Awards & Fellowships

For more information, contact Director of Undergraduate Studies Ramzi Rouighi (rouighi@usc.edu).

See below.

Skyler Korkowski – 2024
This summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Rabat, Morocco to study Arabic and Darija through Amideast with the Department of Middle East Studies’ Summer Foreign Language Scholarship. Throughout my time in Morocco, I not only developed my language
skills but also expanded my cultural awareness and personal understanding as I navigated new situations and interacted with diverse perspectives.
Through the Amideast program, I attended daily language classes where I was the only student, allowing me to receive extremely personalized instruction and develop my conversational skills at a new level. Beyond the classroom, I was placed with an incredible host
family and paired with language partners who immediately welcomed me into Moroccan culture and immersed me in the language, traditions, and lifestyle of the region. With my host family, I
learned about Moroccan foods, politics, holidays, history, and celebrations as we ate dinner and talked together each night. While with my language partners, I explored the city, shopped in the
old Medina, traveled to Tangier, and shared great conversations over Moroccan tea and sweets.
In addition to getting to know each of these individuals and exchanging our stories and culture with one another, one of my other favorite aspects of my experience in Morocco was becoming an English tutor for a local family. Through my Amideast professor, I was introduced to a family in Bousznika with three kids who were learning English in school and wanted a tutor over the summer. During my last few weeks of the program, I took the train to their house a few
times each week and conducted English lessons that always ended in Darija lessons for me and more Moroccan tea times.
Throughout my experience, I was continuously struck by Moroccans’ emphasis on creating welcoming atmospheres, prioritizing community, and enjoying quality time with others whether it be while strolling along the coast, playing soccer, sharing a huge meal, or conversing over a small glass of tea. When I returned to the US at the beginning of August, I was sad to    leave this part of Moroccan culture and the many amazing new people I met while being a part of
it. To any students considering studying in Morocco, I would highly recommend an Amideast summer program!

Wendy Wang – 2024

This summer, thanks to the immense generosity of the department, I was able to spend approximately three months in Paris studying French at the Cours de civilisation française de la Sorbonne (CCFS). What I love the most about learning any foreign language is that it is an extremely humbling experience, and studying French is no exception. I could certainly feel myself making progress; however, to accurately understand the arguments of French scholars, to read secondary sources without a dictionary, to communicate my ideas effectively in speech and in writing – these are skills that I have to spend many more years, if not a lifetime, to master. But there was something else that I gained in Paris, something perhaps more valuable than the improvement of language skills. What I saw and heard for the past three months has made me more determined to become a historian despite the potentially grim career prospects (in Paris, with only 79 euros, one can hire a historian as a tour guide for one day), and I now have a clearer idea of for whom and what type of history I hope to write in the future.

Let me start with an anecdote. Not long after I arrived in Paris, my phone broke down. Unable to use online maps, and having lost all contact with my landlord, I had no idea where I was in the city. To get to the room that I rented, I had to rely on my poor French speaking skills to ask kind-hearted passers-by for directions. Once, after I asked a Parisian how to go around “the big building over there,” he looked at where I pointed and laughed. “Big building? That’s the Louvre!”

Embarrassed by my ignorance, I spent quite some time memorizing the map of Paris. In the following weeks, I discovered that, not unlike what I experienced on the first day, exploring the city was a process of constantly attaching names to the urban landscape. Before I learned their names, I thought the Louvre was just a particularly large palace; the Seine appeared no more than an ordinary river, and l’Académie Française was simply a building pleasing to the eyes. When I passed through the Louvre for the first time, I thought the exterior statues in the Cour Napoléon were random characters serving purely decorative purposes; it was only when I saw their name tags up close that I recognized so many famous figures. Standing next to Rousseau, Turgot, and Montesquieu were Grégoire de Tours, Bernard de Clairvaux, Abélard, Froissart, and Rabelais; as someone with a deep passion for medieval history, I was shivering out of sheer excitement upon seeing these intellectuals whose words and ideas I have contemplated over time and again. In fact, the same kind of shock proved a common experience for me in Paris. On my way to the school, taking a stroll in the Latin Quarter, I would occasionally find stone plaques attached to unimpressive buildings that say, “Voltaire passed away in this house,” “Lakan practiced psychoanalysis here until his death,” or that some prominent artist or politician inhabited the place for decades.

In a way, living in Paris was an education in itself. Every single day was a lesson that the names mean something, that these meanings matter, and that they sometimes matter much more than I was previously aware of. Whenever I walked past l’Académie Française, the ultimate authority for setting official rules and standards for the French language, I thought about the prevalent anxiety among native speakers that their language might be “corrupted” by street slang and the dialects of immigrants. Every morning, the sight of Restaurant Voltaire reminded me of the words of my professor at CCFS, who encouraged and expected French learners to write in the elegant style of this Enlightenment giant.

Almost all the artists, philosophers, and politicians whose names attach such signification to various places have long passed away. However, in some sense, they are kept alive by certain economic, political, and social mechanisms. The more time I spent in Paris, the more I realized that there is an entire system of power behind these great names. Montaigne, Rousseau, and Turgot were extraordinary thinkers of their time, for sure, but someone after them had to commission their statues to be made, put on pedestals, and maintained for nearly two hundred years, so that a 21-century tourist to the Louvre like me can strain my neck looking up at them in admiration. In this process, the ideas, styles, and aesthetics that these figures developed have been constantly appropriated and reproduced. And such reproduction had profound consequences not just in France, but around the world as well.

One day, as I was strolling down the banks of the Seine, I took a picture of the street and sent it to an old friend of mine in China. Five seconds later, before I could explain what it was, she responded, “So you came back to Nanjing? When?” (Nanjing is my hometown, a medium-sized city near the east coast of China.) My friend’s confusion was perfectly understandable. In fact, during my stay in Paris, there were multiple times that I felt a strange familiarity; the cobblestone patterns of the streets, the layout of the alleys, the way plane trees were planted, and the appearance of buildings, shops, and riverbanks all reminded me of my hometown. Intrigued by this resemblance, I did some research on Nanjing’s urban history. I found that it was the French that introduced plane trees to the city, and that French architects, endorsing the Beaux-Arts style, were deeply involved in formulating the first masterplan of Nanjing. It turns out that some of the most iconic buildings of my hometown were actually modeled after those in Paris, and for my fellow citizens today, they have become the standard for good architecture. Perhaps Nanjing, a city that always prides itself on being the embodiment of traditional Chinese culture, has been a version of Paris “with Chinese characteristics” all along.

Of course, the impact of French power extends far beyond the construction of a few Beaux-Arts-style buildings at the opposite end of Eurasia. I hope to finish recounting my experience in Paris with the most unforgettable conversation that I had there. When I had lunch with Muhammad, a Moroccan worker who was painting a building near CCFS, I was thrilled to find out that he worked in the Bouregreg Valley megaproject – a project that my classmates and I in MDES 301 had just learned about in April. Muhammad described megaprojects like this as “cultural projects,” expressing his gratitude to the king for bringing European culture into Morocco, so that Moroccans nowadays are becoming more and more civilized. I later learned that he also worked in the solar power plant in Agadir. As I wrote about this power plant in the final paper for my Arabic course last semester, I asked him out of curiosity about his work conditions, and why he left his job in Agadir to come to Paris. “I couldn’t earn enough money to survive,” he told me. “250 euros a month – that was all I got.” When he said the number, he spoke slowly, using hand gestures to signal “2” “5” and “0” so that I would understand. “There is a curious coincidence,” I replied. “I have relatives who work in construction fields in Nanjing. Could you guess how much they make?” Muhammad shook his head. “Exactly this number,” I said, using the same hand gestures that he did a minute ago. “250 euros.” We both fell silent. It takes at least thirty hours to fly from Nanjing to Agadir, yet two cities as distant and different from each other as these have witnessed a similar participation of French capital in launching urban megaprojects. I read quite a few social science papers about the solar power plant in Agadir, but none produced the same degree of emotional shock that I felt upon hearing “250 euros”; among the various implications of French or European “civilization,” it is this “globalization” of wages that I have so far found most striking.

