Jacob Lang

Jacob Lang specializes in writing pedagogy, film studies, urban ecology, California history, and modern American fiction and poetry. He’s completing his doctorate in English at UCLA.

Lang has taught courses on a variety of subjects, including the art, history, and culture of Sunset Boulevard from 1781-Present; creative writing; first-year composition; Transcendentalism; silent film; ’60s counterculture; hip hop; Shakespeare; and environmental studies.

His current research examines collaborative learning practices for composition, rhetoric, and creative research projects. He’s the author of The Gottlieb Native Garden: An Intimate Wildlife Journey, as well as a passionate participant in UCLA’s AAP Freshman Summer Program, which prepares first-generation, low-income, historically underrepresented students to successfully transition to UCLA. He’s working on a book on the role of duality, seashores, animals, and music in Wallace Stevens and Elizabeth Bishop.

Lang is an outdoor educator for the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy, private reading group moderator, and volunteers as an adult literacy instructor at the Central Branch Library. A fourth-generation Angeleno (on both sides), Lang leads bird and garden walks, as well as tours of historic downtown and Hollywood. In addition to his devotion to teaching, literature, and film, Jacob cherishes spending time outdoors, particularly California’s myriad wilderness areas. You can find him most weekends in the Channel Islands, High Sierra, Mojave Desert, San Gabriel Mountains, or Big Sur, depending on the weather.