Spring 2026 Events

Spring calendar coming soon! RSVP to vsri@usc.edu to attend or for more information regarding our events.

Claiming Truth, Picturing Doubt: Navigating Scientific Authority Underwater

Lecture by MAGDALENA GRÜNER, Postdoctoral Fellow, USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities. Tuesday, January 20, 12:30-2:00pm. SOS 250.

Typophoto: New Typography and the Reinvention of Photography

Book talk by JESSICA D. BRIER, Curator of Photography, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College. Tuesday, February 3, 5:30-7:00pm. Max Kade Institute.

Co-Sponsored Film Screening: They Fight with Cameras

Followed by a Q&A with filmmakers NINA ROSENBLUM and DANIEL ALLENTUCK. Wednesday, February 4, 7:00pm. Ray Stark Family Theater (SCA 108). Sponsored by the USC Shoah Foundation.

Co-Sponsored: EMSI Visual & Material Culture Seminar

CLAUDIA SWAN, Mark Steinberg Weil Professor in Art History, Washington University, St. Louis. Friday, February 6, 2:00pm Lecture, 3:30pm Show & Tell. Huntington Library, Roger’s Classroom. Organized by the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute.

Displaying Dinosaurs as Artworks

Lecture by VICTOR MONNIN, Ph.D., Archives Henri-Poincaré, University of Strasbourg. Respondent: W.J.T. MITCHELL, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English Language and Literature, Art History, and the College of Theory and Criticism. Tuesday, February 24, 12:30-2:00pm. SOS 250.

Re-Thinking Photo Books and their Media Constellations: A Launch of a Special Issue of Word and Image

Featuring special issue editors ALICE MORIN, JENS RUCHATZ, and VANESSA R. SCHWARTZ, and additional issue contributors. Thursday, March 5, 12:30-2:00pm PT. Zoom.

Co-Sponsored: Theory Today Workshop

With TODD MCGOWAN, Professor, Director of Film and Television Studies, University of Vermont. Thursday, March 12, 10:00am-6:00pm at The Getty Center; Friday, March 13, 11:00am-1:00pm, 5:00pm. Location TBA. Hosted by the Theory Today Working Group, the Levan Institute for the Humanities.

Co-Sponsored: Mystical Theology Network Annual Conference: Landscapes of Mysticism

Organized by DAVID ALBERTSON, Associate Professor, USC Departments of Religion and Philosophy. March 17-19, Serra Retreat, Malibu.

Environmental Feeling and Environmental Fact: The Case of the Monterey Shore

Presentation by MARGARET COHEN, Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French Language, Literature, and Civilization, Professor of English, Stanford University. Monday, March 30, 4:00pm. CalTech, Dabney Hall 110 (Treasure Room).

Endless Summer Seminar Reading Group

Discussion of Sand Rush: The Revivial of the Beach in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles by ELSA DEVIENNE. Wednesday, April 8, 12:30-2:00pm. SOS 250.

World Records, World’s Stage: Photography, Television and the 1936 Olympics

2026 Anne Friedberg Memorial Lecture, presented by JESSICA HANSON, Ph.D. Candidate, USC Department of Art History. Wednesday, April 22, 12:30-2:00pm. SOS 250.

VSRI Community News

VSRI faculty, alumni, students, and other community members: Have good news? Email us at vsri@usc.edu.

VSGC alum Kirsten Seuffert publishes in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies

Congratulations to VSGC alum Kirsten Seuffert, who recently published an article in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (JCMS), titled “Other ‘Punks’ in Late 1970s–1980s Cinema in Japan: Gender, Documentary, Ephemerality.” This article is based on the research that Kirsten presented at the VSRI Anne Friedberg Memorial Lecture in April 2024.

VSGC alum Ryan Linkof publishes QUEER LENS

Congratulations to VSGC alum Dr. Ryan Linkof, whose collection QUEER LENS: A HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY, co-edited with Paul Martineau, will be released in June. This collection accompanies the Getty Center’s exhibition of the same name, which will be open June 17–September 28, 2025.

VSGC Alum Brian Jacobson publishes THE CINEMA OF EXTRACTIONS

Congratulations to VSGC alum Dr. Brian Jacobson, who recently published THE CINEMA OF EXTRACTIONS: FILM MATERIALS AND THEIR FORMS with Columbia University Press. The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Brian about the book as part of the April 2025 Sustainability Issue. Click to read the article!

VSGC and Art History PhD candidate Rose Bishop receives Predoctoral Fellowship with the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program

Congratulations to VSGC student and Art History PhD candidate Rose Bishop, who has been awarded a nine-month Predoctoral Fellowship through the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program! She will be conducting research at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and National Museum of American History under the supervision of curators John Jacob and Shannon Perich.

Darshana Sreedhar Mini publishes RATED A

VSGC alum Darshana Sreedhar Mini has published her first book, RATED A: SOFT-PORN CINEMA AND MEDIATIONS OF DESIRE. The research for this book was supported in part through the Anne Friedberg Memorial Grant while Darshana was a Ph.D. candidate at USC. Click here to learn more!

Isabel Frampton Wade publishes in American Art

VSGC alum Isabel Frampton Wade has published an article in American Art titled “Harry Drinkwater and the Limits of Architectural Photography, 1966–69.” Check out the article here!

Avigail Moss co-edits a special issue of Oxford Art Journal

VSGC alum Avigail Moss has recently co-edited a special issue of Oxford Art Journal, titled “Art and the Actuarial Imagination.” This issue originated at a 2015 VSRI event where she met her co-editor, Matthew C. Hunter. Please check out the issue here.