What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

PWR 2JW  Instructor: Jonah WIllihnganz Winter 2021, Tue/Thur 4:30-05:50pm 4 units, WR-2
Love is said to be the key to everything from psychological development to achieving social justice. But as renowned psychologist Erich Fromm said as far back as the 1950s, love appears to be disintegrating in modern society. This may be partly because most of us don’t in fact understand it very well. It may be true that, as the Beatles say, All You Need is Love, but it also seems, as Lady Gaga says, we Don’t Know What Love Is. This class gives students an opportunity to take a deep dive into the nature of love—its history, its practice, and how it has been studied.  We will look at all types of love, from familial and brotherly to romantic and spiritual, and you will be introduced to conflicting ways it has been defined (a drive, an emotion, an orientation to the world, etc.), functions it has often been given (reproduction, kinship, finding ultimate truth, etc.), and ways people have cultivated it (service, therapy, spiritual practice).  The course will also introduce you to how various disciplines such as anthropology, biology, psychology, and art approach a complex experience such as love.

 Join the Stanford Concert Network and the Stanford Storytelling Project for a live event with Stones Throw Records artist, violinist and vocalist, Sudan Archives. Sudan Archives writes, plays, and produces her own music. Drawing inspiration from Sudanese fiddlers, she is self-taught on the violin, and her unique songs also fold in elements of R&B, and experimental electronic music. Come with questions to ask, or just come to hang out and hear what Sudan Archives has to say.


Sudan Archives: An Evening of Song and Storytelling

Join the Stanford Concert Network and the Stanford Storytelling Project for a live event with Stones Throw Records artist, violinist and vocalist, Sudan Archives. Sudan Archives writes, plays, and produces her own music. Drawing inspiration from Sudanese fiddlers, she is self-taught on the violin, and her unique songs also fold in elements of R&B, and experimental electronic music. Come with questions to ask, or just come to hang out and hear what Sudan Archives has to say.


April Meeting the Moment Movie Nite: Minari

Weds, April 6th, 2021. 6 – 8:30 PM PST.

Each month, two Fellows from the Meeting the Moment Program will screen a movie + and host a short, post-film discussion on the monthly theme. We’ll use the movie as a prompt to lean into what it means to meet the monthly theme. April’s theme is Ancestry, and our movie is MINARI. The evening will be hosted by Meeting the Moment Fellow Elaine Lai, PhD candidate and Program Associate Emma Master ’19.


January Meeting the Moment Movie Nite: City of God

Wednesday, January 20th, 2021. 6:00 – 8:30 pm PST.

Each month, two Fellows from the Meeting the Moment Program will screen a movie + and host a short, post-film discussion on the monthly theme. We’ll use the movie as a prompt to lean into what it means to meet the monthly theme. January’s theme is Anger & Justice, and our movie is CITY OF GOD. The evening will be hosted by Meeting the Moment Fellows Luciana Frazao MS ’21 and Kory Gaines ’21.



Sarah Broom on writing, resistance 

By Zack Boyd
February 18, 2020
Stanford Daily

Sarah M. Broom is the author of The Yellow House, winner of the 2019 National Book Award and featured on dozens of 2019 Best Books lists. Through the intimate story of her family’s home, The Yellow House offers a new story about not only New Orleans but about defying the forces of race and class in the American neighborhoods we rarely see.  more


Salt in My Soul: The Memoir of Mallory Smith

By Christy Hartman
May 23, 2019
SCOPE, Stanford Medicine

Cystic fibrosis took Mallory Smith’s life, but her memoir lives on. For more than ten years, Mallory recorded her thoughts and observations about struggles and feelings too personal to share during her life, leaving instructions for her mother to publish her work posthumously. more


Anna Deveare Smith

Anna Deavere Smith talks about the healing power of stories

By Vanna Tran
The Dish
November 1, 2015

“On Oct. 28, hundreds gathered at Memorial Auditorium for a night of storytelling and conversation with former Stanford faculty member ANNA DEAVERE SMITH, an award-winning pioneer in the field of documentary theater. …”more