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College of Arts and Sciences

News and Events

The Humanities Collaborative fosters a thriving community on campus. Please see our current list of events and check back for future announcements!

Calendar at a Glance

Upcoming events

  • February 17 - 7:00 pm - Michael Ridge Moral philosopher Michael Ridge (Philosophy, University of Edinburgh): “Why So Serious? Work, Play, and the Meaning of Life.” Co-sponsored with Philosophy.
  • February 23-25 - Comparative Literature Graduate Student Conference. Co-sponsored with Comparative Literature.
  • March 6-10- Archaeology Field School Experience Recruitment event for HCBUs (Diversifying Archaeological Education Research Group)
  • March 17-18, Eric Hing-Tao Hung (The Music of Asian America Research Center, University of Maryland). Twentieth-century Transpacific Intercultural Collaboration Research Group. Co-sponsored with the School of Music.
  • March 23 - Tressie Macmillan Cottom (Professor with the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill, New York Times columnist, & 2020 MacArthur Fellow). Co-sponsored with African-American Studies.
  • March 24 - Promoting Women in the Arts in the Digital Era: Mini-symposium and Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
  • March 22-24 - Peter Guralnick  (leading historian of American music and author of the new book Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing). Co-sponsored with History Center.
  • April 4 - Darrel Moellendory - "Mobilizing Hope: Climate Change and Global Poverty" (see further details below)
  • April 12-14 - Randall Kennedy (Michael R. Klein Professor, Harvard Law School) and Thavolia Glymph (Professor of History and African-American Studies, Duke University) in conversation. Co-sponsored with History Center.
  • Week of April 17 – Marion Turner, Oxford
  • April 21-23 -- "Wood Basket of the World"  Conference. Lumbering, Manufacturing, and Conserving South Carolina’s Forests (Lumbering Research Group)

Previous events

 

Previous events

  • December 8 - Swimming Back to Trout River: A Conversation with Novelist Linda Rui Feng. Richland Library Main Brance Auditorium, 6pm. Sponsored by The Center of Asian Studies in the Walker Institute at USC, The Humanities Collaborative, and The Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
  • December 1 - Matt Simmons and Mark Smith, sponsored by the DH Research Group, Humanities Collaborative, Hollings Library, SCPC Seminar Room, 3:00 p.m. Southern History Archives Research and Education (SHARE). 
  • November 10 - Southern Guage Series presents: Jason Livingston An evening of 16mm film projection, videos, and in process slide projections.  214 McMaster, 7:30pm. More information on Instagram: @Southerngauge
  • November 10 - Adam Schor, sponsored by the DH Research Group, Humanities Collaborative, Hollings Library, SCPC Seminar Room, 11:40 p.m.
  • November 7 - Jason Mott (co-sponsored with Southern Studies)

 

Expanding the list above will highlight our future schedule of events and provide a downloadable flyer or additional information as available. Detailed descriptions of lectures, book talks, and visitors are also listed in the Event Details below. For our DH talks, more info is available on our Digital Humanities page.

 

Event Details

Flyer for Michael Ridge event with details and kocation

"Playfulness as a Moral Virtue" with Michael Ridge (University of Edinburgh)

Thursday, February 16th

7:30pm

Lumpkin Auditorium (Close-Hipp, 8th Floor)

In this presentation, Professor Ridge argues that playfulness is a moral virtue. This might seem surprising, since playfulness is seen as frivolous, while morality is seen as serious, even profound. What is worse, some paradigmatic forms of playfulness can even seem morally vicious—think of the playfulness of a trickster like Loki, for example. Nonetheless, the idea has a lot more going for it than it might at first seem. Professor Ridge will start by drawing on some of his previous work on what play is to explain what playfulness as a character trait is. He will then defend a plausible sufficient condition for a character trait's being a moral virtue. With all these pieces in place, he will then offer several considerations in favour of the idea that playfulness is indeed a moral virtue—or, more cautiously, that for most people with a very basic level of moral integrity and moral competence, playfulness is a moral virtue.

