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PhD Program

Poetry: Mark Irwin, Anna Journey, Robin Coste Lewis, Susan McCabe, David St. John Fiction: Aimee Bender, Percival Everett, Dana Johnson, Viet Thanh Nguyen Nonfiction: Geoff Dyer, Maggie Nelson, Danzy Senna, David Treuer

The program offers full funding in the form of fellowships and assistantships, which include tuition remission, year-round health insurance coverage, and a modest stipend.

Students are encouraged to cultivate their diverse interests with courses outside of the English Department. Many students choose to pursue a complimentary graduate certificate concurrent with the PhD degree. The Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences offers graduate certificate programs in Gender Studies, Visual Studies, East Asian Studies, and Visual Anthropology, among others.

Students also have the opportunity to participate in PhD student-run projects such as the Loudest Voice, a reading series, and Gold Line Press, a publisher of poetry and fiction chapbooks. There is also the English Department’s Boudreaux Visiting Writers Series and Frank N. Magill Poetry Series, as well as the University-wide Visions & Voices series. USC also hosts the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

For a list of alumni, please visit the program’s website .

Return to: USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences    

The Department of English offers a broad range of courses in English, American and Anglophone literature of all periods and genres, and in related areas such as creative and expository writing, literature and visual arts, ethnic literature and cultural studies, history of the English language and of literary criticism, and literary and cultural theory. Instructors assign extensive reading and writing in order to help students become perceptive readers, critical thinkers and strong writers. Class sizes are kept at 19 to enable full discussion in literature classes and at 12 in creative writing workshops.

Taper Hall of Humanities 404 (213) 740-2808 Email: [email protected] dornsife.usc.edu/engl  

Chair: David St. John, MFA

University Professor and Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature and Professor of English, Art History and History: Leo Braudy, PhD

University Professor of English, American Studies & Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature and Aerol Arnold Chair of English: Viet Thanh Nguyen*, PhD

University Professor of English and Comparative Literature: David St. John, MFA

USC Associates Chair in Humanities and Professor of English, American Studies & Ethnicity and Comparative Literature: John Carlos Rowe, PhD

Distinguished Professors of English: Aimee Bender, MFA; Percival Everett, AM

Provost Professor of Art History and English: Kate Flint, PhD (Art History)

Provost Professor of Humanities and Arts: Enrique T. Martinez Celaya, MFA

Dean’s Professor of English and Professor of Theatre : Bruce Smith, PhD

Gender Studies Professor in Media and Gender and Professor of English, Comparative Literature and Gender Studies: Joseph A. Boone, PhD

Florence R. Scott Professor of English and Professor of English and Comparative Literature: Tania Modleski, PhD

Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture: Dana Gioia, MBA

Writers in Residence: Geoffrey Dyer, BA; Robin Coste Lewis, PhD

Professors: Joseph A. Dane, PhD; Lawrence D. Green, PhD; Mark Irwin, PhD; Susan McCabe, PhD; Edwin McCann*, PhD (Philosophy) ; Carol Muske-Dukes*, MFA; Maggie Nelson, PhD; David Rollo*, PhD; David Román*, PhD; Margaret E. Russett, PhD; Hilary M. Schor, PhD; Andrew Stott, PhD; Daniel Tiffany, PhD; David Treuer, PhD; Marianne Wiggins

Associate Professors: Emily Anderson*, PhD; Marjorie Becker, PhD (History) ; Alice Gambrell*, PhD; Devin Griffiths, PhD; Thomas Gustafson*, PhD; William R. Handley, PhD; Heather James, PhD*; Dana Johnson, MFA; Anthony Kemp, PhD; Rebecca Lemon, PhD; Danzy Senna, MFA; Karen L. Tongson, PhD

Assistant Professors: Melissa Daniels-Rauterkus, PhD; Anna Journey, PhD; Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, PhD; Elda María Román, PhD

Professor of the Practice of English : Brighde Mullins, MFA

Professors (Teaching): Christopher Freeman, PhD; Thea Tomaini, PhD

Associate Professors (Teaching): Mary (Molly) A. Bendall, MA; Richard Berg, PhD; Susan Segal, MFA

Assistant Professors of the Practice: M.G. Lord, MFA; David Ulin, BA

Assistant Professor (Teaching) : Beatrice Sanford Russell, PhD

Professor Emeritus of English and Aerol Arnold Professor Emeritus of English: James R. Kincaid, PhD

Leo S. Bing Professor Emeritus: Jay Martin, PhD

Leo S. Bing Professor Emeritus of English and American Literature: Paul K. Alkon, PhD

Florence R. Scott Professor of English Emerita: Marjorie Perloff, PhD

Distinguished Emerita Professor: Virginia J. Tufte*, PhD

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and Writer in Residence Emeritus: T. Coraghessan Boyle, PhD

Emeritus Professors: Charles B. Berryman, PhD; Donald C. Freeman, PhD; Max F. Schulz, PhD

Emeritus Associate Professors: William H. Brown, PhD; David Eggenschwiler, PhD; Stephen C. Moore, PhD

*Recipient of university-wide or college teaching award.

Undergraduate Degrees

All students meet with a faculty adviser before registering for courses each semester. Faculty advisers help students shape their majors according to their evolving interests and the requirements of the majors. Students should consult the director of undergraduate studies and the undergraduate staff adviser about departmental clearances and course substitutions.

Double Majors

The department strongly encourages majoring in both English and in another department in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences or in another school of the university.

English Honors Program

Candidates for the BA in English can receive a designation on their transcripts of departmental honors by successfully completing a senior honors thesis while enrolled in ENGL 496   , and having a 3.5 final GPA.  ENGL 491 Senior Seminar in Literary Studies    is a prerequisite for ENGL 496   . Students with a minimum GPA of 3.0 overall and 3.5 in English courses can apply for ENGL 496   ; application is due at the start of fall semester of senior year. For additional information, contact a departmental adviser or the director of undergraduate studies.

Teaching Credential Requirements

Credential requirements in California and elsewhere are complex and changeable. Students interested in preparing for public school teaching should contact the Credentials Office, Rossier School of Education (or refer to this catalogue page   ), and the undergraduate adviser in the English department for up-to-date information. The English department usually offers courses that satisfy most, if not all, of these requirements.

Graduate Degrees

Admission requirements.

Requirements for admission to study in the department of English include: GRE scores that are satisfactory to the department on both the verbal portion of the General Test and the literature Subject Test of the Graduate Record Examinations; evidence of competence in writing English and interpreting English literature, as demonstrated by two samples of written work by the applicant on literary subjects; a satisfactory written statement by the applicant of aims and interests in graduate work; letters of recommendation from at least three college instructors (English instructors preferred); and grades satisfactory to the department earned by the applicant at other institutions.

Degree Requirements

These degrees are under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Refer to The Graduate School    section of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degrees must be courses accepted by the Graduate School.

Common Requirements

Transfer of credit.

A Transfer Credit Statement is prepared by the Degree Progress Department for students admitted to full graduate standing. The application of any available transfer credit is contingent on successful completion of the screening procedure and is determined by the director of graduate studies no later than the end of the second year according to the following guidelines: credit will only be allowed for courses (1) from accredited graduate schools; (2) of grade B (3.0 on a four-point scale) or better; (3) constituting a fair and reasonable equivalent to current USC course work at the graduate level and fitting into the program for the degree; and (4) approved by the Graduate School. Graduate transfer credit will not be granted for life experience, credit by examination, non-credit extension courses, correspondence courses or thesis course supervision.

The maximum number of transfer credits that may be applied toward the Master of Arts degree is 4 units. The maximum number of transfer credits that may be applied toward the PhD degree is 12 units. The Graduate School stipulates that transfer units must have been completed within 10 years of admission for the doctoral program to be applied toward the degree.

Experience in Teaching

This requirement may be fulfilled by one or more years’ service as an assistant lecturer in the Writing Program or equivalent experience as determined by the director of the Graduate Studies Program.

Graduate Activity and Support

The English Department is committed to the development of its graduate students as professionals. To this end, the department provides a number of opportunities for professional activity. In addition, the Association of English Graduate Students (AEGS) hosts a variety of lectures, discussions and forums throughout the year. To support the student’s professional activities outside of USC, the department also provides some funding for travel to conferences and professional meetings, along with a full range of placement, advising and support activities. Graduate creative writing students will host lectures, discussions and forums in poetry and fiction studies.

