Emeriti/ae News
Richard Holeton, Assistant Vice Provost for Learning Environments, Emeritus
Richard Holeton’s Step Away from the Pizza: Fictions, etc. was published in late 2025 by The Fictitious Press. Step Away from the Pizza collects Holeton’s short fiction published over several decades in literary journals, including award-winners and stories nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Stories. As one reviewer notes, the collection “tackles topics ranging from environmental degradation to the absurdities of corporate culture, often with a surreal twist” and “creates a dynamic reading experience, bouncing between conventional narratives and experimental forms, including erasure poetry and multimedia fiction” (Reader’s Favorite).
See geni.us/stepawayfromthepizza; more information is available at richardholeton.com. In addition, the one-hour radio play adaptation of Holeton’s cult classic hypertext novel Figurski at Findhorn on Acid (which was inspired by an infamous murder that took place at Stanford) premiered on the new YouTube channel of Re-Imagined Radio on February 23. The episode can be heard at youtube.com/watch?v=DxXxl8d1hZA and the novel is available for free online at figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/ .
Claude Steele, Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Emeritus
With his new book, Churn: The Tension That Divides Us and How to Overcome It (Liveright), Stanford social psychologist Claude Steele introduces the idea of “churn,” the discomforting tension that can exist between people of different identities in important situations.
This tension can intrude at school, work, traffic stops, or elsewhere – any high-stakes setting in which groups are diverse. In those scenarios, churn can be a mental and physical distraction, undermining our performance and relationships, not to mention our trust in a situation’s fairness. In these settings, we might also fear being seen through the lens of negative stereotypes about our identities, including our race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, and more.
Given this stress, many of us might succumb to the pressure to avoid these scenarios altogether. But Steele argues that churn has an antidote: trust. When individuals build trust, it reduces the threat of these stereotypes, allowing diversity to be a more successful experience for all. Churn focuses on how to build that trust.
Jan Krawitz, Sadie Dernham Patek Professor in Humanities, Emerita
"How We Are Seen… | Three Short Documentaries" by Jan Krawitz, plus discussion, took place on Thursday, May 7, 2026. The event was co-sponsored by the Department of Art & Art History and the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. For more information, visit here.
David A. Stevens, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus
An interview with David A. Stevens has been posted by the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology as part of its Pioneers in Mycology video series. In it, Dr Stevens shares insights into his career, leadership, and his view on the evolution and future of medical mycology.
Joseph Goodman, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus
Joseph Goodman has published a new book entitled Exponential Explosions of Technology, which covers more than 20 different technologies that have experienced exponential growth. The table of contents can be found here.
Dennis Bird, Professor of Geological Sciences, Emeritus
Dennis Bird was recently featured on Julie Hollis's series "Geologists from Planet Earth" in a podcast entitled, "Getting Paid to Go Camping." In it, Professor Bird reflects on his early interests in geology and his teaching and research at Stanford.
Peter Stansky, Frances and Charles Field Professor of History, Emeritus
Peter Stansky has organized the annual "A Company of Authors" event for the past 23 years. This year's event featured numerous emeriti and an emerita as panelists or panel chairs, specifically: Stansky, Carolyn Lougee, Larry Horton, Charlie Junkerman, Charles Palm, Thomas Ehrlich, John Brock-Utne, William B. Gould IV, and Keith Michael Baker. For a fuller description of the event see Junkerman's summary here.
Ann Arvin, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Emerita
Ann Arvin has been elected to National Academy of Sciences for her distinguished research contributions. View the Stanford Report article here. Arvin is also a member of Stanford Bio-X and the Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI).
Rosamond Naylor, William Wrigley Professor of Environmental Social Sciences, Emerita
Rosamond Naylor has been elected to National Academy of Sciences for her distinguished research contributions. View the Stanford Report article here. Naylor is also founding director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and Senior Fellow, emerita, at FSI and the Woods Institute.
Andrea Goldsmith, Stephen Harris Professor in the School of Engineering, Emerita
Andrea Goldsmith, who retired from Stanford in 2020 to become the Dean of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University, became the seventh President of Stony Brook University in 2025.
Helen Longino, Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy, Emerita
Helen Longino was honored at a workshop focused on her contributions to feminist philosophy and philosophy of science, March 15-16 at the Stanford Humanities Center, and sponsored by the Suppes Center for History and Philosophy of Science and the Philosophy Department. A volume of essays from the workshop accompanied by an epilogue by Professor Longino is in preparation.
Branimir I. Sikic, M. D. Professor of Medicine (Oncology), Emeritus
Professor Emeritus of Medicine (Oncology), Branimir Ivan Sikic, received an honorary doctorate degree (Ph.D., honoris causa) from the University of Zagreb on November 24, 2025, for his contributions to science and medicine in Croatia. This was the 104th such degree awarded in the past 117 years. Other recipients have included Nikola Tesla, Margaret Thatcher, and William Perry.
Eve V. Clark, Richard Lyman Professor in Humanities, Professor of Linguistics & Symbolic Systems, Emerita
Eve V. Clark, Richard Lyman Professor in Humanities, Professor of Linguistics & Symbolic Systems, Emerita, was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy this last summer, and the fourth edition of her text- and reference-book, First Language Acquisition (Cambridge, 2024) was published in June.
