As generative AI reshapes how we create, teach, and learn, what does it mean to remain curious, original, and human? Professors from education, writing, and cinematic arts will explore how artificial intelligence is transforming creative practice and pedagogy—while raising urgent questions about equity, access, and imagination.

Panelists:

• Stephen J. Aguilar is an Associate Professor at the USC Rossier School of Education and leads USC’s Center for Generative AI and Society. His research focuses on how emerging technologies and Generative AI influence teaching, learning, and motivation globally. His work on digital equity has shaped state-level policies, helping over one million families access high-speed internet. A frequent public commentator, Dr. Aguilar has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, and The Washington Post. He holds a BA from Georgetown, an MA from the University of Chicago, and a PhD from the University of Michigan. Previously, he taught middle school and led technology initiatives for Teach For America.
• Jen Sopchockchai Bankard is a Professor of Writing in USC’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. As a member of the A.I. Strategy Committee and the Committee on Information Services, she is almost always participating in conversations about A.I. in higher education. Before USC, she studied expository writing at Brown University and film adaptation at Northeastern University. When she’s not teaching or talking about A.I., she writes film and television reviews for The Long Take and hosts The Long Take Review, a film podcast that applies concepts from Rhetoric and Composition to the Oscar race.
• Pablo Frasconi studied with Stan Brakhage at the University Film Study Center / University of New Hampshire, Durham, and with documentarians from the National Film Board of Canada in Toronto at York University. His films are in hundreds of collections, including UC Berkeley, the NY Public Library, and the Smithsonian. He has received 20 grants and fellowships for filmmaking, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Film Institute, and Park Foundation. His work, including Towards the Memory of a Revolution, Survival of a Small City, The Woodcuts of Antonio Frasconi, and The Light at Walden, has been featured at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NYC, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) national broadcast, and in WIRED Magazine, Filmmaker Magazine, and The New York Times. Frasconi is a professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, where he teaches editing, poetic cinema, documentary, and critical making. His book, Creating Experimental Documentary Films: Theory and Practice Beyond Convention, was published by Routledge in June 2025. He is currently completing the feature documentary film: BIRTH OF A POET: The Life of William Everson.
• Pedro Noguera (moderator) is the Dean of the Rossier School of Education, and a Distinguished Professor of Education at USC. He is one of the nation’s leading scholars on issues related inequality and public policy in education. Prior to coming to USC, he held endowed chairs at UCLA, NYU, Harvard, and the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of 15 books, hundreds of articles and editorials, and serves as an advisor to several states, school districts, foundations, NGOs and nonprofits. Noguera has received eight honorary doctorates from American universities, and he has received several awards for his research and advocacy efforts aimed at promoting educational equity. In 2023 he was ranked 1st in the nation for influence and impact in the field of education by Education Week. He was born in NY City to Caribbean immigrants, and is the father of five children, and grandfather to five.

This panel is part of the 2026 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC.