Fulbright Scholar awards go to USC Dornsife professor, lecturer and PhD students

A professor, a lecturer and two doctoral candidates at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences have received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards for the 2024–25 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Jessica Marglin, professor of religion, law and history, PhD students Jordan Chancellor and Katie Googe, and Nina Kang, USC Dornsife master lecturer at the American Language Institute, are among more than 800 scholars who will teach and conduct research abroad, as well as expand their networks of professional colleagues, through the program.

Fulbright scholarship supports Mediterranean history project

Marglin, who holds the Ruth Ziegler Chair in Jewish Studies, will use her award to support research in France for her book project The Extraterritorial Mediterranean: Sovereignty and Jurisdiction in the Nineteenth-Century. She’ll be affiliated with the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in Paris.

Marglin’s scholarship focuses on the history of Jews in North Africa and the Mediterranean and of non-Muslims in the Islamic world, with a particular emphasis on law. Her 2022 book The Shamama Case explores the decades-long legal battles that embroiled the estate of Nassim Shamam, a wealthy Tunisian Jew who died in Italy in 1873.

Her new book will explore “extraterritoriality,” a legal status under which non-native individuals can claim exemption from local laws. It’s similar to the modern concept of diplomatic immunity, says Marglin.

Extraterritoriality is largely extinct today, but in the 19th century, she says, all foreigners in the Ottoman Empire or Morocco benefited from this law: “From the end of the Napoleonic wars to the first world war, extraterritoriality provided the legal glue that bound together huge numbers of people on the move across the Middle Sea.”

This is Marglin’s second experience with the Fulbright program. From 2006 to 2007, a Fulbright fellowship funded her study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She has also received a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and the Rome Prize.

Fulbright scholar in Spain’s Canary Islands

Doctoral candidate Chancellor will teach marine sciences in the Canary Islands, off the coast of northwestern Africa.

Chancellor, who hails from Ramsey, Minn., will also work on a commercial seabream breeding program, a natural extension of her PhD research under USC Dornsife’s Andrew Gracey, associate professor of biological sciences. She studies population genomics in commercial aquaculture species at the Nuzhdin Aquaculture Lab, focusing on selective breeding to build climate change resilience.

“My PhD research utilizes a variety of molecular approaches in order to better understand the adaptation and domestication of commercial shellfish species to ocean acidification,” she says.

Chancellor says her long-term goals include continuing her research in the blue economy and aquaculture industry and developing sustainable strategies, products and systems that support food security as the climate changes.

“I am looking forward to having the opportunity to experience a new place and collaborate with scientists abroad making an impact on sustainable fisheries production and management.”

Fulbrighter will teach sci-fi in the Czech Republic

Originally from Athens, Georgia, Googe came to USC Dornsife to study the relationship between speculative fiction and understandings of history and time in writings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

She says her PhD in English, which will be conferred in August, focuses on “American speculative fiction authors from the 1880s to the 1930s who reimagined history as a way to condemn racism and imperialism.”

She’ll carry her interest in science fiction, the legacies of colonialism, gender and sexuality, and the connections between literature and film and television to Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, where she’ll teach classes exploring 19th- and 20th-century science fiction’s take on time and imperialism.

Googe says she’ll also research the ways in which both Czech and American speculative fiction authors in the period between World Wars I and II understood the idea of empire. She says the period is particularly interesting because “Czechoslovakia had just achieved independence, while the United States was at the height of its imperial reach.”

As she looks forward to meeting new students and colleagues from diverse academic and cultural backgrounds, she says, “I have always found that discussing my work with others gives me valuable insight into concepts I take for granted, and I am excited to spend a year immersed in the perspective of an American studies department outside of the U.S.”

In the long term, she aims to remain in academia, teaching and conducting research on American literature and its international connections.

Fulbright Scholar will use AI in language classrooms

Master lecturer Kang will join the University of Jordan in Amman. Her project aims to integrate instructional technology in language classrooms, fostering equitable access to emerging tools and skills crucial for modern education. She’ll draw from her experience in educational technology, particularly in the realm of AI, to enrich learning environments.

“Teaching academic and research writing for international graduate students at USC in the era of AI has forced me to reconceptualize my teaching approach and philosophy,” she explains. Kang has extended this expertise by engaging in consultancy work with the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, where she leads workshops for Vietnamese teachers on AI integration.

Kang’s Fulbright project also builds on her commitment to educational innovation and global engagement. Having previously worked in conflict-affected regions like the Balkans, Kang recognizes the transformative power of education during times of unrest.

“One of the most important criteria for Fulbright was to go to a country where I can contribute to building and strengthening an educational infrastructure,” Kang says. “Jordan is geopolitically and strategically significant in the ongoing Middle East crisis.”

At the USC Bovard College’s ALI, Kang oversees the International Students English Exam and contributes to the Taskforce on Academic Integrity. Her international experience spans Bulgaria, China, Korea, Serbia and Montenegro, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and recent U.S. Department of State consultancy roles in Lebanon and Vietnam.

“It’s a feeling of excitement and anticipation for the work ahead,” Kang reflects on her Fulbright selection. “I welcome the opportunity to engage in dialogues and collaborate with Jordanian scholars.”

Fulbright Scholars share knowledge globally

Marglin, Kang, Chancellor and Googe are among six Trojans who earned Fulbright Scholar awards this year. Jenifer Crawford of the USC Rossier School of Education and Serghei Mangul of the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences will journey to Mexico and Moldova, respectively.

Since 1946, the Fulbright program has enabled more than 400,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals to study, teach and conduct research in over 160 countries.

Notable Fulbrighters include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, 41 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public and nonprofit sectors.