USC American Studies & Ethnicity

AMST 343 FOOD, HEALTH AND CULTURE
is open and available for student enrollement.
"Sarah Portnoy uses food to deepen students’ understanding of Spanish vocabulary and Latino culture. Field trips to explore Olvera Street and Boyle Heights in Los Angeles are centered on food culture and justice." Seats are still open in AMST 343 (10420R) that meets on 2:00-4:50pm on Mondays, taught by Sarah Portnoy.

https://today.usc.edu/learning-through-food-at-usc/
https://www.sarahportnoy.org/

Learning through food at USC At USC, some of the most interesting courses on history, biology and sociology are taught via food — and students are eating it up.

Congratulations to ASE Prof. Ben Carrington on winning the inaugural American Sociological Association, Stuart Hall Award for Cultural Sociology!

Interested in working with Prof. Carrington? Consider taking his Fall 2024 course JOUR 300 Journalism and Society. The class is really about the role of journalism within society and a more Cultural Studies approach to journalism and the study of the media. Students in the course will examine topics such as news propaganda, conspiracy theories, power in the media, racial bias in reporting, truth and objectivity in journalism etc. The course should be of interest to ASE students who perhaps want to take a journalism course but one that is more focused on the social, cultural and political issues that shape journalism as an industry and field rather than learning about “how to be a journalist” per se.

This semester they will be following the US presidential election and how it is reported, as well as looking at how the media has been covering the conflict and war in Palestine/Israel; both topics that are pressing and of interest to ASE students right now.

JOUR 300: Journalism and Society (21084R) 4 Units
Fall 2024 – Tuesday – 2-5.20 p.m.

https://asaculturesection.org/culture-awards/
https://culturalfoundation.eu/stories/stuart-hall-1932-2014/

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
University of Southern California

We are offering lots of exciting classes like AMST 449m with Prof. Jane Hu. Take a look at our online schedule and join us!

https://classes.usc.edu/term-20243/classes/amst/

USC APASA

"There’s a reason the videos Morales shares from the popular tourist destination are resonating so widely, according to Natalia Molina, a distinguished professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

“Especially if you come from an immigrant background, if you are Latino or an immigrant, it’s validating,” she says. “He puts a spotlight on them and treats them with respect, and you’re reminded of something that we shouldn’t need to be reminded of — that these are human beings who live whole lives.”

This 27-year-old keeps taking day laborers to Disneyland. One thing always catches his attention | CNN Jesús Morales, known as juixxe on TikTok, takes day laborers who rarely get time off to Disneyland and shares videos of their visits on social media.

The American Studies Association writes to offer support and solidarity to scholars, faculty, students, and staff around the world who are facing elimination, termination, suspension, and sanctions due to their advocacy for Palestinian freedom, their location in Gazan universities, their criticism of Zionism, their solidarity with resistance to occupation, and their condemnation of genocide, militarism, and war.

No group of scholars faces the perils of the present moment more than students, scholars, and academic staff in Gaza. Every one of Gaza’s higher education institutions has been destroyed and hundreds of Palestinian educators and thousands of students in Gaza have been murdered in a process that the Palestinian Feminist Collective has called “scholasticide.” Palestinian scholars in Israeli institutions have also been arrested and silenced, including internationally renowned feminist scholar, Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian.

Across Europe and North America, scholars who criticize the ongoing genocide, or who criticize Zionism, or who support Palestinian freedom have been doxed, suspended, and fired. Contingent faculty, Muslim and Palestinian scholars, BIPOC and QTIPOC scholars have been the most vulnerable to these attacks. Our university administrations have remained silent about the assault on Gaza’s higher education infrastructure and about attacks on and endangerment of their own faculty and students who speak out against anti-Palestinian violence. Funding and support of the most vulnerable departments and faculty are threatened. Surveilling or sanctioning against teaching the full scope of the conflict (including its history, ecologies of warfare, or other related topics) creates an atmosphere of fear around intellectual engagement with war.

At the time of this writing, thousands of students at dozens of universities have been arrested. Students have been suspended and face other disciplinary action (such as expulsion and eviction), and threatened and met with police violence - some even hospitalized after being brutalized and/or pepper-sprayed - for erecting peaceful encampments to protest university investments in Israeli war machinery. Columbia University, a campus that requires students to read Edward Said and Franz Fanon in their first-year curriculum, has criminalized students for peaceful, non-violent protest to colonial occupation and genocide. The events at Columbia are part of a rising wave of over 100 student encampments and protests at the Claremont Colleges, UC and Cal State schools, CUNY, University of Minnesota, UT-Austin, Washington University in St. Louis, Emory University, University of Florida, Vanderbilt University, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Yale University, Princeton, and more. Meanwhile, at USC, Asna Tabassum, the valedictorian of the graduating class of 2024, has been silenced due to imagined objections to her identity, her politics, and, indeed, her existence. The list of outrageous attacks on scholars at all kinds of higher educational institutions is too long to document here but taken together they represent an appalling complicity with a frontal attack on and policing of all knowledge production that doesn’t serve the interests of war.

The American Studies Association affirms its abolitionist principles, its commitments to intellectual criticism of war, empire, and elimination, its defense of insurgent knowledge production, and its solidarity with Palestinians. Our students have the right to learn from all perspectives. As scholars who may work at institutions located on unceded indigenous lands, or who work in buildings that were constructed by enslaved labor, or whose institutions benefit from war profiteering, we have a particular obligation to affirm the necessity of critical discourse, of academic dissent, of academic freedom, and of refusal to be complicit in genocide.

War on Gaza: Some of the prominent Palestinian academics and scientists killed by Israel
1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure
Academic Freedom in Times of War
Legislative Threats to Academic Freedom: Redefinitions of Antisemitism and Racism
Joint Statement by AAUP, Barnard and Columbia Chapters
AAUP President: Columbia President Shafik Trampled on Students’ Rights

https://theasa.net/about/campus-protest-statement

Thank you to Ron Andrade, Sonia Flores, Leticia Delgado, Liz Banuelos-Castro and USC La CASA for helping us host these amazing Puente students during their USC visit!

USC Undergraduates:
Are you interested in the intersection of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion, and how they might impact your current field of study?

JOIN THE ASE CLUB!

Membership is not exclusive to ASE majors. Students in other majors are encouraged to participate! Member interests include, but are not limited to, the arts, politics, social injustices, economics, race relations and perceptions, historical narratives, theoretical study, and law.

Come to the pizza meeting where we will plan the restart of ASE Club for 2024-25 and establish student leaders!

Please share with interested students!

USC La CASA

ASE Congratulates Professors Oneka LaBennett and Karen Tongson on the receipt of their Dean’s Emblem Awards!

Professor Tongson received the “2023 Communicator of the Year Award” in the Humanities. The award honors scholars who contribute significant time and effort to meaningfully improve the public’s understanding of issues, influence policy, and/or raise the level of public discourse around research and scholarship conducted at Dornsife.

Professor LaBennett received the “2023 USC Dornsife Dean’s Emblem Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the space of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

The award honors scholars for publications, research, or engagement with the public or academic community that address issues of access, representational diversity, the impact of marginalization or discrimination, and/or building inclusive communities.

ASE is honored to have these wonderful scholars in our midst!

Congratulations to ASE Prof. Adrian De Leon on his new book. Please join us for his upcoming book talk on December 4th in KAP 445 from 3-5pm. If you can't make that one, here are a few more in the Los Angeles area. There is a code for 30% off the purchase from UNC Press in the flyer.

Attention ASE Undergrads: Join Prof. Natalia Molina for an informal conversation around the interconnected histories of race, place, gender, culture and citizenship on Monday, October 9th, Noon-1pm in TCC 224.

Congratulations ASE Prof Francille Rusan Wilson on winning the Carter Godwin Woodson Scholars Medallion from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH.) This award is presented to a scholar whose career is distinguished through at least a decade of research, writing, and activism in the field of African American life and history. The recipient’s career should embody and personify the Woodson legacy to ensure a firm foundation for the continuance of African-centered education through dedication and commitment to African-American history.
Congratulations Francille!

https://asalh.org/awards/woodson-scholars-medallion/

Congratulations to ASE Prof. Viet Nguyen on his new book being longlisted for a National Book Award!

All the books longlisted for the National Book Awards this year ‘Loot,’ ‘King,’ and 48 other titles were nominated in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, literature in translation and young people’s literature.

Labor Day article from ASE Prof. Manuel Pastor.

“Labor has been faced with pretty concerted efforts from the political right, which have been pretty brilliant. One would never have thought, for example, that a law labeled ‘the right to work’ is not about the right at all and is instead aimed at enhancing employer ability to lower your pay. It’s kind of the opposite of the ‘right to work’ — at least, the right to work at a decent wage. I am constantly amazed by this kind of creativity of the right."

https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/labor-day-and-changes-to-the-movement/?fbclid=IwAR0Df42VA4fs_nuFMM1x2QU-GTSzkLr18_VBJyUKAXCaYQYMkZUd4li4DJ0

Q&A: The changing landscape of American labor For Labor Day, USC Dornsife Distinguished Professor Manuel Pastor explains the challenges facing workers and the modern labor movement and considers solutions that may position workers for better benefits and more technical jobs given the rise of technology. [4¾ min read]

Congratulations to ASE Alum Margaret Salazar-Porzio
and Lorena Chambers on their Smithsonian project "The First 100: Chicanas Changing History" that works to raise awareness around how history is written.