• English (BA)
• Narrative Studies (BA)
• Cultural Studies Minor
• Early Modern Studies Interdisciplinary Minor
• English Minor
• Narrative Structure Interdisciplinary Minor
• English (MA)
• Literary Editing and Publishing (MA)
• English and American Literature (PhD)
• Literature and Creative Writing (PhD)
• ENGL 105x Creative Writing for Non-Majors
• ENGL 170g The Monster and the Detective
• ENGL 172g The Art of Poetry
• ENGL 174g Reading the Heart: Emotional Intelligence and the Humanities
• ENGL 176g Los Angeles: the City, the Novel, the Movie
• ENGL 230g Shakespeare and His Times
• ENGL 250gm The African Diaspora
• ENGL 261g English Literature to 1800
• ENGL 262g English Literature since 1800
• ENGL 263g American Literature
• ENGL 280g Introduction to Narrative Medicine
• ENGL 285m African American Popular Culture
• ENGL 290 Cultural Studies: Theories and Methods
• ENGL 298g Introduction to the Genre of Fiction
• ENGL 299g Introduction to the Genre of Poetry
• ENGL 300 Advanced Expository Writing
• ENGL 301 The Rhetoric of Written Composition
• ENGL 302 Writing Narrative
• ENGL 303 Introduction to Fiction Writing
• ENGL 304 Introduction to Poetry Writing
• ENGL 305 Introduction to Nonfiction Writing
• ENGL 309 The English Language
• ENGL 310 Editing for Writers
• ENGL 311 History and Grammar of Modern English
• ENGL 312 Analysis of Written Persuasion
• ENGL 341 Women in English Literature before 1800
• ENGL 342g Women in English and American Literature after 1800
• ENGL 343m Images of Women in Contemporary Culture
• ENGL 344gm Sexual/Textual Diversity
• ENGL 350g Literature of California
• ENGL 351 Periods and Genres in American Literature
• ENGL 352g Bookpacking
• ENGL 355g Anglo-American Law and Literature
• ENGL 360 Modern Poetry
• ENGL 361g Contemporary Prose
• ENGL 362 Contemporary Poetry
• ENGL 363 Contemporary Drama
• ENGL 363g Contemporary Drama
• ENGL 364 The Modern Novel
• ENGL 371g Literary Genres and Film
• ENGL 372 Literature and Related Arts
• ENGL 373g Literature and Society
• ENGL 374m Literature, Nationality and Otherness
• ENGL 375 Science Fiction
• ENGL 376g Comics and Graphic Novels
• ENGL 379 History of Literary Criticism
• ENGL 380 Modern Literary Criticism: Theory and Practice
• ENGL 381 Narrative Forms in Literature and Film
• ENGL 390 Special Problems
• ENGL 392 Visual and Popular Culture
• ENGL 395 Junior Honors Seminar
• ENGL 402 Narrative Composition
• ENGL 404 The Writer in the Community
• ENGL 405 Fiction Writing
• ENGL 406 Poetry Writing
• ENGL 407 Advanced Fiction Writing
• ENGL 408 Advanced Poetry Writing
• ENGL 420 English Literature of the Middle Ages (1100–1500)
• ENGL 421 English Literature of the 16th Century
• ENGL 422 English Literature of the 17th Century
• ENGL 423 English Literature of the 18th Century (1660–1780)
• ENGL 424 English Literature of the Romantic Age (1780–1832)
• ENGL 425 English Literature of the Victorian Age (1832–1890)
• ENGL 426 Modern English Literature (1890–1945)
• ENGL 430 Shakespeare
• ENGL 440 American Literature to 1865
• ENGL 441 American Literature, 1865 to 1920
• ENGL 442 American Literature, 1920 to the Present
• ENGL 444m Native American Literature
• ENGL 445m The Literatures of America: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
• ENGL 446 African-American Poetry and Drama
• ENGL 447m African-American Narrative
• ENGL 448m Chicano and Latino Literature
• ENGL 449m Asian American Literature
• ENGL 454 Aesthetic Philosophy and Theory
• ENGL 461 English Drama to 1800
• ENGL 462 British and American Drama 1800–1950
• ENGL 465 The English Novel to 1800
• ENGL 466 The 19th Century English Novel
• ENGL 475 Politics and the Novel
• ENGL 490x Directed Research
• ENGL 491 Senior Seminar in Literary Studies
• ENGL 492 Narrative Studies Capstone Seminar
• ENGL 495 Senior Honors Seminar
• ENGL 496 Senior Honors Thesis
• ENGL 497 Senior Seminar in Early Modern Studies
• ENGL 499 Special Topics
• ENGL 501 History of Literary and Cultural Theory
• ENGL 502 Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory
• ENGL 503 Theories of History, Ideology and Politics
• ENGL 504 Theories of Race, Class, and Gender
• ENGL 507 Rhetoric and Language
• ENGL 508 History, Theories and Practice of Cultural Studies
• ENGL 510 Medieval English Literatures and Cultures
• ENGL 520 Renaissance English Literatures and Cultures
• ENGL 530 Restoration and 18th Century British Literatures and Cultures
• ENGL 535 Literatures and Cultures of the Romantic Period
• ENGL 536 Literatures and Cultures of the Victorian Period
• ENGL 540 19th Century British Literatures and Cultures
• ENGL 550 20th Century British Literatures and Cultures
• ENGL 560 Early American Literatures and Cultures

