Special Events and Series

The POLYMATHIC PANELS, and SPECIAL EVENTS SERIES features collaborative exchanges with institutes and scholars from USC and around the globe, including a conference organized and directed by students, with professors and students engaging one another on selected topics.

The GOETHE SOCIETY, an undergraduate organization affiliated with the USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study, explores the cultural resources of the USC campus and greater Los Angeles. Each session will be accompanied by an academic presentation and discussion keyed to a specific artistic or scholarly focus.

POLYMATHIC PRACTICUM is a Harman Academy workshop that holds regular meetings over the fall and spring semesters, where dedicated Academy students will explore together the practice of integrating multiple disciplines in their own scholarship.

Current Semester
Apr 10 2012

Understanding the Universe

When: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Where: Harman Academy for Polymathic Study, DML 241
Event Type: Special Events and Series
Margaret Wertheim is one of the finest science writers at work today.  It’s a complicated cosmos, that’s for sure, but Margaret Wertheim can help you understand it better.  What does crocheting have to do with polynomials?  What is the Pangaea Theory, and why is everybody talking about it?
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Jan 7 2012

The Polymathic Pharmacologist

When: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Where: Harman Academy for Polymathic Study, DML 241
Event Type: Special Events and Series
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, pharmacology emerged as a cutting edge branch of chemistry aligned with medical practice.  In recent decades, pharmacological research has expanded its methodology to encompass a comprehensive range of molecular, chemical, and biological perspectives, while at the same time becoming increasingly integrated into medical research and practice.  In the same period, pharmacology has branched out into psychotropic research as a crucial element not only of medical practice, but also as a pathway towards an understanding of the relation between...
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Oct 5 2011

Art History: The Revisualization of Time and Eternity

When: 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Where: Harman Academy for Polymathic Study, DML 241
Event Type: Special Events and Series
Renaissance painting was vitalized by learning, social purpose, politics, history, and—above all else—art for its own sake.  How and why did the artists of the Renaissance manage to fuse so many perspectives into one art form?  And how does any art historian go about the task of deciphering these multiple levels of meaning?
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Apr 6 2011

Critical Studies—A Polymathic Pursuit

When: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Where: Intellectual Commons, DML 2nd floor, room 233
Event Type: Special Events and Series
A conversation with Tara McPherson, professor of critical studies.
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Mar 30 2011

Voices and Visions

When: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Where: Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library, DML 240
Event Type: Special Events and Series
A conversation with Lisa Bitel, professor of history.
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Mar 9 2011

A Polymathic Approach to Writing Biography

When: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Where: Intellectual Commons, DML 2nd floor, room 233
Event Type: Special Events and Series
A conversation with Lois Banner, professor of history and gender studies.
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Mar 2 2011

The West - A Call to Multiple Methodologies

When: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Where: Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library, DML 240
Event Type: Special Events and Series
A conversation with William Deverell, professor of history.
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Feb 23 2011

The Polymathic Political Scientist

When: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Where: Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library, DML 240
Event Type: Special Events and Series
A conversation with Alison Dundes Renteln, professor of political science.
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Feb 16 2011

Writing American History

When: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Where: Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library, DML 240
Event Type: Special Events and Series
A conversation with Peter Mancall, professor of  history
Read more about Writing American History