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
Michael A. Messner, The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024 (Rutgers University Press, 2025)
September 18, 2025, 12pm–1pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by CJ Pascoe (University of Oregon) and Jeffrey Montez de Oca (University of Colorado, Colorado Springs), moderated by Alice Echols (USC). Organized in partnership with the Department of Sociology and the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Registration is required.
Brittany Friedman, Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons (The University of North Carolina Press, 2025)
September 29, 2025, 12pm–1pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Maris Curran (independent filmmaker) and Saleem Holbrook (Abolitionist Law Center), moderated by Hajar Yazdiha (USC). Organized in partnership with the Department of Sociology and the Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab. Registration is required.
Viet Thanh Nguyen, To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other (Harvard University Press, 2025)
October 17, 2025, 12pm–1pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Saree Makdisi (UCLA) and Richard Rodriguez (UC Riverside), moderated by Natalia Molina (USC). Organized in partnership with the Department of English, the Department of Comparative Literature, and the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity. Registration is required.
Maya Maskarinec, Domesticating Saints in Medieval and Early Modern Rome (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025)
October 27, 2025, 1pm–2pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by William North (Carleton College) and Carrie Beneš (New College of Florida), moderated by Sonya Lee (USC). Organized in partnership with the Van Hunnick History Department, the Department of Classics, and the School of Religion. Registration is required.
Alaina M. Morgan, Atlantic Crescent: Building Geographies of Black and Muslim Liberation in the African Diaspora (The University of North Carolina Press, 2025)
November 10, 2025, 12pm–1pm | More
The author will be joined in conversation by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen (University of Wisconsin, Madison) and Minkah Makalani (Johns Hopkins University), moderated by Taj Frazier (USC). Organized in partnership with the Van Hunnick History Department, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity, and Black Studies Center. Registration is required.
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). 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). 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
Staff
Director: Rebecca Lemon
Associate Director: Zachary M. Mann
