Levan Institute Series: “On Writing”—About Beauty

Event details Date: Monday, October 19, 2026 Time: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM Location: Online Type: Lecture / Talk / Workshop Department: Levan Institute for the Humanities, The Writing Program Audience: Students, Alumni, Faculty/Staff About this event This event is part of the Levan Institute for the Humanities' “On Writing” series, conversations aiming to answer questions about how writing matters, now. This conversation will feature Mitra Parineh (USC) and Arabelle Sicardi (author of The House of Beauty: Lesson from the Image Industry), hosted by Sarah Mesle (USC). Organized in partnership with the Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture. Registration is required. REGISTER Description: Philosophers have long considered “beauty” to be one of our most significant aesthetic experiences. Some regard its power as inspiring or even ennobling; others treat beauty’s allure with suspicion. But beauty isn’t just philosophical. It also interests sociologists, biologists, and marketing execs. Most of us experience beauty as deeply personal, even while we know that our most visceral responses to beauty are shaped by the largest structures in which we exist. So, then, what does beauty mean to the writer? How do we think about writing about beauty, or with beauty? Beauty matters to our sense of writerly voice and also to our beliefs about evidence, persuasiveness, and analysis. This event brings together Arabelle Siccardi, a journalist and cultural historian of the beauty industry, with Mitra Parineh, a creative writer herself and a frequent professor of USC’s “Issues in Aesthetics” freshman seminar. Together, we’ll discuss how beauty shapes what writers do and what readers feel. Mitra Parineh writes about, and teaches writers how to approach the subjects of beauty, art, and culture on the page. Her work has appeared in the New Orleans Review, Hyperallergic, 7x7, and Frenshe. She is an Assistant Professor in the Writing Program at USC. Arabelle Sicardi is a Taiwanese American writer exploring beauty, care, and crisis. They’ve written for Allure, Teen Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and the Cut; run the scent collective Perfumed Pages; and founded the Museum of Nails Foundation. They split their time between New York City and Portugal. Open to attendants outside of USC. Registration before the event is required. To see more events in this series, including recordings of past events, visit https://dornsife.usc.edu/levan-institute/programs/on-writing/. Official event details: https://calendar.usc.edu/event/levan-institute-series-on-writingabout-beauty