History
CSN was founded in 2000. Under the first director, Franco Moretti, events from 2000-2004 charted the contours of the novel across geography and history. Under the leadership of Margaret Cohen, director from 2004-2007, the center focused on how the novel edges other media, genres, and forms.
Alex Woloch directed CSN from 2007-2010, and started the Working Group on the Novel, a workshop for graduate students and faculty concentrating on narrative form, genre and the history and theory of the novel. Nancy Ruttenburg organized three conferences from 2010 to 2013: Is the Novel Secular?; Is the Novel Democratic?; and What is the Nature of Literary Being? The papers given at Is the Novel Democratic? were collected for a special issue of the journal NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction. Professor Ruttenburg also introduced two initiatives, the Undergraduate Colloquia and the Stanford-Berkeley Liaison.
CSN’s outgoing director Mark McGurl organized the Sciences and Fictions conference in 2014, Novel Marxisms in 2016, and Novel Institutions in 2017. Nancy Ruttenburg returned as CSN director for the 2017-2018 academic year: she organized Novel Dostoevsky. Under the second term of her directorship (2018-), Margaret Cohen has expanded the types and frequency of events to include constituencies interested in literature and narrative across Stanford in both English and the DLCL. Among initiatives include creating an online record events, including the podcast series CSN Café, now available on iTunes.
Past Events
A record* of programming hosted by the Center for the Study of the Novel. Events are organized chronologically below. To narrow your search, visit pages for Books at the Center, Ian Watt Lectures, Conferences and Panels, and Event Recordings and Interviews.
*Some events and event details are still omitted from this record.
2023-2024
Walter Benjamin: The Novel (10/23/2023) Participants: Kevin McLaughlin
Books at the Center: Jennifer Fleissner, Maladies of the Will (10/12/2023) Participants: Jennifer Fleissner, Elisa Tamarkin, Mark McGurl
2022-2023
Conference: The Poetics of the City - (5/19 - 5/20/2023)
Participants: Ulka Anjaria, Matthew Beaumont, Catherine Flynn, Amitav Ghosh, Ursula Heise, Cajetan Iheka, Jini Kim Watson, David Kurnick, Anne Lounsbery, Catherine Nesci, Ato Quayson, Brigid Rooney, Emily Steinlight
Ian Watt Lecture: Wai Chee Dimock, “A Long History of Pandemics” (3/2/2023)
Participants: Wai Chee Dimock
Interview podcast and transcripts
Books at the Center: Charne Lavery, Writing Ocean Worlds and Isabel Hofmeyr, Dockside Reading (11/3/2022)
Participants: Charne Lavery, Isabel Hofmeyr, Vilashini Cooppan, Michaela Bronstein
Interview podcast and transcripts
2021-2022
Ian Watt Lecture: Sianne Ngai, “Inhabiting Error: From Last Christmas to Senior’s Last Hour (6/3/2022)
Participants: Sianne Ngai
Conference: The Turn Against Fictionality (5/13-14/2022)
Participants: Tim Brennan, Lennard Davis, Percival Everett, Donna Jones, Roanne Kantor, Annabel Kim, Deidre Lynch, Colleen Lye, Bruce Robbins, Nancy Ruttenburg, Christophe Schuwey
Books at the Center: Peter Boxall, The Prosthetic Imagination (10/29/2021)
Participants: Peter Boxall, Ian Duncan, Nancy Ruttenburg
Interview podcast and transcripts
2020-2021
Panel on Anti-Racist Pedagogies of the Novel (5/14/2021)
Participants: Chris Freeburg, Achille Mbembe, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
See video recording
Panel on Crime Narratives (4/30/2021)
Participants: Andrea Goulet, Michelle Robinson, Héctor Hoyos
Interview podcast and transcripts
Panel on Fictions of Care (2/23/2021)