"Promoting Women in the Arts in the Digital Era: Mini-symposium and Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-athon

Friday, March 24th

1:00pm-5:00pm

Richland Library, Main Branch

In celebration of Women’s History Month, USC’s School of Visual Art and Design is once again joining forces with Art+Feminism, a global movement committed to building communities and closing information gaps related to gender, feminism, and the arts. This year’s event kicks off with a series of short talks about ongoing efforts to increase women artists’ visibility on the internet and in digital humanities projects. Guest speaker, Dr. Colleen Laird, assistant professor of Japanese Popular Culture at the University of British Columbia, will discuss her Japanese Women Directors Project, a digital dialogue series and website. Then SVAD professors will present efforts of their own and others that amplify women artists and their artworks: Dr. Amanda Wangwright will discuss her digital research project on women artists in modern China, Dr. Susan Felleman will survey other online resources related to women in arts and media, Dr. Anna Swartwood House will share her recent Wikipedia research and revisions, and Prof. Meena Khalili will share a few publications adding to the design canon specific to Motherhood, and the Black, Brown, and Latinx experience in design.

For the second half of the event, SVAD professor Evan Meaney will give a technical demo on the basics of creating and editing Wikipedia pages. Then we’ll jump into actively researching, writing, and editing! While no prior Wikipedia experience is necessary, please create a Wikipedia account before the event. From there, we will offer tutorials for beginners, art history reference materials, and extra support. While some computers will be available, you are encouraged to bring your own laptop, power cord, and extension cord if possible. Anyone and everyone regardless of experience, gender, or background, is welcome to attend and participate. We encourage all Edit-a-thon participants who would like to close information gaps in the arts and bring attention to traditionally underrepresented artists, especially those who may have been overlooked due to race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities/disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, or geographic region.

Sponsored by the Center for Asian Studies in the Walker Institute for International, Area Studies and the School of Visual Art and Design, and the Humanities Collaborative.

 "Mobilizing Hope: Climate Change and Global Poverty" with Darrel Moellendorf

Tuesday, April 4th

Moellendorf is Professor of International Political Theory and Professor of Philosophy at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy at University of Johannesburg in South Africa. His talk will be on his new book, Mobilizing Hope: Climate Change and Global Poverty (Oxford University Press, 2022). He is the author of Cosmopolitan Justice, Global Inequality Matters, and The Moral Challenge of Dangerous Climate Change: Values, Poverty, and Policy. 

"The Wife of Bath: A Biography" with Marion Turner

Monday, April 17th

Turner is J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at Oxford University. She is the author of the award-winning Chaucer: A European Life (Princeton University Press, 2019). Her talk will be based on her new book, The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton, 2023), a one-of-a-kind history of the literary and feminist icon from the Canterbury Tales who continues to capture the imagination of readers. 

 

Past Lectures, Events, and Book Talks

  • Flyer for the event

    Swimming Back to Trout River: A Conversation with Novelist Linda Rui Feng  

    Tuesday, December 8 6:00pm Richland Library Main Branch Auditorium  Please join us for a conversation with Linda Rui Feng about her highly acclaimed novel, Swimming Back to Trout River, which Garth Greenwell calls “one of the most beautiful debuts I have read in years.” “With the lightest of touches, Feng vividly portrays the experience of living in China during Mao’s rule as well as the pressures of being a new immigrant. Looking deeply into the ‘invisible mesh’ that links her characters’ lives, Feng weaves a plot both surprising and inevitable, with not a word to spare.” —Booklist (Starred Review) Linda Rui Feng is a cultural historian at the University of Toronto, where her research takes her to books from the ninth century, maps of the early modern era, and more recently, the history of scent and aromatics. She is the author of the novel Swimming Back to Trout River, which was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was longlisted for the Giller Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize.  Sponsored by The Center for Asian Studies in the Walker Institute at USC, The Humanities Collaborative, and The Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

  • Flyer for Livingston event; a broken down garbarge truck with event info

    Southern Gauge presents: Landfill Backfill Rom-compost, or, There's no "I" in (s)T(r)EAM, but there is a "We" in Post-Consumer Waste with Jason Livingston

    November 10th, 2022 7:30pm 214 McMaster, University of South Carolina An evening of 16mm films, videos, and in-process slide projections. More information on Instagram: @Southerngauge

