Methods Café is a dialogue series in the Department of English that pairs faculty members in a conversation about literary theory. Primary texts are chosen to exemplify relevant theoretical models.

This Methods Café session is a part of the Department of English's "Essay Week" events.

Based on the publication of The Cambridge History of the British Essay, edited by Denise Gigante and Jason Childs, Essay Week at Stanford (October 16 – 18, 2024) brings together sixteen leading scholars on the essay to talk about the nature, form, and future of the essay as a literary genre. At issue are ancient influences on the essay as a form of rhetoric to the essay in the age of artificial intelligence. Experts in the relation of the essay to visual media, the history of the transatlantic essay, the political essay as propaganda, the essay as a school “theme,” the postcolonial essay, the essay and psychoanalysis, the essay as a form of food writing, the essay as criticism, the bibliographical essay, the Irish essay and performance, and the essay in relation to dreams and reverie will convene for what promises to be a landmark event in essay studies. Students, alumni, faculty, and members of the public are welcome.