Lectures and talks at Stanford — 130 upcoming

From Stanford Research to Startup

Business & EconomyScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Sat, Oct 24 ·11:00 am ·Mackenzie Room ·Stanford

What does it take to turn research into a company? A panel explores the journey from Stanford lab to startup commercialization, featuring Brian Bartholomeusz, Managing Director of Innovation Transfer at Stanford's TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy; Caraiosa O'Farrell, a Stanford founder; and a representative from StartX's energy vertical. The conversation covers idea validation, early-stage challenges, and how to navigate Stanford's entrepreneurial ecosystem for founders at any stage—from hackathon prototype to company launch.

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From Climate Data to Climate Action

Business & EconomyScience & TechCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Sat, Oct 24 ·3:00 pm ·Mackenzie Room ·Stanford

How can climate data drive real-world solutions? A panel discussion on turning climate insights into actionable opportunities, featuring Giancarlo Savini (Carbon Removal Partners), Kevin Kopczynski (Congruent Ventures), and Ajay Gupta (CLAI Ventures). The discussion explores how investors evaluate climate solutions, what evidence validates promising ideas, and what it takes to move from prototype to adoption. Aimed at hackathon participants seeking to connect technical work to customer needs, commercial viability, and measurable climate impact.

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Field To Fork: A Conversation on Sustainable Food with Tidefield & Mercedes-Benz BeVisioneers

Science & TechCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Sat, Oct 24 ·5:00 pm ·Stanford University ·Stanford

A guided multi-course dining experience exploring sustainable food systems from production to plate. Hosted by Stanford Climate Week Executive Director Naomie Chien and JC Arce, Founder & CEO of Tidefield, with participants from the Mercedes-Benz BeVisioneers fellowship, the event pairs curated dishes with conversations about agriculture, climate, science, and technology. Farmers, researchers, entrepreneurs, and chefs discuss environmental challenges across the food value chain and emerging solutions, examining topics from agricultural climate footprint to the role of consumer behavior and culinary innovation in building sustainable food systems.

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Documentary Screening - Oceania: Journey to the Center with Filmmaker Q&A

Civics & PowerScience & Tech Lecture / ForumFilm + TalkUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Sat, Oct 24 ·6:00 pm ·Stanford University ·Stanford

A screening of *Oceania: Journey to the Center*, an award-winning documentary following Kiribati elder Tekinati Ruka as she explores her nation's history, cultural strength, and response to predicted sea-level rise. The 75-minute film will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Natalie Zimmerman, who spent 10 years developing relationships in Kiribati, and Impact Producer Lindsay Gordon. The film addresses climate realities facing the Pacific Island nation, which scientists predict may become uninhabitable within a decade, and explores pathways to climate resilience.

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Exploring Grid Inertia (and a Bit of Reactive Power) with Inverter-Based Resources: An Interactive Session

Science & TechCivics & Power Lecture / ForumWorkshop / PracticeUniversity / College

Sat, Oct 24 ·7:30 pm ·Stanford Y2E2 Room 299 ·Stanford

As solar, wind, and battery storage displace conventional generators, the grid loses the stabilizing inertia that once came free from spinning mass. This interactive session explores how inverter-based resources can help maintain grid stability, what their limits are, and how reactive power support fits into the picture. Stanford IEEE's Power & Energy Society will walk through real-world grid events and their lessons, with live demos and open discussion. No power systems background required; open to all majors.

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Turning Your Innovation from Waste to Worth: Owed Soap

Science & TechCivics & Power Lecture / ForumWorkshop / PracticeUniversity / College

Sun, Oct 25 ·12:30 pm ·Stanford University ·Stanford

A live demonstration of how used cooking oil is transformed into soap through circular economy principles. Attendees will watch the soap-making process in action, learn about the environmental impact of cooking oil waste, explore the science behind the transformation, and discover ways to support sustainable solutions from everyday materials. The session explores both the practical methodology and the broader concept of converting waste into useful products.

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Environmental Justice in the Making: A Fireside Chat About Collaboration Across Careers

Civics & PowerScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Sun, Oct 25 ·5:30 pm ·Stanford University ·Stanford

A free dinner and fireside chat exploring how advocacy, research, infrastructure, and public policy can advance environmental justice. Speakers include Khalid Osman (Stanford, environmental justice and equitable water infrastructure), Cynthia Leung (WeaveGrid, utility-scale solar and clean energy), Arieann Harrison (Marie Harrison Community Foundation, Bayview environmental advocacy), Gabbie Listana (San Francisco Youth Commission), and Roberto Torres (San Francisco Environment Department). The event addresses meaningful community collaboration, the interplay between different disciplines, and how students in engineering, law, business, policy, and the arts can contribute to a just, sustainable future.

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Daniel Rock - The Free Hypothesis: AI and Shifted Bottlenecks in Science

Science & TechBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Oct 26 ·12:00 pm ·Gates Computer Science ·Stanford

UPenn Assistant Professor Daniel Rock examines how AI is reshaping scientific research by shifting computational and labor bottlenecks. Part of a university seminar series on AI's impact on science and research methodology.

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Sherine Hamdy - Landing in Place

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / CollegeBook Talk

Mon, Oct 26 ·12:00 pm ·Building 260, Pigott Hall ·Stanford

Medical anthropologist and author Sherine Hamdy discusses her debut graphic novel Landing in Place (Penguin Random House, 2026), illustrated by Myra El Mir. The coming-of-age story follows Anisa, an Egyptian American college freshman navigating premed expectations, identity, and artistic aspiration as she spends time in Cairo discovering her own voice. Hamdy is a leading scholar of Muslim medical ethics and the political economy of disease in Egypt, and a pioneering advocate for academics sharing research across multiple media forms, including her co-authored graphic novel Lissa: A Story of Friendship, Medical Promise, and Revolution.

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Artist Talk with Hiroyuki Murase

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Oct 26 ·12:15 pm ·Building 460, Margaret Jacks Hall ·Stanford

Hiroyuki Murase, CEO and Creative Director of suzusan, discusses the textile brand's mission to bring traditional Japanese shibori dyeing into contemporary fashion. Murase reflects on the relationship between tradition and innovation, local identity and global exchange, and design's role in shaping a sustainable future for craftsmanship.

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ESE Seminar - Nori Nakata: "Reservoir Evolution and Stress Changes during Enhanced Geothermal System Development"

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Oct 26 ·12:30 pm ·Green Earth Sciences Building ·Stanford

Nori Nakata, Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, presents recent research on reservoir evolution during enhanced geothermal system (EGS) development. Using seismic networks and distributed acoustic sensing data from Cape Station and Utah FORGE, Nakata examines microearthquake stress drops, fracture network imaging, and focal mechanisms to understand subsurface stress changes and fracture activation. The work integrates seismic and aseismic slip observations to connect individual earthquakes to reservoir-scale processes and improve geophysical monitoring of geothermal development.

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‘The Golden Age’ or ‘the Dark Time of the Plots’: Iraq and Syria in the 1950s | Matthieu Rey

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Oct 26 ·4:00 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

How did Iraq and Syria navigate independence in the 1940s–50s, balancing constitutional democracy with military intervention and emergency rule? Matthieu Rey, senior researcher at CNRS-EHESS and former director of the Contemporary Studies Department at IFPO Beirut, examines this contradictory political legacy — the flourishing of parliaments, parties, and civil society alongside authoritarian constraints and military interference. Drawing on 15 years of fieldwork across the Middle East and his book *Histoire de la Syrie*, Rey explores the foundational questions both countries faced: who deserved citizenship, how to develop the nation, and how to distribute power between executive and legislature. These tensions, he argues, prefigure struggles that continue today.

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Biology Seminar Series - Orion Weiner "From Swarms to Flocks: Discovering and Rewriting the Rules of Collective Cell Migration"

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Oct 26 ·4:00 pm ·Clark Center ·Stanford

Orion Weiner explores the mechanisms of collective cell migration, drawing parallels between swarms and flocks to understand how cells coordinate movement. Part of Stanford's Biology Seminar Series.

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Being Muslim on Campus

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Oct 26 ·4:00 pm ·Raikes Building, Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) ·Stanford

A panel discussion on Abiya Ahmed's new book *Being Muslim on Campus: Religion, Inclusion, and Agency at a Secular University* (OUP, 2026), examining the intersection of scholarship and institutional practice. Ahmed, PhD '21, is Director of the Markaz Resource Center and Associate Dean of Students at Stanford. The panel features Anna Bigelow (Associate Professor of Religious Studies), Anthony Antonio (Associate Professor of Education), and Samuel Santos (Senior Associate Vice Provost of Student Affairs), chaired by Shirin Sinnar (William W. and Gertrude H. Saunders Professor of Law) and Alexander Key (Associate Professor of Comparative Literature).

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Stanford Energy Seminar | AI, Energy, and Sustainability: From Innovation to Impact | Richard Newell, C3 AI (former)

Science & TechBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Oct 26 ·4:30 pm ·Shriram Center ·Stanford

A fireside chat on artificial intelligence's dual role in energy systems—driving new demand for power while enabling cleaner, more reliable, and efficient infrastructure. Richard Newell, former CTO of Sustainability Solutions at C3 AI, discusses concrete AI applications in energy, 'physical AI' for grids and infrastructure, AI's reshaping of software deployment, and promising opportunities at the AI-energy intersection, in conversation with John Weyant, Stanford professor and energy systems analyst. The discussion explores lessons from past energy transformations and how students and early-career professionals can contribute to this emerging field.

