Seminars that Fulfill WAY-A-II

Aesthetic and Interpretive Inquiry

Every reflective person needs to confront the variety of cultural and artistic efforts to express and understand the human condition.  

Through the study of history, philosophy, literature, the arts, and other cultural practices, you will develop the analytic and interpretive skills to understand both concrete and abstract achievements of human cultures – thereby nurturing a deeper conception of your own place in the universe.

You’ll need to take two courses in Aesthetic and Interpretive Inquiry (A-II)

Learn more about WAY-A-II
Course Titlesort descending Instructor Quarter Notes Fulfills:
The interior of a spaceship with purple and white lighting. After 2001: A 21st Century Science Fiction Odyssey Melissa Stevenson
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II, WAY-ED
A pink flamingo head with a blurred out flamingo behind it Animal Archives: History Beyond the Human Alison Grace Laurence
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Kingfisher. Photo by Boris Smokrovic on Unsplash Animal Poems Denise Gigante
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II
Arts Immersion NYC. Photo by Toni Gauthier. Art in the Metropolis Charles Kronengold
  • Spring
 This IntroSem has a special application process and deadline due December 1 (not in the IntroSems' VCA). See the bolded section in the course description on the seminar's page for details and links. WAY-A-II
IDT_MG_2121b via Flickr Behind the Big Drums: Exploring Taiko Stephen Sano, Linda Uyechi
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II
Person holding sign that says "no justice, no peace." Being Reasonable Krista Lawlor
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II
Poster for Marvel film, Black Panther. Black Panther, Hamilton, Díaz, and Other Wondrous Lives Jose Saldivar
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II, WAY-ED
Character Esther Yu
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
Winnie-the-Pooh chapter "Christopher Robin leads an expedition". Google art project. Public Domain Childish Enthusiasms and Perishable Manias Scott Bukatman
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II
Transamerica Pyramid, San Francisco, United States City, Space, Literature Ato Quayson
  • Winter
 WAY-A-II
Movie still of Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate (1967), directed by Mike Nichols. Coming-of-Age Movies Karla Oeler
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II
"Crayones cera" by Jorge Barrios - Own work. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crayones_cera.jpg#/media/File:Crayones_cera.jpg Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity David Palumbo-Liu
  • Winter
  • Spring
 Due to Sophomore demand, COMPLIT 51Q will be offered a second time in 2021-22, in Spring Quarter! WAY-A-II, WAY-ED, Write-2
Dramatic Tensions: Theater and the Marketplace Amy Freed
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II
Cicero Denounces Catiline, Wikipedia. Eloquence Personified: How To Speak Like Cicero Christopher Krebs
  • Winter
 WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Family Tree, 1585. Ahnentafel von Herzog Ludwig (1568-1593). Jakob Lederlein [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Family Trees: The Intergenerational Novel Austin Smith
  • Winter
 WAY-A-II
Lausanne, Switzerland. Photo by Matteo Maretto on Unsplash I Bet You Think You're Funny: A Workshop in Humor Edward Porter
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Cropped Fresco Image. "Fresco showing a woman so-called Sappho holding writing implements, from Pompeii, Naples National Archaeological Museum (14842101892) restored" by Carole Raddato, P. Herden - https://www.flickr.com/photos/carolemage/14842101892/. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fresco_showing_a_woman_so-called_Sappho_holding_writing_implements,_from_Pompeii,_Naples_National_Archaeological_Museum_(14842101892)_restored.jpg#/media/File:Fresco_ Imagining Women: Writers in Print and in Person Valerie Miner
  • Autumn
 FEMGEN/CSRE 188Q meets online and has space available, but is not open for self-enrollment in Axes because PWR1/Writing 1 is a prereq. If you are eligible and interested in enrolling, please email the instructor, Prof Valerie Miner, at vminer@stanford.edu. WAY-A-II, WAY-ED, Write-2
Photo of Ballet 22 dancer. Photo by Genevieve Parker. Intersectionality and the Politics of Ballet Janice Ross
  • Winter
 WAY-A-II, WAY-ED
It's the Freakiest Show: David Bowie's Intertextual Imagination Tiffany Naiman
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II, Write-2
