Category Archives: Fellows

USC Fellow Co-Productes Launch of New Autism Resource

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USC Fellow Co-Productes Launch of New Autism Resource
by Lauren Evashenk 

Laura Cechanowicz, an Annenberg Fellow and PhD student in the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ new iMAP program, is looking forward to the upcoming launch event for the Interacting with Autism website, for which she has been a team member for the last two years. The launch marks the end of a three-year process, and the beginning of a new journey forward. The event is free and open to the public, and will take place Saturday, September 28, 2013 from 10am to 3pm in the new Interactive Media building within the School of Cinematic Arts.

Cechanowicz is co-producing the Launch Event with Shelbi Jay, which celebrates the unveiling of the video-based website, Interacting with Autism. Cechanowicz joined the team as the Project Manager while a Master of Fine Arts student in the USC School of Cinematic Arts, during which time she studied neuroscience in addition to animation to further her artistic exploration of the connection between the body and the mind. She lends to the project her skills in animation and video production, as well as her dedication to assisting those touched by autism.

Cechanowicz also directed a film for the site, “Exceptional Minds in Transition” (link to video). The focus of the piece is Exceptional Minds, a non-profit vocational school and studio that teaches young adults on the autism spectrum technical and creative tools in animation, facilitating their independence and entrance into the job market. An animator herself, Cechanowicz lent a further creative hand to Interacting with Autism by supplying animated watercolor and ink for the backgrounds in the video “Sensory Overload,” which explores what it might be like to live with Autism, and also created the animation for the short, “Treatment Overview.”

As the creative contributions by Cechanowicz’ indicate, Interacting with Autism takes a new approach to providing information about Autism. Begun by USC University Professor Marsha Kinder and USC Distinguished Professor Mark Harris, the website features documentary-style videos in a format that invites site visitors to interact with the topics at hand. Dr. Kinder conceived and directs The Labyrinth Project, an interactive digital initiative, and Dr. Harris is an Academy-Award winning documentary filmmaker. By combining their areas of expertise, the co-Principal Investigators created an innovative online resource that offers extensive information in easily-accessible videos. Interacting with Autism currently hosts more than thirty videos separated into three main sections: understanding autism, treating autism, and living with autism. Scott Mahoy, the project’s Creative Director of Design, is responsible for the site’s visually appealing layout and easy-to-navigate functionality.

“Our aim was to create a video intensive resource for families and people on the [autism] spectrum, a database they could reference when they have questions about the experience of autism and their options for treatment.  We wanted to help them understand what their options are as they move forward toward independence.  We also hoped to share the experience of autism with a wider audience.” Cechanowicz said.

The upcoming launch event furthers this mission. In addition to featuring multi-screen presentations of the website for visitors to interact with, three panels will discuss causes of autism, choosing treatments, and the process of building the website. Cechanowicz will participate in the panel discussing the creation of the project. The event will also host outside booths with individuals sharing their research on autism, and a poster session will feature research on autism taking place at USC.

“The information we present is based on the most current scientific research and we hope that this material helps to empower people touched by autism by providing the best knowledge about steps they can take,” Cechanowicz said.

In addition to providing useful information to visitors, the launch event will also have fun, interactive stations for children and their families. Cechanowicz’ influence is seen in an animation table where people can participate in a live animation workshop, which students from the Exceptional Minds school will help to teach. The Miracle Project, an organization dedicated to building community for children with autism through music, will give a live performance. To add some high-tech fun, the Nao Robot, a research project by Maja Matarić, Professor of Computer Science and Vice Dean for Research at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, will be present from 10:00am to 11:00am to play copy-cat behavioral games with children.

Cechanowicz and the rest of the Interacting with Autism team look forward to the launch of the site, and to the community’s opportunity to interact with it for the first time. They thank the event co-sponsors, the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, the USC Division of Occupational Science and Therapy, and the Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study. They also thank the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Autism Treatment Network (CHLA ATN) site for their contributions by way of experts, parent advisory board involvement and sponsorship for the event.

Event details are available here.

USC Provost Fellow Highlighted by the American Chemical Society

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Congratulations to USC PhD candidate Priscilla Antunez for having her article “Solution-Phase Synthesis of Highly Conductive Tungsten Diselenide Nanosheets” published in Chemistry of Materials. Priscilla’s article was also featured in the American Chemical Society’s Chemistry and Engineering News. Priscilla is a USC Provost Fellow and a National Science Foundation Fellow.

View Priscilla’s published article in Chemistry of Materials.

Read the American Chemical Society’s highlight of Priscilla’s research in the Chemical and Engineering News.

USC Annenberg Fellow Receives the Intel PhD Fellowship Award

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Congratulations to Annenberg Fellow Joshua McVeigh-Schultz, a PhD candidate in the USC School of Cinematic Arts Media Arts and Practice program, who recently received the Intel PhD Fellowship Award!

McVeigh-Schultz’ research explores the intersections between platform affordances and communication rituals with particular emphasis on audience-performer interactions, such as during civic performances like town halls, political debates, and parliamentary rules. His work imagines alternative configurations to these otherwise familiar rituals. For example, McVeigh-Schultz seeks to find what a political debate would look like if the audience were able to convey live feedback to a candidate through the objects and architectural features that we tend to take for granted, such as the speaker’s lectern, the microphone, and the stage lighting. For his dissertation, McVeigh-Schultz is prototyping objects that convey aggregated real-time audience feedback, such as an animatronic microphone that moves based on the input from a live audience. McVeigh-Schultz puts an interesting twist on the conventional use of animatronics by exploring how objects can come to stand in for live audiences.

To explore questions of how heightened levels and new styles of audience engagement will spur the invention of new rituals and challenge the dominant logic of public address, McVeigh-Schultz will also incorporate a filmmaking component to tell a story about the alternate world in which these animistic objects and alternative rituals exist. The Intel PhD fellowship will support both the platform development and filmmaking components of his dissertation. Next year, McVeigh-Schultz will assemble a team of developers to help build an audience-feedback app toolkit for a variety of animistic objects, and will also put together a film crew to help tell the story about the world in which the animistic microphones might live. Last year, McVeigh-Schultz had the opportunity to intern with Intel’s Interaction Experience Research group under Jay Melican, who is now his fellowship mentor. During this internship, McVeigh-Schultz also worked with Senior User Experience Lead Adam Jordan to explore platforms that enable playful engagement with data. 

Fulbright Student Grant Info Session and other Fulbright Opportunities

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The final Fulbright Student Grant information session of the semester will be held
Thursday, April 25th from 3:30pm-4:30pm in Leavey Library Auditorium.

Come learn about the Fulbright Student Grant from fellow USC Trojan, Paige Battcher, as she discusses her experience as a Fulbright Scholar. Fulbright advisors will also present information regarding the USC Fulbright application process.

If you would like more information about the Fulbright program but are unable to attend the session, please contact our office at aifstaff@usc.edu to schedule an appointment with an advisor. 

The Fulbright Student Grant is available to undergraduate and graduate students in any major field of study. U.S. citizenship is required.

Visit http://usfulbrightstudent.blogspot.com/2009/08/paige-battcher-2008-2008-thailand.html to learn more about Paige’s Fulbright Scholar experience.

 

ADDITIONAL FULBRIGHT OPPORTUNITIES:
Fulbright Scholar Program
http://www.cies.org/us_scholars/us_awards/
Deadline: August 1, 2013

Basic Eligibility Requirements:
– Applicants must have U.S. citizenship
– A Ph.D. or equivalent professional/terminal degree (including the master’s degree, depending on the field) as appropriate. Candidates outside academe (e.g., professionals, artists) need recognized professional standing and substantial professional accomplishments.

Fulbright Flex Awards
http://www.cies.org/us_scholars/us_awards/catalog/2014-2015/FLEX/
Deadline: August 1, 2013

For scholars who propose multiple stays of one to three months in the host country over a period of two to three years.  The total proposed visits should equal approximately one semester of exchanges.  In addition to their primary research or teaching activities, flex award scholars will be asked to give public talks, mentor students, and otherwise engage with the host-country academic community.

Fulbright Postdoctoral/Early Career Grants
http://www.cies.org/us_scholars/us_awards/catalog/2014-2015/POSTDOC/
Deadline: August 1, 2013

Postdoctoral/early career grants are open to U.S. scholars who have recently completed their doctoral degrees – typically within the five previous years. The number of such Fulbright Scholar awards has grown, particularly for research activities. A few awards include teaching opportunities as well.  Postdoctoral awards are available in STEM fields, the arts, humanities and social sciences.

VPGP Sally Pratt Addresses USC Annenberg Graduate Fellowship Symposium

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Thank you to all of the graduate students, faculty, staff, and friends of the Graduate School who attended the USC Annenberg Graduate Fellowship Research and Creative Project Symposium yesterday. It was a great event! Please enjoy Vice Provost for Graduate Programs Sally Pratt’s address to the symposium audience.

USC Annenberg Graduate Symposium Address
VPGP Sally Pratt
April 10, 2013

In case there was any doubt at all on your mind, let me confirm that this is the annual Annenberg Graduate Fellowship Symposium for Research and Creative Projects.  Let me further confirm that the symposium brings together Annenberg Graduate Fellows from the Viterbi School of Engineering, the School of Cinematic Arts, and the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.  It showcases innovative research in communication and digital media – presented by you, our Annenberg fellows – and it serves as the culminating celebration in a year-long program of activities that began with the Annenberg Micro Seminars last September.

The papers and e-posters represent a diverse collection of work, ranging from a poster that maps nuclear radiation in Japan, to an app that tracks gym traffic at the USC Lyon Center, a chip that switches radio frequencies to make encryption unnecessary, and an animated city symphony that celebrates the hidden world of background noises.

There are 65 participating fellows.  And let me tell you, I salute each and every one of you.  I salute the work you have done to bridge disciplines, the work you have done to coordinate your lives as busy people in order to work together, and most of all. I salute you as scholars and creative souls with “fire in your belly” – the “fire” to push not only your ideas, but also your ability to express your ideas, to the nth degree.  It was this notion of an ability to grab ideas, work with others, and push and push the material that caused the gleam in the eye of the Annenberg Foundation when it funded this program.  It is this same notion that puts a spring in the step of your faculty advisors, your deans, and the staff of the Graduate School and Provost’s Office.

I have been reading a book by William Dalrymple, called City of Djinns:  A Year in Delhi.  In Dalrymple’s portrayal, Delhi is a city of many layers:  diachronic historical layers of civilization after civilization that occupied the same geographic spot; and synchronic layers of all the different cultures and economic classes that exist together at any one time.  According to local folklore, it is the djinns, the fire-formed spirits always on the move, that make the city whole, that keep the city alive as a city in all its manifold identities.  Djinns fulfill different functions in different belief systems.  But if you can say that the university is like the city of Delhi in its historical and cultural multifacetedness – and I believe that you can – then, like the djinns, you are lively, life-giving spirits of energy and cohesion that make us whole.  As an individual faculty member, and as an official representative of “The University,” I am so grateful to you for that!

Before closing, I want to acknowledge both the faculty who are here, and all the faculty who have nurtured you and your projects along the way, even if they’re not here at this moment. Please join me in giving a round of applause to our dedicated USC faculty.

I would also like to thank the staff of the Davidson Conference Center for their excellent service.  They help not only with the food, but with the humane and personal tone of this symposium.  Thank you!

And finally, we should thank the graduate school staff who have been helping today, most particularly Assistant Dean for Fellowships, Meredith Drake Reitan and Kate Tegmeyer. They are the brains and the engine of this symposium and the Annenberg Fellows program.  Thank you, Meredith and Kate. We owe you a huge debt of gratitude!

And now, let the celebration of knowledge continue!  Thank you.

Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association International Scholarship

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USC will nominate two international students for the 2013 Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association International Scholarship. The nominated students will be expected to complete their studies in 2013 – 2014. The award is for $1,500.

Students are asked to return the completed application via email to gradfllw@usc.edu by Monday, May 6, 2013. Faculty recommenders may send their form and/or letter via email to gradfllw@usc.edu by Monday, May 6, 2013.

When preparing the application, students should keep in mind the following criteria:

  1. The award is intended for foreign students completing their graduate work. Students are only eligible for one award.
  2. Awardees are expected to be returning to their home countries, preferably just after completing the degree. However, postdoctoral study, especially where it is expected for the study to be “finished” and/or  is unobtainable in the home country, has always been an area where some latitude has been permitted.  It is also recognized that political or economic conditions may prevent the student from returning home.
  3. Awardees must have both academic excellence and significant need.
  4. Awardees must be fully enrolled to receive their scholarships. (Proof of enrollment is required to get the checks.)
  5. Awardees are not limited to persons who come from underdeveloped or developing countries. 
  6. Awards are to be made without discrimination on the basis of sex, race, age or creed.

The “Statement Regarding Awards,” on the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association website provides a general description of the scholarship. To reach the site, go to <http://www.pbksocalalumni.com>, then to “Scholars and Scholarships,” then “International Scholarships.”

Announcing the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at UC Berkeley

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The Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley is now accepting applications for the 2013-15 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities, established with a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  Four new fellows will be appointed for 2013-15, to teach and carry out research in a sponsoring department in the humanities.