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Ron Alexander Memorial Lectures in Musicology – Joy H. Calico, UCLA

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free

Mon, Oct 26 ·4:30 pm ·Braun Music Center ·Stanford

A Theory of Operatic Scene Type. Joy H. Calico, Professor of Musicology at UCLA, presents her theory of operatic scenes as recurring narrative and musical nodes — love duets, diegetic songs, rage arias — that constitute a kind of operatic DNA recognizable across centuries and musical styles. Drawing on examples from twentieth- and twenty-first-century opera, including Kaija Saariaho's L'amour de loin, Calico demonstrates how scene types transcend composer, subgenre, and style to reveal deep structural patterns in how opera makes meaning through music, character, and performance.

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Revolutionizing Privacy and AI with Meredith Whittaker

Civics & PowerScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Mon, Oct 26 ·5:00 pm ·Simonyi Conference Center, CoDa ·Stanford

A conversation on collective action and resistance in the age of AI, examining how technology reshapes privacy, free expression, and accountability. Meredith Whittaker, Signal President and former AI Now Institute director whose research shaped global AI policy, discusses the surveillance practices and power concentration embedded in modern AI alongside Professor Lowry Pressly, who specializes in the ethical and political dimensions of AI and surveillance. The discussion explores how individuals, corporations, and government can be held accountable for technology's growing influence on society.

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Earth & Planetary Sciences Seminar - Dr. Ben Mirus "Quantifying controls on landslide potential, from a single tree to the entire nation"

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Oct 27 ·12:00 pm ·Building 320, Geology Corner ·Stanford

A research seminar on landslide hazard assessment and forecasting across scales—from individual tree root systems to national risk mapping. Ben Mirus, Research Geologist at the USGS Geologic Hazards Science Center, presents recent work on the national landslide susceptibility map, annual frequency estimates, seasonality patterns, and the critical zone continuum linking atmosphere, biosphere, and groundwater to slope stability. Drawing on post-Hurricane Helene response efforts and long-term site monitoring, the talk addresses knowledge gaps in predicting when and where landslides will occur.

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After Fission: Recognition and Contestation in the Atomic Age

Civics & PowerScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free ✦ burnoff pick

Tue, Oct 27 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

Sidra Hamidi, Assistant Professor at Trinity College, presents her book *After Fission: Recognition and Contestation in the Atomic Age* (Cambridge University Press, 2026). Challenging the assumption that nuclear status is merely a technical matter, Hamidi argues that states actively contest how their nuclear capabilities are recognized globally. Drawing on diplomatic history of India, Israel, Iran, and North Korea, she examines the Non-Proliferation Treaty's legal structure, technical ambiguities in nuclear testing, and debates over rights in the global nuclear regime. Her work illuminates how powerful states like the US recognize or reject states' desired nuclear status formulations—with implications for negotiating with countries like Iran and North Korea.

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Sustainable Systems Seminar Lunch Series - From Reliability to Resilience: Risk-Informed Asset Management for the Energy Transition

Science & TechCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free

Tue, Oct 27 ·12:00 pm ·Y2E2 Building ·Stanford

From Reliability to Resilience: Risk-Informed Asset Management for the Energy Transition. Lina Bertling Tjernberg, Visiting Professor at Stanford University and Professor of Power Grid Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, discusses advances in reliability-centered asset management, probabilistic risk assessment, and predictive maintenance for sustainable power grids. Drawing on two decades of research and industry application, including her leadership at Sweden's national transmission system operator, Bertling Tjernberg explores how risk-informed decision-making can support the transition to electrified, resilient energy infrastructure.

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Maisha Winn, "Futuring Black Lives: Independent Black Institutions and the Literary Imagination"

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Oct 27 ·12:00 pm ·Building 360 ·Stanford

Maisha T. Winn, Excellence in Learning Professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Education, discusses her historical ethnography *Futuring Black Lives*, examining Black institution builders of the late 1960s–70s who used publications and literary imagination to shape education for Black children. The book traces how Independent Black Institutions anchored shared Black values while preparing students in identity, purpose, and direction—a model Winn argues remains vital amid current racial disparities in schooling, disproportionate discipline of Black students, and attacks on children's literature through censorship and book bans. She demonstrates how historical archives of Black educational thought can inform contemporary equity and justice work in schools.

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Fady Joudah - Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Oct 27 ·12:15 pm ·Florence Moore Hall ·Stanford

A reading and conversation with Palestinian American physician, poet, and translator Fady Joudah, whose newest collection, Exhibit G, comprises poems, essays, and photographs offering a Palestinian perspective on grief, resilience, and survival amid genocide. Joudah is an acclaimed translator of Arabic poetry, including works by Mahmoud Darwish, and has won the Yale Younger Poets Prize, Griffin Poetry Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and American Book Award, among others. He co-founded the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize and practices internal medicine in Houston.

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Power, Art, + Practice with Prof. Matthew Morrison, Usha Iyer

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Oct 27 ·1:30 pm ·Harmony House ·Stanford

An open class session of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts' Intro to IDA course, exploring power, art, and practice through conversation with scholars working across disciplines—theater, performance, visual art, music, and film. Associate Professors Matthew Morrison (African and African American Studies) and Usha Iyer (Art and Art History) lead a facilitated discussion using the Long Table format, inspired by the practice of legendary queer performance duo Split Britches (Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver), examining how artists engage these themes both within and beyond the university.

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Applied Physics/Physics Colloquium: Matthew P.A. Fisher - "Emergence of Hydrodynamics from Open Quantum Dynamics"

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Oct 27 ·3:30 pm ·Hewlett Teaching Center ·Stanford

How does hydrodynamics emerge from the dynamics of discrete quantum particles? Matthew P.A. Fisher, professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara and member of the National Academy of Sciences, explores this question in open quantum systems of bosons, examining how spontaneous symmetry-breaking transitions separate quantum from classical dynamics. He will discuss observations of these transitions in cold atomic gas experiments and the role of information-theoretic quantities in characterizing dynamical phases.

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An Evening of Poetry with Fady Joudah

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Oct 27 ·5:00 pm ·Humanities Center ·Stanford

A reading and conversation with Fady Joudah, Palestinian American physician, poet, and translator. Joudah will discuss his newest collection, *Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza*, which combines poetry, essays, and photographs to document Palestinian grief, resilience, and life under genocide. A multiple-award winner—including the Yale Younger Poets Prize, Griffin Poetry Prize, and American Book Award—Joudah has also translated works by Mahmoud Darwish and co-founded the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. *Exhibit G* will be available for purchase and signing.

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The Illicit Finance Hydra: Crypto, Sanctions Evasion, and the New Financial Battlefield

Civics & PowerBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Tue, Oct 27 ·5:30 pm ·Hohbach Hall ·Stanford

Cryptocurrency is reshaping illicit finance and international sanctions enforcement. Alexander Browder, founder of the Global Cryptocurrency Laundering Database, analyzes two decades of major cases to explore how digital assets and stablecoins enable sanctions evasion, state-backed activity, and money laundering by Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other actors. He discusses policy responses from governments, financial institutions, and tech companies, and shares how his research prompted UK and EU action—and led to his being sanctioned by Russia in June 2026.

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The Unbroken Sky — Francisco Jiménez with Tomás Jiménez

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Film + TalkLecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Oct 27 ·5:30 pm ·El Centro Chicano ·Stanford

A screening of The Unbroken Sky, a narrative dramatic film adapted from the memoirs of Francisco Jiménez, chronicling his family's journey as immigrant farmworkers in California—their labor in the fields, struggle to access school, and fear of deportation. The screening is followed by a fireside chat between Francisco Jiménez, Professor Emeritus at Santa Clara University, and Tomás Jiménez, Professor of Sociology at Stanford and Founding Faculty Director of the Institute for Advancing Just Societies. A Q&A with the production team—director Josh Peterson, executive producer Normandie Ramirez, and producer Robin Mortarotti—concludes the evening. Jiménez's four-book memoir series, The Circuit, Breaking Through, Reaching Out, and Taking Hold, is recognized among the American Library Association's 50 Best Young Adult Books of All Time.

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Organizing in Solidarity at Stanford: Past & Present

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Oct 27 ·6:00 pm ·Asian American Activities Center ·Stanford

A teach-in and conversation exploring Stanford's legacy of student activism and multiracial solidarity. Student organizers from the Stanford Asian American Action Committee, League of Filipino Students, and Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine reflect on how the 1980s Rainbow Coalition won resources for communities of color, including the establishment of the Asian American Activities Center, and discuss lessons for contemporary organizing.

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The Offline Dream Program: Three Takes on Film, the Internet, and Instanternity

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Oct 27 ·6:00 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

A panel exploring film, the internet, and human agency in the digital age. Bara Kolenc, Gregor Moder, and Jure Simoniti (University of Ljubljana, Department of Philosophy) discuss where subjectivity is located when AI shapes cinema and ideology shapes desire online. Topics include Lubitsch's *To Be or Not to Be* as a meditation on theatrical power, and the dialectic between image and narrative in American versus European cinema. Moderated by Pavle Levi, Stanford Department of Art & Art History.

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Remathau: People of the Ocean

Science & TechCulture & Humanities Film + TalkLecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Oct 27 ·6:00 pm ·Stanford University ·Stanford

A screening of the 70-minute documentary Remathau: People of the Ocean featuring Dr. Nicole Yamase, the first Micronesian to earn a PhD in Marine Biology and reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The film explores her historic dive alongside themes of identity, culture, and belonging, reconnecting with the resilience of her people and the ocean navigation wisdom of earlier generations. Yamase, Director of Impact at OneReef, leads efforts to advance ocean science, conservation, and community-led stewardship across Micronesia. Hosted by Stanford's Doerr School of Sustainability.

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Planetary Science and Exploration Seminar, Martin Kihoulou - "Tectonic breathing of icy moon Europa: Could subduction- and rifting-like processes support habitability in the outer solar system?"

