Placemaking and the Politics of Land
IDEAS IN ACTION | USC's Podcast Series
Release Date: 07/25/2024
IDEAS IN ACTION | USC's Podcast Series
Award-winning scholars on Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism will discuss the role of religion in public settings and spaces and the relationships between religion and culture, politics, and identity. Sherman Jackson is the King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture and professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. He focuses on pre-modern Islamic law and theology with an emphasis on bringing them into robust and synergistic conversation with the realities of the modern world, including (if not especially) America. He is author of several books, his most recent being...
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From California's wine country to the Panama Canal to Owen's Lake and the LA River, this provocative panel will explore placemaking and the land that we share, looking at issues related to labor, race, gender, sustainability, and more. Joan Flores-Villalobos is an assistant professor of History at USC whose work focuses on histories of gender, race, and diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. Her first book, The Silver Women: How Black Women's Labor Made the Panama Canal, focuses on the West Indian women who travelled to Panama and made the canal construction possible by providing...
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The new book Dis...Miss Gender? features a bold mix of photographs and short essays in which artists, writers, and theorists celebrate the rapidly evolving world of gender. The book's editor and several contributors will discuss intersectionality, queer thought, fourth-wave feminism, and more. Tiffany E. Barber is a prize-winning, internationally-recognized scholar, curator, and critic whose work focuses on artists of the Black diaspora working in the United States and the broader Atlantic world whose writing and commentary appears in top-tier academic journals, popular media outlets,...
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Authors, artists, and activists will share how film, music, public art, and other art practices can help build communities and imagine new futures. Ben Caldwell is an arts educator, independent filmmaker, and creator of the KAOS Network, whose goal is to be the bridge that connects South LA communities with the new technology of the 21st century as a vanguard in all the art forms. Caldwell is the co-author and subject of KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell. Robeson Taj Frazier is a writer, associate professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and...
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How can we live long and live well, too? Experts on aging will discuss the individual and societal challenges as well as gifts of longevity from legal, health, and practical perspectives, as well as share advice on preparing for a safe and healthy old age. M.T. Connolly, author of The Measure of Our Age: Navigating Care, Safety, Money, and Meaning Later in Life, is a leading elder justice expert who won a MacArthur Fellowship for her work. Her book’s compelling stories reveal longevity’s abundant challenges and gifts, showing how unprepared we are for both—as...
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Since 9/11, Muslims have occupied the U.S. public and political spheres as threats to national security, as victims of hate crimes, as targets of torture and war, and as a community to be included in diversity initiatives. This insightful panel will explore Muslim inclusion and representation in a variety of contexts, including education, politics, and the entertainment industry. Shafiqa Ahmadi is an associate professor of Clinical Education at the Rossier School of Education and the co-director for USC’s Center for Education, Identity, and Social Justice. She is an expert on diversity...
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In light of the growing divisions among Americans, this panel will address the intersection of culture and politics in society, how we can better understand divisiveness, and find common ground. Geoffrey Cowan is an award-winning writer, television producer, and University Professor and Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He is the author of several books, including Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary, See No Evil: The Backstage Battle Over Sex and Violence...
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Comedy can be seen and experienced in many forms—onstage, on screens, and even in hospitals. Like laughter, its effects are contagious and its power spills over onto all of us. This panel of experts, comedians, and expert comedians will talk about the history of comedy and its potential to create change. Wayne Federman is a stand-up comic, actor, author, comedy writer, professor, and Emmy-winning producer. He has appeared multiple times on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon and has his own stand-up special on Comedy Central. He is the author of...
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California, the nation’s leader in clean energy and climate policies, has set an ambitious goal to achieve net zero carbon pollution by 2045. But what will it take? How might the policies affect the availability, reliability, and price of power consumption? This panel will address the political, technological, economic, as well as human and societal factors that play into our energy system and explore what must do to achieve our energy goals. Moderator: Genevieve Giuliano is a Distinguished Professor and the Margaret and John Ferraro Chair in Effective Local Government at the USC...
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Increasing rents and home prices, gentrification, and historic inequities have contributed to a major housing crisis in Los Angeles. Yet, L.A. has a rich residential legacy that includes innovative housing design, successful housing developments, and leadership in historical preservation. Panelists will draw upon their interrelated recent books on housing, architecture, and preservation to offer compelling approaches to help address L.A.’s housing crisis. Frances Anderton covers Los Angeles design and architecture in print, broadcast media, and public events. She is the author...
info_outlineFrom California's wine country to the Panama Canal to Owen's Lake and the LA River, this provocative panel will explore placemaking and the land that we share, looking at issues related to labor, race, gender, sustainability, and more.
Joan Flores-Villalobos is an assistant professor of History at USC whose work focuses on histories of gender, race, and diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. Her first book, The Silver Women: How Black Women's Labor Made the Panama Canal, focuses on the West Indian women who travelled to Panama and made the canal construction possible by providing the indispensable everyday labor of social reproduction.
Julia Ornelas-Higdon is an associate professor of History at California State University, Channel Islands, whose research and teaching focus on the intersections of race, agriculture, and labor histories. Her book, The Grapes of Conquest: Race, Labor, and the Industrialization of California Wine, 1769-1920, explores California's 19th century wine industry as a site of conquest and racialization.
Alex Robinson is a landscape architect, researcher, and associate professor in USC's Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program whose work seeks to reinvent our most consequential anthropogenic landscapes through collective authorship, multidisciplinary tools, and community engagement. His book, The Spoils of Dust: Reinventing the Lake that Made Los Angeles, examines the unlikely reinvention of Owens Lake by the city that dried it.
Moderator: William Deverell is director of the Huntington-USC Institute of California and the West and Divisional Dean of Social Sciences at USC. He is the author of numerous studies of the 19th and 20th century American West, including To Bind Up the Nation's Wounds: The American West After the Civil War and Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past.