This cause and effect is a theme that runs throughout Therapy, a play written and directed by USC School of Social Work alumnus Jeff Bernhardt MSW ’94 that shows how the line between professional and personal issues can become blurry.

Other characters include Lance, a depressed man in his 20s who masks his pain with sarcasm and who meets with Steven for therapy just to spite his parents with the bill. Somewhat new to private practice, Steven struggles to connect with Lance and airs his grievances and childhood wounds to Moira, an earth mother who meditates in her free time. The last of the play’s therapists is Sandra, a “consummate professional” who seems to have mastered leaving her personal problems at the door.

Bernhardt said he wanted to humanize the counseling profession through his characters.

“It was very important for me to present it in a realistic way,” Bernhardt said. “Oftentimes, the only experience people have with therapy is through the media, which doesn’t show what it’s really like to be a therapist or what issues come up.”

Therapy had nine showings over three weekends in March at the Secret Rose Theatre in Los Angeles. Sitting in the audience on opening night was Robin Siegal, an adjunct lecturer at the School of Social Work. After seeing the play, Siegal decided to sponsor it through California Psych Resources, an organization that promotes creative and applicable training for professionals in continuing education

“This was the first time I saw a play where social workers were therapists in private practice. That usually isn’t how we’re portrayed in the media,” Siegal said. “Bernhardt’s play helps demonstrate to the public that we’re capable of more things than being foster care workers.”

Bernhardt, who has worked as a social worker serving families and college students, said the play stems from the questions and experiences he was challenged with after the suicide of one of his former clients. As he worked through his thoughts and unresolved feelings from the incident, he started writing Therapy.

His emotional connection to the play can be seen in how his characters deal with abandonment, hopelessness and anger in a way the audience can relate to. Moira is a nurturing therapist in her office, but she struggles with the guilt of being unable to help her mother, who is suffering from dementia, because they live in different states. Just as the play isn’t only about therapy, Bernhardt’s characters aren’t only therapists — they are also people with their own concerns.

The National Association of Social Workers, which praised Therapy, chose to recognize Bernhardt with its Social Work Image Award. The honor is given to those who have advanced the profession through their work. Bernhardt said he was honored to receive the award because authentically representing social workers was important to him when creating the play.

“While I did not write Therapy with the goal of promoting a positive self-image of social workers, it was very important to me to portray the characters not as clichés or as stereotypes but as human beings with professional values and personal struggles,” Bernhardt said. “I got powerful reactions from people who never really understood what it was like to be a therapist, and the people who were therapists said they felt very validated by the way it was presented.”

Bernhardt currently works as a Jewish educator and communal professional but devotes most of his time to his writing career. He previously wrote the play Mixed Blessings and published the book On Sacred Ground: Jewish and Christian Clergy Reflect on Transformative Passages From the Five Books of Moses.

Bernhardt said his experience at USC greatly influenced Therapy.

“In writing and thinking about the play, I called upon my education, my internships and my work after I graduated,” he said. “Even though my schooling was 20 years ago, it was the foundation for everything that came later and everything that I’ve done since.”

It is also, by and large, a man’s world, with few women as architect role models and leaders that a younger generation of aspiring female designers can look up to.

But if you ask Adele Chang and her daughter, Jessica Chang, defying expectations is what is going to allow women like them to be trailblazers in the architecture field and design community.

Adele Chang, a Hong Kong-born, California-trained architectural designer, watched Jessica Chang follow in her footsteps on May 17 when she graduated from the USC School of Architecture with a bachelor’s degree.

Jessica Chang — who earned the Studio Design Award at the commencement ceremony for demonstrating design excellence through the five-year professional degree with the highest design grade point average — is part of 51 percent of female undergraduate students in the school.

“There are as many ambitious females as there are males,” said Jessica Chang, who graduated magna cum laude and received the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Certificate for having the second-highest GPA in undergraduate studies. “I’m very optimistic right now. I don’t feel discouraged by any means.”

Adele Chang, principal of Lim Chang Rohling & Associates, a Pasadena-based architecture and planning firm she founded in 1990, said the increasing number of female graduates is marking a change for the better.

“Women do bring a different perspective to architecture and the way it’s generated. I think that’s valuable,” she said. “Jessica’s very driven and ambitious, and I hope she attains her goals whatever they may be.”

Qingyun Ma, dean of the School of Architecture, called the pair an inspiration.

“Jessica has gotten her first taste of what it means to live and breathe in an architect’s world and has grown to be one of our top students,” Ma said. “Jessica and her architect mother, Adele, are proof of what women with a commitment to design, passion and discovery can accomplish.”

Still, the mother-daughter duo is somewhat of an anomaly in the architecture field, a grueling profession often filled with sleepless nights and nonstop deadlines.

According to a survey conducted by AIA in 2012, about half of architecture students are women, but just 17 percent are firm principals and partners. Only two women have been awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in its 34-year history: Zaha Hadid and Kazuyo Sejima, laureates in 2004 and 2010, respectively.

Small minorities in the architecture field, women often hit a glass ceiling, leave the profession or get pushed out during the different stages of their careers.

“It really takes years, decades and decades to grow as an architect,” Adele Chang said. “So while there are many women entering the profession now, they are mostly still too young to make an impact.”

