School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 1,001-1,050 of 1,320 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. -
Debra Satz
Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of H&S, The Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society and Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science
Current Research and Scholarly Interestspolitical philosophy,ethics and economics, equality
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Walter Scheidel
Dickason Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History
BioPersonal website: http://www.walterscheidel.com
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Londa Schiebinger
John L. Hinds Professor of the History of Science
BioLonda Schiebinger is the John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science in the History Department at Stanford University and Director of the EU/US Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment Project. From 2004-2010, Schiebinger served as the Director of Stanford's Clayman Institute for Gender Research. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Professor Schiebinger received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1984 and is a leading international authority on gender in science and technology. Over the past thirty years, Schiebinger's work has been devoted to teasing apart three analytically distinct but interlocking pieces of the gender and science puzzle: the history of women's participation in science; gender in the structure of scientific institutions; and the gendering of human knowledge.
Londa Schiebinger presented the keynote address and wrote the conceptual background paper for the United Nations' Expert Group Meeting on Gender, Science, and Technology, September 2010 in Paris. She presented the findings at the United Nations in New York, February 2011 with an update spring 2014. In 2022, she prepared the background paper for the United Nations 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women’s priority theme, Innovation and Technological Change, and Education in the Digital Age for Achieving Gender Equality and The Empowerment of all Women and Girls. Since 2023, Gendered Innovations has been a member of the UNFPA Equity 2030 Alliance.
In 2011-2014, Schiebinger entered into major collaborations with the European Commission and the U.S. National Science Foundation to promote Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment. This project draws experts from across the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Asia, and was presented at the European Parliament, July 2013 as Gendered Innovations: How Gender Analysis Contributes to Research. In 2018-2020, Schiebinger directed the European Commission Expert Group to produce Gendered Innovations 2: How Inclusive Analysis Contributes to Research and Innovation. Institutes for Gendered Innovations research opened in Soeul, South Korea, in 2015 and in Tokyo, Japan, in 2022.
Schiebinger’s work has been featured in Science: A Framework for Sex, Gender, and Diversity Analysis in Research: Funding Agencies Have Ample Room to Improve Their Policies (2022); Nature: Sex and Gender Analysis Improves Science and Engineering (2019); Nature: Design AI so that it's Fair (2018); Nature: Accounting for Sex and Gender Makes for Better Science (2020).
Her work in the eighteenth century investigates the circulation of knowledge in the Atlantic World. Her Secret Cures of Slaves: People, Plants, and Medicine in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World reconceptualizes research in four areas: first and foremost knowledge of African contributions to early modern science; the historiography of race in science; the history of human experimentation; and the role of science in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. Her prize-winning Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World investigates women's indigenous knowledge of abortifacients and why this knowledge did not travel.
Londa Schiebinger has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize and John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium (2013), the Faculty of Science, Lund University, Sweden (2017), and the University of Valencia, Spain (2018); the Berlin Falling Walls Breakthrough Winner in Science & Innovation Management (2022). Her work has been translated into numerous languages. In 2022/23, she served as an advisor to the Berlin University Alliance. -
Elizabeth Schumann
Billie Bennett Achilles Director of Keyboard Programs and Assistant Professor (Teaching) of Music
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAs a concert pianist, I deeply value the rich traditions of classical music. My passion lies in blending this artistry with scientific insights from neuroscience to biomechanics. This isn't solely about music; it's about applying lessons about optimal practice and peak performance to life's broader canvas. Through my research, I strive to evolve musical training, paving the way for the next generation of dedicated and resilient performers.
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Michael Senko
Ph.D. Student in Linguistics, admitted Autumn 2025
BioStarting in Fall 2025, I am a first year PhD student in the Stanford Department of Linguistics. My research is supported by an EDGE Doctoral Fellowship from the Stanford Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education.
I received a B.S./M.A. in Linguistics & Communication Studies from Northwestern University in 2022, where I worked with Rob Voigt and Annette D’Onofrio. Prior to starting my PhD, I worked as a teacher first in Taiwan through the Fulbright program and later in New York City. I have taught everything from TEFL and math to computer science and religion.
