BCLA Fresh Faculty: Claire Stanford

Claire Stanford joins the LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts as an assistant professor of English. Stanford was drawn to LMU's English Department for its innovative approach to the literary arts, where creative and critical work can flow together. Stanford embodies this ethos and equally loves critical and creative writing. Her dissertation titled "Future Asians: Orientalism and Posthumanism in the 21st-Century U.S. Science Fiction" examines the portrayal of Asian American women as posthuman in science fiction and how certain Asian American writers are taking that techno-Orientalist stereotype and subverting or reclaiming it. She is also the author of "Happy for You," a novel published by Viking in 2022 and named a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice; it also won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction in 2023.

"Creative and critical work does not have to be separate and siloed from each other," says Stanford. "LMU faculty embrace this hybrid work, and I look forward to imbuing my students with an agency over their creations."

Stanford is currently teaching "English 4500: Unconventional Fiction" and "English 6610: Innovative Forms." Both courses are focused on experimenting and taking creative risks. Through her classes, she hopes to develop students into true writers, not just college students completing an English course assignment. She wants them to find their voice and to feel confident that their unique, authentic voice matters. Stanford does not see students as just a presence in her class but as full humans with many interests, intersectionalities, and experiences.

Stanford received her bachelor's degree in English at Yale University with a concentration in creative writing. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in English from UCLA.

Her fiction has appeared in Black Warrior Review, The Rumpus, Third Coast, Redivider, and Tin House Flash Fridays, among other publications; her nonfiction has appeared in Lit Hub, Electric Lit, The Millions, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The American Scholar. Her work has received fellowships and grants from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences.