Opportunities

T.O.’s annual conferences grant our students the opportunity to enrich their academic experience by publicly presenting their original ideas and research. In response to a general call for papers, T.O. students develop topics under the given theme to be presented as part of a panel. Topics are reflective of students’ various disciplines and interests and focus on issues ranging from politics to popular culture. Each panel is composed of four to five students, with a USC faculty member or Thematic Option writing instructor serving as the panel’s chair and respondent. A question and answer session follows the presentation of papers in each panel, allowing panelists to defend their positions, draw new connections, and participate in collaborative dialogue with their peers.

Palaver Arts Magazine began in 1998 as a student-run print journal and was reborn as an online arts publication in 2016. Committed to showcasing the wide range of what USC students create—visual art, literary work, spoken word, mixed media pieces, short film, and more—Palaver provides a range of avenues for student engagement and for building a sense of artistic community, regardless of year or major. Moreover, Palaver offers a unique chance for student editors to gain hands-on, resume-building experience in the editorial and publishing world and to feel ownership for a common creative enterprise, with input from experienced faculty. We hope Palaver can provide formative opportunities to submit, to be published, to serve in an editorial capacity, and to celebrate creative expression here at USC in the context of a supportive, student-centered community.

Frameworks for Interdisciplinary Exchange (FIX) is a cooperative venture between the Joint Educational Project and the Thematic Option Honors Program. Open to students of all majors, FIXs offer interdisciplinary, service-based approaches to “wicked problems,” problems that are difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. Past FIXs have tackled issues like homelessness and food justice in Los Angeles and beyond.

Have you been looking for a minor in the humanities and social sciences, but your interests are too wide-ranging to fit within one specific field? Do you want to study themes that cross the boundaries of different departments? The Thematic Approaches to Humanities and Society minor empowers you to explore ideas across disciplines. With our flexible course list, you can identify a theme—or themes—and follow that thread through a range of USC Dornsife humanities and social science departments. In the past, students have investigated social justice, revolutionary literature, human and animal rights, ecophilosophy, diversity of the human experience, and more. The path you uncover will be uniquely your own.