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• Graduate Degrees awarded at USC
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• Guidelines and Forms
• Student Resources
• Required Documents
• Submission Deadlines
• Guidelines to Submission
• Manuscript Formatting Guidelines
• Fellowships for PhD Students
• Scholarships for Masters Students
• Academic Support, Professional Development and Diversity Inclusion Programs

USC Doctoral Student Fuses Physics and English to Publish a Book of Poetry

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A USC Provost Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in the USC Dornsife English Literature & Creative Writing program, Cantwell will publish her first book of poetry, Nights I Let the Tiger Get You , with Black Lawrence Press in April 2014, just in time for Commencement.

Cantwell credits USC for helping to develop her talents and career. “This is a unique program. It’s not typical for a doctoral degree to combine the traditional study of literature with a creative component,” Cantwell said.

The unique style of scholarship that brought Cantwell to USC is also what sets her apart; the critical analysis portion of her coursework led her to find inspiration for her own writing in unexpected places.

“My dissertation focuses on Renaissance literature and the idea of ‘the infinite.’ The telescope and microscope were invented during the early modern period, and these groundbreaking developments enabled people to look both out and in, forcing them to actually deal with infinity’s implications.” Cantwell said.

Encouraged by the interdisciplinary links she found in Renaissance works, Cantwell began looking to the sciences for her own inspiration. She found the interdisciplinary work so compelling that the study of physics became a central piece of her dissertation; one of her dissertation committee members is even a faculty member in the USC Physics and Astronomy Department.

Though physics and poetry seem like an unlikely pair, Cantwell views poetry as a powerful tool for interdisciplinary learning. Inspired by her brother’s troubles in school, Cantwell taught high school after graduating from Yale University, and plans to return to teaching after completing her doctoral studies to inspire the next generation of thinkers and creators. She hopes that writing creatively about scientific topics will help students to better understand the subjects, enjoy learning, and feel accomplished for having completed a creative project.

Cantwell plans to continue her growing writing career after she returns to teaching. In addition to her forthcoming book, Cantwell recently won the Chapbook Contest with Grey Book Press , and the house will publish her short collection, Premonitions , this year. Cantwell was also a finalist for the 2012 Hudson Prize, and has published poems in a variety of journals, including PANK , The Los Angeles Review, Anti-, La Petite Zine , and the Indiana Review .

Read an excerpt of Nights I Let the Tiger Get You in Tinge Magazine .

What are you looking for?

News listing, l.a. poet victoria chang wins usc dornsife’s 2023 chowdhury prize in literature.

The Department of English, with the support of the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Foundation and in collaboration with Kenyon College and the Kenyon Review, will award the $20,000 prize during a gala at USC on April 18.

Alum creates the first poetry library in California, emphasizing works by poets of color

Hiram Sims opens the Sims Library of Poetry, a space for people from Inglewood and the rest of Los Angeles to read, write and create.

One Mexican American’s Identity Struggle: Confronting Race and Belonging

Thoughts on speaking Spanish and passing as white all come out in a starkly honest Q&A with spoken word artist and USC alum David A. Romero.

5 Things to Know about Poet Robin Coste Lewis

Get to know the award-winning poet laureate, theologian and USC writer in residence.

USC poet’s work conveys a passion for the macabre

Anna Journey takes a walk on the dark side in poems and essays about graveyards, infidelities and tattoos.

