Polymathic Pizza

A Special Family Trojan Weekend Event [parents, siblings, grandparents--everyone is welcome!]

 

“Nothing happens until something moves.”

--Albert Einstein

 

Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change…

Imagine the great polymaths--Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein—each wrestling with the property of inertia.  They observed its existence, investigated its origin, and sought its action in the universe.  Galileo, inspired by Copernicus' findings, modified Aristotle’s initial...

“While the technologies of estrangement have produced a long history of violence to personhood, relationality, and intimacy [for queer and trans people of color], they have never been totalizing.  Estrangement has also inspired strategies of survival, coping, and belonging.”

--Nayan Shah

 

Gender variant and sexually non-normative people of color have historically been forcefully marginalized and estranged from what we call “normative” society. “For those [queer] people marked by non-white racialization,” writes Professor Nayan...

“Our lives today are unimaginable without databases.” 

--Andreas Kratky

 

“Processed data is information. Processed information is knowledge. Processed knowledge is Wisdom.” 

--Ankala V. Subbarao

 

Databases pervade our world—from the macro to the micro—underpinning the functions of global governance to the minuteness of our personal lives, and everything in between.  “The complex of computers and databases,” says Andreas Kratky, “embodies the way modern society thinks and acts.”...

“One of the lessons I’ve learned from the study of law “from below” is that we can get a sense of when “subaltern” people are shaping the law from how much anxiety they provoke in the master class.”

--Ariela Gross

 

How did Africans in the Americas change into Black Americans?  In her forthcoming book, Becoming Free, Becoming Black, Professor Ariela Gross transforms how we look at the legal history and legacies of manumission, citizenship, and black identity. Gross reveals that as free persons of color challenged slaveholders...

Our fifth and final session of the spring 2019 series pairs two experts from Sociology and Law, with special guest moderator Elle Fersan, Director of the Immigrants and Global Migration Initiative.  Through conversation with the panelists and our polymathic student community, we will learn, consider, and generate actionable solutions around the myriad concerns surrounding IMMIGRATION.

 

Polymathic Pairing:

Jody Agius Vallejo, Sociology

Niels Frenzen, Law

Elle Fersan, IGMI

 

Our fourth session of the spring 2019 series pairs two experts from Cinematic Arts and Computer Science to explore the multi-dimensional concerns surrounding DATA WORLDS­—including but not limited to: race, gender, cyber security, big data, culture and technology design.

Polymathic Pairing:

Tara McPherson, Chair and Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, School of Cinematic Arts

Emilio Ferrara, Research Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Vitirbi School of Engineering

Our third session of the spring 2019 series pairs two experts from Engineering and International Relations. In conversation with our polymathic student community, they will explore and generate workable solutions around the critical issues surrounding CLIMATE CHANGE.

Polymathic Pairing:

Shannon Gibson, Assistant Professor, International Relations

George Ban-Weiss, Assistant Professor, Civil/Environmental Engineering

Our second session of the spring 2019 series pairs experts from Engineering and Cinematic Arts to examine the issues surrounding LEARNING IN A DIGITAL AGE.

Polymathic Pairing:

Ning Wang, Research Assistant Professor, USC Institute for Creative Technologies

Marientina Gotsis, Research Associate Professor, School of Cinematic Arts

Our opening session for the spring 2019 series approaches the intractable problem of HOMELESSNESS. Experts from Social Work and Public Policy, together with our polymathic student community, will tackle this issue from every possible angle. 

Polymathic Panel:

Nicole Esparza, Associate Professor, Sol Price School of Public Policy

Benjamin Henwood, Associate Professor of Social Work, Dept. of Adult Mental Health and Wellness

 

 

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.

--Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali polymath

 

God has planted eternity in the human heart.

--Ancient Jewish wisdom literature

 

Moment: present time.  Eternity: a state to which time has no application. Being: existence.

--Oxford Dictionary

 

For our final Polymathic Pizza session in the fall 2018 series on TIME, Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni will guide us in an excavation of the theological, spiritual, and experiential meanings and interconnectedness of the moment,...