Being a mother can also literally be in conflict with the architect’s world. “Women have felt the need to give up their career,” the mother of two said.

Still, Adele Chang — whose 33 years of practice include projects ranging from high-rise commercial to residential complexes — refused to fall victim to the statistic, even when her parents told her architecture “wasn’t a suitable career for a woman.”

“For the longest time, my work environment was male,” said Adele Chang, one of two women who graduated from the architecture program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in 1980.

“I think the challenge was not the lack of work,” she said. “It was the lack of role models and mentors. There were none.”

Though there wasn’t an overt glass ceiling, Adele Chang said she still felt hindered.

“With being female and my cultural background, I knew there was never a way I could schmooze with the clients — go to dinner or play golf and bond — the way my white male associates could,” she said.

Instead she made the leap to start her own firm close to her home in Pasadena, allowing her to find a balance between work and family.

Jessica Chang, too, said she dreams of starting her own firm, where she can design opera houses and art museums — and she has doesn’t have to stray too far to find a good example.

“My mom is a super-good role model who can balance both family and career,” she said. “It’s doable as long as you manage your time well.”

“And I know I have to start small, but hopefully I get there,” she said.

In 11th grade, Jessica Chang got a glimpse into architecture when she participated in the Exploration of Architecture program, a two- to four-week program that allows high school students the opportunity learn about architecture at USC through design studio experience, projects and tours to architecturally significant structures in Los Angeles.

“Going through the program, it’s 50-50 as far as gender goes,” she said. “There’s a lot of female professors, and I never felt disadvantaged as a woman in school.”

Going off into the real world beyond the walls of USC, Jessica Chang has a piece of advice for her peers and those who follow behind her: “Don’t be afraid to do what you want to do in life, regardless of gender.”

Echoed her mother: “Believe in yourself.”

So I asked myself, how did I get here? After a lot of thought, I realized there have been two life lessons that changed everything about me. These were moments that shook me, scared me and humbled me. In the end, these moments are two big reasons I am here today. And since my education came in the music business, you may recognize some of the names and think, how can this guy’s stories possibly apply to me? Yet I truly believe these two experiences apply to absolutely anyone and anything you want to do in this journey called life.

Let’s start with something I learned when I was 23 — not much older than most of you guys. It’s been the subtext to whatever success I’ve had. I have tried to instill this lesson in everyone who works for me, and the ones who have learned it, are still working for me.

I started my career as a second recording engineer, which sounds fancy but the reality is that I answered phones, I cleaned the floors, and I made tea and coffee. That may not sound impressive, but it allowed me to learn my business from the ground up and it’s the kind of entry-level job that anybody starting a career should be happy to take. And it got me in the same building with John Lennon who, after the 50th cup of tea I served him, felt my enthusiasm and willingness to learn and allowed me to sit in on his sessions.

From there, I got the opportunity to work with Bruce Springsteen to help him record an album called Born to Run. Born to Run became a landmark album. If you don’t know it, ask your parents. But to my mother and father and their friends, Born to Run wasn’t Bruce Springsteen’s album — it was Jimmy Iovine’s album. They thought it was all about me. And before long, I began to believe that too.

So I was thrilled when Bruce and his manager and producer Jon Landau asked me to engineer the follow-up that eventually became Darkness on the Edge of Town. Back in those days, the first thing you did when making an album was record the drums. The job of getting the right drum sound fell to the recording engineer — and that was me. We spent six weeks working around the clock trying to get the sound that Bruce had in his head. And no matter what we did, it just wasn’t coming.

You cannot imagine everything we tried. We put the drums in the hallway. We put the drums in the elevator. We put the drums in the bathroom. We did everything but put the drums underwater. All I can remember is Bruce constantly saying to me, “Jimmy, I hear the stick hitting the drum.” At a certain point, I looked at him, and said, “Bruce, it is a stick hitting a drum!” But he was “The Boss” and that didn’t satisfy him. We were stuck. The sound I was getting was clunk-clunk-clunk and the sound Bruce wanted was boom-boom-boom.

So eventually, Bruce suggested bringing in some other guy from New Jersey of all places who could help me get this elusive drum sound. And I thought, “Why do I need help? What am I, half as good as I was two years ago?” To me, it sounded like a massive vote of no confidence. After six weeks of putting a microphone everywhere you could possibly imagine, I felt humiliated. I felt embarrassed. To use a word I hear way too often from 20-year-olds who work at my company, I felt disrespected. I felt so disrespected I wanted to suggest one more place Bruce could put that microphone.

I went back to the hotel where we were all staying, and I told Jon Landau, “I quit, I’ve done nothing but support this guy, and now he’s embarrassing me.” Looking back, I was just a beginner in the record-making process, but in the arrogance of my Brooklyn youth, I felt as if I had already arrived — that I knew everything. Boy, was I wrong.

Bruce’s manager looked me straight in the eye, and said, “Hang on, Jimmy, I’m going to tell you something that will go against every instinct you have about how to react in a situation like this: This is not about you.”

Then Bruce’s manager said: “I want you to understand something called ‘The Big Picture.’ I’d never heard about this Big Picture. In my mother’s house, I was The Big Picture.”

Bruce’s manager continued: “And at a moment like this, it’s not about how you feel, Jimmy. It’s about Bruce Springsteen and his album. That’s the big picture — not your feelings, or anyone’s feelings.”