David St. John named Academy of American Poets chancellor

The accomplished USC author will consult with the organization and act as an ambassador of poetry in the world at large.

Graduate student receives affirmation of her talent — a prestigious award for poetry

Safiya Sinclair, whose first poem was published at the age of 16 in her home of Jamaica, garners the 2016 Whiting Award.

How to give a Valentine from your heart — not the wallet

Professor Dana Gioia, California’s poet laureate, reveals his strategy for writing winning prose.

USC’s Dana Gioia named California Poet Laureate

The California native will present public readings in classrooms, boardrooms and other places during his two-year term.

Does poetry hold the key to highly secure passwords?

Two USC Viterbi computational linguists use a method that takes more than 11 years to break.

https://dornsife.usc.edu/engl THH 404, MC 0354

Main Phone: 740-2808 Main Fax: 741-0377 Email: [email protected]

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Poetry as the Conscience of Culture

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Description

How does poetry influence our lives? The art form has always offered a safe harbor in times of cultural, social and personal crisis. In this webinar by USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences , some of the world’s most accomplished poets discuss how they — and everyone — can draw inspiration and strength from poetry to lead a richer life.

Moderated by David Ulin , associate professor of the practice of English and former editor and book critic for the Los Angeles Times, the panel of participants includes: Robin Coste Lewis , USC Dornsife writer-in-residence and former poet laureate of Los Angeles; David St. John , professor of English and comparative literature and lauded poet; Douglas Kearney , multi-award-winning poet, performer and author.

Who Will Benefit

– Those hoping to discover how poetry can address loss and grief, especially in times of heightened crisis – Writers who want to learn how contemporary poets are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic – Those looking to deepen their connection with the poetry and its everyday influence on our lives

About Our Featured Faculty

David St. John has been honored, over the course of his career, with many of the most significant prizes for poets, including both the Rome Fellowship and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the O.B. Hardison Prize for teaching and poetic achievement from the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the George Drury Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from Beyond Baroque. He is a University Professor and professor of English and comparative literature at USC Dornsife.

Robin Coste Lewis is the poet laureate of Los Angeles. In 2015, her debut poetry collection, Voyage of the Sable Venus , won the National Book Award in poetry. Lewis’ writing has appeared in various journals and anthologies, such as Time, New Yorker, New York Times, Paris Review, Transition and Best American Poetry. Lewis is currently at work on two new collections, To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness and Prosthetic . She has received fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and was named an “Art-of-Change” fellow by the Ford Foundation. She is writer-in-residence at USC Dornsife.

David Ulin is associate professor of the practice of English and USC Dornsife. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles , shortlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology , which won a California Book Award. The former book editor and book critic of the Los Angeles Times, he has written for The Atlantic Monthly, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Paris Review and The New York Times. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Black Mountain Institute and the Lannan Foundation. Most recently, he edited the Library of America’s Didion: The 1960s and 70s , the first in a three volume edition of the author’s collected works.

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Personalized Poetry Comforts Cancer Patients

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A Keck Medicine of USC program is helping uplift cancer patients with a unique, artful therapy: poems tailored to the journey of each individual. 

Genevieve “Viva” Nelson is writing poems for cancer patients that she says, “celebrate their lives and help them see that they are so much larger than their diagnoses.”

It’s the latest offering of Keck Medicine of USC ’s Institute of Arts in Medicine.

Formed in 2019 by oncologist  Jacek Pinski, MD, PhD , clinical director, and Nelson, creative director, the institute seeks to improve cancer patients’ quality of life — and possibly change their clinical outcomes — through music, visual arts and now poetry. 

Dr. Pinski identifies patients likely to benefit from a personalized poem, then gathers information about their backgrounds and interests from them, their family members and caregivers. Nelson then uses his findings to create a poem tailored to each patient. 

A healing, heartfelt surprise

“We’re doing this to change cancer patients’ experience by surprising them with something that warms their hearts and makes them feel good,” says Dr. Pinski, associate professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC . “The reactions have been very emotional and overwhelmingly positive.”

Nelson adds that she tries to “incorporate children and spouses in the poetry to celebrate the patient’s family too.” 

We’re doing this to change cancer patients’ experience by surprising them with something that warms their hearts and makes them feel good. Jacek Kinski, MD, PhD, clinical director,

Nelson has written about 20 poems and is starting to help patients write their own.