"This initiative documents how, over the last 50 years, Chicana historians have transformed the way we do and understand history, as well as who is included in U.S. history. Through oral histories, data collection, exhibitions, and public programs, this project honors these contributions. It is also an intervention. Interrogating the academy’s organizational culture that systematically excludes Chicanas is at the core of this initiative."

https://chicanaschanginghistory.org/

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
University of Southern California

https://chicanaschanginghistory.org/

The First 100 – 50 Years of Chicanas Changing History This initiative documents how, over the last 50 years, Chicana historians have transformed the way we do and understand history, as well as who is included in U.S. history. Through oral histories, data collection, exhibitions, and public programs, this project honors these contributions. It is also....

Prof. Jackie Wang was in conversation with Christopher Soto in the L.A. Times. They discussed artificial intelligence and the craft of writing. The article leads with “Jackie Wang is uniquely positioned to make sense of this precarious moment.” Her poetry has been shortlisted for a National Book Award and her influential academic work includes titles such as “Carceral Capitalism.”

Will AI replace writers — and the rest of us? An L.A. scholar-poet games out the future Christopher Soto and USC poet and professor Jackie Wang have spent months talking about how AI will change writers' livelihoods — and their art.

Congratulations to Prof. Dorinne Kondo! Her play SEAMLESS will be staged in a workshop production at Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica. SEAMLESS was one of four full-length plays chosen from 411 submissions for the theater’s New Works Festival. Tickets available here: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/1221

https://dorinnekondo.com/theatre-1

https://dorinnekondo.com/about

About — Dorinne Kondo Dorinne Kondo is Professor of American Studies and Anthropology and former Director of Asian American Studies at the University of Southern California. A cultural anthropologist, Kondo’s books include Crafting Selves: Power, Gender and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace (J.I. Staley Pr...

Check out this essay from Ann Ngoc Tran, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of American Studies & Ethnicity, working under the direction of Dr. Viet Thanh Nguyen.

"The motivation behind my peculiar jeep ride to the fishing village in Hội An, a small city in Quang Nam province a mere thirty minutes from Đà Nẵng, was to explore central Vietnamese fishing customs and traditions that have been embedded in the local culture for the past century. My research seeks to understand how these practices have been fundamental not just to Vietnamese social life, but also vital to survival during war, migration, and (re)settlement in the United States, where many refugees returned to their former occupations as fisherpeople and shrimpers in the Gulf South in the 1980s and 1990s."

Local Fishing Villages and the Troubled Future of Fishing in Việt Nam - USC Wrigley The sun had not even risen when my tour guide rolled up to the hotel entrance in a war-era U.S. military jeep, a camouflaged monster roaring with noxious fumes to crack the silence of Hội An city’s early morning. After brief introductions in the faint gleam of the jeep’s headlights, I joined t...

Check out the new essay from ASE Prof. Natalia Molina on Zocalo.

"What Should We Do About Instagram
Colonialism? Social Media Is Ruining Tourism Hot Spots Like Tulum—And Even If We Don’t Stop Traveling, We Can Stop Posting"

What Should We Do About Instagram Colonialism? | Essay Social Media Is Ruining Tourism Hot Spots Like Tulum—And Even If We Don’t Stop Traveling, We Can Stop Posting.

Hot off the presses - New class offered for SUMMER SESSION 051! Join Prof. Lanita Jacobs as she explores African American Popular Culture in AMST 285mg from June 28-August 8th.

https://news.usc.edu/207828/usc-latina-phd-candidates/

Graduating Latinas at USC are 1st in their families to pursue PhDs Online retreats provided Latina PhD candidates with strong connections.

https://rossier.usc.edu/news-insights/news/we-built-place

‘We built this place’ Natalia Molina, keynote speaker at USC Rossier’s doctoral hooding, discusses crafting a commencement address, the importance of the humanities and writing history from the bottom up.

Congratulations to ASE Prof. Josh Kun!

Josh Kun named first USC vice provost for the arts - USC News The USC Annenberg professor hopes to create a collaborative arts vision.

Congratulations to ASE Doctoral Alum Michelle Commander on being named Deputy Director of the National Museum of African American History at the Smithsonian!

Michelle Commander Named Deputy Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) has announced the selection of its deputy director, Michelle Commander.

Congrats to ASE Prof. Natalia Molina on being highlighted as a "Game Changer" in the LA Times article "LA Vanguardia"

Meet LA Vanguardia: The Latino innovators, instigators and power players breaking through barriers Meet the inaugural LA Vanguardia class, talented Latinos defining the cultural landscape of L.A. and beyond.

Congratulations to ASE Prof Dorinne Kondo on being chosen for a Senior Raubenheimer award, recognizing her career accomplishments! We are so proud of you, Dorinne! Great thanks to Sarah Gualtieri for nominating you and everyone else who contributed to the nomination process. Above all, it is the recognition you have earned with all your hard work as a scholar, teacher, and member of this department!

https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1003424

Congratulations to ASE Prof. Natalia Molina!

Why I Write: Natalia Molina A Place at the Nayarit is the California Book Club’s October 2022 selection.