Polymathic Pizza: ON BEING HUMAN - Figuring Us In and Out

James  Bullock is the 23rd dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

As the leader of the largest, oldest, and most academically diverse school at USC, Bullock is responsible for an institution composed of roughly 2,000 faculty and staff and nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students. He oversees an annual budget of more than $500 million, which supports operations across 814,000 square feet of research space in 56 buildings, a research enterprise that generates nearly $120 million in annual expenditures, and a technology infrastructure that supports more than 10,000 users.

Under Bullock’s leadership, USC Dornsife will focus on setting the global standard for a reinvigorated Liberal Arts in the 21st century — one where students and faculty couple deep, unbiased, and foundational knowledge with practical near-term skills to improve lives, shape the future, and provide answers to the most pressing problems of our age.

Before joining USC in 2025, Bullock was Dean of the School of Physical Sciences at UC Irvine, where he oversaw the departments of chemistry, earth system science, mathematics, and physics and astronomy. During his tenure, he doubled philanthropic support, launched signature interdisciplinary programs, and established the Eddleman Quantum Institute, UCI’s first dedicated quantum science research center.

In addition to his leadership experience, Bullock is an accomplished astrophysicist who combines analytic models, supercomputer simulations, and sophisticated observation technology to explore galaxy formation, dark matter, and fundamental questions about the nature of the universe. He has authored or co-authored nearly 400 scholarly papers, reflecting his multiple distinctions as a Web of Science “Highly Cited Researcher in Space Science.”

Bullock is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society, has served as the Chair of the Space Telescope Science Institute Council and Chair of the James Webb Telescope Users Committee, and as founder of the UC Southern California Center for Galaxy Evolution. He earned his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from The Ohio State University and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Aroussiak Gabrielian is a scholar-practitioner working across the fields of Landscape Architecture and Media Arts. Her scholarship focuses on both materialist perspectives on the living world of landscape matter, and the practice of imaging and imagining landscape, addressing both landscape’s material and its representation.  

Aroussiak is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists and a consultant for futures oriented design work. Her speculations on alternative environmental futures have received numerous recent recognitions, including the Emerging Designer Awards from the Design Futures Initiative, the Tomorrowland Projects Foundation Award administered through the New York Foundation for the Arts, the World Changing Ideas Awards recognized by Fast Company and the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome. 

Aroussiak is Co-founder and Design Director of foreground design agency, a critical landscape practice which works to dismantle structures of power and privilege that render specific humans, species, and matter silent. 

 Aroussiak holds a dual masters in Architecture and Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D in Media Arts + Practice from the School of Cinematic Arts at USC. Prior to initiating her own practice, she worked at Snøhetta, in New York City, and taught at University of Pennsylvania and University of Toronto.

Aroussiak is presently Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism at the School of Architecture and Affiliate Faculty of Media Arts + Practice at the School of Cinematic Arts. She recently launched and currently directs the Landscape Futures Lab, which serves as a design-research incubator for climate innovation and imagination.

David Albertson is Associate Professor of Religion. After finishing degrees at Stanford University and the University of Chicago, Albertson studied at the Thomas-Institut für mittelalterliche Philosophie at the Universität zu Köln before joining the faculty of USC in 2007. Professor Alberton’s studies the history of Christian thought in medieval and early modern Europe, with an interest in transformations of Christian intellectual culture from 1100-1700, particularly the way that theological discourses have been conditioned by other modes of knowledge, including philosophy, natural science, visual culture, and contemplative practices. 

Albertson is the author of Mathematical Theologies: Nicholas of Cusa and the Legacy of Thierry of Chartres (Oxford University Press, 2014), which won the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award from the Universität Heidelberg. This examined the fifteenth-century German polymath, Nicholas of Cusa, whose writings combined mystical theology with medieval number theory.  

Albertson’s book, “Utopia for Our Century: A Manifesto of Hope”, written with Jason Blakely, happens to be our Fall 2026 selection for the Polymathic Book Club!