The institute also recently began research to explore the utility of creative interventions in lowering stress and anxiety among patients undergoing painful procedures such as bone marrow biopsy and lumbar puncture.

Patients interested in receiving or writing poems, and family and staff members interested in contributing to the program, may contact Nelson at [email protected].

Connect With Our Team

Related magazine articles, clinical trial expansion supports diversity, meet the staff: teri rice, family education program coordinator, women share their paths to chiefs of staff, 8 specialties earn u.s. news rankings, advanced endoscopy lab provides versatility, meet the staff: rashmi bandekar, physical therapist.

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USC valedictorian’s grad speech is canceled: ‘The university has betrayed me’

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When Asna Tabassum learned that USC had disinvited her from speaking at next month’s graduation, she hadn’t yet planned what she would say in her remarks, beyond that she would convey a message of hope.

University leaders who announced the decision Monday , after pro-Israel groups criticized a link on Tabassum’s Instagram page as evidence of her being antisemitic, didn’t know the theme of her speech because she hadn’t shared it with them, the class valedictorian said an interview with The Times on Tuesday.

Tabassum, a biomedical engineering major, said that in addition to hope, she was thinking of touching on “how we must continue to use our education as a privilege to inform ourselves and ultimately make a change in the world.”

In keeping Tabassum from giving a three- to five-minute speech in front of 65,000 people during the May 10 ceremony, USC Provost Andrew T. Guzman cited the need to “maintain campus safety and security.” The university alluded to unnamed threats but has not publicly detailed them.

The move was unprecedented for a ceremony where students regularly make political and cultural statements through written message on their graduation caps and sashes, as well as through the traditional valedictory speech.

Citing safety concerns, USC cancels pro-Palestinian valedictorian’s graduation speech

USC cites safety reasons in canceling the upcoming graduation speech of pro-Palestinian valedictorian from speaking onstage at her ceremony.

April 15, 2024

The backlash against Tabassum, who was chosen as valedictorian by a university committee from nearly 100 applicants with GPAs of 3.98 or above, was unusual, even at a time of intense campus strife between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel activists, because it didn’t involve anything she said or did. The opposition appeared to stem mostly from a link on her Instagram profile to a website she did not create.

The site, Free Palestine Carrd, features a photo of a woman raising a Palestinian flag above plumes of smoke during a 2018 protest near the Israel-Gaza border. A series of links explains how to “learn about what’s happening in Palestine.”

The links include statements that Zionism is a “racist settler-colonialist ideology” and that founders of Zionism thought “Palestinians needed to be ethnically cleansed from their homes.” The website explains proposals for two-state and one-state solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“One Palestinian state would mean Palestinian liberation, and the complete abolishment of the state of Israel,” it says, adding that “both Arabs and Jews can live together.”

Speaking to The Times on Tuesday, Tabassum defended herself, saying she is not antisemitic. She said she supports the pro-Palestinian cause that has grown at college campuses since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took about 240 hostage before Israel’s retaliatory war in the Gaza Strip. Gaza health authorities say the war has killed nearly 34,000 Palestinians. According to the United Nations, 2 million Gazans are in near-famine conditions.

“The university has betrayed me and caved in to a campaign of hatred,” Tabassum said of online attacks demanding that the university rescind its invitation for her to speak at the graduation.

She said that the university did not share any details with her about its security concerns and that it did not offer her an alternative method of participating in the commencement, such as a video appearance.

In an interview Monday, Guzman said that he did not consult Tabassum before rescinding the invitation and that he saw the decision as solely a safety — not free speech — issue.

On Tuesday, Joel Curran, USC’s senior vice president of communications, said the “final decision” on the matter rested with university President Carol Folt.

Folt was not available for an interview.

“Whenever there is a question of safety and security of the campus, the president always makes the final decision,” Curran said. “This decision was made in the best interests of campus security. There has been no change from the provost’s letter on Monday.”

Tabassum, who said she has participated in pro-Palestinian activism at USC but “not taken a public role,” said the controversy has made her more strident in her views on the Israel-Hamas war and student activism.

“It’s no longer about free speech. It’s no longer about me. It is about when the university silences me, they are silencing all these people,” she said, referring to pro-Palestinian activists at USC and outside the campus.