Jay B. Brosky, Professor (Clinical) of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Emeritus
Since retirement he has published 3 books on the history of anesthesia at Stanford Medical School.
- Brodsky JB: The Early History of Anesthesia at Stanford. Amazon Publishing, 2022
- Brodsky JB, Brock-Utne JG, Larson CP Jr: Anesthesia at Stanford – The Larson Years (1972-1982). Amazon Publishing, 2023
- Brodsky JB, Brock-Utne JG: Anesthesia at Stanford (1983-1992). Amazon Publishing, 2024
On March 5, 2025 he gave a lecture for the Stanford University Historical Society on the same topic.
John G. Brock-Utne, Professor (Clinical) of Anesthesia, Emeritus
Norway in 10 Days is a book written by John G. Brock-Utne who was born in Oslo, Norway in 1961. This book describes his personal tour in detail so readers can enjoy the beautiful country of Norway.
About the Author: John Brock-Utne, M.D. is a retired Emeritus Professor of Anesthesiology at Stanford University. He has written numerous medical and non-medical books. As a native of Norway, he wrote this book to highlight the points of interest for travelers to Norway.
M. Bruce MacIver, Professor (Research) of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Emeritus
Comparative Electroencephalographic Profile of a New Anesthetic and Anticonvulsant That Is Selective for the GABA A R Slow Receptor Subtype
The Bertaccini group in Stanford Anesthesia published a collaborative study with the Stanford Department of Neurosurgery (Dr. Jahangir), the University of Michigan Anesthesia Department (Drs. Mashour & Pal), and the US Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, Aberdeen (Dr. McCarren). The study compared propofol-induced EEG changes at loss of consciousness, measured as loss of righting in rats, with the effects produced by our new anesthetic candidate, KSEB 01-S2. Interesting similarities and differences were observed that indicate new directions and assays for more selective drug development.
Maciver MB, McCarren HS, Eagleman SL, Davies FM, Jahangir A, Pal D, Mashour GA, Bertaccini EJ. Anesth Analg. 2025 Aug 1;141(2):412-421. doi: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000007178. Epub 2024 Oct 4.
William B. Gould IV, Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law, Emeritus
Those Who Travail and are Heavy Laden: Memoir of a Labor Lawyer (Worcester Polytechnic Institute Press, 2025)
The book is a memoir of my life, professional and personal, my birth in Boston where my forbears have lived and led since the Civil War’s conclusion, covering (1) my exposure to segregation and discrimination as a child and young man; (2) the inspiration provided by parents and forbears and my tardy recognition that my father was and is the greatest man I have ever met; (3) my search for discovery of my great grandfather —how I followed or tracked what he had written in 1862-65 to North Carolina and the northeast and to the areas in Europe in which he pursued Confederate vessels.
This memoir focuses upon the fact that both McCarthyism (my father worked at Fort Monmouth, the object of investigation) and Brown v. Board of Education drew me to the law and away from an initial interest in the Episcopal priesthood; my interest in labor law and good fortune in having a law professor who recommended me for my first job with the United Auto Workers in Detroit; the chance to study comparative labor law at the London School of Economics and my good fortune during that year in meeting the woman who became my wife and mother of our 3 sons; my opportunity to become a labor arbitrator in New York and my plunge into courtroom battles on job bias, obtaining the largest per capita judgment in its time in Stamps v Detroit Edison after a decade of litigation.
Jerry McBride, Head Music Librarian Emeritus
In April of 2025, Jerry McBride, Head Music Librarian Emeritus, attended the semi-staged performances of the opera, Giants in the Earth, performed by the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Delta David Gier. Composer Douglas Moore received the Pulitzer Prize for the opera in 1950, but it has been performed only twice by colleges until this professional performance in 2025. As the author of Douglas Moore: A Bio-Bibliography (2011), McBride was invited to assist Gier with the pre-performance talk and to write the program notes. The performance was positively reviewed in the New York Times, Opera with Opera News, and other publications.
For the month of July, he participated as a volunteer in the Daraja Music Initiative in Moshi, Tanzania, where he worked as a clarinet instructor at Majengo Primary School in the afternoons with children ages 5-12. The mornings involved planting and pruning Mpingo trees. These trees supply grenadilla wood (also known as African blackwood), which is used to make clarinets, oboes, and bagpipes. Today, the trees grow only in East Africa, primarily in Tanzania, and there is a shortage of the wood because so many of the trees have been cut down to make musical instruments and traditional carvings. The trees, which take 70 years to grow to maturity, are important for the environment because they improve soil fertility, prevent erosion, are fire resistant, and are an important food source for wild animals. The Initiative has planted over 3000 trees in its 15-year history.
John G. Brock-Utne, Professor of Anesthesia, Emeritus
John G. Brock-Utne, Professor of Anesthesia, Emeritus, has authored Memories From The German Occupation Of Norway 1940-45, John G. Brock-Utne, 2024. This book recounts personal memories from John, his family and friends during these difficult years. John has also authored a children's book: The Night Rudolph Lost His Bell, John G. Brock-Utne , 2023. The book tells the story of children daring to venture out into a dark forest to find the missing bell.
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