NEWS RELEASE
12/3/96
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (415) 723-2558
Winter courses in Continuing Studies Program
From the art circles that linked Paris and New York in the opening decades of this century to everyday life in the Third Reich, to the "nervous splendor" that was Vienna at the turn of the century, almost 50 classes are being offered by the Continuing Studies Program.
Registration began Dec. 2 for the winter quarter, which begins Jan. 6.
University employees who work 50 percent time or more are eligible for a tuition discount of up to $140 per quarter. That assistance is not the same as STAP funds, and does not preclude an employee from using STAP funds for other job-related courses.
Courses include the following:
Mondays:
Advanced Fiction Writing, with Nancy Packer, professor emerita of English. 6-9 p.m.
Beginning Drawing, with Larry Lippold, lecturer in art. 1:30-4:30 p.m. at the Senior Center, 450 Bryant St., Palo Alto.
Essence of Italian Culture II, with Annamaria De Nicolais Napolitano, senior lecturer in Italian. 7-8:50 p.m. at Il Fornaio restaurant, 327 Lorton Ave., Burlingame. Five-week course.
Poetry Workshop, with Sheila Donohue, Jones Lecturer in poetry, Creative Writing Program. 6-9 p.m.
Quantum Mechanics, with Kathleen Thompson, physicist, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. 7-8:50 p.m. Five-week course.
The Renaissance: Discovery, Rediscovery, and Change, with Larry Ryan, professor emeritus of humanities and English. 7-9 p.m.
Russian: Beginning Language and Culture II, with Serafima Radivilova, lecturer in Slavic languages. 7-9 p.m.
Screenwriting, with Cammie McGovern, Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction writing. 6-9 p.m.
Short Story Workshop, with Laine Snowman, Jones Lecturer in creative writing. 6-9 p.m.
In the Swastika's Shadow: Everyday Life in Hitler's Third Reich, with G. Robert Hamrdla, assistant to the president, emeritus. 7-9 p.m.
Tuesdays:
Advanced Improvisation, with Patricia Ryan, senior lecturer in drama. 7-8:50 p.m.
The Brain: Chemistry and Behavior, with Karl Obrietan, research scientist, Department of Biological Sciences. 7-8:50 p.m.
The Classic Concerto, with Leonard Ratner, professor emeritus of music. 7-8:50 p.m.
Gothic Cathedrals and Great Churches of England, with Robert Scott, associate director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. 7-9 p.m.
How to Read an American Masterpiece, with Donald Bacon, lecturer in English. 7-8:50 p.m. at the Stratford, 601 Laurel Ave., San Mateo.
Intermediate German, with William Petig, senior lecturer in German studies. 7-8:50 p.m.
International Political Hotspots, with Gerald Dorfman, associate director and senior fellow of the Hoover Institution. 7-8:50 p.m.
Introduction to Cultural Georgraphy: People and Places, with Galen Martin, alumni association travel/study program. 7-8:50 p.m.
The Life and Music of Bob Dylan, with Rush Rehm, associate professor of drama and classics. 7-8:50 p.m. Five-week course.
Paris and New York in the Early Twentieth Century, with Wanda Corn, professor of art. 7-9:15 p.m.
Women in Popular Music, with Maria Johnson, visiting assistant professor of music. 7-8:50 p.m. Five-week course.
Wednesdays:
Beginning Improvisation, with Patricia Ryan, senior lecturer in drama. 7-8:50 p.m.
Beginning Italian II, with Maria Devine, senior lecturer in Italian. 7-8:50 p.m.
Beginning Spanish II, with Alice Miano, lecturer in Spanish. 7-8:50 p.m.
Challenging Assumptions, with Jeffrey Wildfogel, consulting professor of psychology. 7-8:50 p.m.
A Fiery Shorthand: Twentieth Century Irish Literature, with Eavan Boland, professor of English. 7-8:50 p.m.
History of Jazz II, with Grover Sales, lecturer in music. 7-8:50 p.m. at the Sequoias, 501 Portola Road, Portola Valley. Five-week course.
Short Story Workshop, with David Vann, Jones Lecturer in creative writing. 6-8:45 p.m.
Virginia Woolf's Foremothers: The Development of a British Women's Novel, with Linda Paulson, lecturer in English. 7-8:50 p.m.
Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man? with Sherri Matteo, visiting scholar, office of the dean of research. 7-8:50 p.m. Five-week course.