The El Beih Paper Prize was established by USC alumnus Mohamed El Beih to recognize the best undergraduate student paper in Middle East Studies. Submissions for the 2024 prize will be accepted between September 1 and October 19, 2025.

The awardee will be announced at the department’s holiday party at the end of the fall semester. For more information, contact Professor Ramzi Rouighi (rouighi@usc.edu).

No recipient granted in 2024

2023 Recipient – Stella Horns

2022 Recipient – John Klopotowski

2021 Recipient – Coco Zhang

2020 Recipient – Zachary Hrenko

2020 Honorable Mention – Sofia Cortes

2019 Recipient – Emily Wulf

2018 Recipient – Paxton Lambright

2018 Honorable Mention – Ciara Taylor

The Department of Middle East Studies recognizes students who have demonstrated academic excellence in the study of the Arabic language. Nominations are made by Arabic language faculty to the MDES Awards Committee.

The awardees will be announced at a departmental ceremony in May 2025. For more information, contact Professor Ramzi Rouighi.

2025 Awardees – Giovanny Riad and Sudeepta Murthy

2024 Awardees – Skyler Korkowski and Anne Chen

2021 Awardees – Hana Ayoub, Domenic Camicia, and John Klopotowski

2020 Awardees – Hannah Kang and Jamie Schlegel

2019 Awardees – Paxton Lambright and Rawan Masri

2018 Awardees – Monica Leung and Nickolas Wrobleski

The Department of Middle East Studies recognizes students who have demonstrated academic excellence in the study of the Persian language. Nominations are made by Persian language faculty to the MDES Awards Committee.

The awardees will be announced at a departmental ceremony in May 2025. This award is partly funded by a generous contribution by the Gramian-Emrani Foundation. For more information, contact Professor Ramzi Rouighi.

2025 Awardess – Wendy Wang and Ilia Morshed

2024 Awardees – Cyrus Shirangi and Romina Nazari

2021 Awardees – Danial Hashemi and Melody Jebraili

2020 Awardees – Bijan Hosseini and Kaveh Mahdavi

2019 Awardees – Nastaran Far and Keon Ghodrati

2018 Awardees – Campbell Mattix and Bardia Soltani

The Department of Middle East Studies will be accepting applications for a Summer 2025 Foreign Language Scholarship. Applicants must be either a major or minor in our department or currently enrolled in Arabic or Persian language classes, have a minimum GPA of 3.3, and may not be graduating seniors.

Please submit a one page description of your summer plans to MDES@usc.edu by April 11, 2025 to be considered for Summer 2025.

This certificate attests to students’ linguistic competency in at least two foreign languages. To qualify, students must meet foreign langauge requirement in two or more foreign languages and at least two courses counting toward the certificate must be taken at USC with a grade of B or better. For more information, go to https://dornsife.usc.edu/center-for-languages-and-cultures/clc-certificate.

Dornsife Scholars are students whose academic achievements underscore the relationship between excellence in the core disciplines of Letters, Arts, and Sciences (either in the Humanities, Social Sciences or Natural Sciences) and the aspiration to have a positive impact on the world. Dana and David Dornsife are internationally renowned philanthropists with the highest regard for education. Dornsife Scholars will be expected to demonstrate a comparable commitment to educational excellence and the advances that allow for improving the lives of people and addressing pressing global challenges. For more information, go to https://dornsife.usc.edu/dornsife-scholars-program.

The Fisher Fellowship Program is the first program at USC Dornsife that enables students with financial needs to fully participate in the enrichment opportunities that are at the heart of the college. Students selected for this program will receive funding which may be used over a three-year period to participate in academic programs that involve international travel, field research, and service to various communities. For more information, go to https://dornsife.usc.edu/fisher-fellows-program.

Established to provide scholarship assistance to undergraduate middle-income students majoring or minoring in foreign languages. For more information, go tohttps://dornsife.usc.edu/scholarship-descriptions.

The SOAR program provides funding to Dornsife undergraduates for participation as a research assistant in a faculty member’s project. The purpose of SOAR is to connect students with faculty members and their research; it allows all students to be mentored one-on-one by USC faculty, introduces students early in their academic careers to the process of serious scholarly inquiry, and fosters valuable relationships between students and faculty. For more information, go to https://dornsife.usc.edu/soar.

