ASE Faculty Achievements, Fall 2023 and Spring 2024
Sarah Gualtieri published this short essay “Lying Down to Stand Up for What is Right” about the die-in at USC to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza. https://socialtextjournal.org/periscope_article/lying-down-to-stand-up-for-what-is-right/
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Amelia G. Jones published a new book, co-edited with Jane Chin Davidson entitled A Companion to Contemporary Art in a Global Framework. See the link here: https://www.wiley.com/en-ie/A+Companion+to+Contemporary+Art+in+a+Global+Framework-p-9781119841807
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Dorinne Kondo participated in two panels at Harvard University:
- “Notes from the Field and the Archive: Building Classroom Communities in the Humanities”, Department of English, Harvard University, and invitation from Mahindra Humanities Center, in conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen, Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer, and Prof. Glenda Carpio, Chair; October 18, 2023.
- Invited Participant, “A Celebration of Marcyliena H. Morgan,” Ernest E. Monrad Prof. of the Social Sciences, Prof. of African American Studies, Founder of the Hip Hop Archive and Research Institute at Harvard. Hutchins Center for African and African Research, Harvard. Panel on “Women of Color Speaking.” December 15, 2023.
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Karen 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.
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Oneka 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. Her book, Global Guyana: Shaping Race, Gender and Environment in the Caribbean and Beyond will be published by NYU Press in April 2024. https://nyupress.org/9781479827022/global-guyana/
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Natalia Molina published an essay in the Los Angeles Times. See it here.
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Nayan Shah has been offered the 2024-25 Los Angeles Times Distinguished Fellowship from the Huntington Research Library.
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Manuel Pastor was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He views election to the academy as a call for scholars — particularly those early in their careers — to bring their work to bear on societal challenges. He writes:
“In a world that faces multiple crises — climate change, widening inequality and the fragility of our multiracial democracy — we need more academics to enter what USC Dornsife has termed the ‘public square.’ Fortunately, this next generation of scholars wants to do exactly that,” he said. “This award — which notably was given in the category of public affairs — gives all of us both a permission slip and a mandate to make sure our work makes a difference.”
See the Dornsife story here: https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/manuel-pastor-elected-member-american-academy-arts-sciences/
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Dorinne Kondo reprised her role as dramaturg for the 30th anniversary production of TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum in the spring of 2023.
Kondo’s comic drama SEAMLESS was chosen as one of four plays featured in workshop productions for Morgan-Wixson Theater’s New Work Festival, upcoming in late September through mid-October. Based on Kondo’s interviews with her parents, SEAMLESS stages the indeterminacy of history and memory, the afterlife of trauma, and the (im)possibility of knowing the people we love most. Tickets available here: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/1221
Kondo’s concept “reparative creativity” will be a featured concept at a keynote/ plenary event at the RACE conference, sponsored by the X at Johns Hopkins University in October.
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Natalia Molina won the Weber Book Prize given annually for the best non-fiction book on Southwestern America from the Western History Association.
Molina published an essay, in honor of her brother, David, who recently passed away. She writes: “But sports talk can also transcend small talk and become a shared field of memories, a tie that binds.”
She also published an essay here:
https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2023/08/14/tulum-instagram-colonialism-tourism/ideas/essay/
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Francille Wilson was awarded the Carter G. Woodson Scholar’s Medallion from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). It will be presented at the 108th Annual Conference of ASALH, the oldest scholarly society dedicated to African American History and Culture on September 23rd.
See: https://dornsife.usc.edu/ase/spotlight/
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Alicia Chavez won the 2023 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Adjunct Faculty Fellowship award.
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Evelyn Alsultany’s book, Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion has been chosen as the Arab American National Museum’s Honorable Mention for the Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Academic Award for 2023.
She also received the Richard A. Yarborough Mentoring Award from the American Studies Association. Selected by the ASA Minority Scholars Committee, the award recognizes Dr. Asultany’s impact on the next generation of scholars. See: https://dornsife.usc.edu/news-briefs/faculty-recogntion/2023/12/evelyn-alsultany/
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Viet Nguyen’s new book, A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, a History, a Memorial was longlisted for the National Book Award.
Nguyen will be giving six lectures at Harvard as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry.
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Jackie Wang received two fellowships:
- American Democracy Fellowship at Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center
- Policy Scholar at Howard University’s Center for an Equitable Economy and Sustainable Society
She also published a new essay collection with Semiotext(e) / MIT Press titled Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735767/alien-daughters-walk-into-the-sun-by-jackie-wang/
In addition, Prof. Wang was in conversation with Christopher Soto in the L.A. Times. They discussed artificial intelligence and the craft of writing. See: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2023-08-23/will-ai-replace-writers-christopher-soto-jackie-wang-game-out-the-future