Inside, I had absolutely no idea what Jon meant. I wanted to scream. I wanted to argue. I wanted to walk. But for reasons I’m still thinking about three decades later, I did the opposite. I didn’t protect my ego. Instead, I paused for just a moment and listened to someone who might actually know better. So I told Jon, “You got it” because I did want to learn and this advice sounded like Aristotle to me. I had no idea who Aristotle was, but I liked the sound of his name. Jon told me, “I want you to walk in that room and tell Bruce Springsteen, ‘ “I am here to support you. I will do whatever you need me to do.’ ”

So that’s what I did.

Turned out, the other guy from Jersey couldn’t get the drums right either. Somehow we got closer to the sound Bruce wanted and we moved on together. Six weeks later, not only was I still on Bruce’s team, but he also gave me one of the greatest songs he ever wrote called “Because The Night” that I produced for Patti Smith. That was my first hit record as a producer and launched my career. Listening to Jon’s five words — “This is not about you” — became the tipping point for every gift that’s followed in my life.

At that moment, I began to learn how to push aside my own personal issues and my desperate need to be right so I could focus on what was truly important — the greater good. Don’t worry, I wasn’t cured — I still battle with these issues of insecurity, ego, pride and especially fear every day. Too often those issues get in the way of me seeing the “Big Picture.” But what I have learned is some of these powerful insecurities can be harnessed into life’s greatest motivator, the strongest five-hour energy drink ever. It’s called a little old fashioned fear.

I know about fear. I was once fired from two jobs within 90 days. I felt as if the sidewalk was collapsing behind me, but that insecure feeling always kept me moving forward. Rather than stop me in my tracks like a headwind, I began to learn how to make those same insecurities the tailwinds to propel me forward.

Okay, now let’s fast-forward a little bit … maybe 30 years.

My second pivotal life lesson came in 1999, and now I was feeling like the king of the world. I had built the hottest record company in the world, Interscope Records, the home of great artists like Dr. Dre, No Doubt, Eminem, The Black Eyed Peas and we had just signed U2. We were on a roll. We felt invincible. Nothing could touch us.

Except … Napster.

As a founder of Interscope Records, a company built on people paying for music, I was instantly scared to death. My God-given insecurities kicked in again. See I grew up in Brooklyn, so I knew the difference between going to a store and paying for something, and the opportunity to get it for free. I felt this stealing thing could really catch on.

So I went to see one of founding guys at Intel named Les Valdez. Somehow I thought I could reason with the industry that was about to destroy mine.

Fear, at times, makes us protect and defend what we think we already know. But sometimes in life, you need to learn a new lesson. And between you and me, in my experience, the most intelligent people that I meet are the ones who can best articulate what they don’t know. That’s not what I did with Les that day. I just kept trying to tell him how I thought things should be.

After listening to me for 20 minutes, Les finally spoke. He looked me in the eye, and said, “Wow, Jimmy, what a nice story. But you know what? Not every industry was made to last forever.” That statement was so profound and so true and so insightful and — to me — so devastating, I nearly retired right there and then. I walked into Les’ office thinking I was Elvis, and I was gently reminded Elvis was dead.

The lesson Les taught me is one I believe is increasingly important to learn in the fast-changing world we live in today. Think about this: Everything you know could already be wrong.

When I got outside Les’ office and stopped sweating, I called my buddy Doug Morris, the chairman of Universal Music and my boss at the time. I said, “Doug, we’re screwed.” Okay, I might not have used that exact word, but hey, I was upset. I said: “Doug, these guys don’t want our land. They want our water to take back to their land.”

At that moment, I was scared to death. In fact, at this moment, I am scared to death speaking in front of all you people. But I want you all to get comfortable with your fears because fear is a fact of life that you can use to your advantage. Because when you learn to harness the power of your fears, it can take you places beyond your wildest dreams. Because here’s the good news: Fear has a lot of firepower.

I’ve spent my life working with many of my heroes and maybe some of yours too. From John Lennon and Bruce to Bono, Eminem. And let me tell you, I never met a great artist who wasn’t afraid of not living up to people’s expectations. But all of the greats used their fear to inspire them. I think today of the way John Lennon broke ground by speaking of his fears and his belief in change in a song called “Working Class Hero.”

As John sang,

When they’ve tortured and scared you for 20-odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can’t really function you’re so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be

John was a guy who could really express his fears and conquer them.

In the music business back in 2003, we were standing at a crossroads. We could desperately defend the past and keep digging the same hole, or we could open our eyes to the future. Trust me, it’s a lot harder to change directions at 55 than at 25 — and I think your parents will vouch for me. Les inspired me that day to go find my way in a music business that was evolving. The old model was changing. So I began to think that maybe there was some way to harness the culture of the old music industry in a whole new way.

Around that time, I was lucky enough to get to know Steve Jobs from Apple. I was representing Universal Music dealing with iTunes. After three years of hanging around Steve and the team at Apple, I thought I could learn a lot from these guys. They were breaking new ground. They were changing the game. And they were winning.

I noticed how Steve took all the music and videos from the world and built a beautiful shiny white thing called the iPod to play them on. We loved this shiny little white thing. The only part my friend Dr. Dre and I didn’t like were the shiny white ear buds that came with the shiny white iPod because they sounded terrible, sound wasn’t Apple’s focus. So we thought what if we make a beautiful shiny black thing so you can properly hear what’s in Steve’s shiny little white thing? So with my friend Dr. Dre, there we had the beginning of Beats. It wasn’t that simple, but you get the idea.

