USC Sidney Harman Academy For Polymathic Study: POLYMATHICS: VALUES OF THE POLYMATH: Session 1: Community

POLYMATHIC PIZZA SERIES PART I

POLYMATHICS: VALUES OF THE POLYMATH

What are the internal workings of a polymath?  What do they value?  Our founder Sidney Harman emphasized that to understand polymaths the focus should rest not on what they did, but how they did what they did.  Leonardo surrounded himself with those he sought to learn from; creativity for Maya Angelou was the connective heartbeat of the universe; and Marie Curie cherished childlike wonder as her entry point to understanding Nature.  Our fall 2020 series explores the pathways and insights from select faculty among us who employ these polymathic values and more in their scholarship and lives.  And to what end?  To learn how.

SESSION 1: Community

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

When: 5:00 p.m. PT

LOCATION: ONLINE (Zoom)

Varun Soni, Dean of Religious Life

Historically speaking, the genius, “lone polymath” is a misnomer.  The great polymath Leonardo da Vinci surrounded himself with a diverse circle of musicians, architects, engineers, mathematicians, and anatomists to 1. indulge his insatiable curiosity, and 2. because he humbly knew he didn’t know everything.  Polymathy shows us that the most significant progress and innovations come from the sharing, collaboration, and intersection of varied knowledge bases, perspectives, and experiences.  Join Dean Soni and your student colleagues from across the university to learn, share, and collaborate with each other--and in so doing, experience the foundational polymathic value of community.

Varun Soni has truly led a polymathic life, earning degrees from Harvard Divinity School, a J.D. from UCLA School of Law, and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Cape Town. His research has taken him throughout South Asia where he even spent time living in a Buddhist monastery. Dean Soni is currently a University Fellow at USC Annenberg's Center on Public Diplomacy and is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. He is a member of the State Bar of California, the American Academy of Religion, and the Association for College and University Religious Affairs. Displaying a truly polymathic interest in music, he also produced and hosted his own radio show on Pacifica / KPFK, showcasing music from South Asia and its Diaspora. Born in India and raised in Southern California, he has family on five continents and they collectively represent every major religious tradition in the world