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Oct 28 ·12:30 pm ·Mitchell Earth Sciences ·Stanford

A seminar on Europa's dynamic ice shell and its potential to support life. Martin Kihoulou, a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at UCSC and recent Ph.D. in Physics of the Earth and Planets, presents evidence for tectonic-like activity on Jupiter's moon—including dilation bands and subduction zones driven by orbital cycles. He explores how vertical transport of chemical compounds across Europa's ice shell might create transient habitable conditions in the subsurface ocean, while addressing inconsistencies between observed surface age and current thermo-orbital models.

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Physics, Politics, and Pakistan

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Oct 28 ·4:00 pm ·Black Community Services Center ·Stanford

A conversation on Pakistan's democracy, secularism in the global South, and the political demands of the current moment with Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, a distinguished Pakistani physicist, public intellectual, and longtime advocate for science and secular thought. Hoodbhoy taught physics for 47 years at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad and founded The Black Hole, a community space dedicated to science, art, and culture.

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AI + Data for Science: Dan Yamins

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Oct 28 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

Dan Yamins of Stanford University presents on AI and data-driven methods in science. Part of AI + Data for Science, a weekly Wednesday seminar (4:30–5:30 pm) organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein. Open to Stanford and non-Stanford attendees.

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Carina Hong - Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Speaker Series

Business & EconomyScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Oct 28 ·4:30 pm ·Nvidia Auditorium ·Stanford

Carina Hong, founder of Axiom Math, discusses AI systems for mathematical reasoning at Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Speaker Series. The series features entrepreneurs and innovators sharing insights on building and scaling ventures.

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Liu Lecture: Llisa Demetrios

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Oct 28 ·5:00 pm ·Building 550, Peterson Laboratory ·Stanford

Llisa Demetrios, Chief Curator of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity and granddaughter of Ray and Charles Eames, discusses infinite curiosity, design, and possibility. The conversation offers fresh perspective on the Eames legacy—one of design's most enduring influences—and invites makers, thinkers, students, and anyone seeking to create with intention and joy to connect and learn together.

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Negritude Experiments: Aimé Césaire and the Politics of Culture in Martinique (1970s)

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Oct 28 ·5:00 pm ·Building 260, Pigott Hall ·Stanford

How can decolonization take shape within a former colonial power's political framework? Audrey Célestine (NYU) examines Aimé Césaire's cultural policy as mayor of Fort-de-France through the lens of Léopold Sédar Senghor's 1976 visit to Martinique. Drawing on Césaire's work as both intellectual and elected official, Célestine explores the tensions between local, national, and diasporic political imaginaries—and the central role culture played in defining an emancipatory project pursued within, rather than outside, the French political framework.

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Medical Humanites: Lost and Found

Science & TechCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Oct 28 ·5:30 pm ·Humanities Center ·Stanford

A Medical Humanities Research Workshop exploring the intersection of medicine, culture, and human experience. Speaker Bryant Lin, MD, a primary care physician, educator, and researcher at Stanford University, discusses how the humanities inform and transform medical practice and understanding. Part of Stanford School of Medicine's ongoing Medical Humanities Research Workshop Series, supported by the Humanities Center, Division of Literatures, Cultures & Languages, and Department of Anthropology.

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Comics: More Than Words: Hanako Asakura - Manga as (or in?) Conversation

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Oct 29 ·12:00 pm ·Building 260, Pigott Hall ·Stanford

A discussion on manga as a form of conversation and cultural expression. Hanako Asakura from San Francisco State University explores how manga functions as a medium for dialogue and artistic communication.

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Geophysics Seminar - Tarje Nissen-Meyer

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Oct 29 ·12:00 pm ·Mitchell Earth Sciences ·Stanford

Speaker: Tarje-Nissen Meyer Professor in Environmental Intelligence, University of Exeter Abstract: Soils are among Earth’s most vital ecosystems: they provide 99% of humanity’s calories, store more carbon than vegetation and the atmosphere combined, regulate water, and host most terrestrial biodiversity. Yet soil health remains poorly characterised because key properties such as bulk density, porosity, carbon, moisture, texture and horizon depth, vary at centimetre-to-metre scales, while conventional sampling is destructive, costly and sparse. Seismology offers a non-destructive, inexpensive and scalable way to image these subsurface properties. I will present work by our non-profit Earth Rover Program spanning field experiments on three continents, development of low-cost high-frequency MEMS sensors and AI-based inference, and results showing seismic mapping of bulk density, soil horizons and temporal moisture variation, with promising implications for improved soil-carbon stock estimates.

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Korea's Nuclear Odyssey Beyond Borders: From KEDO to the Age of AI

Science & TechCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Oct 29 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

South Korea's nuclear export journey spans three landmark projects—KEDO in North Korea, Barakah in the United Arab Emirates, and Dukovany in the Czech Republic—each shaped by different international conditions and policy environments. Dr. Eunjung Lim, visiting scholar at Stanford's Asia-Pacific Research Center and professor at Kongju National University, traces how Korea's nuclear capabilities evolved across nonproliferation cooperation, energy development, and commercial competition. As AI and data centers drive renewed interest in nuclear power, she examines whether Korea's future may require returning to a core lesson: the centrality of international cooperation in nuclear policy and energy security.

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From Yahweh to Jupiter: Orthodox Muscovy Deals with the Classical World

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Oct 29 ·12:00 pm ·Humanities Center ·Stanford

A lecture examining how Belarusian, Polish, and Ukrainian scholars of the late 17th and early 18th centuries introduced classical culture into Orthodox Eastern Europe, despite initial religious skepticism toward pagan antiquity. Drawing on specific works by Simiaon Polacki, Jan Białobocki, and Teofan Prokopovych, the speaker traces how these authors navigated the tension between Orthodox tradition and classical learning, ultimately catalyzing the reception of ancient culture in Muscovy and the emergence of Neoclassicism in the Russian Empire. Part of The Other Europe Research Workshop, sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center.

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SCRIPTA - Jutta Eming: A Sleeping Giant: The Transmission of the Sindbad / Seven Sages of Rome-Narrative

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Oct 29 ·12:00 pm ·Bldg. 200 ·Stanford

A lecture on the Sindbad and Seven Sages of Rome narrative tradition, one of the most widely transmitted premodern story cycles, told in at least 30 languages across more than 10 centuries from Persia to Iceland. The cycle centers on a medieval false rape accusation between a mute prince and his young stepmother, exploring themes of truth and justice in a royal court. Jutta Eming, professor of medieval German literature at Freie Universität Berlin, discusses why this enormously popular medieval and early modern tradition has received fragmentary scholarly attention, and presents new collaborative research and a comprehensive database of all known textual witnesses that enables renewed comparative philological, literary, and cultural analysis.

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Worse than War: The Global Costs of Violence

Civics & PowerScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free ✦ burnoff pick

Thu, Oct 29 ·3:30 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

A lecture on the global prevalence and societal costs of violence, examining why interpersonal violence—homicide, intimate partner violence, and severe physical punishment of children—imposes far greater societal damage than wars and terrorism, and what evidence-based interventions can reduce these harms. James D. Fearon, Theodore and Frances Geballe Professor of Political Science at Stanford and Senior Fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies, presents research showing that while wars are geographically concentrated, nearly all countries face high rates of homicide and assault affecting women and children—yet these rates are demonstrably reducible through targeted programs and social movements.

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Matthew L. Jones with Tom Mullaney - How Data Happened

Science & TechCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free ✦ burnoff pick

Thu, Oct 29 ·4:30 pm ·Building 200, History Corner ·Stanford

A conversation on the history of data and algorithms, tracing how data has been used as a tool and weapon—from the US Census and Victorian eugenics through facial recognition and AI systems today. Matthew L. Jones, Smith Family Professor of History at Princeton, discusses his book *How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms* (cowritten with Chris Wiggins), examining how technical capabilities shaped power relations among states, corporations, and people. Tom Mullaney, Stanford University, offers comments.

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Ripple Effects: Making with Rivers in War and Peace — Amanda M. Smith

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Oct 29 ·5:00 pm ·Building 260, Pigott Hall ·Stanford

Amanda M. Smith, Associate Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture at UC Santa Cruz, discusses her forthcoming book *The Nature of Conflict: Rivers in the Wake of the Colombian Peace Accords*. Examining how rivers have participated in art and media addressing Colombia's internal conflict, Smith explores hydrofeminism and aqueous ecologies as frameworks for understanding water as a creative subject. She traces what she calls "ripple effects"—aesthetic decisions and procedures that register the material marks of watersheds in art-making—and argues that creative practice involving water transforms media into an archive of fluvial subjectivity, offering new approaches to understanding the more-than-human impacts of war.

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Weintz Art Lecture Series: Elizabeth Dospěl Williams

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Oct 29 ·5:30 pm ·McMurtry Building ·Stanford

Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, Penny Vinik Chair of Fashion, Textiles and Jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, explores late antique Egyptian textiles and the detection of imitation fabrics produced for the modern art market. Drawing on technical analysis, archival research, and visual sources, Williams examines how non-authentic works function as primary sources in the reception history and historiography of Coptic and Byzantine art, with particular attention to racialized depictions and the lasting impact of provenance issues on contemporary collecting and exhibition practices.

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Witness to Iran’s Paradigm Shift: From Flight PS752 to Woman, Life, Freedom and Beyond

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Oct 29 ·6:30 pm ·In person at Stanford ·Stanford

Filmmaker and human rights advocate Babak Payami examines how Iran's Woman, Life, Freedom uprising marked a fundamental rupture in decades of state-society relations. Drawing on his work with families of Flight PS752 victims, Payami traces the evolution of resistance language from cautious reform to direct moral and political rejection. He argues that their disciplined campaign for truth and accountability foreshadowed a broader transformation in Iranian civil society, as women, students, workers, and marginalized communities challenge both state authority and inherited political divisions. Digital media has rendered these struggles visible and connected across borders, creating new possibilities for democratic participation—though serious obstacles remain.