I learned even at 50, I had to be a beginner again — and that’s as Zen-like a statement as you’ll ever hear from me. So who believed that Dr. Dre and I could sell hardware? No one. But we believed in ourselves. We harnessed our fear into power and turned it into action.

Today each one of you have an excellent reason to believe in yourselves. You’ve earned a degree from USC. You are graduating from one of the greatest universities in the world. Remember when you grew up hearing about people that are privileged? Congratulations you are now officially privileged. Because you know what privileged means — it means you have an edge. And whatever your background, wherever you come from, you now have the undeniable edge of a first-class education.

But please remember this: Your diploma does not represent the end of your education, but the beginning of your continuing education. Continue to listen and learn, with humility not hubris. Because that diploma you hold in your hands today is really just your learner’s permit for the rest of the drive through life. Remember, you don’t have to be smarter than the next person, all you have to do is be willing to work harder than the next person.

So now, that you’ve heard the stories that changed my life, it’s time for an announcement we hope will change some lives for the better in the future here at USC. Walking around USC today, it seems everyone’s a doctor. Which is funny because I brought my partner today who also happens to be a doctor. So in the words of Slim Shady, will the real Dr. Dre please stand up and join me onstage?

Dre: USC! Great to be back in my hood — up to some good. Congratulations to the graduating Class of 2013!

Iovine: At Beats, Dre and I have found it really difficult to find kids with an education that encompasses technology, the arts and innovation. So with USC, we’re creating a brand new program right here. It’s called the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy of Art, Technology and the Business of Innovation.

The class of 2013 is among the first in history to have grown up in our new world where the distinctions between the arts and technology are disappearing So Dre and I are teaming with this great institution to create a new kind of academy to address this reality. We want to do our part to prepare more brilliant students to do great and unexpected things.

What we need are schools — dream factories — that are broad enough to inspire, challenge and satisfy the curiosity of the next wave of game-changers that have a feel for technology and the liberal arts. That’s what we plan to do right here at USC.

In closing, because I believe in people doing the unexpected and being innovative, I would like to try something that’s never been done at a major graduation ceremony. Rather than quote William Shakespeare or Robert Frost, I close with the words of my favorite poet, R. Kelly, who penned my personal karaoke anthem. So let tonight be the reward for all of your hard work, and the “ignition” to a continuing education of the rest of your lives:

Today is your remix to ignition
You’re hot and fresh out the kitchen
You got the entire student body here
You got every graduate here wishin’
Parents they might be sippin’ on coke and rum
And they might even get a little drunk
So what, it’s their USC graduation baby
And tonight they’re gonna have some fun!

So have a fun weekend and a great life and especially a great night!

Dre: Peace! We out.

Like clues to a mystery, they hold the key to unraveling the chronology, ambitions, failures and successes of those who lived before us. And where records of their pursuits sometimes lead to dead ends, Harkness finds fuel for fiction.

Take “Ashmole 782,” the enigmatic manuscript that became the jumping-off point for A Discovery of Witches (Viking Adult, 2011) and Shadow of Night (Viking Adult, 2012), the first two installments of her uber-successful All Souls Trilogy. “Ashmole 782” does in fact exist outside of Harkness’ fictional world, though its whereabouts are currently unknown.

“Ashmole 782” was originally donated to the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in 1858 as part of chemist and bibliophile Elias Ashmole’s extensive book, coin and natural object collection. It was designated “Object 782” in the collection and bore the description: “Anthropologia, or a treatis containing a short description of Man in two parts: the first Anatomical, the second Psychological.” Harkness surmises that the manuscript was lost due to an incorrect catalogue entry or shelving error.

Harkness, professor of history at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, breathes life into the mysterious text by filling in gaps in the historical record through the magic of fiction — one of the great perks of being a writer, according to the scholar.

“I get to go where the historian’s craft would force me to stop because there’s no evidence,” she said. “As a novelist I get to say, ‘OK, imagine this is what’s happening.’ ”

In the series, Harkness casts “Ashmole 782” in a central role, imagining what magic it may contain. Set in the present day, the manuscript brings together the characters Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont in the majestic, gothic Bodleian Library.

In A Discovery of Witches, Bishop, a historian and witch who has rejected her deep, Salem, Mass., roots, encounters the enchanted manuscript during the course of her research into alchemy texts:

… I reached out, touching the brown leather. A mild shock made me withdraw my fingers quickly, but not quickly enough. The tingling traveled up my arms, lifting my skin into tiny goose pimples … Shaken by my response, I stepped away from the library table. Even at a safe distance, this manuscript was challenging me — threatening the walls I’d erected to separate my career as a scholar from my birthright as the last of the Bishop witches.

In Bishop’s world, witches, vampires and daemons (spelled as such in allusion to the Greek word for genius) walk among the oblivious regular folk, and the re-emergence of “Ashmole 782” — previously lost for centuries — sets the supernatural world into an uproar.