I’m broadly interested in how social and linguistic information is integrated. I use sociophonetic and computational methods in my research to shed light on the cognitive dynamics underlying language users’ utilization and perception of variation. My previous work has focused on variation in the uptake of new (pro)nominal forms on Twitter and in the stressed vowel of "Chicago." -
Serena Shah
Ph.D. Student in History, admitted Autumn 2021
Stanford Stdnt Employee-Summer, History DepartmentBioSerena is a PhD candidate in History in the United States field. She is in her fifth year and she works on the history of ideas in the nineteenth century, especially Americans' ideas about antiquity. Her dissertation investigates the history of oriental scholarship in the United States. It examines Americans' post-Civil War investment in pre-classical antiquity, and the 3,000-4,000 year-old history of the Bronze Age Orient (the site of the most ancient "Eastern" civilizations, or the modern Middle East). She is also currently writing a research article on Greek and Roman slave-naming practices and the classicism of American slavery.
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Cory Shain
Assistant Professor of Linguistics and, by courtesy, of Psychology
BioI lead the Laboratory for Computation & Language in Minds & Brains (CLiMB Lab). We try to figure out how our brains let us go so efficiently from sensation (e.g., speech, reading) to meaning, and we do this using a combination of neuroimaging, computer modeling, and behavioral experiments. See the lab website for details.
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Michael Shanks
Professor of Classics
BioProfessor at Stanford University, Michael Shanks is one of the most original and influential of contemporary archaeologists. He has been at the forefront of archaeological thought and practice since the 1980s, pioneering new ways of understanding and explaining, engaging with Graeco-Roman antiquity and European prehistory, mobilizing remains of the past all around us — instigating changes in archaeology and how we all work with remains of the past. A specialist in long-term perspectives on design and creativity, innovation and social change, he explores connections across the sciences, humanities, and arts in research collaborations and outreach through and beyond the academy, tapping more than $32m of funding over the last 25 years.
Current projects
MS is currently completing four long-running and interrelated projects.
Archaeological history — building scenarios.
Greece and Rome: a new model of antiquity. With Gary Devore. A project concerned with how one might conceive of antiquity as a kind of archaeological prehistory, retold through speculative fabulation. Against conventional narrative is offered a model of ancient lifeworlds conveyed through 45 personae and scenarios. Estimated delivery end of 2026.
Archaeological sites — encountering location.
Against place: a border archaeology. Based on archaeological itineraries in the northern borders of England/Scotland, including prehistoric and Roman field research, this project explores border crossings, trespass and transgression in questioning the character of space and place, site and region. Estimated delivery 2027.
Archaeological praxis — performance design.
Theatre/Archaeology: performing remains. With Mike Pearson. This book sums up 30 years of collaboration with performance artist Mike Pearson. In five portfolios of case studies in performance design they set out a pragmatics and methodology of deep mapping contemporary antiquity and prehistory. Estimated delivery end of 2025.
Archaeological actuality — for the future.
Archaeologies of Nature in Art: from Landscape to Climate Breakdown. With Gabriella Giannachi. This project mobilizes an archaeology of arts practices, from prehistory to contemporary art, to offer action-oriented responses to climate change in a reframing of the concept of nature. Estimated delivery autumn 2025.
The following is part of his continuing exploration of Applied Archaeology — design foresight.
Project Athena: Innovation in and through Learning. With Aisin Corporation led by Kenji Suzuki and in collaboration with Kimihiko Iwamura. Developing learning community and competencies in creative pragmatics — designing and implementing a strategy of corporate culture change. Ongoing 2025 – 2026. -
Vered Karti Shemtov
Eva Chernov Lokey Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Language and Literature
BioVered Karti Shemtov teaches Hebrew and comparative literature in the Department of Comparative Literature at Stanford University, where she also serves as Faculty Director of the Center for Jewish Studies. Shemtov is the founder and editor-in-chief of the journal Dibur.
Her publications include Changing Rhythms: Towards a Theory of Prosody in Cultural Context (Bar-Ilan University Press, 2012) and several co-edited volumes, including Spoken Word, Written Word: Rethinking the Representation of Speech in Literature (2015), 1948: History and Responsibility (2013), and Jewish Conceptions and Practices of Space (2005). She is also the author of numerous articles, including “Limbotopia: The ‘New Present’ and the Literary Imagination” (Journal of Comparative Literature, 2018, with Elana Gomel); “A Sense of No Ending: Contemporary Literature and the Refusal to Write the Future” (Dibur Literary Journal, 2018, with Elana Gomel); and “Poetry and Dwelling: From Martin Heidegger to the Songbook of the Tent Revolution in Israel” (Prooftexts). Her scholarship also examines the works of Amos Oz, Yehuda Amichai, Michal Govrin, A. B. Yehoshua, and Zeruya Shalev. She is the author of the entry “Hebrew Poetry: 1781–2010” in the revised edition of The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.