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Serena Connolly (Rutgers University–New Brunswick) "Hadrian the Intellectual, Revisited"

Science & TechCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Fri, Oct 30 ·12:00 pm ·Building 110 ·Stanford

Serena Connolly, Professor and Chair of Classics at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, examines Emperor Hadrian's overlooked commitment to science and technology alongside his better-known philhellenism. Drawing on substantial evidence, she argues that Hadrian's intellectual interests in science and technology were shaped by personal inclination and imperial precedent stretching back to Augustus. Connolly's research spans Roman social and political history, women and non-elites in the Roman world, and the history of science and technology. She is the author of *Lives Behind the Laws* and *Wisdom from Rome*, and is completing *Learned Emperors: Science, Technology, and Power at the Roman Imperial Court*.

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State-Building by Other Means: Selective Enforcement and the Capital of Impunity

Civics & PowerBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Fri, Oct 30 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

An examination of corruption and impunity in societies where rule-breaking is ordinary business practice. Rather than measuring violations, Michael Derrer investigates who is protected from legal consequences and who remains exposed—framing unequal impunity as the basis of hierarchy and state power. Drawing on 55 interviews in Moscow and Kyiv conducted in 2021, Derrer contrasts Russia's centralized control of protection with Ukraine's fragmented system, and argues that anticorruption reform, without addressing the underlying distribution of impunity, can paradoxically increase extraction. Derrer is Professor of Economic Sociology at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) and author of a three-volume study of informal governance in Russia and Ukraine.

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Film Screening of the 2026 Lithuanian submission for the Academy Awards – How to Divorce During the War

Culture & Humanities Film + TalkLecture / ForumUniversity / College

Fri, Oct 30 ·5:30 pm ·Bishop Auditorium ·Stanford

A screening of How to Divorce During the War, Lithuania's 2026 Academy Awards submission, with commentary from Maarja Merivoo-Parro, CEO of Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom, and Gabrielius Landsbergis, visiting fellow and former Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Director Andrius Blaževičius's family drama follows a couple navigating divorce as Russia's invasion of Ukraine begins, exploring how personal crisis intersects with historical upheaval.

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In the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan

Science & TechCivics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 2 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

How did Taiwan transform from an agricultural colony into an economic power in half a century, and how did it export that success globally? This talk traces the history and impact of the 'Taiwan model' of agrarian development—the land reforms, farmers associations, and improved crop varieties that Taiwan's authoritarian government promoted at home and throughout Africa and Southeast Asia during the Cold War. Drawing from Chapter 4 on Taiwan's agricultural missions to the Republic of Vietnam, the speaker explores how Taiwanese agricultural technicians and scientists framed their practices as proof of the Republic of China's modernity while seeking to maintain its contested international legitimacy and domestic martial-law rule.

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Chrystia Freeland - Unreliable Boyfriend: An Insider's View of Dealing with a Chaotic Superpower, Plutocrats, and Other Complicated People

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumBook TalkUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Mon, Nov 2 ·4:00 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

How should democracies deal with an unreliable superpower? Former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland discusses her new book examining power inside government, the intersection of trade, security and democracy, and how democracies might resist authoritarian states and oligarchs. Drawing on her careers as a foreign correspondent covering Russia's oligarchs and as a senior Canadian official who renegotiated the USMCA, Freeland offers insights into international political economy and democratic resilience. Moderated by Kathryn Stoner, Freeman Spogli Institute Senior Fellow and Director of CDDRL, with audience Q&A to follow.

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Japan and the Middle East in a Changing Geopolitical Landscape

Civics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free

Mon, Nov 2 ·4:00 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

Two presentations on Japan's geopolitical positioning: Koji Murata, professor of political science at Doshisha University, examines Japanese domestic politics and foreign policy under Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, focusing on the LDP's fragile political base and upcoming 2027 presidential election. Satoshi Ikeuchi analyzes the new geopolitical reality in the Persian Gulf—particularly Iran's role in the Strait of Hormuz—and its implications for Japan's energy security and alliance relationships in Asia.

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Biology Seminar Series - Jonathan Pritchard "Trait Causal Models: Combining GWAS, Genetic Perturbations, and Observational 'Omics to Study Human Biology."

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 2 ·4:00 pm ·Clark Center ·Stanford

Jonathan Pritchard discusses trait causal models and methods for combining genome-wide association studies (GWAS), genetic perturbations, and observational 'omics data to understand human biology. Part of Stanford's Biology Seminar Series.

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Stanford Energy Seminar | The US Energy Transition: What is the Same; What Has Changed; and What Could Be | Philip Deutch, NGP Energy Technology Partners

Science & TechBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 2 ·4:30 pm ·Shriram Center ·Stanford

What remains constant in energy technology investment, and what has fundamentally changed? Philip Deutch, Partner and Co-Head of Energy Transition at NGP Energy Technology Partners, draws on nearly three decades of experience as one of the nation's most active energy tech investors to examine the enduring drivers of energy innovation and the new forces reshaping the sector. Part of Stanford's flagship Energy Seminar series at the Precourt Institute for Energy, which brings perspectives from academics, entrepreneurs, utilities, nonprofits, and industry leaders.

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Are Jews an Ethnic Group?

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free

Mon, Nov 2 ·5:30 pm ·Angela Nomellini & Ken Olivier building (ANKO) ·Stanford

A conversation on California's newly signed SB 1387, which allows Jews to identify as Jewish on government forms asking about ethnicity. Panelists explore implications for Jews in California and beyond, including potential unintended consequences and community concerns about state categorization. Featuring David Bocarsly (Jewish California coalition leader), Aliya Saperstein (Stanford sociologist studying census questions and racial categorization), Keith Feldman (UC Berkeley), Ari Y. Kelman (Stanford), and Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh (American Jewish University), moderated by Asaf Elia-Shalev of J. The Jewish News of Northern California.

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Hanna Notte - We Shall Outlast Them: Putin's Global Campaign to Defeat the West

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Tue, Nov 3 ·3:30 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

How has Russia sustained its confrontation with the West since 2022, and at what cost? Hanna Notte, Director of the Eurasia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, examines Russia's adaptation after the invasion—working around sanctions, building new partnerships, cultivating support across the Global South, and deepening divisions within Western democracies. Her account combines policy analysis with field reporting from more than a dozen countries and interviews with officials and ordinary people. She also explores domestic consequences: Putin's focus on confrontation has distorted Russia's economy and moved the country toward full authoritarianism. Moderated by Kathryn Stoner, FSI Satre Family Senior Fellow and Mosbacher Director of CDDRL, with audience Q&A.

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Artist Talk with CFGNY: A Practice in Collaboration

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free

Tue, Nov 3 ·5:30 pm ·Anderson Collection ·Stanford

A roundtable discussion with CFGNY, a New York-based artist collective investigating racialization, subjectivity, and the concept of 'vaguely Asian' through image making, installation, sculpture, garment making, and performance. The collective, founded in 2016 and composed of Daniel Chew, Ten Izu, and Tin Nguyen, uses materials including porcelain, photography, and corrugated cardboard to explore mass production and fetishistic desire. The conversation is moderated by artist Vincent Chong, an MFA candidate at Stanford working in calligraphy, seal carving, and performance. CFGNY has recently exhibited at the Whitney Biennial, Hammer Museum, and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.

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HAI Seminar with Marcos Santiago Rojas Pino & Thomas Caruso

Science & TechBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 4 ·12:00 pm ·Gates Computer Science Building ·Stanford

Clinical Mind AI is a Stanford-developed international platform that uses AI-simulated patient encounters to strengthen clinical reasoning education across health professions. Marcos Santiago Rojas Pino and Thomas Caruso discuss the platform's design principles, its implementation across institutions and languages, and how it supports instructor-centered clinical simulation. The talk also explores Clinical Mind AI as research infrastructure for studying learning processes—examining how learner interactions generate evidence about reasoning, hypothesis formation, and feedback integration—and addresses broader questions about building AI systems that preserve educator agency, enable multilingual collaboration, and advance the evidence base for AI-supported health professions education.

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Food Sense: What to Eat and Why

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 4 ·12:00 pm ·Stanford University ·Stanford

Christopher Gardner, a Stanford nutrition scientist, presents three decades of rigorous research comparing popular diets to identify what actually works. Gardner's twin study became the basis for a Netflix docuseries. Part of the Stanford Department of Medicine's Grand Rounds series.

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Digital Mirrors of Materiality

Culture & HumanitiesScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 4 ·3:00 pm ·Anderson Collection ·Stanford

A panel discussion on craft, materiality, and digital technology in the age of computation. MacArthur Fellows Katherine Behar, Nick Benson, Hideo Mabuchi, and Camille Utterback—artists and technologists working at the intersection of making, robotics, and digital systems—explore what traditional craft offers in a moment of paradigm-shifting technological change, and what is gained or lost when embodied creative practice meets machine intelligence. Moderated by Vanessa Chang. Part of the MacArthur Fellows at 45 series.

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The Rise and Fall of Tunisian Democracy: Populism, Polarization, and the Perils of Power-Sharing

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 4 ·4:00 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

A lecture on the paradox of Tunisia's democratic collapse following its post-Arab Spring success. Sharan Grewal, Associate Professor of Government at American University and author of *The Rise and Fall of Tunisian Democracy*, examines how an overemphasis on power-sharing and consensus institutions—designed to ensure inclusion—ultimately frustrated voters and enabled the rise of populists, leading to democratic breakdown in 2021. Drawing on interviews with senior Tunisian officials and nationally representative surveys, Grewal tests his theory against all democratic transitions from 1942–2020, revealing the dark side of compromise and offering new insights into the causes of populism and polarization.