However, Bishop ­— unaware of the manuscript’s significance and upset because she knows it is magical — unceremoniously returns it to the stacks. Then the frightening but handsome 1,500-year-old vampire Clairmont appears and clues her in: Ashmole 782 may hold the key to explaining why supernatural creatures exist — and why they are dying out. So begins their search to reclaim the elusive manuscript, which has once again disappeared.

Harkness clearly has fun fusing history and storytelling. Peppered throughout the two books are plot points and characters with true historical origins.

For instance, the Clairmont character in the trilogy is based on Matthew Roydon, a 16th-century English poet and friend of playwright Christopher Marlowe. Harkness studied Roydon as a master’s student at Northwestern University while researching her thesis on the poem “The Shadow of Night” by George Chapman. Chapman dedicated the poem to Roydon, whom Harkness described as a very strange, mysterious character.

“He was a spy for the queen, yet we don’t have firm information on where or when he died,” she said. “He was mentioned in Marlowe’s accidental death inquest, but nobody knows where he was buried. It was as if he vanished.”

Resurrecting Roydon in her trilogy, the reference is unveiled for good when — spoiler alert — Clairmont goes by the name Roydon in Shadow of Night.

“At the very beginning, when I was thinking about what vampires would be like in my world, I thought they would be a total pain like Matthew Roydon,” Harkness said. “Spotlight-adjacent but never actually in the spotlight long enough that you could get to know them.”

A historian of science and magic of early modern Europe, the period from 1400 to 1700, Harkness has made the remarkable leap to bestselling fiction writer. O, The Oprah Magazine included A Discovery of Witches on its “15 Books to Watch for in February 2011” list, and it landed in the No. 2 spot on The New York Times bestseller list. The second installment, Shadow of Night, did even better, hitting The New York Times bestseller list at No 1. Together, the books have been translated into more than 36 languages.

As a historian, Harkness’ research focuses on how scholars studied the natural world from the Middle Ages through the Enlightenment and Renaissance, up to the 18th century. This was the time of witch-hunts, when there was no distinction between magic and science.

Her fictional work fittingly mirrors that dynamic.

“People in the early modern period genuinely believed that supernatural creatures lived among them because they had different ideas about the world and how it worked,” Harkness said. “Very educated people believed it was completely possible to have supernatural powers.”

Her two previous works of nonfiction examine 16th-century scientists. The first, John Dee’s Conversations With Angels: Cabala, Alchemy and the End of Nature (Cambridge University Press, 1999) features a title character who makes an appearance in Shadow of Night. Harkness followed that up with The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution (Yale University Press, 2007).

But it was the recent explosion of vampire and witch lore in pop culture that got Harkness thinking: What if supernatural creatures do, in fact, exist as her research subjects believed, and if they did, what would they do for a living?

“What inspired me was to try and think about how I could write a fairytale for grown-ups that was about these fantastic creatures living among us,” Harkness said.

“I explain the world from inside their communities,” she continued. “I think in that way it’s an approach that would make sense to other historians of science because what we do is study the systematic ways the people in the past looked at the world and their place in it.”

Harkness is currently on sabbatical to complete the final installment of the All Souls Trilogy. Though she works mainly at her Los Angeles-area home, she will write anywhere and everywhere: “I’ve written on the Doheny Library steps with my laptop; I’ve written in the library café, in my office, at home, hotel rooms, on the train between London and Paris — you name it.”

In case the muse strikes, she always carries with her a laptop and small notebook. However, sometimes she’s not in the position to use them. During a long car ride on Interstate 5, she was caught off guard and was forced to be resourceful.

“Driving is wonderful because your mind floats,” she sad. “I had to pull off to get a coffee, and I ended up with this stack of McDonald’s napkins with bits and pieces of ideas for Shadow of Night on them.”

Harkness doesn’t usually go through an intense research phase prior to writing each book since much of the historical information exists in her head. However, she made special trips to visit the cities she writes about in her books.

“I lived in a tiny, tiny village in the Auvergne in France,” Harkness said. “There were about 25 residents and goats. I really got as close as I could get to what it would be like to live in a village in the Auvergne in the 16th century.”

She also spent time in Prague, a central location in Shadow of Night.

“I had never been to Prague and there was no way I could actually write about somebody’s experience without visiting it myself,” she said. “Walking, listening to the sounds, feeling the air, the wind as it comes off of the river. It’s that intangible experience, the sensory detail, that I hope is what makes the book feel real for my readers.”

She was already familiar with Oxford and London — two cities she lived in as an undergraduate studying abroad and later as a Fulbright fellow. Harkness, who grew up in suburban Philadelphia, is the older of two children born to an American father, a sales manager in a paint shop, and an English mother, a secretary.

Her books have garnered her swarms of dedicated fans, whom she personally interacts with on social media. And as creativity breeds creativity, her fans have produced their own All Souls items: jewelry with story-inspired charms, knitting patterns incorporating the book jacket design and Pinterest boards collecting images of narrative details and locales.

“It’s amazing to inspire not just people’s curiosity and their empathy but also their creativity,” Harkness said.

On her Facebook discussion forum, fans have begun formulating dream casts for the All Souls Trilogy movies in the works. Warner Bros. picked up the film rights to A Discovery of Witches in 2011. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn is currently adapting the novel for the silver screen. One musician fan wrote a suggested theme song for the film.

Even amid this adventure, Harkness is excited to return to teaching at USC Dornsife in the fall and get her students fired up about history.