Participants: Jeanne-Marie Jackson, Talia Schaffer, Abraham Verghese
See video recording
Books at the Center: Nicholas Paige, Technologies of the Novel (2/8/2021)
Participants: Nicholas Paige, Margaret Cohen, John Bender, Chloe Edmondson
Interview podcast and transcripts
Books at the Center: Dorothy Hale, The Novel and the New Ethics (1/15/2021)
Participants: Dorothy Hale, Nancy Ruttenburg, Alex Woloch
Interview podcast and transcripts
Ian Watt Lecture: Sharon Marcus, "Reading as if for Death” (10/30/2020)
Participants: Sharon Marcus
See video recording
Interview podcast and transcripts
Books at the Center: Leah Price, What We Talk About When We Talk About Books (10/2/2020)
Participants: Leah Price, Jessica Jordan
2019-2020
Panel on Cognitive Literary Studies (2/21/2020)
Participants: Fritz Breithaupt, Lisa Zunshine, Haiyan Lee
Panel on Fashion Stories (1/9/2020)
Participants: Emily Apter, Rhonda Garelick, Anne Higonnet
Interview podcast and transcripts
Panel on Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature (11/15/2019)
Participants: Ato Quayson, Richard Halpern, John Kerrigan
Interview podcast and transcripts
Books at the Center: Stephen Best, None Like Us (10/10/2019)
Participants: Stephen Best, Kris Cohen, Mario Telò
Interview podcast and transcripts
2018-2019
Panel on Speculative Fictions: Possible Futures for the Planet (5/23/2019)
Participants: Wai Chee Dimock, Colin Milburn, John Plotz
Interview podcast and transcripts
Ian Watt Lecture: Rita Felski, “Identification: A Defense” (5/3/2019)
Participants: Rita Felski
Interview podcast and transcripts
Books at the Center: Matthew Garrett, The Cambridge Companion to the Modern Novel (3/1/2019)
Participants: Matthew Garrett, David Kurnick, Valerie Rohy, Amy C. Tang
2017-2018
Conference: Novel Dostoyevsky (5/18/2018)
Participants: Michaela Bronstein, Alexander Burry, Yuri Corrigan, Jeanne‑Marie Jackson, Chloë Kitzinger, Karla Oeler, Nancy Ruttenburg, Peter Schwartz
Ian Watt Lecture: Thomas Pavel, “Trusting Literature, The Case of the Novel” (2/27/2018)
Participants: Thomas Pavel
Books at the Center: Marta Figlerowicz, Spaces of Feeling: Affect and Awareness in Modernist Literature (11/16/2017)
Participants: Marta Figlerowicz, Douglas Mao
2016 – 2017
Conference: Novel Institutions (5/9/2017)
Participants: David Alworth, Beth Blum, Kasia Boddy, Michaela Bronstein, Sarah Brouillette, John Alba Cutler, Merve Emre, Jim English, Andrew Goldstone, Günter Leypoldt, Philipp Löffler, Vaughn Rasberry, Jeremy Rosen
Books at the Center: Rebecca Walkowitz, Born Translated (1/12/2017)
Participants: Rebecca Walkowitz, Michaela Bronstein, Dora Zhang
Ian Watt Lecture: Amanda Anderson (3/9/2017)
Participants: Amanda Anderson
2015 – 2016
Conference: Novel Marxisms
Participants: Sianne Ngai, Michael Szalay,
Annie Mc Clanahan, Timothy Bewes, Benjamin Kohlmann, Joshua Clover
2013-2014
Conference: Sciences and Fictions
Participants : Natalia Cecire, Jay Clayton, Jennifer Fleissner, Ursula Heise, Amy Hungerford, Kate Marshall, Elijah Meeks, Paula Moya, Mark Seltzer, Matthew Taylor, Blakey Vermeule, Cary Wolfe
2012-2013
Conference: What is the Nature of Literary Being?
Participants : Branka Arsic, Peter Brooks, Carrol Clarkson, Claire Jarvis, David Kurnick. Jonathan Lamb, Sylvia Molloy. Karin Sanders, Garrett Stewart, Cristina Vatulescu
2011-2012
Conference: Is the Novel Democratic?
Participants : Elizabeth Anker, Nancy Armstrong, Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Brian Edwards, Meltem Gürle, Kent Puckett, Vaughn Rasberry, Mariano Siskind, Alan Tansman, Ban Wang
Ian Watt Lecture: Zadie Smith, “Why Write?” (4/2/2012)
Participants: Zadie Smith
2010-2011
Conference: Is the Novel Secular?
