USC Dornsife Office of Diversity

Happy Pride Month from the USC Dornsife Office of Diversity!!

Last Thursday, the USC Dornsife Office of Diversity had the pleasure of celebrating our Mellon Mays 2022 Graduates! We are in awe of all of the students and are excited to follow them in the next chapter of their lives. Today, we’d like to spotlight some of the graduates and commend them on all of their hard work. We are so proud of you, and, as always, Fight On! ❤️💛✌️

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We honor not only today, but everyday by reminding ourselves of our 'WHY' to his question in the work we do: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?'”

As we continue to celebrate Native American Heritage Month, an important way to pay respects to Indigenous communities is through Land Acknowledgments. Swipe through to read more!

This past weekend, the Dornsife Office of Diversity and CalTech Office of Diversity executed the annual Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Western Regional Conference.

Over 150 students from 18 different schools across the west coast were registered to present during the conference and engaged in insightful dialogue through research and poster presentations and conversation circles. We want to thank everyone who participated and our partners at CalTech for helping us organize such a wonderful showcase of young leaders’ passion and hard work. This conference is proof of the students’ dedication to increasing racial and academic diversity in the academy through this national PhD pipeline program, and we are so proud of all Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows.

Recordings of the conference will be available shortly. Please check back to our website for more details in the coming weeks. Swipe to see some of our very own MMUF students!

Diwali is a festival of lights and one of the major festivals celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists. The festival usually lasts five days and is celebrated during the Hindu lunisolar month Kartika. One of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, Diwali symbolizes the spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance". The festival is widely associated with Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity, with many other regional traditions connecting the holiday to various Hindu Gods and Goddesses. In some regions, a celebration of the day Rama returned to his kingdom Ayodhya with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana after defeating Ravana in Lanka and serving 14 years of exile.

via: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali

Happy Native American Heritage Month! This month is all about celebrating the histories, cultures, and traditions of Native American communities. Stay tuned this month as we highlight Native American scholars and reflect on honoring Indigenous communities through academia.

Happy International Pronouns Day! Today is all about educating and spreading awareness about respecting personal pronoun commonplace. If you are faculty or staff, the USC Dornsife Directoty allows you to update your pronouns!

Take a look at this week’s spotlight panel to learn more about the different accomplishments of Latinx professionals and their contributions to their fields!

Stay tuned through the rest of the month as we highlight Latinx USC staff and students and their work.

Grupo Folklórico de USC is a Ballet Folklórico group reestablished at USC in 2018. They aim to introduce more culturally diverse performance groups at USC while creating a safe space and a support group for those who identify with and/or those who wish to learn more about Mexican culture. For Grupo Folklórico, being Latinx means getting to take part in the creation of a legacy. Many folklórico songs tell stories. The dances that accompany them are like a time capsule, showcasing the influences of the region they originated in, and the maestros who've passed the dance on, and as dancers we get to leave their own mark on those dances as well. Latinx Heritage Month is a chance to expand what is considered "common knowledge". There's such a massive variety of folklorico dances, yet many people are only familiar with the same one or two songs, so Latinx Heritage Month is their chance to spotlight other songs and stories as well.

As part of our Latinx Heritage Month Campaign, we want to highlight the important work that USC Professors are doing. Read more below about our first Professor Spotlight!

Natalia Molina (she/her) is a Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. She is the author of two award-winning books, How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts and Fit to Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879-1940. Her work examines the interconnectedness of racial and ethnic communities through her concept of "racial scripts" which looks at how practices, customs, policies and laws that are directed at one group and are readily available and hence easily applied to other groups. She continues to explore the themes of race, space, labor, immigration, gender and urban history in her forthcoming book Placemaking at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles Nourished its Community (University of California Press, 2022). As a 2020 MacArthur Fellow, Professor Molina enjoys opportunities for intellectual and cultural exchanges and has lectured in Latin America, Asia, Europe, as well as over 30 of the 50 United States. On Latinx Heritage Month, Professor Molina says, “A refrain you'll hear from the Latinx community is that we are not a monolith. More than 60 million Latinx Americans and immigrants in the U.S. hail from over 20 Latin American countries. We may or may not share the same language, religion, history and cultures. As someone who writes about how "place" shapes our ideas about "race," I am fascinated by seeing how even in one place, Los Angeles, Latinx identity can vary by zip code.”

Natalia Molina (she/her) is a Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. She is the author of two award-winning books, How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts and Fit to Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879-1940. Her work examines the interconnectedness of racial and ethnic communities through her concept of "racial scripts" which looks at how practices, customs, policies and laws that are directed at one group and are readily available and hence easily applied to other groups. She continues to explore the themes of race, space, labor, immigration, gender and urban history in her forthcoming book Placemaking at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles Nourished its Community (University of California Press, 2022). As a 2020 MacArthur Fellow, Professor Molina enjoys opportunities for intellectual and cultural exchanges and has lectured in Latin America, Asia, Europe, as well as over 30 of the 50 United States. On Latinx Heritage Month, Professor Molina says, “A refrain you'll hear from the Latinx community is that we are not a monolith. More than 60 million Latinx Americans and immigrants in the U.S. hail from over 20 Latin American countries. We may or may not share the same language, religion, history and cultures. As someone who writes about how "place" shapes our ideas about "race," I am fascinated by seeing how even in one place, Los Angeles, Latinx identity can vary by zip code.”

Happy !! Stay tuned to our social media over the next month as we highlight Latinx staff, alumni, and students in our community.

Meet Shahnoor Khan, the Student Intern for the USC Trojan Guardian Scholars Program!

Meet Alisha Soni, the Undergraduate Research Assistant/Intern for the USC Dornsife Office of Diversity!

Meet Flavia Guzman Magaña, our Program Assistant and Trojan Guardian Scholars Coordinator!

Meet Disha Mahendro, our Director of Diversity Initiatives and Community Building here at the USC Dornsife Office of Diversity!

Happy First Day of Classes, Trojans! Welcome to the USC Dornsife Office of Diversity! As we head into the new school year, we want to introduce you to the faces that you'll see working around our office. First up, we are pleased to introduce Dean Kimberly Freeman. Fight on! ✌️

Meet Isis Galeno ,a senior double-majoring in Anthropology and NGOs and Social Change and a Mellon Mays Fellow! Her senior project focuses on Latin ska's role in identity formation of Mexican and Mexican-American youth from the 1990s until now. She has received the Discovery Scholar distinction and a Student Recognition Award. Her greatest experience with MMUF was being able to virtually attend the Mellon conference last November and presenting her poster on her research. Isis plans on taking a gap year then enrolling in a PhD program for either American Studies/ Ethnic Studies. Her advice to peers is to never let the fear of rejection get in the way of applying to different opportunities and programs; the worst thing that could happen is that you get told no, but nothing will ever come to you if you don't apply! Congratulations Isis!

Our next senior Mellon Mays Fellow is Rosa Noriega-Rocha! Rosa is majoring in American Studies & Contemporary Latinx Studies and minoring in Sociology. Her senior research project looked at the ongoing exploitation of farmworking women in Watsonville, CA. Her greatest experience with MMUF has been finding life long friends that have encouraged her to be the person that she is today. Her plans after graduation are to attend the University of Michigan's Sociology program. Her advice for peers is to "Be a student of life; never be content with what you think you know" Congratulations Rosa!

Join Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen in conversation with Harry Shum Jr. Via zoom tomorrow, Saturday May 8th at 5PM PST! RSVP at visionsandvoices.usc.edu