“I really want to continue to find ways to make my students’ learning historically rigorous and sound but also inspiring and exciting,” she said.

In truth, she was likely 28 years old at the time and had worked as a “dress extra” and bit player in silent films as well as one of Mack Sennett’s Bathing Beauties.

Her flattering tailored suits and luxurious ball gowns were an immediate hit with customers, including starlets Lupe Vélez, Loretta Young and Dolores del Rio. Female USC students flocked to the shop to play the piano and openly smoke cigarettes, which they couldn’t do on campus.

Hollywood soon came calling, and “Irene,” which was both her label and brand, began costuming MGM’s biggest stars. She followed in the footsteps of MGM’s legendary designer Adrian and earned two Academy Award nominations.

Beyond Hollywood, she became the first American designer with her own named department store salon, an elegant oasis in Bullocks Wilshire, and she achieved national label recognition in contracts with more than 50 exclusive department stores nationwide, where her designs appeared along with the giants of French couture.

Now, 50 years after her death, two biographies of this enigma from Baker, Mont., are nearing publication. One, by Thomas Gates MA ’70, MS ’86, head of the architecture and fashion libraries at Kent State University, is a scholarly work 15 years in the writing.

One reason it took so long, he said, is that Irene left no archives, and her few interviews with newspapers and movie magazines were highly unreliable, as she was prone to shaving years off her age and changing biographical details. This was a common practice then, he said, when many in Hollywood claimed either to have royal pedigrees or be penniless orphans.

The other biography, to be published this summer by Angel City Press, is by current Hollywood costume designer and Irene collector Greg LaVoi, who dressed Kyra Sedgwick ’85 in vintage Irenes during her years starring on the television series The Closer.

In 2006, LaVoi ran across his first Irene piece, a melon-colored wool jacket with triangular covered buttons while selecting clothes in a Warner Bros. costume shop. Entranced by the designer’s skill and imagination, he quickly bid on two Irenes on eBay and turned into a fervent collector.

“Her details were exquisite, and she’s as brilliant as Chanel or Schiaparelli,” LaVoi said. “She’s totally up there with the Parisians and Italians but really has been forgotten.”

LaVoi is correcting the oversight by undertaking a reboot of her ageless designs. He is manufacturing new American-made versions of her luxe classics, down to her custom-loomed wools, jewelry-quality buttons and hand-beaded evening gowns.

The Irene by Greg LaVoi line debuted during LA Fashion Week in March with a standing-room-only show at Raleigh Studios and received positive coverage from trade publications covering fashion and Hollywood.

Irene’s original shop on what is now known as Trousdale Parkway has been demolished (Von KleinSmid Center stands in its place), but her designs have a second act.

The duo’s gift will establish the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation, an environment for those rare undergraduate students whose interests span fields such as marketing, business entrepreneurship, computer science and engineering, audio and visual design, and the arts. The program will prepare them to become a new generation of inspired innovators.

The goal of the academy is to shape the future by nurturing the talents, passions, leadership and risk-taking of uniquely qualified students who challenge conventional views of art and industry. The academy will attract students who are motivated to explore and create new art forms, technologies and business models — and who will benefit from a stimulating environment that fosters exploration and discovery beyond traditional educational and disciplinary boundaries.

“The vision and generosity of Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young will profoundly influence the way all of us perceive and experience artistic media,” said USC President C. L. Max Nikias. “USC provides an extraordinarily rich academic, research and artistic environment. We are committed to encouraging our students to use their intellectual and creative resources to effect change in all segments of society. Our goal is to ensure that the academy is the most collaborative educational program in the world.”

Iovine and Dre’s gift is part of The Campaign for the University of Southern California, a multiyear effort to secure $6 billion or more in private philanthropy to advance USC’s academic priorities and expand its positive impact on the community and world.

To meet student interests and to meld inspiration with education, the academy’s specially designed courses will provide students with a solid background in the integration of technology with all aspects of creativity along with a thorough understanding of existing and potential business, marketing and distribution strategies.

Drawing on the expertise of top faculty from the USC Marshall School of Business, the USC Roski School of Fine Arts, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC Thornton School of Music, the academy will also host industry icons and innovators as visiting faculty and guest speakers. It will offer a highly select group of students an integrated, four‑year course of study that will provide in-depth learning in engineering and computer science, fine arts and graphic design, business, and leadership models. Team-taught interdisciplinary courses will be developed and adapted specifically for the program.

The Iovine and Young Academy will focus on four core curriculum areas: arts and entrepreneurship; technology, design and marketability; concept and business platforms; and creating a prototype.

The academic program will include one-on-one faculty mentoring, opportunities to interact with luminaries from the arts and entertainment industry serving as guest speakers and lecturers, and a broad array of internship opportunities for students.

During their fourth and final year, academy students will take up residence in an experiential setting called the “Garage.” Grouped into self-directed teams, which may include nonacademy students from across the university, these students will determine a project that can be developed into a prototype over the course of the year.

Appropriate faculty members, other artists and business leaders will serve as mentors to each group, and venture capitalists and other real-world experts will be introduced to give students advice and direction. All of these elements will combine into one unique educational experience, where working together, students will challenge one another to take even greater risks in innovation.