Her current research project focuses on the poetics of rage and the literary, philosophical, and political forms through which rage is expressed and transformed in poetry and narrative. -
Jie Shen 沈劼
Ph.D. Student in East Asian Languages and Cultures, admitted Autumn 2021
BioJie Shen 沈劼 is a Ph.D. student in Chinese Archaeology, in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University. She mainly focuses on the crafting technology of bone artifacts in ancient China. Using the use-wear analysis, residue analysis, and experimental archaeology, Jie explores the variation and development of bone crafting techniques, and how the crafting industry was involved in social progress such as the formation of the early state. Also, she is interested in the religious and political meaning of animal-related artifacts, which are significant for understanding the human-animal relationship.
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Sandra Wright Shen
Lecturer, Music
BioSteinway Artist Sandra Wright Shen has been described as “a classical pianist of the first order.” With her passion, musicality and inspiration, she aims to move hearts and uplift spirits through music.
Sandra has performed across 16 countries in over 600 concerts. Her appearances include prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Chicago Cultural Center, Monte Carlo Opera House, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Frankfurt Cultural Center, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Taiwan National Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Hong Kong City Hall, and festivals including the Granada International Music Festival, Recontres Musicales de Chaon in France, Brevard Music Festival, Tanglewood BUTI, Chelsea Music Festival, MasterWorks Festival and Steinway Society Concert Series.
She has been featured as guest artist with orchestras appearances around the world displaying a broad repertoire of 26 concertos. She served as Artist-in-Residence with the Charleston Symphony during the 2017–18 season. As a chamber musician, Sandra has performed with renowned artists including Vesselin Paraschkevov (former concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic), Brinton Smith (Houston Symphony), bassoonist Sergio Azzolini, and toured Asia with cellist Nina Kotova.
Sandra received first prize from several major international piano competitions, including First Prize at the 2012 France International Piano Competition, the 1997 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the 1996 Mieczysław Munz Piano Competition, and the 1990 Taiwan National Piano Competition.
Her recordings include a debut CD featuring Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, both released by Taiwan’s Rolling Stone Music. Her latest album, Momentum, with cellist Miriam Smith, was released on Azica Records in 2022.
Sandra is a piano lecturer at the Stanford University and the piano chair at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division. She has served on the faculty of the Brevard Music Festival, Tanglewood BUTI Young Artists Piano Program, Masterworks Music Festival, Music@Tetauchi, and American Fine Arts Festival in Europe and others. Previous academic appointments include Southern Illinois University and frequent invitations as Distinguished Guest Faculty at Furman University. Her students have won top prizes in competitions such as the International Piano Competition of Orléans (France), Stockholm International Piano Competition, the Chopin Foundation, Young Arts and the MTAC competitions.
Sandra performed live for WCQS Radio in Asheville, filmed a four-part television series “The Movements of the Master Composers” for Hong Kong TV and "Inspiration From Above" for US Creation TV, and hosted a classical music program for Taiwan’s IC Broadcast Radio FM97.5. Mixing music and philanthropy, Sandra has given benefit concerts for disaster victims, foster children, firefighters, music education for underprivileged children and San Jose Chamber Series.
Born in Taiwan, Sandra earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she studied with legendary pianist Ann Schein. Her teachers also include Zalina Gurevich and Jörg Demus.
www.sandrashen.com -
stephanie sherriff
Lecturer, Music
BioStephanie Sherriff is an interdisciplinary artist, composer, and performer currently based in San Francisco, California. Their work with sound, video, and physical phenomena is ephemeral in nature and culminates as time-based installations and performances that deconstruct fragments of daily life through experimental processes. They received a BA from San Francisco State University in 2014 and an MFA in Art Practice from Stanford University in 2019. Their work has been featured both nationally and internationally at creative centers such as the Institute for Research Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM), the Sfendoni Theater, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), O. Festival, Gray Area, The Lab, Artists Television Access (ATA), and the Center for New Music (C4NM).
