Apply: Spencer Foundation Scholar-Activist-in-Residence Program
Funded by the Spencer Foundation, the USC Equity Research Institute (ERI) offers a Spencer Foundation Scholar Activist in Residence Program, a four-month residency designed to bridge the gap between academia and social movements. This initiative seeks to empower movement activists and leaders by providing them with the space, resources, and academic collaboration necessary to advance research and initiatives at the intersection of racial equity, education reform, and community organizing.
The program not only offers a stipend and access to comprehensive support from faculty and ERI staff, but also opens the door for meaningful dialogue and collaborative research aimed at creating sustainable, community-focused solutions.
Selection Process
The Scholar-Activist will be selected by an ERI team to participate for up to four months where they will have the time and space to pursue their social justice interests through research, writing, and collaboration with a USC faculty member and a staff team. ERI is particularly interested in social movement leaders with a relationship to organizing.
Please Note: USC faculty, staff, or students are not eligible.
Expectations of Scholar-Activist
- Accomplish outcomes from the proposal. For e.g. blog, article, book draft, etc.
- Communicate bi-weekly with the faculty/staff host regarding projects.
- Guest lecture for students and/or ERI staff.
- Participate in an evaluation at the end of the process.
For more information, please contact Dr. Kim Tabari at tabari@usc.edu
HOW TO APPLY:
Rolling application process. Please upload information and complete this form: ERI Spencer Foundation Scholar- Activist-in-Residence Program
Apply: Turpanjian Scholar-in-Residence Program
As part of the Turpanjiian Chair commitment to community-engaged research, the USC Equity Research Institute will collaborate with activists on their work, merging research, policy and organizing for social justice.
The Scholar-Activist in Residence (SAR) program is an opportunity for ERI to host a movement activist/leader for approximately one month, to work with faculty to create opportunities for social movement research. We hope the SARs will deepen the university’s engagement with community-based organizations and leaders, and vice versa. Overall, we expect this will be an excellent chance for social movement leaders and faculty to collaborate and advance research in their field(s). See below for past scholars-activist in residence. For more information on the application process, please contact Dr. Kim Tabari at tabari@usc.edu
HOW TO APPLY:
Rolling application process. Please upload information and complete this form: ERI Turpanjian Scholar-Activist in Residence Program
Spencer Foundation Fellow
Malkia Devich-Cyril (Fall 2024)
Malkia Devich-Cyril (they/them) is an activist, writer and public speaker on issues of digital rights, narrative power, Black liberation and collective grief. Devich-Cyril is also the founding and former Executive Director of MediaJustice — a national hub boldly advancing racial justice, rights and dignity in a digital age.
As the Spencer Foundation Fellow, Malkia, also known to their beloved community as Mac, will be taking their learnings from working with movements, students, organizations, and leaders and capturing them in a multi-genre book. Their research questions include: How can Left and progressive social movements lead during an era of mass loss? What is the potential and power of Black grief to pave the way for the future? What are new ways of thinking about the science and sociology of grief?
Project: Coming soon
Past Spencer Foundation Fellows
Maisie Chin
Maisie Chin is a consultant and co-founder & past executive director of CADRE.
Project: Articles on place-based (South LA) Black & POC parent organizing and movement building for racial justice in education
Past Spencer Foundation Fellow Projects
Past Scholar-Activists in Residence
Taz Ahmed (Fall 2023)
Tanzila (Taz) Ahmed is a political strategist, storyteller, and artist.
Project: Pinpointing South Asian American histories in Southern California/Los Angeles and recording an audio narrative about the activism history
Ameena Qazi (Fall 2023)
Ameena Qazi is a social justice attorney, policy analyst, and activist from the Peace and Justice Law Center in Fullerton.
Project: A report on policing in Orange County focusing on uses of force
Xiomara E. Corpeño (Spring 2020)
Xiomara E. Corpeño is a migrant-justice organizer based in Los Angeles for the last 20 years. In November 2018, as the immigrant caravan arrived in Tijuana, Xiomara formed the Southern California Solidarity Network for the Central American Caravan, helping create a network of 15+ organizations and 20 individual volunteers to provide streamlined direct assistance to migrants in Tijuana. She continues to work with organizational and grassroots leaders in Baja California to support leadership development and migrant-led projects. She recently completed a Transborder Migrant Justice Fellowship. The Fellowship allowed her to learn more about how migration has changed, and about the conditions that push people out of their home lands as well as the perils faced on the journey north.
Her research will examine the current migration trends as a direct and intentional result of the product of Manifest Destiny and White Supremacy, incorporating a race analysis on how these policies affect Black and Indigenous migrants. She also hopes to connect the different sectors of the migrant justice movement in the U.S. including interior enforcement, criminalization, border militarization, mass incarceration (aka detention), foreign policy, expansion of the border to Mexico and Central America, and asylum policies. Xiomara was one of 12 women recognized in her city for contributions by women of the 58th Assembly District. Her most recent article is entitled: Fascism Grows As Trans People Lose Human Rights.
Project:
Visibilizing Indigenous Migrants During the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Xiomara Corpeño, ERI Visiting Activist in Residence (Spring 2020) and Claudio Hernandez
Patrisse Cullors-Khan (Spring 2020)
Patrisse Cullors-Khan is an artist and activist at heart. She recently received her MFA graduate from the USC Roski School of Art and Design. She is the Creator, Co-Founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, an international network created to fight anti-black racism inside and outside of the U.S.
Patrisse is also the former Executive Director of Dignity & Power Now, an organization dedicated to protecting dignity and building power for incarcerated individuals in Greater LA. Her most recent endeavor was Chair of the Reform LA Jails ballot initiative approved by LA County voters in March 2020. Her mission is to reimagine what freedom and justice mean for all of society, in particular, those that have historically been marginalized and oppressed, and to inspire the masses to take action for positive social change. Patrisse is also the author of a New York Times bestselling book: When they call you a terrorist.
At the completion of her time as a Visiting Activist Researcher, Patrisse completed a popular article op-ed for Vogue World.
Project:
What We want: Black Life Affirmed