“Flexibility is a hallmark of USC, and the academy’s curriculum is incredibly adaptive,” said USC Roski Dean Erica Muhl, who will serve as the academy’s inaugural director. “The curriculum was created to take full advantage of a newly designed, revolutionary educational space that will offer students very powerful tools. Academy students will have the freedom to move easily from classroom to lab, from studio to workshop, individually or in groups, and blow past any academic or structural barriers to spontaneous creativity.

“The academy’s core education will create a common, multilingual literacy and fluency across essential disciplines,” she continued. “This ‘big picture’ knowledge and skill will equip graduates with a leadership perspective that is unparalleled in an undergraduate degree, and that will be applicable to virtually any industry.”

USC’s strategic location in Los Angeles — widely viewed as the creative and media capital of the world — provides an opportunity for students to take advantage of a living laboratory where music, film and visual arts are deeply intertwined. In addition, the university’s proximity to the city’s burgeoning “Silicon Beach” as well as Northern California’s Silicon Valley provides access to an array of technological advances from which students can draw inspiration.

The academy will enroll its first class of 25 students in fall 2014. Applicants will be accepted based on a rigorous review process encompassing demonstrated academic excellence as well as proven ability for original thought. Students who complete a course of study in the academy will graduate with a degree that recognizes each individual’s ability to engage and succeed in an educational experience that is constantly asking the question, “Why not?”

Iovine, chairman of Universal Music Group’s Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records, is one of the music industry’s most accomplished and respected leaders. Iovine began his four-decade career as a recording engineer, working with the likes of John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen. As record producer, he was instrumental in the career breakthroughs of artists such as Patti Smith, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, U2, Stevie Nicks, Dire Straits and The Pretenders.

Iovine co-founded Interscope Records in 1990, widely regarded as the home of music’s greatest artists, including Dr. Dre, Nine Inch Nails, Mary J. Blige, No Doubt and Lady Gaga, among others.

Born in Compton, Calif., hip-hop pioneer/producer Dre began his career as a member of the World Class Wreckin’ Crew. In 1986, he co-founded N.W.A. and won critical and commercial acclaim with the group’s 1988 landmark rap album Straight Outta Compton. In 1992, Dre released his solo debut, the G-funk masterpiece The Chronic, which Rolling Stone hailed as one of the greatest albums ever made.

With the launch of his own record company, Aftermath Entertainment, in 1996, Dre went on to discover and nurture such next-generation hip-hop superstars as 50 Cent, The Game, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem.

In 2006, Iovine and Dre co-founded Beats Electronics, a high-performance headphone and sound transmission company intent on recapturing the fidelity of the studio. With its expansion into smartphones and car audio systems, Beats by Dr. Dre has captured 40-percent market share of the entire billion-dollar headphones industry.

Looking back at five years (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012), 500 top-grossing films at the U.S. box office and more than 21,000 speaking characters, a new study by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism found that females represented less than one-third (28.4 percent) of all speaking characters in 2012 films.

When they were on screen, 31 percent of women in 2012 were shown with at least some exposed skin, and 31.6 percent were depicted wearing sexually revealing clothing.

Even worse?

“There has been no meaningful change in the prevalence of women on screen across the five years studied. In fact, 2012 features the lowest percentage of females in the five years covered in this report,” said USC Annenberg Professor Stacy Smith, the principal investigator. “The last few years have seen a wealth of great advocacy for more women on screen. Unfortunately, that investment has not yet paid off with an increase in female characters or a decrease in their hypersexualization.”

The authors also examined how the presentation of women varied by the age of the character.

“The findings are as provocative as the outfits, especially when teenage female characters are considered,” Smith said.

Over half of female teen characters (56.6 percent) were shown in sexy attire in 2012, compared with 39.9 percent of women between the ages of 21 and 39. Last year capped off a three-year increase in the hypersexualization of teenage girls, while for other age groups the numbers do not show the same hike.

When a female works behind the camera in the key creative role of writer or director, there are more women shown on screen, and fewer female characters are hypersexualized.

Unusual, yes, but certainly appropriate. Quagliozzi made the art while recovering from an acute exacerbation episode of his cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic condition that lands him in the hospital two or three times a year.

Quagliozzi channeled his illness through his art, giving viewers a chance to see what cystic fibrosis looks like — at least through the eyes of a trained artist.

In all, he made 20 paintings that reflected the pain and loneliness he felt during his 11-day hospital stay. An additional image was projected on a bathroom wall.

The subject matter ranged from his interpretation of the hives he developed during an allergic reaction to abstract drawings of faces that represented the hospital staff.

“When the doctors come into the room, they wear gowns and facemasks to protect me,” said the 30-year-old Burbank resident, who has a degree in fine art. “I made abstract paintings of that sensation of having all these people come in and observe me and take care of me, but I never see their faces.”

Others showed what Quagliozzi called “base human functions,” paintings of him relieving himself, for example.

“My work is basically all centered around the body, health, fitness and how society reacts to that,” he said.

The rest of the 11-by-15-inch pieces represented how he dealt with his situation.

“There are emotions about being alone in the hospital — isolation, alienation, separation anxiety,” he said. “These things that come up when you’re in the hospital for an extended period alone.”

With local artists expanding the idea of what a gallery can be, Quagliozzi had the idea of showing his paintings right there in his room.

“The CF team heard about it,” he said. “They contacted the hospital administration. They were really supportive of having the show.”

