The Levan Institute for the Humanities serves as a hub for the humanities and humanistic social sciences at the University of Southern California, connecting faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students across disciplines, departments, programs, and institutes.
Book Chats
Conversations celebrating new books by USC scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. Each event features the author and guests in conversation about a recently completed publication.
How To…
Practical workshops where humanists discuss how to do the things we do. Each workshop consists of brief comments from three experienced presenters and a longer Q&A session.
Working Groups
Interdisciplinary working groups that foster intellectual exchange and advance research on topics in the humanities (broadly construed) not already addressed by an existing department or program.
Co-Sponsorships
The Levan Institute provides modest grants and promotion for public events in the humanities at USC.
Global Collaborations
The Levan Institute aims to foster and facilitate collaborations with scholars and institutions around the globe.
New Books
Congratulations to USC scholars on their recent publications!
Upcoming Events
Ketaki Pant, Itinerant Belonging: Intimate Histories of Indian Ocean Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2025)
December 4, 2025, 12pm–1pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Antoinette Burton (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and Sunil Amrith (Yale University), moderated by Nayan Shah (USC). Organized in partnership with the Van Hunnick History Department, the Early Modern Studies Institute, and the Center for Feminist Research. Registration is required.
Jessica X. Zu, Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2025)
February 6, 2026, 1–2pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Joy Brennan (Kenyon College) and Brook A. Ziporyn (University of Chicago), moderated by David Albertson (USC). Organized in partnership with the School of Religion and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. Registration is required.
Sarah Mesle, Reasons and Feelings: Writing for the Humanities Now (University of Chicago Press, 2025)
February 27, 2026, 12pm–1pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Emily Ogden (University of Virginia) and Tina Post (University of Chicago), moderated by Karen Tongson (USC). Organized in partnership with the USC Writing Program and the Department of English. Registration is required.
Ann Marie Yasin, Rebuilding Histories in the Roman World: Architectural Restoration and Temporality from Augustus to Justinian (Cambridge University Press, 2025)
March 12, 2026, 1pm–2pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Darlene Brooks Hedstrom (Brandeis University) and Felipe Rojas Silva (Brown University), moderated by Frederic Clark (USC). Organized in partnership with the Department of Art History and the Department of Classics. Registration is required.
Alice Echols, Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic (Oxford University Press, 2025)
March 31, 2026, 1pm–2pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Ula Y. Taylor (UC Berkeley) and Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (UC Irvine), moderated by Hajar Yazdiha (USC). Organized in partnership with the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies and the Van Hunnick History Department. Registration is required.
David Albertson, The Geometry of Christian Contemplation: Measure without Measure (Oxford University Press, 2025)
April 17, 2026, 11am–12pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Amy Hollywood (Harvard University) and Alexis Torrance (University of Notre Dame), moderated by Arjun Nair (USC). Organized in partnership with the School of Religion and the School of Philosophy. Registration is required.
Natania Meeker, Illusive Materialisms: The Pleasures of Femininity in Eighteenth-Century France (Fordham University Press, 2026)
April 28, 2026, 12pm–1pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Andrew H. Clark (Fordham University) and Jessie Hock (Vanderbilt University), moderated by Neetu Khanna (USC). Organized in partnership with the Department of French and Italian, the Department of Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture, and the Department of Comparative Literature. Registration is required.
Afroditi Angelopoulou, The Body and the Senses in Greek Tragedy (Oxford University Press, 2025)
May 7, 2026, 1pm–2pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Ella Haselswerdt (UCLA) and Peter Meineck (New York University), moderated by Susan Lape (USC). Organized in partnership with the Department of Classics. Registration is required.
Header image: Reverse of Postcard of Tram Running Between Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica, California, March 31, 193- (date obscured), USC Libraries Special Collections
Contact Us
Office
3501 Trousdale Parkway
THH 348
Los Angeles, CA 90089
Staff
Director: Rebecca Lemon
Associate Director: Zachary M. Mann
