Academic Life at Stevenson College

Stevenson offers a rich array of academic programming for the benefit of Stevenson students and the UCSC campus. In addition to the Core Course, in 2009-10 Stevenson will be initiating a course on the improvement of study skills. Stevenson's extremely popular "Rainbow Theater" course offers students hands-on experience creating multi-cultural theater. Also in development for 2009-10 are courses on "Everyday Ethics" and "Religious Perspectives on Life: A Pluralistic View."

Students at Stevenson may also work one-on-one with a faculty member to develop an individual studies course. Interested students should contact an academic adviser.

Another favorite program at Stevenson is "The Ethics Bowl," a competitive debating team dealing with ethical issues of the day. Students may earn 2 units of Stevenson independent study participating on the Ethics Bowl Team. Click here to visit the Ethics Bowl website.

Stevenson sponsors a rich faculty lecture series, where faculty fellows of the college discuss their current research. These lectures inspire wide discussion among faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.

Recent Faculty Lectures at Stevenson:

• James McCloskey, Professor of Linguistics, "Sex and the Irish Language"; Spring 2009


• Mark Traugott, Professor of History, "The Revolutionary Barricade: How it Originated and What it Teaches Us about how History is Written"; Winter 2009


• Junko Ito, Professor of Linguistics, "What Anime and Karaoke Have In Common: A linguistic Perspective"; Spring 2008


• Buchanan Sharp, Professor of History, "Kings, Commoners, and Food: The Moral Economy in Medieval England"; Winter 2008


• Jonathan Beecher, Professor of History, "The Making and Unmaking of a Christian Bolshevik: The Soviet Years of Pierre Pascal"; Spring 2007


• Jaye Padgett, Professor of Linguistics, "Perception and Linguistic Sound Systems"; Winter 2006


• Isebill Gruhn, Professor of Politics Emerita, "Africa—Continent in Crisis: Does it Matter?"; Spring 2006


• Jorge Hankamer, Professor of Linguistics, "What Can Computers Tell Us About Turkish?"; Winter 2005


• Donka Farkas, Professor of Linguistics, "A Transylvanian in Search of Meaning"; Fall 2005


• Peter Kenez, Professor of History, "Autobiography and History"; Spring 2005

Recent Distinguished Alumni Lectures at Stevenson:

• Jonathan Kirsch, "Harlots, Holy Books, and History: Confessions of a Vulgarizer"; Spring 2009


• John R. Rickford, "African American Vernacular English, LInguistics, and teh Black/White Achievement Gap in American Schools"; Fall 2008

Other recent intellectual programming at Stevenson has included a three-day visit of Stevenson’s Alumni Association Distinguished Visiting Professor, Professor Richard White, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, at Stanford University. In addition, the college sponsored a series of events on ethics, science and technology. These included a panel of distinguished religious and scientific scholars on the "intelligent design" debate, and a lecture, by Professor Laurie Zoloth, on "The New Biology and Stem Cell Research". Laurie Zoloth is Professor of Medical Ethics and Humanities at Northwestern University and Director of the Center for Bioethics, Science, and Society at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Please visit the "Academic Events" page for upcomming academic programing at Stevenson.