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Slavic Colloquium - Naomi Caffee: Arts of Recognition: The Cultural Work of Indigenous Diplomacy from the Cold War to the End of History

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 4 ·4:30 pm ·Building 260, Pigott Hall ·Stanford

Naomi Caffee of Reed College explores how Indigenous diplomacy functioned as cultural work during the Cold War and its aftermath, examining the politics of recognition and representation across this historical period.

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AI + Data for Science: Ruijiang Li

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 4 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

A weekly seminar on AI and data-driven methods across the sciences. Ruijiang Li (Stanford University) presents this week as part of a series organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein. Open to Stanford and non-Stanford attendees.

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Celine Halioua @ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Speaker Series (ETL)

Business & EconomyScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 4 ·4:30 pm ·Nvidia Auditorium ·Stanford

Celine Halioua, founder and CEO of Loyal, a clinical-stage veterinary medicine company developing drugs to extend healthspan and lifespan in dogs, discusses her path to founding and scaling a biotech startup. Part of Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series, which features founders, investors, and industry leaders on disruption and startup building.

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Work, Exile, and Home: Honoring Milorad Drachkovitch & Reopening the Polich Library

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 4 ·4:30 pm ·Hoover Tower ·Stanford

A tribute to Milorad Drašković, the Hoover Institution's librarian and archivist for a decade who shaped its collections and strengthened connections between Serbian, Yugoslav, and international scholarly communities. The event marks the thirtieth anniversary of his passing and features remarks by Dennis Bark, Hoover emeritus senior fellow and historian of European-American relations, and Jasmina Bojić, lecturer in Stanford's International Relations program and founder of the UN Association Film Festival. Attendees will have exclusive access to the newly reopened Polich Library, renamed to honor Todor and Andja Polich and dedicated to the study of Yugoslav history.

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Stanford in Haus Cramer: A Berlin Microhistory - Book Launch and Reception

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / CollegeBook Talk

Wed, Nov 4 ·5:30 pm ·Humanities Center ·Stanford

A book launch celebrating Stanford in Haus Cramer: A Berlin Microhistory, which documents the 50th anniversary of the Stanford Berlin Bing Overseas Studies Program. The book examines the history of Haus Cramer as a witness to Berlin modernity, Jewish-German life between the wars, and as a refuge for residents, faculty, and students. Featuring presentations from editors Karen Ruoff Kramer and Cheryce von Xylander, and Faculty Emeritus Larry Friedlander, with reception to follow.

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DAAAS Movie Night: The Eyes of Ghana

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Film + TalkLecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 4 ·7:00 pm ·Building 80 ·Stanford

A screening of The Eyes of Ghana, a documentary directed by Ben Proudfoot and executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, following Chris Hesse, the personal cinematographer to Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah. After the film, producer Nana Adwoa Frimpong discusses the archive of over 1,000 rolls of film Hesse preserved and the political power of cinema in Africa's liberation movement, facilitated by Stanford professor Aaron Van Jordan.

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The Body as Monument

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 5 ·11:30 am ·El Centro Chicano ·Stanford

An artist talk with Jess Sabogal, a queer Colombian-American muralist and printmaker from San Francisco, mapping two decades of creative evolution from large-scale public murals to intimate self-portraiture and sculpture. Sabogal examines lineage, radical representation, and the artist's responsibility to communities at risk of erasure, discussing how they have reinvented muralism as a medium for social change, empowerment, and action. Hosted by Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies and El Centro Chicano at Stanford University.

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Geophysics Seminar - Allan Rubin

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 5 ·12:00 pm ·Mitchell Earth Sciences ·Stanford

A geophysics seminar featuring Allan Rubin, Professor of Geosciences at Princeton University and Professor in Environmental Intelligence at the University of Exeter. Topic details to be announced.

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Documentary Objectives: Filming Africa from Colonialism to Independence - Rachel Gabara

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 5 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

Rachel Gabara, Nancy Gillespie Brinning Professor in French at the University of Georgia, discusses her new book *Documentary Objectives: Filming Africa from Colonialism to Independence*. Over a century of documentary filmmaking in West and Central Africa reveals how colonial-era European films gave way to African directors reclaiming their cinematic image after independence. Gabara traces how African documentarists challenged outsider narratives of authenticity and developed new models for nonfiction, demonstrating how this region's filmmakers remade a global art form rooted in oppression and exoticization.

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Lunchtime Curator Talk | California Current: Art and Histories from the Bay Area

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumMuseumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 5 ·12:00 pm ·Cantor Arts Center ·Stanford

A guided tour of California Current: Art and Histories from the Bay Area, led by Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center. The exhibition brings together over 60 works—paintings, sculptures, photographs, and time-based media—by Bay Area artists from the twentieth century to the present, exploring interconnected currents (ecological, infrastructural, technological, political, and creative) that have shaped Northern California. The show traces how communities and artistic practices take root and persist in a constantly changing region, pairing historical works with contemporary pieces to ask what draws people to the Bay Area and what keeps them connected despite its contradictions and pressures.

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Energy, Materials, and Water Use in Semiconductor Manufacturing: Challenges and Opportunities for Supply Chain Resiliency

Science & TechBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 5 ·4:30 pm ·Bishop Auditorium ·Stanford

Semiconductors power the digital economy and AI, but their production demands complex supply chains and significant materials, water, and energy inputs. Dr. Sadasivan Shankar, Research Technology Manager at SLAC National Laboratory and adjunct professor in Stanford Materials Science and Engineering, will present research on circular approaches—recycling, reuse, and localized processing—to reduce supply chain dependencies, improve resource efficiency, and create economic and strategic opportunities for the US. Dr. Richard Dasher, Director of the US-ATMC, moderates.

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The Fate of the Social in Modern Life: American Social Scientists and Japan as Archive

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 5 ·4:30 pm ·Lathrop Library ·Stanford

How did postwar American social scientists use Japan to think through modern democracy's central problem: balancing individual freedom with social solidarity? Anthropologist Amy Borovoy (Princeton) examines three influential studies—Ruth Benedict's *The Chrysanthemum and the Sword* (1946), Ezra Vogel's *Japan's New Middle Class* (1963), and Thomas Rohlen's *For Harmony and Strength* (1974)—to show how Japan functioned as an archive for understanding social reproduction, welfare, and collective purpose in democratic life. Borovoy explores how these texts grappled with modernization theory's prediction that industrialization would dissolve kinship, community, and hierarchy—yet Japan's persistent village, family, and corporate structures challenged that narrative.

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No Ideas But in Things

Culture & HumanitiesScience & Tech Film + TalkLecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 5 ·4:30 pm ·Clark Center ·Stanford

A screening of No Ideas But in Things, an art film directed by Lan A. Li and produced by Peter N. Miller, followed by a discussion with the filmmakers. The film explores what can be learned through touch, making, and the body, drawing on footage from the Material Intelligence seminar at the American Academy in Rome where scientists, makers, and humanists investigated how to engage with materials in an age of words and algorithms. Using Rome as an object of inquiry and conversation as a research instrument, the film reimagines scholarly output beyond traditional formats.

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What Do We Owe Each Other in the Age of AI?

Civics & PowerBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Thu, Nov 5 ·5:00 pm ·Paul Brest Hall ·Stanford

What do we owe each other as AI reshapes work and wealth? Economist Betsey Stevenson argues that AI's productivity gains won't automatically improve human flourishing, drawing on economic history and research on happiness and meaning. She explores how policy can pace job transformation, distribute AI-generated wealth more broadly, and strengthen sources of meaning beyond employment — building a society where human worth doesn't depend on outperforming machines. Stevenson is a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, former member of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, and Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Labor. Discussed by Lukas Althoff, Assistant Professor of Economics at Stanford University.

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36th Annual Jonathan J. King Lecture: Dr. Bryant Lin & Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider

Science & TechCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / CollegeBook Talk

Thu, Nov 5 ·5:30 pm ·Cedar Room, Stanford Faculty Club ·Stanford

Dr. Bryant Lin, a primary care physician and cancer researcher living with terminal cancer, shares a personal reflection on serious illness, hope, and living fully amid uncertainty in 'My Cancer Journey: Happiness and Sadness, Hope and Fear.' In conversation with Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, a physician, journalist, and leading voice in patient-centered care, they explore the emotional and practical dimensions of cancer diagnosis—fear, purpose, relationships, and navigating life-limiting illness with honesty. Dr. Lin's new book, *Sunshine: An Exploration of Living When You Are Dying*, launches November 10; signed copies available for purchase to in-person attendees. Hors d'oeuvres and refreshments served after the talk.

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The Queer Thing about Sin | Harry Tanner

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 5 ·5:30 pm ·Humanities Center ·Stanford

Harry Tanner, Classics PhD from the University of Galway, discusses his book *The Queer Thing About Sin* (Bloomsbury 2025), which traces the ancient origins of homophobia from Greek and Roman legal systems through biblical law. Tanner explores why homosexuality became condemned by the 5th century BCE and what those historical patterns reveal today. He will also discuss his path from PhD research to trade publishing, the role of AI in adapting scholarly work for general audiences, and how his own experience with conversion therapy shaped his research in Classics. His book was shortlisted for Book of the Year by Foyles UK.

