Teaching Opportunities

VPUE regularly hears from instructors that teaching courses and introductory seminars to first- and second-year students has connected them in new and exciting ways to undergrads curious to learn about their discipline, as well as providing opportunities to expand their own connections to liberal education at Stanford. 

Courses Fulfilling General Education Requirements

• Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE): Stanford’s required first-year curriculum involves faculty in teaching seminars focused on liberal education and citizenship and lecture courses focused on global perspectives.
• Other first-year programs fulfilling the COLLEGE, Writing, Ways requirements:
  • Education as Self-Fashioning (ESF) seminars may be taught by faculty in any field and consider writings about education by intellectuals working in various fields, with the aim of articulating different ways that education can be used to structure one’s thinking, one’s self, and ultimately one’s life as a whole. Contact faculty director Paula Findlen for more information.
  • Immersion in the Arts: Living in Culture (ITALIC) is an arts-minded, residence-based academic program for first year students taught by faculty in multiple arts disciplines. Contact faculty director Karla Oeler for more information.
  • Structured Liberal Education (SLE) is a residence-based academic program that encourages students to live a life of ideas in an atmosphere that emphasizes critical thinking and interpretation. It focuses on great works of philosophy, religion, literature, painting, and film drawn largely, but not exclusively, from the Western tradition and involves faculty guest lecturers from many disciplines. Contact faculty director Marisa Galvez for more information.
• The Program in Writing and Rhetoric supports faculty who wish to teach a Write 2 course that students can take as an alternative to PWR 2 in order to fulfill the second-year WR-2 requirement, or who are teaching a course that fulfills the Writing in the Major requirement.
• Ways of Thinking / Ways of Doing is the general education breadth requirement for undergraduates. Courses offered in any field may be considered for certification in up to two of the eight Ways categories.

Optional Courses and Experiences Embedded in VPUE Programs

• The September Arts Intensive program courses are taught by campus faculty and guest artists, offering students the opportunity to focus on a single, project-based arts class.
• Bing Honors College also takes place in September and is for students actively engaged in researching and drafting their honors thesis. Faculty can submit a proposal to lead a cohort in their major.
• Bing Overseas Studies Program offers faculty the opportunity to serve as Faculty in Residence for a quarter at one of BOSP’s global centers or to lead a 3 to 4 week global seminar during the summer at a location with direct relevance to the course topic.
• The Haas Center for Public Service offers support to faculty interested in integrating Community Engaged Learning into courses or capstones, mentoring students engaged in service activities, or deepening their own practice.
• Introductory Seminars  are small discussion-based courses taught by faculty from all seven schools. Focused on the research interests of the faculty, IntroSems serve as first- and second-year students’ introduction to the concepts and methods of a discipline and also foster faculty/student relationships centered on intellectual growth.
• Sophomore College is an immersive September experience for rising sophomores in which Academic Council or MCL faculty work closely with a small group of students on a mutual topic of interest.