Survivors Rise: Roxane Gay and Amanda Nguyen in Conversation
A Visions and Voices Signature Event Presented as Part of the Provost’s Series on Wicked Problems

ADMISSION:
Admission is free. Reservations required. 

USC Students, Staff, and Faculty: RSVP
USC Alumni: RSVP
General Public: RSVP

DESCRIPTION:
In the aftermath of #MeToo, the voices of sexual-assault survivors are resounding in all sectors of society. But survival is a process, not a moment. What happens after an assault? And then after the silence is broken? Join us for a very special evening with best-selling author Roxane Gay, whose book Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body deals head-on with life after sexual assault, and Amanda Nguyen, a young activist and survivor of sexual violence who is leading an international movement to enact Survivors Bills of Rights through the organization she founded, Rise. USC cinematic arts professor Tara McPherson will join these two profoundly honest and visionary thinkers for a conversation about power, survival, and the many different ways we can work to create a world free of violence.   

Bios:
Roxane Gay is the author of the best-selling books Bad Feminist, Difficult Women, and Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, as well as Marvel’s World of Wakanda and several other titles. A contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, she is currently at work on film and television projects, a book of writing advice, an essay collection about television and culture, and a YA novel entitled The Year I Learned Everything. (Facebook, The Guardian columns, New York Times columns, Twitter, Wikipedia)

Amanda Nguyen is the CEO and founder of Rise, a national nonprofit that created a Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights that was unanimously passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Obama. After Nguyen’s rape kit was on the verge of destruction after only six months of retention, she decided to create a Bill of Rights, not just for her own circumstances, but for the more than 25 million survivors across the country who face the daunting, confusing, and broken justice system after an assault. She has previously worked at both NASA and Morgan Stanley, served as deputy white house liaison at the U.S. Department of State during the Obama administration, written speeches about human trafficking for the State Department, and, while in college, created the first student-written course on modern slavery and co-founded Wema Children, an orphanage in Kenya. (TED Talk, Twitter)

Tara McPherson is Professor of Cinema + Media Studies in USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and Director of the Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study. Her scholarship engages the cultural dimensions of media, including the intersection of gender, race, affect, and place. She is the author of several books, including Feminist in a Software Lab: Difference + Design and Reconstructing Dixie: Race, Gender and Nostalgia in the Imagined South. (Twitter)

The Provost’s Series on Wicked Problems brings together special guests to discuss the most intractable, multifaceted problems of our time. The series was established by Provost Michael Quick out of a belief that institutions of research and higher education must take on “wicked problems” through interdisciplinary collaboration and the education of a new generation of leaders and innovators who just might create the solutions the world needs.

Additional Links:
The Guardian: “Meet the 24-Year-Old Who Could Change How the US Handles Sexual Assaults”
Mogul: “#IAmAMogul: An Interview with Amanda Nguyen”

Presented by USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative. Co-sponsored by Asian Pacific American Students Services, the Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs, and the USC Speakers Committee.

Photo (Roxane Gay): Eva Blue