Generous gift to USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research provides unique research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students

The USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research is establishing several new student research opportunities with a generous gift from the Charles E. Scheidt Family Foundation.

The Charles E. Scheidt Family Foundation has funded four new fellowships for students to contribute with their own unique research to advancing the fields of Holocaust and Genocide Studies:

The Charles E. Scheidt Undergraduate Research Fellowship enables an undergraduate student from USC from any discipline to spend two semesters in residence at the Center to pursue research in the field of Holocaust and Genocide Studies. (Learn more here.)

The Charles E. Scheidt Undergraduate Research Assistant Fellowship will enable an undergraduate student from USC from any discipline to work for two semesters as an assigned Research Assistant for the projects of international fellows and visiting scholars at the Center. The student will shadow emerging and senior scholars across disciplines and benefit from participating in and contributing to cutting edge interdisciplinary research. This unique fellowship will offer the opportunity to learn research methods from the most innovative scholars in the fields of Holocaust and Genocide Studies. (Learn more here.)

The Charles E. Scheidt Graduate Research Fellowship will support the innovative dissertation research of one PhD student from USC from any discipline during a two semester residency at the Center. (Learn more here.)

The Charles E. Scheidt Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship enables two undergraduate students from any university or college worldwide and from any academic discipline to spend eight weeks in residence at the Center over the summer to pursue research. (Learn more here.)

“Research and education at the university level play a vital role in helping to prevent future genocides and mass atrocities, as they are essential avenues for understanding the past and raising awareness of developing threats,” Charles E. Scheidt said. “Without deliberate investment in studying the root causes of these heinous acts and exploring viable prevention strategies, we risk perpetuating the horrendous cycles of violence against groups viewed as ‘others’ at a time and place. My foundation is proud to support the establishment of these fellowships at USC, and the reinstatement of the Center’s Academic Relations and Outreach Officer position, both of which will further this important work.”

Wolf Gruner, Founding Director of the Center for Advanced Genocide Research, said that this donation is a significant one: “This gift from the Charles E. Scheidt Family Foundation will elevate student research in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at USC, both on an undergraduate and graduate level. Through these fellowships, students will be motivated to investigate the origins, dynamics, and consequences of genocide and mass violence, as well as the conditions and dimensions of resistance. These topics are at the forefront of the Center’s mission and sadly remain all too relevant in today’s world. The gift will help the students build valuable skills and contribute to shaping the fields of Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the future.”

The Charles E. Scheidt Family Foundation’s gift to support the Center’s Academic Relations and Outreach Officer restores a staff position that has been unfunded since 2017. “With the future contributions of a junior scholar in this role, the Center will gain additional expertise, better serve our fellows and visiting scholars, and bring the unique program of the Center to academic, educational and community partners in Los Angeles, the US, and around the globe,” Professor Gruner stated. “This gift is a vote of confidence in the internationally recognized work we’ve accomplished in our first 10 years and in what we can achieve in the future if properly staffed and supported.” (Learn more about the position here.)

The new fellowships will be awarded to undergraduate students and PhD students to conduct innovative research projects in Holocaust and Genocide Studies using internationally unique research resources in Holocaust and Genocide Studies available at USC, including

– Holocaust and Genocide Studies Collection at USC Libraries, which contains 30,000 primary and secondary sources including the original transcripts of the Nuremberg trials and the materials of the New York Life Insurance settlement regarding the Armenian genocide.

– Special Collections at USC Doheny library including the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, which preserves the private papers of dozens of Jewish Holocaust survivors, emigrants from the Third Reich, and people who liberated Nazi Germany.

– Visual History Archive, a collection of over 58,000 audiovisual testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, as well as other genocides and episodes of mass violence.

The calls for applications for these fellowships are being circulated after the release of this news, and the inaugural recipients will be chosen in mid-March from a qualified and competitive pool of applicants.