Participants : RobertAlter, Derek Attridge, Simon During, Anne-lise François, Michal Govin, Dorothy Hale, Beatriz Jaguaribe, Vincent Pecora, Karen Zumhagen-Yekplé
Ian Watt Lecture: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, “Globalectic Heterotopia” (4/6/2011)
Participants: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
2009-2010
Conference: Novel & Film
Participants : Lauren Berlant, Edward Branigan, Homay King, D. A. Miller, Sean O’Sullivan, Garrett Stewart
Books at the Center: Joseph Slaughter, Human Rights Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law (11/20/2009)
Participants: Joseph Slaughter, Saikat Majumdar, Michael Rubenstein
Books at the Center: Ian Duncan, Scott’s Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh (4/2/2010)
Participants: Ian Duncan, Margaret Cohen, Margaret Russett
Ian Watt Lecture: Benedict Anderson, “Escaping from Space-Time Compression: Fiction from the Margins” (11/4/2009)
Participants: Benedict Anderson
2008-2009
Conference: Politics and the Novel (4/10/2009)
Participants : Amanda Anderson, Amanda Claybaugh, Pericles Lewis, Sean McCann, John Plotz, Michael Szalay, Harvey Teres
Ian Watt Lecture: Bruce Robbins (4/9/2009)
Participants: Bruce Robbins
Books at the Center: Nicholas Dames, The Physiology of the Novel (1/16/2009)
Participants: Leah Price, Franco Moretti, Nicholas Dames
Books at the Center: Suzanne Keen, Narrative Empathy (11/7/2008)
Participants: Suzanne Keen, Blakey Vermeule, Deena Weisberg
2007-2008
Books at the Center: Catherine Gallagher, The Body Economic (4/21/2008)
Participants: Franco Moretti, John Plotz, Catherine Gallagher
Conference: Race and Narrative Theory (4/11/2008)
Participants : Ramon Saldivar, Ulka Anjaria, Jennifer Brody, Dorothy Hale, Ernesto Martinez, James Phelan, Carla Kaplan, Vilashini Cooppan, Paula Moya, Kenneth Warren, Herman Beavers
Ian Watt Lecture: Frederic Jameson, “Realism: A Theoretical Problem.” (2/27/2008)
Participants: Frederic Jameson
Books at the Center: Peter Brooks, Henry James Goes to Paris (2/15/2008)
Participants: Peter Brooks, Sianne Ngai, D.A. Miller, Alex Woloch
2006-2007
Conference: The Extreme Contemporary
Participants : Speakers: Svetlana Boym, Joshua Clover, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Alan Liu, Bill Luoma, Katie Salen, Celeste Langan, Tyrus Miller, Sianne Ngai, Anne Wagner
Books at the Center: Michael McKeon, The Secret History of Domesticity (10/27/2006)
Participants: Michael McKeon, John Bender, Margaret Cohen
Books at the Center: Jody Greene The Trouble with Ownership (3/1/2007)
Participants: Sianne Ngai, D.A. Miller, Alex Woloch
Conference: For A Theory of the Novel of the 21st Century
Participants : Antonia Syson, Jesper Juul, Qiancheng Li, Sylvain Venayre, Anatole Pierre Fuksas, Lynn Festa, Alex Woloch, Jesse Matz, Kent Puckett, Mariano Siskind, Chris Warnes, Vilashini Cooppan, Anjali Prabhu, Leah Price, Jonathan Zwicker, Amanpal Garcha, Jérôme David, Andrea Miconi, Steven Johnson
2005-2006
Books at the Center: Deidre Lynch, The Economy of Character (5/5/2006)
Participants: Deidre Lynch, April Alliston, Susan Schuyler
Books at the Center: Pascale Casanova, The World Republic of Letters (4/21/2006)
Participants: Pascale Casanova, Franco Moretti, Aamir Mufti
Ian Watt Lecture: Bill Brown, “Novel Objects” (2/23/2006)
Participants: Bill Brown
Conference: Illustration (1/13/2006)
Participants : Emily Apter, Sharon Marcus, Anne Higonnet, Vanessa Schwartz, Anthony Vidler, Nancy Armstrong, Leslie Camhi, Kate Flint, Christopher Prendergast, William Schaefer, Richard Terdiman
Conference: Adventure (11/11/2005)
Participants : Lorna Hutson, Giancarlo Maiorino, Srinivas Aravamudan, Sylvie Thorel, J. Doyne Farmer, Scott Bukatman, Sunil Agnani, Joshua Clover, Ursula Heise, Nicholas Paige
2004-2005
Conference: The Maritime in Modernity (4/28/2005)
Particpants : Ian Baucom, Cesare Casarino, Chris Connery, Nina Gerassi-Navarro, Darcy Grigsby, Robert Harms, Bernhard Klein, Jonathan Lamb, Chandra Mukerji, Geoffrey Quilley, Marcus Rediker, Nigel Rigby, Allan Sekula, Philip Steinberg, T. J. Clark, Samuel Otter, Jessica Riskin, Kaeren Wigan
Books at the Center: D.A. Miller, Jane Austen, or The Secret of Style ()
discussant: D.A. Miller, Terry Castle, Alex Woloch
Conference: Reading
Particpants : April Allison, Peter Brooks, Roger Chartier, Craig Dworkin, Roland Greene, Carla Hesse, Frank Lentricchia, Sharon Marcus, Haun Saussy
Books at the Center: Jonathan Lamb, Preserving the Self in the South Sea, 1680-1840 (11/4/2004)
Participants: Jonathan Lamb, Margaret Cohen, Jody Greene
2003-2004
Conference: Representations of the Enemy (4/23/2004)
Participants : Carlo Ginzburg, Donald Sasson, Djelal Kadir, Murat Belge, Gopal Balakrishnan, John Brenkman, Susan Neiman, Bruce Robbins
Books at the Center: Alison Case, Plotting Women (2/3/2004)
Participants: Alison Case, Crisi Benford, Kent Puckett
Ian Watt Lecture: Catherine Gallagher, “Daniel Deronda: the ‘too-much’ of literature” (1/20/2004)
Participants: Catherine Gallagher
Books at the Center: Thomas Pavel, La Pensée du Roman (1/15/2004)
Participants: Thomas Pavel, Joshua Landy, Franco Moretti
Conference: Prose (10/31/2003)
Participants : Michal Ginsburg and Lorri Nadrea, Sylvie Thorel-Cailleteau, Aranye Fradenburg, Caryl Emerson, Ann Banfield, Wlad Godzich, Robert Kawashima, D. A. Miller
2002-2003
Conference: Origins of the Novel, A Comparative Assessment (11/15/2002)
Participants : Tomas H , Andrew Plaks, Joan Ramon Resina, Thomas DiPiero, Nancy Armstrong, Aranye Fradenburg, Leah Price, and William Warner.