SURF and SHURE are opportunities for USC Dornsife students to pursue research in conjunction with Dornsife faculty members, either on or off campus, during the summer semester. The purpose of SURF/SHURE is to connect students with faculty members and their research; it allows all students to be mentored one-on-one by USC faculty, introduces students early in their academic careers to the process of serious scholarly inquiry, and fosters valuable relationships between students and faculty. For more information, go to https://dornsife.usc.edu/surf-shure.

The Academic Achievement Award (AAA) provides a tuition benefit to students who are pursuing multiple undergraduate degree objectives, have at least sophomore standing, and have earned a cumulative USC GPA of at least 3.750. AAA allows Fall or Spring registration of up to 21 units at the standard full-time tuition rate.

The purpose of the award is to allow highly motivated students with excellent academic records to complete multiple undergraduate degree objectives without adding to their time-to-degree. For more information, go to https://ahf.usc.edu/awards/aaa/.

The Warren Bennis Scholars Program is a university-wide initiative offered by the Office of the Provost through the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab at the Marshall School. Each year, twenty students across academic disciplines are selected at the end of their sophomore year to participate in the two-year leadership program. Scholars receive intensive leadership training and access to top USC professors. For more information, go to https://ahf.usc.edu/awards/bennis-scholars/.

The annual USC Libraries Research Award recognizes excellence and creativity in the use of USC Libraries’ research collections and services. Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to submit papers or projects they have completed at USC in a for-credit class or through independent study during the spring, summer, or fall semesters of the current academic year. In addition to their papers, a Reflective Essay of 500-1000 words is required. For more information, go to http://libguides.usc.edu/researchaward.

The Office of the Provost will provide a limited number of fellowships for undergraduate research each academic year in the fall, spring and summer terms. Each undergraduate student funded by the program will receive a stipend in the amount of $3,000 to support research in any academic field for a period of not less than eight weeks at 20 hours per week during the awarded term. All full-time USC faculty engaged in research are eligible to serve as faculty supervisors. For more information, go to https://undergrad.usc.edu/experience/research/undergrad_research/.

The purpose of the Academic Research Fund is to provide support for undergraduate students who conduct research projects, attend academic conferences, and pursue other research-oriented academic interests. For more information, go to http://usg.usc.edu/funding/.

The USC Africa Student Fund is a scholarship intended to support undergraduate student travel to African countries for study, research, service-based learning and internships. Students who have identified a project or program are invited to apply with this funding in mind. Winners may receive full or partial funding to help cover airfare costs associated with their proposed project or program. For more information, go to https://ahf.usc.edu/awards/africa/.

The Leonard D. Schaeffer Fellows Program provides a unique undergraduate government service experience. The Program’s mission is to expose students to government work and its impact. While not all Schaeffer Fellows will pursue a career in government, the Program creates the opportunity for participants to become engaged citizens and develop an informed view of government service and operations. Schaeffer Fellows are selected from four elite universities – Harvard, Princeton, UC Berkeley, and USC. For more information, go to https://ahf.usc.edu/awards/schaeffer/.

A commencement honor, the Discovery Scholar distinction honors students who excel in the classroom while demonstrating the ability to create exceptional new scholarship or artistic works. Like sailors on an unexplored sea, Discovery Scholars blaze new paths, rather than simply following the course charted by others. For more information, go to https://ahf.usc.edu/commencement-honors/discovery/.

A commencement honor, USC Global Scholars extend their learning by spending at least ten weeks in other countries around the world. No matter what you are studying at USC, these Global Learning Outcomes can help you get the most from your time abroad by encouraging you to see the global impact of your education. For more information, go to https://ahf.usc.edu/commencement-honors/global/.

A commencement honor, the Renaissance Scholar distinction honors students whose broad interests help them excel academically. Like Leonardo da Vinci, who was equally adept in the arts and the sciences, Renaissance Scholars are students whose majors and minors are from widely separated fields of study. For more information, go to https://ahf.usc.edu/commencement-honors/renaissance/.