2025 Scheidt Graduate Research Fellowship Awarded to Viriya Yoo

The USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research has bestowed the inaugural Charles E. Scheidt Graduate Research Fellowship to Viriya Yoo, a PhD candidate in Literature in the Department of English at USC. She will be in residence at the Center for two months in Summer 2025.

The Charles E. Scheidt Graduate Research Fellowship provides support for USC PhD students from any discipline to conduct research in residence at the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research — usually part-time for two semesters — focusing on the unique research resources in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at USC, including the Holocaust and Genocide Studies book collection, the Special Collections at USC Libraries, and the Visual History Archive.

In her dissertation — entitled “Beyond Witnessing: Interrogating Genocide and Genre” — Yoo is tracing the historical development and themes of cultural productions (including novels, poems, films) about the Cambodian genocide, particularly those by and about Cambodian genocide survivors and those produced in the Cambodian diaspora. Her research interests include women of color feminist theory, critical refugee studies, and transpacific studies.

Yoo earned her BA in Literature (Transcultural Track) from American University where she was also awarded Best Senior Thesis in the Critical Writing Category. She has presented a number of times at the American Comparative Literature Association meetings. Among her teaching experience, she taught a first-year composition class at USC focused on law and social justice. She most recently served as a graduate teaching assistant for a course in the American Studies and Ethnicity department about the American War in Viet Nam.