With Wedlock of the Gods, professor brings Nigerian storytelling and culture to USC’s main stage
The production, which featured a nearly all-Black cast of students from the USC School of Dramatic Arts, celebrated the work of playwright Zulu Sofola.
USC Schwarzenegger Institute hosts Eisenhower Fellows
The participants came from seven African countries and represent diverse fields including agriculture, housing, public safety, water quality, finance, food security, environmental protection and fashion.
Is L.A. like a city built on Jell-O? Chukwuebuka Nweke may have the answers
The new USC Viterbi assistant professor seeks to make our cities more resilient in the face of natural disasters.
USC Africa Hub promotes global health through collaboration
The hub brings USC professors and students together with experts in Kenya and beyond to tackle some of the region’s most pressing health issues.
First-year student from two continents stops at USC on her way to two more
Lesley Omenge’s life journey has taken her across oceans and cultures. Immersing herself in the customs of others, her destination is somewhere on the other side of borders.
Bayo Akinfemi and Rodney To join full-time faculty at USC School of Dramatic Arts
The two bring decades of multiplatform professional experience into their classrooms, guiding students to the skills they will need to be adaptable in the rapidly changing landscape of entertainment.
Water dispute on the Nile River could destabilize the region
The rapid filling of a giant dam at the source of the world’s longest river could reduce the water supplies going to Egypt and increase tensions with Ethiopia, a new USC study finds.
USC Dornsife Mellon Mays Scholar explores queer culture and Black identity
Emmy Esquerre links “queer phobia” in today’s Black communities to political and religious systems put in place by European colonizers and missionaries in Africa and South America.
Musician Vimbayi Kaziboni heeds the call of conducting — and more
The USC Thornton alum has created a multifaceted career across continents as a conductor, artistic director and teacher.
Political expert — and new PhD — examines how to right the wrongs of the past
Kelebogile Zvobgo studies political violence and how trials and truth commissions can help countries understand and address the mistakes they’ve made.
Why genocide survivors can offer a way to heal from the trauma of the pandemic year
Though it may seem like a global pandemic and the genocide of a people have very little in common, the long-lingering effects of trauma on survivors are similar.
How the USC School of Cinematic Arts aims to diversify Hollywood, games and beyond
Ten years of work and millions of dollars in scholarships have pulled in students whose stories may have otherwise gone untold.
The pandemic echoes a history of disruption for Black families
USC experts discuss how COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on the Black community connects to a long history of upending Black families in America, from slavery to incarceration.
USC students gather to tell the story of the African diaspora
The ambitious virtual collaboration brings together artists from across the university to share a more complete history of the African American experience.
This Black History Month, better understand the role of the Black family
USC experts weigh in on the Black family, which has been “reverenced, stereotyped and vilified from the days of slavery to our own time,” according to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Edward Perkins, 92, first Black U.S. ambassador to South Africa and USC Price alum
Perkins, who received both his master’s and his PhD from USC, also worked as a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Among the dragons, there will always be heroes
Wayétu Moore pens a memoir that explores her escape from Liberia’s civil war and her immigrant experience in America.
USC alum chronicles the history of — and threats to — affirmative action
Former Mellon Mays scholar Amaka Okechukwu reflects on poetry, social justice and the uncertain future for diversity in higher education.
USC Dornsife alumna races to save Africa’s most endangered primate
Laura Loyola, now with USC Dornsife’s Spatial Sciences Institute, is using geographic information science to help preserve the habitat of the critically endangered Tana River colobus monkey.
Inherited mutation increases risk of prostate cancer in men of African descent
According to a new USC study, roughly 12% of men of African ancestry carry a variant in their genome that increases their prostate cancer risk twofold.
Read these 11 books to better understand race and privilege in America
As protestors take to the streets, USC Dornsife faculty offer reading suggestions that provide historical and cultural background on the roots of American racism.
USC Dornsife PhD graduate feels a responsibility to others
Deeply affected as a child by the Rwandan genocide, Robert Nshimiyimana volunteers to help the underserved, works to make compounds that may reduce harmful inflammation — and hopes one day to help his home nation reach its full, unified potential.
Measuring maternal grief in Africa
A high percentage of women in Africa experience the loss of a child, yet little scholarly or political attention is paid to this bereavement burden.
The death of a child is a devastatingly common experience for many African mothers
By their late 40s, nearly two-thirds of women in sub-Saharan Africa have lost a child, according to a USC study. Researchers are increasingly recognizing bereavement as a public health threat.