USC Dornsife News

A USC Dornsife Maymester course offers undergrads an chance to engage with human rights activists, politicians and diplomats in one of the world’s least studied, most fraught regions.

Local city councilman, businessman and USC Dornsife alumnus and his siblings establish Bruce and Frances Kaji Family Endowed East Asian Studies Center (EASC) Fund.

Through a Maymester course, undergrads visit religious sites across India, observing how traditions around death help form the way citizens view themselves and their place in the world.

Through a summer course in Tulum, Mexico, USC students learn yoga and mindfulness. It’s part of a new minor aimed at helping students take control of their health.

USC Dornsife art historian Vanessa Schwartz selects photographs, paintings, posters and other media to showcase the origins of early cinema in an exhibit at the famed Musée d’Orsay in Paris and later at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. [5½ min read]

A Maymester class uses food as a vehicle for understanding the diversity, cultures and history of one of the world’s culinary hot spots — even during the COVID-19 lockdown. [4¼ min read]

The COVID-19 pandemic made in-person travel for Maymester courses impossible, but USC Dornsife professors quickly created classes in which students could immerse themselves in different cultures safely from home. [8 min read]

International travel, field research and community service projects are accessible to first-generation students at USC Dornsife through the Fisher Fellowship program.

Bookpacking in Louisiana. Examining art and culture in Cuba. Digging up ancient artifacts in Greece. Exploring hip hop culture in Paris. USC Dornsife students reap the educational rewards of travel — benefiting from a tradition that stretches back as far as ancient times.