques in the field, while offering training through innovative programs. The department administers a mathematical and computational science major for undergraduates,* a data science track through its master’s program, and a doctoral training program in biostatistics for personalized medicine.

To foster the relationship between theory and application, the department also promotes interdisciplinary collaboration through faculty appointments in economics, education, political science, and other fields. 

*The MCS program will no longer be accepting students for the major and minor as of Aug. 31, 2022.  The Data Science major  replaces MCS effective Sept. 1, 2022. Currently enrolled MCS majors and minors will be able to complete their degrees.

Symbolic Systems

Symbolic Systems is an interdisciplinary program that investigates both the computer and the human mind as systems that use symbols to communicate and represent information. Faculty approach the relationship between humans and computers by way of theoretical and technical expertise in cognitive science, linguistics, philosophy, and other fields.

Students learn technical skills in mathematics and computer programming, along with a foundation based on humanistic perspectives and empirical research. Many students go on to pursue advanced studies in artificial intelligence, neuroscience, or the philosophy of language.

Graduate joint degree offered: JD/MS

Theater and Performance Studies

At Stanford’s Department of Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS), students receive instruction—in the classroom and onstage—from faculty as well as artists-in-residence. The curriculum integrates theory, criticism, and a historical study of drama with the experience of live performance in theater spaces on campus. Students apply analytical skills developed in courses to artistic endeavors that range from performing in classic dramas and stage-managing musicals to creating costumes for period pieces and directing experimental one-act plays.

The department also houses a Dance Division, in which students consider movement both as performance and as a cultural, political, and social lens for understanding the body and the world. Courses covering critical and historical perspectives on dance complement studio classes that teach forms ranging from ballet to hip-hop.

View highlights of TAPS's undergraduate offerings.

Explore careers of undergraduate TAPS alumni.

Urban Studies

The Urban Studies program uses theoretical and practical approaches to understand the nature of cities. Research and teaching focus on why people live in cities and how urban environments affect human development, addressing contemporary problems related to poverty, education, and transportation. Faculty in law, economics, business, communication, engineering, and literature work closely with the program.

Undergraduates learn about the history of urbanization as a political and social phenomenon and study the methods of qualitative and quantitative research. The program also encourages community service and internships in government or the private sector. Stanford’s programs in New York City and Washington, D.C. both offer outstanding opportunities for urban studies students.

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