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Electric Contrasts Study Evening

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 5 ·6:00 pm ·McMurtry Building ·Stanford

Electric Contrasts Study Evening explores how photography revolutionized art history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, using Kenneth Clark's landmark 1938 book 'One Hundred Details from Pictures in the National Gallery' as a lens. The event features speakers Geraldine Johnson (University of Oxford) discussing Italian sculptor-photographer Medardo Rosso and his innovative use of photographic details, and Alexander Nemerov on André Malraux's 'The Voices of Silence,' moderated by curator Altair Brandon-Salmon. The evening includes a tour of the Electric Contrasts exhibition at Bowes Art and Architecture Library, followed by talks and audience Q&A.

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Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, "Beyond Inclusion: Indigenous Abundance, Aloha ʻĀina, and Radical Futures"

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Thu, Nov 5 ·6:45 pm ·418 Santa Teresa Street, Stanford, CA 94305 ·Stanford

Kanaka Maoli scholar, poet, and organizer Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio reflects on Indigeneity, political struggle, and collective well-being in a world structured by colonialism, militarism, and racial capitalism. Drawing from indigenous epistemologies, abolitionist traditions, and Kanaka Maoli moʻolelo, she challenges liberal democracy's political horizons. Moving between lecture, poetry, and storytelling, Osorio considers narrative as a practice of political survival and collective possibility—recovering radical traditions and knowledges through which her people have imagined and built otherwise. Osorio is an Associate Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Politics at the University of Hawaiʻi, internationally recognized poet, and author of *Remembering our Intimacies: Moʻolelo, Aloha ʻĀina, and Ea*.

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Paweł Adamowicz and the Civic Ethos of Inclusion: Urban Democracy After the Assassination

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Fri, Nov 6 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

This talk examines the 2019 assassination of Paweł Adamowicz, Mayor of Gdańsk, as a turning point in Poland's political trajectory—revealing how anti-immigrant rhetoric can harden into violence. The speaker explores Adamowicz's vision of urban democracy rooted in civic openness rather than ethnonationalism, grounded in Christian social teaching and aligned with Benjamin Barber's argument that cities function as democratic bulwarks dependent on newcomer vitality. The talk also addresses Adamowicz's championing of LGBTQ+ inclusion through initiatives like the Model for Equal Treatment and his public support for Gdańsk's Equality March, set against rising illiberal currents in Poland and attacks from figures like Karol Nawrocki.

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Biology Seminar Series - Stefan Feske, MD "Ion channels and transporters regulating lymphocyte function "

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 9 ·4:00 pm ·Clark Center ·Stanford

Stefan Feske, MD, presents on ion channels and transporters regulating lymphocyte function. Part of Stanford's Biology Seminar Series.

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Stanford Energy Seminar | Tiziana Vanorio, Stanford University

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 9 ·4:30 pm ·Shriram Center ·Stanford

A talk by Tiziana Vanorio, Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford University, as part of the Stanford Energy Seminar — a flagship program of the Precourt Institute for Energy bringing diverse perspectives on energy challenges and solutions to the Stanford community and beyond. The seminar series has run for nearly 20 years and features academics, entrepreneurs, utilities, nonprofits, and other voices working across the energy landscape.

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War, Sanctions and the Intimacy of Everyday Life

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 9 ·5:30 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

A panel conversation on war, sanctions, and intimacy in the Iranian diaspora. Negar Mottahedeh, Professor of Literature and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University, reads from 'How My Instagram Hacker Changed My Life,' tracing an unlikely friendship born from digital theft and shaped by revolution, state power, and censorship. Salar Mameni reads from daily notes written since February 28, 2026, reflecting on witnessing war from exile, diaspora divisions, and connectivity amid internet blackouts. The conversation explores how revolution, loss, and aggression reshape intimacy and community across geographies.

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Biosecurity in an Age of AI: Frontier Safety, Anticipatory Governance, and Defensive Innovation

Civics & PowerScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free ✦ burnoff pick

Tue, Nov 10 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

Dr. Anurima Pannu, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Director of Frontier Safety at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, discusses recent advancements in AI for biology alongside security and oversight considerations. She will explore how policy can incentivize and shape technology development for defensive purposes, connecting the colloquial "defensive acceleration" concept in AI circles to formal offense-defense balance frameworks. Drawing on her work in biosecurity, pandemic preparedness, and emerging technology governance, Pannu brings expertise from advisory roles at the National Academies of Sciences, the EU AI Office, and the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense.

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Protest and Politics in Turkey in the 70s

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Nov 10 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

Selin Bengi Gümrükçü, political scientist at Rutgers University, discusses her book *Protest and Politics in Turkey in the 1970s: Echoes of Dissent*, the first comprehensive study of Turkey's protest cycle during the decade. Drawing on original data, the work examines how leftist, nationalist, and Islamist movements developed amid state repression, and how the 1980 military coup suppressed organized political activity and reshaped the political arena, contributing to the rise of political Islam and rightward political shift. The book connects 1970s struggles to contemporary debates on authoritarianism, democracy, and protest.

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L. Maria Bo, "Writing on Water: Cold War Literary Translations and the Chinese Diaspora"

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Nov 10 ·12:00 pm ·Building 360 ·Stanford

L. Maria Bo examines Cold War-era literary translations as sites of ideological struggle and diaspora formation. Drawing on her book *Writing on Water*, Bo argues that English-Chinese literary translations mobilized by U.S. and Chinese governments to win over ethnic Chinese communities worldwide became fluid exchanges that undid strict ideological equivalence. By tracing how these texts traveled through multiple languages—English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and local patois—across East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the U.S., she uncovers how translation created ideologically diverse diasporic reading publics. Bo teaches Asian, American, and Asian American literature at Stanford and specializes in 20th/21st-century transpacific literature and multilingual diaspora.

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Filmmaker Kahlil Joseph, In Conversation

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free

Tue, Nov 10 ·5:30 pm ·McMurtry Building ·Stanford

Filmmaker and artist Kahlil Joseph discusses the representation of space in his work, particularly the construction of Black space in his feature film BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions. The conversation explores how these cinematic ideas extend beyond the screen through the Underground Museum, the Los Angeles cultural institution Joseph co-founded in 2012 with Noah Davis and sculptor Karon Davis, dedicated to Black art, thought, and creative expression. Part of Stanford's Art and Art History course "An Architectural Imagination" taught by Christian Ho.

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Planetary Science and Exploration Seminar, Clive Neal - "Why the Moon Needs an International Lunar Resource Prospecting Campaign"

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 11 ·12:30 pm ·Mitchell Earth Sciences ·Stanford

Why does the Moon need an international lunar resource prospecting campaign? Clive Neal, Professor of Planetary Geology at the University of Notre Dame and leading lunar scientist with 40 years of experience, explores how defining the Moon's resource potential could sustain human exploration, enable a cislunar economy, and benefit Earth. He examines the scientific and logistical issues such a coordinated international effort must address, why international coordination is essential, and how prospecting could unlock both scientific discovery and commercial opportunity.

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AI + Data for Science: Alex Pentland

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 11 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

Part of a weekly Stanford seminar on AI and data-driven methods across the sciences, this session features Alex Pentland of Stanford University. Organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein, the seminar brings together researchers exploring how artificial intelligence and data science are reshaping scientific discovery and research methodology across disciplines.

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Susan Stryker - Changing Gender

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / CollegeBook Talk

Thu, Nov 12 ·12:00 pm ·RSVP for location ·Stanford

Susan Stryker, professor emerita of gender and women's studies at the University of Arizona and distinguished visitor at Stanford's Clayman Institute for Gender Research, discusses her latest book Changing Gender. Stryker traces the gender concept from its grammatical roots through the culture wars, exploring surprising historical moments—from "Yankee Doodle" to 19th-century phrenology to present-day anti-trans conspiracy theories. Drawing on her lifetime as a historian, filmmaker, activist, and founding figure of transgender studies, Stryker argues that to change gender is to change what it means to be human. The book exposes limiting assumptions about gender across the political spectrum and imagines possibilities beyond them.

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Geophysics Seminar - Shang-Ping Xie, "What powered the growth of 2026 super El Niño?"

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 12 ·12:00 pm ·Mitchell Earth Sciences ·Stanford

A geophysics seminar on the mechanisms driving the 2026 super El Niño, examining how springtime atmospheric and oceanic dynamics amplified the event to break century-long temperature records. Shang-Ping Xie, Distinguished Professor of Climate Science at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, discusses real-time observations, key El Niño precursors, and the distinctive two-part evolution shared by extreme El Niño events of 1982, 1997, 2015, and 2026.

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Artist Talk | Holographic Space, a talk by Charles Ray

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumMuseumUniversity / College Free

Thu, Nov 12 ·6:00 pm ·Cantor Arts Center ·Stanford

Renowned sculptor Charles Ray discusses his five-decade practice exploring how spatial transformation shapes perception of objects, reflecting on works including his 1996 film Fashions, currently exhibited in Solid Pictures. Ray appears in conversation with Patrick R. Crowley, Associate Curator of European Art at the Cantor, to explore connections between Ray's work and the exhibition's investigation of three-dimensionality, consumerism, and the perceptual role of clothing and fashion. The Solid Pictures exhibition, curated by Crowley, is the first major show of François Willème's 1859 photosculptures—pioneering experiments translating photographs into three-dimensional figures that laid the foundation for modern 3D scanning and printing.

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What is a Public Intellectual Today: Alexis Madrigal

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 12 ·6:30 pm ·Tresidder Union ·Stanford

Journalist Alexis Madrigal discusses his work in craft, career, and culture in conversation with Adrian Daub, J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor in the Humanities at Stanford. Madrigal is co-host of KQED's Forum, creator of the podcast Containers, author of The Oakland Garden Club newsletter, and co-founder of The COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic. His book The Pacific Circuit explores how Oakland's logistical revolution reshaped American cities. He also runs Local Economy, a community space in Oakland. Book signing and selling to follow.

