School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 61-80 of 610 Results
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Stephen Sano
Professor Harold C. Schmidt Director in Choral Studies and Professor (Teaching) of Music
BioStephen M. Sano, Professor at Stanford University’s Department of Music, assumed the position of Director of Choral Studies in 1993. At Stanford, Dr. Sano directs the Stanford Chamber Chorale and Symphonic Chorus, where he has been described in the press as “a gifted conductor,” and his work as “Wonderful music making! ... evident in an intense engagement with his charges: the musicians responded to this attention with wide-eyed musical acuity.” Other reviews have lauded, “It is difficult to believe that any choral group anywhere is capable of performing better than the Stanford chorus under the direction of Stephen M. Sano.”
Dr. Sano has appeared as guest conductor with many of the world’s leading choral organizations, including in collaborative concerts with the Choirs of Trinity College and St John’s College, Cambridge; the Joyful Company of Singers (London); the Choir of Royal Holloway, University of London; the Kammerchor der Universität der Künste Berlin; and the Kammerchor der Universität Wien (Vienna). He often appears as guest conductor of the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra in its collaborative concerts with the Stanford Symphonic Chorus, and has served on the conducting faculty of the Wilkes University Encore Music Festival of Pennsylvania. He has studied at the Tanglewood Music Center and is in frequent demand as a master class teacher, conductor, and adjudicator in choral music. To date, he has taught master classes and conducted festival, honor, municipal, and collegiate choirs from over twenty states, as well as from England, Austria, Germany, Canada, Australia, and Japan.
On Stanford’s campus, Dr. Sano’s accomplishments as a leader and educator have been recognized through his appointments as the inaugural chair holder of the Professor Harold C. Schmidt Directorship of Choral Studies and as the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He was also the recipient of the 2005 Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. Dr. Sano's recordings with the Stanford Chamber Chorale have appeared three times on the Grammy Awards preliminary ballot in the category "Best Choral Album." His choral recordings can be heard on the ARSIS Audio, Pictoria, and Daniel Ho Creations labels.
Outside of the choral world, Dr. Sano is a scholar and performer of kī hō‘alu (Hawaiian slack key guitar), and an avid supporter of North American taiko (Japanese American drumming). As a slack key artist, his recordings have been nominated as finalists for the prestigious Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award and the Hawaiian Music Award. His recording, "Songs from the Taro Patch," was on the preliminary ballot for the 2008 Grammy Award. Dr. Sano’s slack key recordings can be heard on the Daniel Ho Creations and Ward Records labels.
A native of Palo Alto, California, Dr. Sano holds Master’s and Doctoral degrees in both orchestral and choral conducting from Stanford, and a Bachelor’s degree in piano performance and theory from San José State University. He has studied at Tanglewood Music Center and with Mitchell Sardou Klein, William Ramsey, Aiko Onishi, Alfred Kanwischer, Fernando Valenti, and Ozzie Kotani. -
Cintia Santana
Senior Lecturer of Comparative Literature
BioCintia Santana specializes in 19th and 20th Century Spanish literature, particularly in the cultural relationships between Spain and the United States. Her research interests include transatlantic and translation studies, representations of immigration in Spanish literature, and the theory and praxis of the Latin American and Spanish short story. Her book, Forth and Back: Translation, Dirty Realism, and the Spanish Novel (1975-1995), was published by Bucknell University Press in 2013. At Stanford she also teaches poetry and translation workshops in Spanish and English. Her short stories, poems, and translations have appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, Harvard Review, The Iowa Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Missouri Review, Narrative, Pleiades, Poetry Northwest, RHINO, The Threepenny Review, and other journals. Santana's work was selected for the 2023 Best of the Net Anthology, Best New Poets 2020 and 2023, and has been nominated eight times for the Pushcart Prize. She is a CantoMundo fellow and a recipient of a Djerassi Resident Artist Program fellowship. Her book of poetry, Her debut collection, The Disordered Alphabet (Four Way Books, 2023) received the 2024 IPPY Bronze Medal, the 2023 North American Book Award's Silver Medal, was short-listed for the 2023 California Independent Booksellers Alliance “Golden Poppy” Award, and was the winner of the 43rd Annual Northern California Book Award in Poetry,
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Stefano Santo Sabato
Visiting Research Scientist, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA)
Visiting Scholar, EnglishBioStefano Santo Sabato, PhD is an AI researcher and serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience spanning applied artificial intelligence, collaborative virtual environments (CVE), and large-scale digital knowledge systems. Over the course of his career, he has led and contributed to more than 100 AI projects across the United States and Europe, working at the intersection of advanced technology, human-centered design, and organizational infrastructure.
Trained as a computer scientist and holding a PhD in Software Engineering, Stefano’s early academic work focused on collaborative virtual environments, intelligent interaction, and the design of systems that support shared cognition and coordination in complex digital spaces. As a university researcher and professor in Italy, he developed a strong research foundation in applied AI and distributed collaborative systems, contributing to the evolution of human-computer interaction in networked environments.
In parallel with his academic work, Stefano played a role in national digital transformation efforts as a member of the Italian Digital Agenda Task Force, where he contributed to strategic initiatives including the development of frameworks for digital identity and modern public digital infrastructure.
Today, Stefano is affiliated with Stanford University as a Visiting Research Scientist, engaging with interdisciplinary research in spatial, textual, and human-centered AI. His work emphasizes the importance of top-down, multidisciplinary approaches to AI design—grounded in the idea that intelligence must be embedded within systems that preserve context, continuity, and institutional memory.
He is also the founder and CEO of Fyberloom, a San Francisco-based AI company building next-generation infrastructure for organizational knowledge mapping. Drawing from his long-standing research interests in collaboration, context, and intelligent systems, Stefano’s work explores how enterprises can move beyond fragmented information toward continuously evolving, navigable knowledge environments.
Outside of research and technology, Stefano is an avid guitarist, with a long-standing interest in the cultural dimensions of memory, storytelling, and human expression.
