People

Mark Feldman

Mark Feldman directs the Stanford Undergraduate Sustainability Scholars (SUSS) and is a lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric.  Mark started teaching at Stanford after completing his PhD (on the rhetoric of animality in late 19^th century American literature) from UC Berkeley in 2005.  His research and teaching interests are varied and include: environmental humanities, urban studies, contemporary art, public humanities, and ecocriticism.

Mark’s major current writing project is a trade book, Urban Ecology: New York City’s Visionary Urbanism, about how artists, landscape architects, and educators are reimagining New York City, greening the streets and changing perceptions of nature. A native New Yorker, this project stems from his long-standing fascination with this city and environmentalism.

Mark teaches courses in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) on themes such as visual culture, urban studies, and environmental rhetoric.  His PWR2 classes have partnered with the Cantor Center for the Visual Arts and History San Jose to produce audio guide walking tours.  In 2010 he was invited to contribute a thematic audio guide as part of the Cantor Center’s Faculty Choice program.  The guide is available on their website (http://museum.stanford.edu/speakingaboutart.html).

Mark has published on late 19^th century American literature and culture; graphic novels; and ecological reimiaginings of New York City.  In 2009-10 he was a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center, pursuing initial research for Urban Ecology.  In 2010-11 he was accepted in the Arts Writing Workshop, a partnership between the International Art Critics Association and the Creative Capital / Warhol Foundation that pairs each participant with a senior critic for one-on-one writing mentorship.

John Peterson

John Peterson is Associate Director of Stanford Undergraduate Sustainability Scholars.  Since 2004, he’s been a lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford, where he also works in the Hume Writing Center. He teaches courses in popular culture, the rhetoric of art and commerce, and the rhetoric of liberal arts education. He has an MFA in Fiction from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and was the founding publisher of Tahoma West, an undergraduate journal based in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program at the University of Washington, Tacoma. He is currently doing research for his extended study of the rhetoric of improvisation called Free Speech? The Danger and Beauty of Speaking Off-the-Cuff.