Wise Use Movement, with Radford Hall, lecturer in urban studies. 7-8:50 p.m. Five-week course.
Thursdays:
Antonioni: About Nothing With Precision, with Leda Mussio, senior lecturer emerita, French and Italian. 7-8:50 p.m. Five-week course.
Architectural Design and Theory, with Patti Walters, lecturer in urban studies. 7-8:50 p.m.
Beginning German II, with William Petig, senior lecturer in German studies. 7-8:50 p.m.
Couple Dancing in the '90s, with Richard Powers, lecturer in dance. 7-8:50 p.m. Five-week course.
Dance Making, with Tony Kramer, lecturer in dance. 7-8:50 p.m. Five-week course.
Households in Early America: History and Art, with Edith Gelles, senior scholar at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and Diana Strazdes, curator of American art, Stanford Museum of Art. 7-8:50 p.m. Five-week course.
Human Space Exploration, with Michael Tauber, consulting professor of aeronautics and astronautics. 7-8:50 p.m. Five-week course.
The Nervous Splendor: Vienna at the Turn of the Century, with Van Harvey, professor emeritus of religious studies. 7-8:50 p.m.
Roman Art and Archaeology, with Patrick Hunt, lecturer in classics. 7-8:50 p.m.
Understanding History, with Richard Terdiman, professor of literature and the history of consciousness, University of California-Santa Cruz. 7-8:50 p.m.
Writing After Proust: The French Novel Since the 1930s, with Marc Bertrand, professor of French. 7-8:50 p.m.
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[EDLIS Notes]
This simple announcement, though we didn't know it at the time, was the first step in the eventual acceptance of Bob Dylan as a legitimate subject of study in mainstream academia. A five week course on Bob Dylan was offered in this Stanford Continuing Studies Program, in the winter 1997 term by Rush Rehm, associate professor of drama and classics. None of these courses were offered as credit courses for those working on their undergraduate degrees. Instead they were open to anyone who wanted to attend and was willing to pay the fee, including those living in the community nearby.
The driving force behind this was Tino Markworth, a Stanford grad student who was working on his doctoral dissertation in German studies at the time. It was his idea that Stanford should be offering a course on Dylan. It had been over 26 years since Dylan had been given his honorary degree from Princeton, and there had been many students from around the country who had done papers, master's theses, and doctoral dissertations on Dylan subjects, but Dylan did not appear in the catalog of courses in higher education. And in keeping with this, Markworth was not able to find any department at Stanford that was willing to sponsor a full credit course on Dylan. But it was time to get a foot in the door and he found Professor Rush Rehm, who was willing to sponsor this five-week course, open to the general public.
The course quickly filled up with many who knew and loved Dylan's work. The tone was set on the very first night when Rehm was making introductory comments about how he envisioned the studies would proceed, that is with an academic examination of his work, not simply praise lavished on the star by Dylan fanatics. Near the back of the room, a hand shot up from one of the students. In fact, this student was a star in his own right in Silicon Valley, as he had been the one many years before who had written much of the code for the very first Mac operating system, including late nights on no sleep for days to meet the production deadline. Rehm nodded to the student with the outstretched arm and Andy Hertzfeld stood up to address the professor.
"Sir, while it might be more acceptable to be considered a fan of an artist, the word "fan" is just a shortening of the word "fanatic," which refers to someone who is extremely enthusiastic about the subject of his/her interest. I find nothing wrong with that. I am a Bob Dylan fanatic. I am quite proud of the fact that I am a Bob Dylan fanatic!"
The enthusiastic fan went on to explain that he would often check on the Internet for the Dylan setlist from the night before and would get tapes of the shows and listen to them as often as he could. He then concluded by saying, "I love his music and take it quite seriously. Far better that I be extremely interested in such worthy art, rather than have just a passing lukewarm interest in its study. Thank you very much, sir."
Andy Hertzfeld sat down, as applause erupted in the classroom from the other students, along with shouts of "Yes, right on!" and such from some. If he didn't already know it, it was at that moment that Professor Rehm might have realized that the classroom was full of people who were going to take these studies seriously, and as we all discovered, there were some in that classroom who knew a whole lot more about Bob Dylan and his music than the teacher did. Rehm did a fine job of teaching the class and drawing out the knowledge of all those around him, but there was no more mention of any fanatics.