Student reading habits aren’t what they used to be, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is entering its second year in its new home, and books look significantly different than they did even five years ago. Any way you look at it, reading — both here at USC and in the world beyond our campus — is undergoing a fundamental turn of the page.

We’ve already watched the music video evolve. Modern music videos now tend to focus on the celebrity performer rather than the content of the song, and plot-driven videos like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” seemed extinct until Lady GaGa introduced the controversial “Telephone” in 2010. Now it seems that another type of video is entering the music scene —the [...]

Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation led a group of students in protest on Thursday against university’s manufacturing of some USC apparel in sweat shops. Photos by Matthew Wunderlich | Daily Trojan  

Though books aren’t exactly glamorous, they still have the ability to bring more than 140,000 people together to gain knowledge and share the ideas that inspire them. The fact that this university is able to bring so many people together is an honor — but it’s also representative of our school’s far-reaching responsibilities.

With the onset of warmer weather and the last day of classes just a week away, one can practically hear the final sighs of spring in the air. There’s another sound, though, and it’s virtually inescapable. It’s the pervasive clanking of tent construction.

Aimee Bender is a professor of English in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences. Her latest book is The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.

Panelists largely drawn from USC’s faculty will consider the role of queer culture, art and activism in the City of Angels. Moderated by English and gender studies professor Chris Freeman, the panelists plan to cover the years from 1950 to the present, a groundbreaking period for the LGBTQ community, by any measure.

Celebrity-penned books tend to create buzz and, as a result, sell.

Reading has a new face, and it’s now glare-resistant. And though not all book-lovers are on board with the new technology, e-readers offer certain indisputable benefits.

A recent USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll shows that e-readers are gaining ground on traditional print media, but USC students and
university librarians tell a different story.