Photo of the Pump Rooms in Bath, England, often mentioned in Jane Austen novels. Jane Austen's Fiction Alex Woloch
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II
Concrete sculpture of angel with broken wing in Germany Love and Death Patrick Phillips
  • Winter
 WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Portrait of Mark Twain ca. 1905 owned by the Mark Twain Library in Redding CT. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Mark Twain and American Culture Shelley Fisher Fishkin
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II, WAY-ED
Outside of the Broadway theater for Hamilton. Performing America: The Broadway Musical Thomas Grey
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cabI_CzXGD4/maxresdefault.jpg "Scene from the film "Obvious Child". FAIR USE: This image is a single frame from the 2014 film. No free or public domain images illustrating this film have been located, and the presence of this screenshot in this course description does not significantly impact the copyright holder's ability to profit from the original film. Image found at http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cabI_CzXGD4/maxresdefault.jpg." Perspectives on the Abortion Experience in Western Fiction Erica P. Cahill MD, Paul D. Blumenthal, MD, MPH
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II
White and black busts dating to antiquity, on display in a museum. Race, Blackness, Antiquity Sarah Derbew
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II, WAY-ED
Religion in Anime and Manga Michaela Mross
  • Winter
 WAY-A-II, WAY-ED
Russia's Weird Classic: Nikolai Gogol Lazar Fleishman
  • Autumn
 SLAVIC 77Q will meet Online Synchronously in Autumn Quarter. WAY-A-II
Cover of Dicken's Bleak House overlaid with a photo of a production sign for the television series, The Wire. Serial Storytelling Michaela Bronstein
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II
Shakespeare and Performance in a Global Context Patricia Parker
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II
Mexico City. Palacio de Bellas Artes: Mural "El Hombre en la encrucijada" ( 1934 ) by Diego Rivera (part). By Wolfgang Sauber [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons Socialism vs. Capitalism: Russian and American Writers’ Responses Yuliya Ilchuk
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Photo of the Stanford women's volleyball team Sports Writing John Evans
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Example of a translated text. Texts and Contexts: Spanish/English Literary Translation Workshop Cintia Santana
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
By © Dietmar Rabich, rabich.de, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30517858 The American Road Trip Kai Carlson-Wee
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
The Artist in Ancient Greek Society Jody Maxmin
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II
Detail of "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde poster" by Chicago : National Prtg. & Engr. Co. - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3g08267. The Detective and the City Frederic Stout
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II
Female Robot, 1964. Kiki Kogelnik [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons The Future Is Feminine Shannon Pufahl
  • Winter
 WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Funeral pyres by a river in India. The Good Death Anna Bigelow
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
breathless still shots of smoking jean seberg. By torbakhopper on Flickr. The New Wave: How the French Reinvented Cinema Cecile Alduy
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II
by Toni Gauthier vis SALLIE, ArtsImmersionNYC13-012.jpg Theatrical Wonders from Shakespeare to Mozart Blair Hoxby
  • Autumn
 WAY-A-II
In the Blue by A bloke called Jerm via Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharkbait/2992242065/in/photolist-5yq2jr-a6t1s2-6KTebx-9isr32-9ifn8P-4op1Ns-iJypH4-iMckeZ-iMcoxx-iMe9qQ-oUsBnT-iJAmwj-pcPmKt-iMckfR-iMcket-iQ1f1g-iQ32Wm-iQ39QS-iQ32RG-iMgmuN-8uY4yL-6mjQ7D-4op1WW-a5Z57G-fEpKoj-a5Z57A-a6t1rB-a6SnYG-a6t1s6-ATNmR-eJckgX-bcE9tv-9Gy5Bb-fChLQ2-ooBGVC-fCzmU7-a7cuq1-egijS5-eFXPSD-6moVsh-fCzmUd-6moWCs-6moXoo-6jeCks-6moVTu-6moXHW-6mjPPz-85HS9y-a6SnYj-5A2Th4 Views of a Changing Sea: Literature and Science William Gilly
  • Winter
 WAY-A-II
"Female bluegrass band" by JS North - Sweet By and By. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons Women Making Music Heather Hadlock
  • Winter
 WAY-A-II, WAY-ED
215823385_15a8b0cbbb_o via Flickr Zionism and the Novel Russell Berman
  • Spring
 WAY-A-II, WAY-ED, Write-2
Learn more about the Aesthetic and Interpretive Inquiry Way