In fact, the hospital catered the event with cookies and drinks in April.

“Being in a hospital for two weeks can be really hard,” he said. “It really meant a lot to me. Having drinks and cookies really made the guests appreciate what was going on.”

Debbie Benitez, nurse coordinator for the CF program at Keck Hospital of USC, said the hospital encourages patients to find fulfilling activities during their stay.

“We want to support our patients and their dreams,” she said. “It was really amazing. You were just looking through the eyes of a CF patient.”

When guests arrived, they had to navigate around Quagliozzi’s bed and his IV pole. He didn’t want them to forget where they were.

“I was interested in the dynamic of people coming to a hospital room to observe not only a patient but the periphery,” he said.

Quagliozzi hopes his art teaches others that having an illness isn’t something to hide.

“Sometimes I have a group show and I’ll just project one of my X-rays,” he said. “It’s a prompt to make it OK for people to feel comfortable enough to share their personal health stories.”

To see more of Quagliozzi’s artwork, visit artistdominic.com

For two days this week, the interior and exterior of Watt Hall will be covered wall-to-wall with student drawings, models and installations as part of Blue Tape, the School of Architecture’s end-of-semester design reviews and public exhibition.

“The vision of Blue Tape has been to illuminate the rich cornucopia of young talents and emerging ideas converging in the USC School of Architecture in a manner of flowing and splashing,” said Dean Qingyun Ma. “Through temporary installation and diverse interaction, students are provoked and challenged to be responsive and responsible — a stance of ‘real time.’ ”

Grand in scale and ambition, the sixth installment of Blue Tape includes work from all year levels and all degree programs, including undergraduate and graduate architecture studios, landscape architecture, building science, heritage conservation and PhD programs.

Over the course of two days, hundreds of students present their projects to faculty members and invited guest critics. The event is comprised of simultaneous design reviews and project presentations that allow visitors to hear ideas get tested, designs critiqued and processes discussed.

“Architecture is a process-driven discipline that embraces exploration and innovative ways of looking at the built environment,” said Valery Augustin, adjunct assistant professor at the school since 2002 and Blue Tape organizer. “Final reviews are an opportunity for students to get feedback and engage in a dialogue about their process and ideas.”

Third-year student Roberto Arroyo said the event is the most exciting time for students to gather inspiration, see their peers’ works and improve in time for the next exhibition.

“What I like about Blue Tape is that it’s open to everyone,” said Arroyo, whose project is a large-scale model of an urban charter high school. “There’s interaction and people from the outside can see what we’re doing.”

Blue Tape was spawned from the desire to identify threads of continuity, dominant themes and the diversity inherent in a school of 700-plus students and more than 100 faculty members.

“It began with the simple idea of establishing connections and trying to gain an understanding of what USC architecture was all about,” Augustin said. “The physical constraints of the school meant that many students weren’t aware of what type of work was happening elsewhere within the school. How do we create greater dialogue among students, faculty and the larger architectural community?

“There’s an incredible energy surrounding the event,” Augustin added. “It’s a place where the Los Angeles architecture community comes together.”

Reviews will be ongoing from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on May 13 and May 14. It will close with a public reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Among them are the papers of Yvonne Brathwaite Burke ’56, a pioneering public official who represented Los Angeles in the state legislature and U.S. Congress before serving four consecutive terms as a Los Angeles County supervisor. During her more than four decades of public service, Burke worked to expand civil rights for women and minorities and empower economically disadvantaged communities.

Born in Los Angeles in 1932, Burke attended UCLA as an undergraduate. In 1953, she became the second black woman ever to be admitted to the then-USC School of Law. After earning her degree in 1956, Burke entered private practice, where she battled inequities in real estate and probate law. One of her early triumphs involved a successful fight to desegregate local real estate boards, which often discriminated against African-American homebuyers.

Her first stint as a public servant came in 1965 when Gov. Pat Brown appointed her to the commission that was investigating the causes of the Watts riots. A year later she was elected to the California State Assembly, and in 1972 her constituents elevated her to the U.S. House of Representatives. As a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee, Burke championed landmark legislation requiring the federal government to award a minimum percentage of contracts to businesses owned by women and minorities.

After Burke unsuccessfully sought election as California state attorney general, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her in 1979 to fill a vacancy on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Her initial term was brief — she lost re-election in 1980 — but in 1992 Los Angeles voters returned Burke to the Board of Supervisors. She was re-elected three times, retiring in December 2008.

Burke broke ground throughout her political career, setting an impressive number of precedents: first African-American woman elected to the California State Assembly (1966); first African-American woman to represent California in Congress (1973); first member of Congress to give birth while in office (1973); first African-American to serve on the USC Board of Trustees (1975); and first African-American to serve on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (1979).

USC Libraries archivists recently processed Burke’s papers and prepared two detailed finding aids that enhance access to the collection. Within the 878 boxes are primary-source documents that span nearly 50 years and tell the story of how Burke turned personal initiative into public action. Included are correspondence, photographs, videos, draft legislation, government reports, campaign artifacts, speeches, schedules and telephone logs, among other materials.

To access the papers or for more information about the USC Libraries’ 40 other archival collections of political materials, contact Dace Taube at (213) 821-2366 or taube@usc.edu or consult the online research guide at libguides.usc.edu/politicalpapers