Recent News

On Friday, October 24, at noon, the research team for The City on Life Support: Los Angeles as a Laboratory for Planetary Health will hear a presentation from Josh West, Professor of Earth Sciences and Environmental Studies at USC Dornsife, and members of the project team for CLEAN (Contaminant Level Evaluation and Analysis for Neighborhoods). CLEAN is a free, rapid-response service — in collaboration with the Keck School of Medicine — provided to residents of Los Angeles County in the aftermath of the January 2025 wildfires to assess the level of lead contamination in their soil. The presentation continues a series taking place over the course of the fall semester featuring faculty from numerous component schools of USC. Each talk will bring scientists and practitioners into dialogue with humanistic social scientists to explore objects of shared concern.

If you are interested in taking part in this conversation — and getting involved with “The City on Life Support” project over the next year — please write to James Bradley, Postdoctoral Researcher with STPL, at jamesb20@usc.edu for more information.

On Friday, October 31, at noon, The City on Life Support: Los Angeles as a Laboratory for Planetary Health series continues with a presentation from Jiachen Zhang, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Population and Public Health Services, and Spatial Sciences, based primarily in USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering. The talk will concern ongoing work with her ACE Research Group, which studies the nexus of air pollution, climate, and equity.

As above, those interested should write to James Bradley at jamesb20@usc.edu for more information.

STPL is pleased to be co-sponsoring a public lecture by Susan Zieger, Professor of English at UC Riverside, titled “Criminal Supply Chains and Logistical Power,” in conjunction with the USC Society of Fellows, the Van Hunnick History Department, the Department of Anthropology, and the Levan Institute for the Humanities. The talk relates to Zieger’s recent book, Logistics and Power: Supply Chains from Slavery to Space (UC Press, 2025). The talk takes place on Tuesday, November 4, at noon in Taper Hall (THH) 309K.

RSVP is required by October 30 at this link.

On Friday, October 3, at noon, the research team for The City on Life Support: Los Angeles as a Laboratory for Planetary Health will hear a presentation from Kelly Sanders, Associate Professor in the Viterbi School of Engineering. Sanders has been conducting research on air conditioning and its impacts on heat vulnerability in conjunction with her Sustainable Systems Group. Her presentation is the first in a series that will take place over the course of the fall semester featuring faculty from numerous component schools of USC. Each talk will bring scientists and practitioners into dialogue with humanistic social scientists to explore objects of shared concern.

If you are interested in taking part in this conversation — and getting involved with “The City on Life Support” project over the next year — please write to James Bradley, Postdoctoral Researcher with STPL, at jamesb20@usc.edu for more information.

We extend our thanks to everyone who attended or otherwise contributed to the annual STS Graduate Research Symposium on Friday, September 19. The four panels — “Managing Nature,” “Techno-Visualities,” “Bio/Necropolitics,” and “Techno-Imaginaries” — sparked vibrant discussion and showcased an enormous range of dissertation projects in progress.

We are again grateful to Dornsife College and to the Annenberg School for their support of STS summer research stipends for Ph.D. students.

Peter Ekman, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture and STPL’s Coordinator of Programs, will speak on his recent book, Timing the Future Metropolis: Foresight, Knowledge, and Doubt in America’s Postwar Urbanism (Cornell UP, 2024), as part of a virtual panel, “Architecture, Infrastructure, and Regional Planning,” featuring the authors of three books and hosted by the Society for American City and Regional Planning History. The panel takes place on Wednesday, October 15, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific. Details, including registration and Zoom link, are available here.

Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani, Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies and Environmental Studies, published an article in Iranian Studies titled “A Firm Policy Decision: Infrastructural Form and Pahlavi Developmentalism at the Ahvāz Pipe Mill.”

Luísa Reis-Castro, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, published an article in Engaging Science, Technology, and Society titled “Can the Mosquito Bite? The Multispecies Transmutation of Wolbachia Mosquitoes as Biotechnologies of Epidemic Control in Rio de Janeiro.”

Kate Crawford, Research Professor of Communication, recently won the Silver Lion award at the Venice Architecture Biennale for her installation Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power since 1500 (with Vladan Joler). The installation illustrates five centuries of entangled systems of empire, technology, and control, and took shape over five years as part of the Knowing Machines Project, in consultation with USC faculty and students including Mike Ananny, Sarah Ciston, Francis Corry, Edward Kang, Will Orr, and Hamsini Sridharan. Read about the project and award here.