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What Makes Us Human: It’s not about

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Within a matter of minutes, I feel the relativity of time work its wonder: it stops and slows as I’m submerged into another world of thinking. Thoughts tucked tightly into the crevices of my mind converge into consciousness. For 80 minutes, Amir Eshel, professor of humanistic studies and comparative literature, captivates the attention of 80-plus students during his guest lecture. The distance between theory and practice, student and student, collapses. Without a PowerPoint or laptop in sight, our classroom is guided through a meditative reflection on Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “The Moose.” I’m in the now, completely, looking down at my notebook only to copy quotes that I know I won’t be able to forgive myself for forgetting. One is circled in bright red: “If we treat literature as something about, we kill it.” I need to know if this is true of the human experience, too. Walking out of class, questions continue to percolate. Themes of resonance, acceleration and alienation swarm in my mi

The Grind What Makes Us Human: It’s not about Amir Eshel is a professor of humanistic studies and comparative literature at Stanford. (Courtesy of Amir Eshel) By Emi Sakamoto Dec. 2, 2025, 10:17 p.m. Within a matter of minutes, I feel the relativity of time work its wonder: it stops and slows as I’m submerged into another world of thinking. Thoughts tucked tightly into the crevices of my mind converge into consciousness. For 80 minutes, Amir Eshel, professor of humanistic studies and comparative literature, captivates the attention of 80-plus students during his guest lecture. The distance bet

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