Books at the Center: Roberto Schwarz, A Master on the Periphery of Capitalism (5/1/2003)
Participants: Roberto Schwarz, Perry Anderson, Lucia Sa
Books at the Center: Katie Trumpener, Bardic Nationalism (2/10/2003)
Participants: Katie Trumpener, Ian Duncan, Seth Lerer
Ian Watt Lecture: Jonathan Culler, “Narratology Today” (4/2/2003)
Participants: Jonathan Culler
Conference: The Persistence of Realism (5/2/2003)
Participants : Roberto Schwarz, Hilary Schor, Seung-Cheol Song, Alex Woloch, Perry Anderson, Peter Brooks, Margaret Cohen, Fredric Jameson
2001-2002
Conference: Interdisciplinary Works in Progress (5/3/2002)
Participants: Ann Banfield, Harro Müller, Nathalie Ferrand, Philip Fisher
Books at the Center: Leah Price, The Anthology and the Rise of the Novel (3/4/2002)
Participants: Leah Price, Dawn Coleman, Priya Joshi
Ian Watt Lecture: Mario Vargas Llosa (2/19/2002)
Participants: Mario Vargas Llosa
Conference: Epic and Novel (1/18/2002)
Participants : Meenakshi Mukherjee, Myra Jehlen, Neil Larsen, Clarisse Zimra, Gilbert Adair
Books at the Center: Michael McKeon, The Theory of the Novel (11/14/2001)
Participants: Michael McKeon, D.A. Miller, Rob Polhemus
Books at the Center: Idelber Avelar, Untimely Present (11/7/2001)
Participants: Idelber Avelar, Donna Jones, Julio Ramos
Conference: Teaching Stories (10/12/2001)
Participants : Mary Foote, Eric Chandler, Scott Lankford, Michal Peled Ginsburg, Elizabeth Langland, Hilary Schor, Richard Terdiman
Lecture/Seminar: Michael Peled Ginsburg, “Narrative Theory and Beyond” (10/11/2001)
2000-2001
Conference: Experiments in Fiction Today (5/11/2001)
Participants : Ursula Heise, Brian McHale, Gilbert Sorrentino, Kaun Tei Yamashita
Conference: Statistics and the Rise of the Novel, Quantitative Evidence and Literary History (3/2/2001)
Participants : John Austin, Wendy Griswold, Priya Joshi, Elisa Marti-Lopez, James Raven, Mario Santana, Jonathan Zwicker
Books at the Center: Margaret Doody, The True Story of the Novel (1/25/2001)
Participants: Margaret Doody, Terry Castle, Patricia Parker
Books at the Center: Margaret Cohen, The Sentimental Education of the Novel (11/13/2000)
Participants: Margaret Cohen, Sharon Marcus, Franco Moretti
Books at the Center: William Warner, Licensing Pleasure (10/25/2000)
Participants: William Warner, John Bender, James Turner
Conference: Fiction Bound and Unbound (10/13/2000)
Participants : Kate Flint, Catherine Gallagher, Walter Siti, Henry Yiheng Zhao
Center for the
Study of the Novel
Margaret Jacks Hall, 460-411
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2087
Director
Graduate Coordinators
Caroline Bailey
Jessica Monaco
Vesta Pitts
Programs
Department of English
Division of Literatures,
Cultures, and Languages
Stanford Literary Lab