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Neil Rogachevsky — Israel's Declaration of Independence: Founding Values and Contemporary Debates

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 16 ·12:00 pm ·Stanford University ·Stanford

Israel's Declaration of Independence explores the Jewish state's founding political text and its foundational questions of sovereignty, religion and state, and citizenship rights. Neil Rogachevsky, Assistant Professor at Stanford's Hamilton School, examines the drafting history of the 1948 Declaration, focusing on David Ben-Gurion's transformative role in reshaping the proposed text before its May 14 adoption. Rogachevsky considers whether the Declaration might serve as a text of "civil religion" for Israel today. He is co-author of *Israel's Declaration of Independence: The History and Political Theory of the Nation's Founding Moment* (Cambridge University Press, 2023), winner of that year's Concordia-Azrieli Prize for Best Book in Israel Studies.

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Biology Seminar Series - Cecilia Leal "Non-Lamellar Lipid Membranes as Regulators of Biological Function "

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 16 ·4:00 pm ·Clark Center ·Stanford

Cecilia Leal presents research on non-lamellar lipid membranes and their role in regulating biological function. Part of Stanford's Biology Seminar Series.

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Stanford Energy Seminar | Jonathan Fan, Stanford University

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 16 ·4:30 pm ·Shriram Center ·Stanford

A talk by Jonathan Fan, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford, as part of the Stanford Energy Seminar, a nearly 20-year-old flagship program of the Precourt Institute for Energy. The seminar series brings diverse perspectives on energy from academics, entrepreneurs, utilities, nonprofits, and other stakeholders to the Stanford community.

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How New is the New Nuclear Age?

Civics & PowerScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free

Tue, Nov 17 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

Mark Bell, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota and author of *Nuclear Reactions: How Nuclear-Armed States Behave*, examines the concept of the 'new nuclear age' that scholars and policymakers have increasingly invoked since the mid-2010s. Bell challenges whether this era—characterized by technological change, nuclear multipolarity, and eroding constraints on state behavior—is truly novel or merely echoes historical patterns. He connects debates about the new nuclear age to nuclear history and the Theory of the Nuclear Revolution, arguing that emerging features often have precedent and may not require new theoretical frameworks. The result: a more complex understanding of continuities between past and present nuclear competition.

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Estonia at the Front Line: Security, Resilience, and Technology: A Discussion with the Prime Minister of Estonia Kristen Michal

Civics & PowerScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Tue, Nov 17 ·12:00 pm ·Hohbach Hall ·Stanford

A discussion with Kristen Michal, Prime Minister of Estonia, on security, resilience, and digital innovation at a time of profound geopolitical change. Moderated by Michael McFaul, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Freeman Spogli Professor of International Studies at Stanford, the conversation will explore Estonia's position on NATO's eastern flank, lessons from Russia's war in Ukraine, Europe's security responsibilities, and Estonia's emergence as one of the world's most digitally advanced societies with ambitious AI development. The event covers how smaller nations adapt to technological disruption and what Estonia's digital-state model offers as a case study for innovation in governance and the economy.

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The Greek and Arabic Reception of Ptolemy's Almagest between the 7th and 9th Centuries | Maria Mavroudi

Science & TechCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 18 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

Maria Mavroudi, UC Berkeley Professor of Byzantine History, challenges the narrative of a 'dark' period between late antiquity and the Arab scientific renaissance by tracing the Greek and Arabic reception of Ptolemy's Almagest from the 7th to 9th centuries. Drawing on her MacArthur-recognized scholarship on cross-cultural transmission of texts between Byzantine, Arabic, and Latin intellectual traditions, Mavroudi shows how this pivotal astronomical work circulated and was transformed across religious and linguistic boundaries, revealing a far more intellectually vibrant medieval world than conventional histories suggest.

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Evolgenome Seminar: Ami Bhatt

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 18 ·12:00 pm ·Paul G. Allen Center for Integrated Systems Annex ·Stanford

Ami Bhatt of Stanford University discusses her research bridging microbial genomics and precision medicine. Hosted by Noah Rosenberg.

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HAI Seminar with Mike Wooldridge | The AI 100

Civics & PowerScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Wed, Nov 18 ·12:00 pm ·Gates Computer Science Building ·Stanford

The 2026 AI 100 report launch featuring Mike Wooldridge, Chair of Computer Science at Oxford University and study panel chair. The One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence is a longitudinal assessment of AI across technical, ethical, economic, and societal domains, returning every five years to track how the field evolves. Wooldridge will present key insights from the third report, released in October 2026.

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Marie Darrieussecq

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 18 ·12:15 pm ·Stanford University ·Stanford

A lunch workshop with French novelist Marie Darrieussecq, author of Pig Tales, Being Here Is Everything, Men, and How to Make a Woman, moderated by Cécile Alduy, professor of French at Stanford. Darrieussecq's debut became an international bestseller translated into more than thirty languages; her novel Men won the Prix Médicis and Prix des Prix. She is recognized as one of the leading voices of contemporary French literature.

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AI + Data for Science: Andreas Tolias

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 18 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

Andreas Tolias of Stanford University presents on AI and data-driven methods in science. Part of a weekly seminar series organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein, featuring a different Stanford speaker each week exploring how AI and data science are reshaping research across disciplines. Open to Stanford and non-Stanford attendees.

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The Disappearance of Enforced Disappearances in Kashmir: Militarization, Mourning, and the Production of Normalcy

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Nov 18 ·5:30 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

A lecture on enforced disappearances in Kashmir, militarization, mourning practices, and the normalization of state violence in occupied territories. Ather Zia, a political anthropologist and author of *Resisting Disappearances: Military Occupation and Women's Activism in Kashmir*, draws on her research into how communities resist and process systematic state violence. Zia is a professor at the University of Northern Colorado, poet, and founder-editor of Kashmir Lit and the Critical Kashmir Studies Collective.

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Galicia's Promised City with Oskar Czendze

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free

Thu, Nov 19 ·12:00 pm ·Building 200, History Corner ·Stanford

Between 1890 and 1914, tens of thousands of Jews from Galicia—the easternmost crownland of the Habsburg Empire—migrated to New York City, yet their distinct experience has often been overshadowed by narratives centered on migration from the Russian Empire. Historian Oskar Czendze of the University of Toronto explores how Galician Jews carried forms of regional and supranational belonging shaped in East Central Europe into their new American home, challenging dominant immigration narratives.

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Global Environmental Policy Seminar with Ishan Nath

Civics & PowerScience & TechBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Thu, Nov 19 ·1:15 pm ·Y2E2 Building ·Stanford

Ishan Nath, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and Faculty Associate of the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, presents research on how trade openness affects food price stability in the face of climate shocks and geopolitical disruption. The paper examines trade integration's protective effect against extreme heat shocks while revealing how importing countries face vulnerability to weather and policy shocks in source nations—illustrated by the 2022 Ukrainian wheat export disruption. Nath uses quantitative trade modeling to compare food price stability under varying trade scenarios and evaluate policies that diversify import sources. His research bridges climate change, international trade, and development macroeconomics.

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Bones, Borders, and Black Mirrors: Can Justice Outlive Colonialism?

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 19 ·4:30 pm ·Alumni Center ·Stanford

How does colonialism continue to shape our world, and where are we finding pathways to more just societies? This conversation explores justice through law, archaeology, and art, inspired by Pedro Lasch's installation *Coatlicue & Las Meninas: The Stanford Edition*. Artist and Duke professor Pedro Lasch joins international legal scholar Tendayi Achiume (Stanford Law School), archaeology professor Krish Seetah (Doerr School of Sustainability), and moderator Tomás Jiménez (Stanford Sociology). Part of the Institute for Advancing Just Societies' quarterly Ideas Mosaic series.

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Studio Lecture Series: Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Nov 19 ·5:30 pm ·McMurtry Building ·Stanford

Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, artists working at the intersection of sound, technology, and social practice, deliver an evening public lecture as part of Stanford's Millicent Greenwell Clapp Studio Art Series. The series brings prominent artists to campus for studio critiques with MFA students and a public evening talk fostering critical dialogue and creative exploration. Free and open to the Stanford community and general public; advance registration recommended.

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Geophysics Seminar - Tapan Mukerji

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Sun, Nov 29 ·12:00 pm ·Mitchell Earth Sciences ·Stanford

Geophysics seminar featuring Tapan Mukerji, Professor of Energy Science Engineering, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Geophysics at Stanford University. Topic details to be confirmed.

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Biology Seminar Series - Peter Walter, PhD "Targeting the Cell’s Stress Pathways for Therapeutic Benefit"

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 30 ·4:00 pm ·Clark Center ·Stanford

Peter Walter, PhD, discusses therapeutic approaches targeting cellular stress pathways. Walter is a renowned cell biologist and UCSF professor whose research on the unfolded protein response and cellular stress mechanisms has shaped modern understanding of how cells respond to dysfunction—work with direct implications for neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and metabolic disorders.

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Stanford Energy Seminar | Soft Materials for Hard Sustainability Challenges: Water production, Data center Sustainability, and High-Temperature Heat | Carlos Diaz-Marin, Stanford University

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Nov 30 ·4:30 pm ·Shriram Center ·Stanford

Water scarcity, rising energy demand, and global emissions are major sustainability challenges of the 21st century. Carlos Diaz-Marin, Assistant Professor of Energy Science & Engineering at Stanford University, will present three soft matter-enabled technologies his lab is developing: hydrogel-salt composites for water production from air, low-temperature carbon capture sorbents to enable data center heat reuse for carbon removal, and dry biomass combustion systems for high-temperature industrial decarbonization. The talk explores how fundamental studies of soft materials can address pressing water, energy, and emissions challenges.