  • Flyer for Jason Mott discussion featuring image of Mott on left

    Neuffer Lecture in Southern Literature with Jason Mott

    November 7th, 2022 7:00pm Lunpkin Auditorium - Close Hipp 8th Floor The Neuffer Lecture series begins with award-winning author Jason Mott.  Mott is the author of two poetry collections and four novels. His debut novel was the basis for ABC's show Resurrection. His most recent novel, Hell of a Book, won the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.  A book signing & reception will follow the lecture.  Sponsored by:The Institute for Southern Studies  Co-Sponsored by:Department of EnglishDepartment of African American Studies Humanities Collaborative 

  • Flyer with information related to event

    Life is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revoltion  

    Tuesday, November 1, 6:00pm  Allen University, Chappelle Auditorium. Woody Holton and Bakari Sellers, CNN will discuss Prof. Holton’s recently published book, Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution. Described as “a bracing retelling” and a “must read for understanding on the founding of our nation,” the book shows how the Founders were influenced by overlooked Americans – women, Native Americans, African Americans, and religious dissenters.  Woody Holton, McCausland Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, is a leading scholar of the American Revolution and early American history. His publications include Abigail Adams, which won the Bancroft Prize in American history, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, and Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia. Bakari Sellers is an attorney, a CNN political analyst, former South Carolina representative, and an author. His books include My Vanishing Country: A Memoir and Who Are Your People?   Books will be for sale; a signing will follow the program.  

  • Boubacar Ndiaye performing live

    Student Workshop with Boubacar Ndiaye  

    Students have the opportunity to learn hands-on with visiting storyteller and musician Boubacar Ndiaye in a workshop on West African music and spoken word on Tuesday, October 25, 2-4pm, in Russell House 322. In French. Space is limited; please register to participate.

  • Image of "Voyage san visa" being performed live.

    Performance of "Voyage sans visa" with Boubacar Ndiaye, Baye Cheikh Mbaye, and Pape Ndiaye Paamath   

    Senegalese griot Boubacar Ndiaye and musicians Baye Cheikh Mbaye and Pape Ndiaye Paamath are coming to the CMA Theater on Tuesday, October 25, 7-8:30pm. Their musical performance, “Voyage sans visa,” explores stories of migration through song and spoken word. Show followed by discussion with the artists. Watch a preview to get a taste of the artists’ remarkable work. In French and Wolof with English translation. Free and open to the public.

  • Flyer for event

    In)Visibility: The Aesthetic Dimensions of Perception - A UofSC Humanities Collaborative Workshop  

    Hands-on projects allow participants to investigate ideas about perception and (in)visibility by creating cyanotypes, drawings in two and three dimensions, and clay sculptures.

  • Flyer of Prasenjit Duara event with headshot on upper left

    Prasenjit Duara  

    "Oceans, Gardens, and Jungles: Worldviews and the Planet"  

  • Headshot of Mia Bay

    Mia Bay

    "Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance"

  • Image of Robert Kennedy shaking hands

    Judge Richard Gergel and Patricia Sullivan   

    "Justice Rising: Robert Kennedy's America in Black and White" A conversation with author Patricia Sullivan & U.S. District Court judge Richard Gergel

  • The Teaching Archive book cover

    Rachel Sagner Buurma and Laura Heffernan  

    A conversation with Rachel Sagner Buurma and Laura Heffernan, who will be discussing their recent book The Teaching Archive: A New History for Literary Study.

  • portrait of Thavolia Glymph

    Thavolia Glymph

    "The Inaugural Conversation: Race, Gender and the Civil War Era"    

  • portrait of Phil Klay

    Phil Klay

    "Literature in a Time of Crisis"  

  • Portrait of Imani Perry

    Imani Perry

    South to America  

  • portrait of Briallen Hopper

    Briallen Hopper

    Book Talk: Hard to Love: Essays and Confessions   

  • 2022 Carolinas Conflict Consortium

     

  • Justice Deferred book cover

    Justice Deferred Book Discussion

    Barbara Phillips interviews Armand Derfner and Dr. Vernon Burton 

  • Roger Beebe film performance

     

  • Book Cover for Extracting Accountability

    A Talk by Jessica Smith

     

  • Portrait of Gregg Hecimovich

    Gregg Hecimovich on the Zealy daguerreotypes

     

 

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