Appointment will be for two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Fellows will be expected to teach one course per semester, for four consecutive semesters (not including summer sessions). Salary will be approximately $61,000 a year, with mid-level benefits. New Fellows will receive a $1,500 computer and technology allowance, and in each year of their appointment, Fellows will receive a flexible research fund of $5,000 to cover such costs as travel and research assistance.

The Application deadline is April 12, 2013.

This year’s eligible applicants must have received the PhD no earlier than July 1, 2010 and no later than June 30, 2013. UC Berkeley PhDs are not eligible for this fellowship.

For additional information and to submit an application online, please visit: http://ls.berkeley.edu/art-hum/mellon/Applicants may not hold an appointment in a tenure-track position, and Mellon Fellows may not hold any other appointment during the period of the fellowship. Applications from international scholars are accepted.

The University of California is an EO/AA/ADA employer.

 

5th Annual Graduate Research Symposium

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Question:
What do dark matter, eating disorders, air marshals, robots, ruins in Pompeii, Kodak cameras all have in common?

Answer:
They are all research subjects in the 5th Annual Graduate Research Symposium!

Join us Tuesday, April 2nd in the Tutor Campus Center Grand Ballroom for a showcase of the best graduate research at USC. This is the only university-wide academic event for graduate students. Similar to a “TED talk,” students will each present for 5 minutes with the help of a single power point slide. 

STEM (Sciences, Tech, Engineering, Math) Presentations take place from 9:00am-12:00pm
Social Sciences, Arts, Humanities Presentations take place from 12:30-3:30pm

Undergraduates welcomed! This is a great chance to learn about what graduate research is all about.

FREE Food and USC SWAG!!
More info here: http://tinyurl.com/USCGradsymp

RSVP kindly requested but not required. RSVP to: http://tinyurl.com/GRSrsvp

EXTENDED DEADLINE — Call for Proposals: Fellowship Applicants for the USC Center for Feminist Research

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CALL FOR PROPOSALS: FELLOWSHIP APPLICANTS

USC Center for Feminist Research
NEW DIRECTIONS IN FEMINIST RESEARCH
2013-2014 Seminar Theme: “Global Capitalism and Intimate Industries”
Seminar Director: Rhacel Salazar Parreñas

Each year, the CFR sponsors an interdisciplinary research seminar broadly related to feminist topics, themes, or methods. The seminar’s theme in 2013-2014 is “Global Capitalism and Intimate Industries,” and will be directed by Professor Rhacel Salazar Parreñas (Sociology and Gender Studies). We are now inviting applications from USC faculty and advanced graduate students to become 2013-2014 New Directions Fellows. Faculty fellows are awarded research stipends of $2500 and graduate student fellows receive $1000 to pursue their own research related to the seminar’s theme.

The 2013-2014 seminar will bring together scholars from a wide range of disciplines to advance the humanities and social science literature on gender, labor, and global capitalism. The seminar focuses on “intimate industries” in peripheral economies, meaning industries that commodify intimacies including affect, care, reproduction, and sex in the ‘Global South’. Examples of these industries include international marriage brokerages, migrant care work training centers, medical tourism facilities, sex tourism companies, internet pornography businesses, cultural tourism institutions, call centers, adoption centers, and surrogacy clinics.

Seminar participants will examine the distinctive elements of markets for intimate industries, and account for the construction of race, gender, sexuality and nation in intimate labor. Employing a multi-scalar approach, the seminar will interrogate the social relations constructed in intimate industries, such as relations between surrogates and mothers, care workers and wards, and migrant remitters and recipients. Seminar participants will also examine how the state regulates intimate industries, illustrating how state and transnational regulations and public anxieties that are gendered and racialized often emerge alongside the commodification of intimacy. Lastly, the seminar will explore how intimate industries reconfigure the political economy of globalization. Scholars conducting international research are encouraged to apply.

Applicants should submit a CV of no more than four pages, and a two-page description of their ongoing or proposed research on by March 27th to Rebecca Das: cfr@usc.edu. Next year’s Fellows will be announced by mid-April. New Directions in Feminist Research Seminars offer a setting where faculty and advanced graduate students pursuing related research can work intensively on their own ongoing projects in a collegial atmosphere that encourages productive experimentation and provides both intellectual and material support. During the course of the academic year, New Directions Fellows participate in a series of workshop sessions focused on the development and presentation of their own work. Fellows are expected to meet in seminar at least six times during the academic year. They are also expected to participate in related public seminar events.