Alison Grace Laurence

Bio

Alison Laurence is a Lecturer in Civic, Liberal, and Global Education. She received her PhD from MIT’s interdisciplinary program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) in 2019. A cultural and environmental historian, she specializes in the historical study of nature on display, non-human animals, deep time, and extinction. Her current book manuscript--Of Dinosaurs and Culture Wars: A Monumental Reckoning with Modern American Monsters--traces how popular displays transformed dinosaurs and other creatures of deep time from scientific specimens to consumer objects and artifacts of everyday American life. Alison has published her research in Museum & Society, Notes & Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, and the Science Museum Group Journal. She holds a BA in Classics from Brown University and an MA in History and Public History from the University of New Orleans.

At Stanford, Alison has taught special topics courses like "Animal Archives: History Beyond the Human" and a variety of courses within the first-year liberal arts requirement, including: "Stories Everywhere," "100,000 Years of War," "Design That Understands Us," and "The Meat We Eat." During the 2022-2023 academic year, she is teaching "Why College?: Your Education and the Good Life," "Citizenship in the 21st Century," and "Preventing Human Extinction."

Academic Appointments

• Lecturer, Stanford Introductory Studies - Civic, Liberal, and Global Education