My name is Michael Stern. I was born and raised in the Bronx and landed in Oregon in 2001 after many in-betweens. One of those in-betweens was the University of California where I earned a Ph.D. I was the first in my family to do so. Neither of my parents went to college. They were working people and never had the opportunities that I enjoyed. So I am grateful to be where I am, and happy to be your Professor for the first term of your college career.
My scholarly work is comparative. I write about narratives, poetry and philosophy and research writers and thinkers from 3 continents and the Caribbean islands. The world of stories tells us about who we think we are and this fascinates me. We humans love to invent things, to come upon shapes and rhythms and we are constantly trying to narrate, explain, interpret, and order the world. And we always fail. The world is always in excess of our attempts to know it and that is a good thing. Our FIG will be about stories and the worlds they describe. It will touch upon love, honor, luck, desire, walking, the environment, and the movements people have made sliding from one world to another. I am happy to welcome you to this FIG, Stories We Tell, and I am eager to hear the stories you tell about yourself and the world.