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The Future of Health in Africa: How U.S. Presidential Decisions Are Shaping a Generation of African Children - Dr. Ruth Gibson

Civics & PowerScience & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College ✦ burnoff pick

Wed, Dec 2 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

A lecture on how U.S. geopolitical decisions—including USAID's dismantling and military actions affecting the Strait of Hormuz—are shaping child health and survival in Africa. Dr. Ruth Gibson, Founding Executive Director of Stanford's Geopolitical Human Impact Research Lab, presents research modeling the cascading effects of these decisions on food security and nutrition in the Sahel during the 2027 growing season, and outlines policy options to avert humanitarian catastrophe. The talk draws on health modeling, open-source intelligence, and international law to connect geopolitical crises to human outcomes.

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AI + Data for Science: Leonidas Guibas

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Dec 2 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

Leonidas Guibas of Stanford University speaks on AI and data-driven methods in science. Part of a weekly seminar series examining how artificial intelligence and computational approaches are reshaping scientific discovery and research across disciplines. Organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein.

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Geophysics Seminar - Lorenzo Bruzzone: "RIME and the JUICE Mission"

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Thu, Dec 3 ·12:00 pm ·Mitchell Earth Sciences ·Stanford

A geophysics seminar on RIME and the JUICE mission featuring Lorenzo Bruzzone, full professor of information engineering and computer science at the University of Trento. The JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission, supported by RIME (Radar for Icy Moon Exploration), uses advanced radar imaging to study Jupiter's icy moons.

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When a “Salami Slice” Becomes a Maritime Blockade: China’s Maritime Disruptions in the Indo-Pacific and Consequences for Human Populations

Science & TechCivics & Power Lecture / ForumUniversity / College Free

Thu, Dec 3 ·3:30 pm ·Encina Hall ·Stanford

China's gray-zone coercion in the Indo-Pacific—including military drills between Taiwan and the Philippines—risks disrupting critical sea lanes vital to global fuel and food supplies. Dr. Ruth Gibson, Founding Executive Director of Stanford's Geopolitical Human Impact Research Lab, presents research on what maritime disruptions comparable to a Strait of Hormuz closure would mean for human populations, with focus on food security, energy access, and maternal and child health. Based on the Stanford Geopolitical Coercion and Global Health Impact Initiative, the talk draws on health modeling, open-source intelligence, and international humanitarian law to examine how geopolitical decisions shape human lives.

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Who’s Afraid of the East Romans?

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Fri, Dec 4 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

A talk on the historiography of the Eastern Roman Empire and why Western scholarship has resisted calling it Roman. Professor Anthony Kaldellis of the University of Chicago examines how Eurocentrism, Greek nationalism, and other ideologies have obscured the east Romans' own self-identification, and what it would mean to grant Byzantine civilization equal standing in the broader Roman historical narrative. Kaldellis is the author of *The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium* (Oxford, 2023) and host of the podcast *Byzantium & Friends*.

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Biology Seminar Series - Suliana Manley "Compartmentalizing and connecting the mitochondrial collective"

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Mon, Dec 7 ·4:00 pm ·Stanford ChEM-H Building ·Stanford

Suliana Manley of Stanford presents on mitochondrial organization and function, part of Stanford's Biology Seminar Series. Hosted at Stanford ChEM-H Building.

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Angèle Christin with Hannah Zeavin - Gurus, Hucksters, Entertainers: How Influencers Reshaped Social Media

Science & TechCulture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Dec 9 ·12:00 pm ·Gates Computer Science Building ·Stanford

A book launch and conversation on the content creator economy. Digital studies scholar Angèle Christin examines how social media creators—from vegan YouTubers to Instagram dads to drama commentators—enter the platform economy, monetize their work, and navigate the pressures of algorithmic environments. Based on extensive fieldwork, Christin demystifies the professionalization and pitfalls of digital content creation. In conversation with Hannah Zeavin.

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Lunchtime Curator Talk | Solid Pictures

Culture & HumanitiesScience & Tech Lecture / ForumMuseumUniversity / College

Thu, Dec 10 ·12:00 pm ·Cantor Arts Center ·Stanford

A highlights tour of *Solid Pictures*, an exhibition exploring photosculpture—the precursor to 3D printing—with Assistant Curator of European Art Patrick R. Crowley. The exhibition features rare artifacts from François Willème's 1859 experiments translating photographic negatives into solid figures using projection and mechanical instruments, aiming to make affordable portrait sculpture accessible to the French middle class. Though commercially unsuccessful, Willème's work laid the groundwork for modern scanning, machining, and printing technologies. The exhibition opens a largely overlooked chapter in the history of art and technology, deepening our understanding of how contemporary digital fabrication emerged from 19th-century innovation.

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AI + Data for Science: E.J. Chichilnisky

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Jan 13 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

E.J. Chichilnisky of Stanford University speaks on AI and data-driven methods in science. Part of a weekly seminar series organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein, featuring Stanford researchers discussing applications across scientific disciplines.

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AI + Data for Science: Ben Domingue

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Jan 20 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

Ben Domingue of Stanford University speaks on AI and data-driven methods in science. Part of a weekly seminar series featuring Stanford researchers discussing applications of artificial intelligence and data science across scientific domains. Organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein.

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Privileged Minorities: A History of Wealth Concentration in South Africa - Mesrob Vartavarian

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Jan 27 ·12:00 pm ·Encina Commons ·Stanford

How did South Africa's anticolonial liberation struggle paradoxically produce entrenched wealth concentration and enduring inequality? Scholar Mesrob Vartavarian examines the rise of privileged minorities—small, exclusive groups dominating political and economic life—and traces how they secured exclusive advantages including land seizures, racialized labor systems, and favorable state support from the Dutch colonial era through ANC rule. Rather than dismantling minority privilege, challenges from marginalized groups often reshaped and incorporated new actors into existing structures. Vartavarian offers a framework for understanding how structural advantage persists and evolves across African societies.

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AI + Data for Science: Emma Alexander

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Jan 27 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

Emma Alexander (Northwestern University) discusses AI and data-driven methods in science as part of AI + Data for Science, a weekly Stanford seminar. The series features leading researchers exploring applications of machine learning and computational approaches across scientific disciplines, organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein. Meetings are Wednesdays 4:30–5:30 pm.

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Artist Salon: North African Traditions, New Music Creating a Concerto for Oud and Baroque Orchestra

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Tue, Feb 2 ·5:00 pm ·Building 80 ·Stanford

Composer Tarik O'Regan and oud virtuoso Joseph Tawadros discuss a new concerto for oud and Baroque orchestra, exploring the instrument's centuries-long influence across North African and Middle Eastern musical traditions and its connection to the modern guitar. O'Regan shares the creative process behind the work, while Tawadros demonstrates the oud's expressive range and cultural significance. Moderated by Stanford musicologist Matthew D. Morrison, the salon includes live performance by Tawadros and the Stanford Middle Eastern Ensemble, plus audience Q&A.

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AI + Data for Science: Łukasz Dębowski

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Feb 17 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

Łukasz Dębowski of the Polish Academy of Sciences presents on AI and data-driven methods in science. Part of AI + Data for Science, a weekly Stanford seminar featuring leading researchers discussing computational approaches across scientific disciplines. Organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein. Open to Stanford and non-Stanford attendees.

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AI + Data for Science: Russ Poldrack

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Feb 24 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

Russ Poldrack of Stanford University speaks on AI and data-driven methods in scientific research. Part of a weekly seminar series organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein, featuring Stanford speakers discussing applications across the sciences. Open to Stanford and non-Stanford attendees.

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“Don’t Eat the Mermaid: Exploring the Legend of Yaobikuni”

Culture & Humanities Film + TalkLecture / ForumUniversity / College

Fri, Feb 26 ·2:30 pm ·Humanities Center ·Stanford

A screening of a recent documentary (28 mins) exploring the legend of Yaobikuni—a young woman who ate mermaid flesh and gained immortality, eventually becoming a nun and traveling Japan for eight hundred years before returning to her birthplace in Obama City, Fukui Prefecture. Following the film, Michael Dylan Foster (UC Davis, author of *The Book of Yōkai*) and Hank Glassman (Haverford College, medieval Japanese religious culture specialist) discuss the legend, its Buddhist context, and the documentary's making.

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"Sound and Images of the Invisible World in Japan"

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Fri, Feb 26 ·4:00 pm ·Humanities Center ·Stanford

A multidisciplinary roundtable exploring yōkai—Japanese supernatural creatures—through the lens of sound and images, past and present. Speakers include Michael Dylan Foster (UC Davis), author of *Pandemonium and Parade* and *The Book of Yōkai*, who serves as "Yōkai Navigator" for NHK World's documentary series; Fabio Rambelli (UC Santa Barbara), Distinguished Professor of Japanese Religions and Cultural History and author of *The Sea and the Sacred in Japan* and *Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan*, who is also an accomplished musician performing the shō (classical Japanese mouth organ); and Fumi Tomita (University of Massachusetts Amherst), a jazz bassist and composer.

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AI + Data for Science: Azalia Mirhoseini

Science & Tech Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Wed, Mar 3 ·4:30 pm ·Stanford Computing and Data Science Building ·Stanford

Azalia Mirhoseini of Stanford University presents on AI and data-driven methods in science, part of a weekly seminar series (Wednesdays 4:30–5:30 pm) exploring computational approaches across the sciences. Organized by Emmanuel Candès, Balasubramanian Narasimhan, Brian Wandell, and Gordon Wetzstein.

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