Lifelong Learning

Caltech, Dabney Hall, Room 110 (Treasure Room), Pasadena, California

Monday, March 30 at 4:00 p.m.

Join the Visual Studies Research Institute and the Caltech Program in Visual Culture for a presentation by Margaret Cohen, Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French Language, Literature and Civilization, Professor of English, Stanford University.

A powerful contribution of the humanities to the study of the environment is the ability to identify emotions that accompany their experience, in the case of both blue and green environments. Relatedly, the blue or oceanic humanities has at least some strains evoke marine environment through highly metaphorical and creative language and practices.

 SOS B15, University Park Campus

Monday, March 30, 2026 at 6:00 p.m.

Join us for this March’s Warschaw Lecture Series examining “The Influence of Jewish Values and Faith in American Public Life,” bringing together perspectives that highlight how faith traditions inform public service, policy, and civic life.

This discussion will feature United States Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and will be moderated by Associate Dean Richard Fliegel, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs at USC Dornsife.

University Park Campus

Tuesday, March 31, 2026 at 1:00 p.m.

The USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health (IIGH), with support from the USC Office of the Provost, is pleased to announce the second annual USC Global Health Symposium. On Tuesday, March 31, 2026 join us at the University Park Campus, for this dynamic event bringing together faculty, students, and staff from across USC, and showcasing a wide range of global health expertise and talent.

A networking reception will immediately follow.

Virtual Event 

Wednesday, April 1, 2026 at 12:00 p.m.

In this talk, Viriya Yoo (PhD candidate in English, USC) discusses several notable cultural works about the Cambodian Genocide that span genres, including memoir, documentary film, theater, and literary fiction (novels and short stories). Produced primarily by diasporic Cambodian creators, these works examine not only the legacy of genocide, but also of refugeehood and exile. With the passage of time and the maturation of the post-memorial generation, she traces new trends in cultural production, and with it, evolving understandings of survivorship.

Virtual Event

Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 12:00 p.m.

Join us for a webinar featuring University of Oregon’s James Buckley in conversation with ICW Co-Director Bill Deverell. Centered on Buckley’s book In City of Wood, the discussion explores how capitalists and workers logged California’s redwood forests to generate the materials and financial capital that built San Francisco. Blending labor, urban, industrial, and social history, Buckley reveals how the remote woods and the urban core functioned as interconnected poles in a dynamic regional system. Discover how capitalist resource extraction linked distant landscapes to the making of a modern metropolis.

Location TBD 

Monday, April 6, 2026 at 4:00 p.m.

Are periods of political instability inevitable? Or can they be predicted and prevented? The USC Center for the Political Future invites you to a conversation and book talk with Peter Turchin, Author of End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration. This discussion will be moderated by Ken Broad, a Member of the USC Center for the Political Future Board of Councilors and a Founding Member of Jackson Square Partners.

University Club, University Park Campus

Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 11:30 a.m.

With a new year underway and the 2026 midterms on the horizon, major questions loom over the political landscape. How will newly drawn maps shape the battlefield? Which races will be most consequential? Will the election prove competitive nationwide, and could Democrats reclaim control of Congress – or will Republicans hold their ground? What role might the current administration play in shaping election rules and administration?

Bing Theatre (BIT), University Park Campus

Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.

In conjunction with the USC School of Dramatic Arts’ production of Legally Blonde, join us for an exploration of how costume design reflects and amplifies the beloved figure and feminist icon of cinema and musical theatre, Elle Woods. Costume designer and USC professor Ann Closs-Farley will lead a conversation with designers, scholars, and artists breaking down how fashion is used as a narrative device in Elle’s journey.

University Club, University Park Campus

Monday, April 13, 2026 at 11:30 a.m.

The USC Center for the Political Future invites you to join a conversation on the state of democracy at home and abroad between Yascha Mounk, German-American political scientist and author, and Bob Shrum, Director of the USC Center for the Political Future and legendary political strategist. This event will take place on Monday, April 13 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm in the University Club Scriptorium. Drawing on comparative and American perspectives, the discussion will explore the forces shaping democratic resilience and decline, and consider what reforms, leadership, and civic engagement may be needed to secure democracy’s future.

Rosen Family Screening Room at the Ronald Tutor Campus Center, Room 227, University Park Campus

Tuesday, April 14, 2026 at 11:00 a.m.

Tracing policies of persecution, the attitude of the population, and the actions of municipal authorities, landlords, neighbors, and others, Sarah Gensburger (Professor of Political Science and History) challenges notions of wartime solidarity and illuminates how the Holocaust could take place in Paris, a city where no ghettos ever existed.

This talk continues the work undertaken in her recently published book Appartements témoins. La spoliation des locataires juifs à Paris, 1940-1946, co-written with Isabelle Backouche and Eric le Bourhis (La Découverte, 2025). Winner of Albertine Translation Grant 2025, the book will be published in English by Rutgers University Press in 2027.

Organized by the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research with cooperation from the USC Shoah Foundation

Town and Gown, University Park Campus

Wednesday, April 15, 2026 at 12:00 p.m.

The Climate Forward Conference features a series of conversations around advancing climate change issues. A range of panelists with expertise in environmental policy, sustainability, and government service will discuss paths to practical solutions to climate change and the political obstacles to implementing those changes.

The USC Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability is driven by its mission to work toward sparking meaningful, nonpartisan change to save our planet. The USC Center for the Political Future aims to advance civil dialogue and research that transcends partisan divisions and finds solutions to pressing national and global challenges.

Ahn House, University Park Campus

Wednesday, April 15, 2026 at 3:30 p.m.

David Yi is a USC alum and co-founder of Very Good Light and the gender inclusive beauty brand good light. He is the author of Pretty Boys, the history of men, masc-identifying folx, beauty and masculinity. In this talk, he will focus on discussing a central paradox of the present moment: as Korean culture – through K-beauty, K-pop and media, and overall Korean capitalism – achieves unprecedented global visibility, Korean Americans often remain culturally peripheral to that success. Drawing from his work as a writer and founder in the K-beauty industry, the talk explores questions of belonging, authorship and power at the intersection of diaspora, capitalism, and cultural export.

This event is co-cponsored by the USC Korean Studies Institute, Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies and the Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture.

Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL), 101, University Park Campus

Wednesday, April 15, 2026 at 7:00 p.m.

Join the USC Dornsife Black Studies Center for an engaging conversation exploring the global influence of Black popular culture.

Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and USC alumnus Aloe Blacc will be in conversation with Oneka LaBennett, Director of the Black Studies Center and Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity and Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Edwin Hill, Associate Professor of French & Italian and American Studies & Ethnicity at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Huntington Library, Stewart R. Smith Board Room

Friday and Saturday, April 17 and 18, 2026

In partnership with the Iberdrola Foundation and the Embassy of Spain, the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute hosts a special conference, “Spain and the Birth of the United States: A California Conversation” at the Huntington Library.

“Spain and the Birth of the United States” includes sessions on Spanish California; Biographical Frontiers, Urbanization and Infrastructure in Spanish North America and the United States; Business, Trade, and Migration; and a roundtable plenary session on Spain and the American Revolution.

Ferry Building, Port Hearing Room, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA 94105

Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 6:00 p.m.

Join fellow alumni and parents for a special evening with Dean James Bullock at the historic Ferry Building, a landmark on San Francisco’s waterfront known for its stunning Bay views and vibrant gathering spaces.