Mancall, Mark
- Title:
- Mancall, Mark
- Author:
- Mancall, Mark and Humburg, Judith
- Corporate Author:
- Stanford Historical Society
- Description:
-
In this oral history, Mark Mancall, Stanford administrator and Professor of Modern
World History, Emeritus, discusses the events in his early life that led him to pursue the
study of Asian languages, literature, and history. He talks about his doctoral studies at
Harvard with the eminent historian of China John K. Fairbank and describes the circumstances
that brought him to Stanford as an assistant professor of history in 1965.
Mancall describes the anti-Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s at
Stanford and offers reflections on the Stanford leaders, including Kenneth Pitzer and
Richard W. Lyman, with whom he interacted. A champion of innovation in undergraduate
education, Mancall describes several initiatives which he pioneered at Stanford, including
the formation of Grove House, a university experiment in residential education and its first
coed residence hall. He also describes the founding of the Structured Program in Liberal
Education (SLE), a residence-based undergraduate curriculum centered around intensive
reading and discussion of influential works in philosophy, literature, and art. He describes
the influence of structuralism on his thinking and teaching and on the development of
SLE. Mancall also gives an account of his time as director of Stanford’s
Overseas Study Program. He recounts details of moving existing Stanford programs to Berlin,
Oxford, and Paris and establishing new programs in Krakow, Poland and Haifa,
Israel.
- Topic:
- education, higher--United States--curricula, education, humanistic--United States, Fairbank, John King, 1907-1991, Mancall, Mark, Stanford University--Committee on Undergraduate Studies, Stanford University--Department of History, Stanford University--Grove House, Stanford University--Overseas Studies Program, Stanford University--Program--Structured Liberal Education (SLE), Stanford University--Program--Western Civilization, Stanford University--Study of Education at Stanford (SES), Stanford Historical Society, oral histories, interviews, higher education, and professors
- Imprint:
- October 28, 2013 - November 20, 2013
- Collection:
- Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2012