Careers in Teaching Conference
On December 2nd, the English Department welcomed guest speakers to “Careers in Teaching,” a conference designed to inform graduate students about career possibilities in independent high schools and community colleges. The day was attended by more than 60 people from 15 different Stanford departments, including English, the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (DLCL), biology, anthropology, the school of education, and earth sciences. The occasion was full of energy and optimism. Capturing in a word the spirit of the event, Eric Chandler of the Kent Denver School described it as "inspiring."
The panelists came from some of the best private schools and community colleges in the country, including the Branson School in Marin County, the Castilleja School in Palo Alto, the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, Horace Mann in New York, Kent Denver in Colorado, and the Menlo School in Menlo Park. They also included the president of the Association of Departments of English, Tom Hurley, and Jonathan Ball, the director of school services for the leading independent school recruitment firm, Carney, Sandoe, & Associates in Boston.
In the first session, Stanford Ph.D. alumni spoke frankly about the deliberations that led them to their current positions. In the second, four panelists, all with Ph.D.s in the humanities, explained the day-to-day experience of teaching in an independent school or community college. The third session focused on logistical matters, providing insight into how to apply and make oneself competitive for such positions. All of the panels involved full and vibrant discussion sessions. The participants were also able to speak with the panelists at greater length during the afternoon “breakout” session.
"Careers in Teaching" was funded by a SCORE grant from the Vice Provost for Graduate Education.
Video of the conference is available on the conference website under the "Pages" section of the right sidebar: http://careersinteaching.stanford.edu
SPECTACULAR PERFORMANCES: Essays on Theatre, Imagery, Books and Selves in Early Modern England by Stephen Orgel
Why did Queen Elizabeth I compare herself with her disastrous ancestor Richard II? Why would Ben Jonson transform Queen Anne and her ladies into Amazons as entertainment for the pacifist King James? How do the concepts of costume as high fashion and as self-fashioning, as disguise and as the very essence of theatre, relate to one other? How do portraits of poets help create the author that readers want, and why should books, the embodiment of the word, be illustrated at all? What conventions connect image to text, and what impulses generated the great art collections of the early seventeenth century?
In this richly illustrated collection on theatre, books, art and personal style, literary critic and cultural historian Stephen Orgel addresses himself to such questions in order to reflect generally on early modern representation and, in the largest sense, early modern performance. As wide-ranging as they are perceptive, the essays deal with Shakespeare, Jonson and Milton, with Renaissance magic and Renaissance costume, with books and book illustration, art collecting and mythography. All are recent, and five are hitherto unpublished.