Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences

03/26/2026

Can proportional representation solve party conflict?

"Okay. A lot of that stuff is gonna happen in a, in a proportional representation system too, okay? Um, so these deeper problems are not gonna go away just because you've changed the rules (laughs) in one of the houses of Congress. And you don't change the Senate, and you don't change the presidency, okay?

—Bruce Cain, the Charles Louis Ducommun Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and professor of political science at Stanford

Part of the Democracy and Disagreement 2026 series.

See more at the "Events" link in our bio.

03/25/2026

Couldn't make it in person? Catch up with Democracy and Disagreement: Ending the Russia–Ukraine War here:

Tue, Mar 10 2026. Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Paul Brest, former dean and

03/23/2026

Should universities regulate protests?

"Precisely because rallies and demonstrations are organized by dedicated political, moral, and social activists who are pre-committed to a cause and wish to draw attention to their urgent demands, they frustrate the basic academic right of students and faculty to cooperatively debate and discuss controversial ideas."

—Richard Shweder, the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Human Development at the University of Chicago

Part of the Democracy and Disagreement 2026 series.

See more at the "Events" link in our bio.

03/19/2026

Is the TAKE IT DOWN ACT enough or too much?

"Um, I would describe the 'let's do something approach' as the opposite of evidence-based policymaking. So when we think about what our regulators are doing, they're in this back room cooking up ways to protect constituents. We think of them as looking for, for ways to connect the dots between the problem and the solution."

—Eric Goldman, a professor of law at Santa Clara University School of Law

Part of the Democracy and Disagreement 2026 series.

See more at the "Events" link in our bio.

03/17/2026

Does a fetus have legal rights?

"The question for me is not whether that life has value or deserves dignity—it does—but rather how should law treat that life vis-a-vis other rights-bearing persons? As many scholars have articulated, "person" is a legal term of art that designates when an entity has rights. . ."

—Rachel Rebouché, the G. Rollie White Teaching Excellence Chair in Law and professor of law at the University of Texas at Austin

Part of the Democracy and Disagreement 2026 series.

See more at the "Events" link in our bio.

03/16/2026

Couldn't make it in person? Catch up with Democracy and Disagreement: AI and Jobs here:

Tue, Mar 3 2026. Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Paul Brest, former dean and

03/12/2026

Couldn't make it in person? Catch up with Democracy and Disagreement: Proportional Representation here:

Tue, Feb 24 2026. Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Paul Brest, former dean and

03/10/2026

Democracy and Disagreement: Tuesday, March 3 from 3-4:50 p.m., "Ending the Russia–Ukraine War" with Samuel Charap and Gabrielius Landsbergis. Open to the Stanford community. More information here:

Tue, Mar 10 2026. Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Paul Brest, former dean and

03/05/2026

xDemocracy and Disagreement: Tuesday, March 3 from 3-4:50 p.m., "Ending the Russia–Ukraine War" with Samuel Charap and Gabrielius Landsbergis. Open to the Stanford community. More information here:

Tue, Mar 10 2026. Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Paul Brest, former dean and

03/04/2026

A microscope developed at Stanford by chemistry professor W.E. Moerner and postdoc Michelle Kueppers blends two imaging approaches to reveal tiny parts of living cells and allow nearly unlimited observation time, without fluorescent labels. The method, called Interferometric Image Scanning Microscopy, provides greater context, allowing researchers to view movement of organelles and other cellular structures as well as their responses to pathogens and drugs.

This new way of seeing into cells could lead to breakthroughs in a range of fields. Stanford researchers are already using it to study the uptake of cancer drugs into cells and plant–microbe interactions.

Read more at the link in our bio Photo 1: The microscope's lasers shine. Photo by Jim Gensheimer for Stanford University. Photo 2: Michelle Kueppers and W.E. Moerner stand by their device. Photo by Michelle Kueppers.

03/03/2026

Democracy and Disagreement: Tuesday, March 3 from 3-4:50 p.m., "AI and Jobs" with Bharat Chander and Rob Reich. Open to the Stanford community. More information here:

Tue, Mar 3 2026. Debra Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Paul Brest, former dean and