“When you silence us, you make us louder. You make louder the aims of imparting hope and commitment to human rights and the responsibilities of graduates to use our education ... to make the world a better place,” said Tabassum, 21.

A hijab-wearing Muslim who grew up in San Bernardino County in an Indian American family, Tabassum said she feels singled out by critics for her race and faith.

“I’m not ignorant of who I am or what I believe in and the time we are in or the place we are in,” she said. “I am not ignorant of the context or environment, at the end of the day.”

Tabassum, who minored in resistance to genocide, suggested her opponents were mistaken about her views and her studies.

The program, an official minor at USC, requires students to enroll in five courses from a list that includes several on the Holocaust as well as on the Armenian genocide and other genocides, such as targeted killings of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.

Tabassum said she “studied the Holocaust extensively in multiple classes” but “did not take a class exclusively on the Holocaust.”

She tied the minor to her major in biomedical engineering.

“I see my work as using health technologies that could preserve access to health for all people who have been subjugated to evil. That includes, at its most extreme, genocide,” Tabassum said.

She said she is interested in going to graduate school but, for now, is focused on her final exams the first week of May.

Tabassum, who wrote a statement about the matter, declined to say whether she will attend the graduation ceremony.

More to Read

USC cancels appearance by director Jon Chu, others amid valedictorian controversy

April 19, 2024

USC students protest the ‘silencing’ of valedictorian with cancellation of speech

April 18, 2024

Letters to the Editor: Canceled valedictorian speech is another self-inflicted black eye for USC

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Jaweed Kaleem is a national correspondent at the Los Angeles Times. Based in L.A. with a focus on issues outside of California, he has traveled to dozens of states to cover news and deeply reported features on the complexity of the American experience. His articles frequently explore race, religion, politics, social debates and polarized society. Kaleem was previously based in London, where he was a lead news writer on Russia’s war on Ukraine and spearheaded European coverage for the Times, including the Global California initiative. Before joining The Times in 2016, he reported on religion for HuffPost and the Miami Herald, where he was a member of a Pulitzer Prize finalist team recognized for coverage of Haiti. His reporting has also received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society for Features Journalism, the Asian American Journalists Assn., the South Asian Journalists Assn. and the National Headliner Awards.

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Top USC graduate cancelled over Gaza speaks out

A top Muslim graduate in the US has condemned the decision by the University of Southern California to cancel her graduation speech after complaints over the support she showed for Palestinians.

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Azrieli Research Fellowship for PhD Candidates and Early-Career Scholars, 2024-2025

The Division of Academic Programs at the USC Shoah Foundation invites applications for its inaugural Azrieli Research Fellowships for PhD candidates and early-career scholars during the spring 2025 semester.

One applicant will be chosen to pursue their original research on the Holocaust and/or historical and contemporary antisemitism using the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive (VHA), which currently holds over 55,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides. The incumbents may also wish to complement their testimony-based research in the VHA with the primary and secondary source collections related to the Holocaust at USC’s Doheny Library.

The fellowship will provide $25,000 support for one semester-long research stay at the USC Shoah Foundation. Fellows must reside in Los Angeles for the duration of their award and will hold one public lecture at USC about their research. Fellows are responsible for securing their own housing, which may be available on USC’s campus, and health insurance.

Eligibility requirements: Candidates must be enrolled in an accredited PhD program or be scholars who are either untenured or in the first five years of their career. Although any person may apply, preference will be given to Canadian scholars, those at institutions located in Canada, or research related to Canada.

This fellowship i awarded on a competitive basis. Applications must be submitted no later than midnight PT on July 31, 2024. Applications will consist of the following:

• Letter of Intent
• Project proposal of approximately 1,000 words
• Curriculum vitae
• Reference letter from dissertation committee member (for graduate students) or senior colleague (for early-career scholars)

Please note: only applications that have submitted each of the required materials will be considered for these fellowships. Applicants will be notified of the outcome by August 15, 2024. Fellowship recipients may begin their tenure at the USC Shoah Foundation in January 2025.

Please direct both questions regarding the fellowship or application process and reference letters to Dr. Jennifer L. Rodgers, Director of Academic Programs to jr77905[@]usc.edu.

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Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department' is here. Is it poetry? This is what experts say

On Friday, Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift has released her 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”

But just how poetic is it? Is it even possible to close read lyrics like poems, divorced from their source material?

The Associated Press spoke to four experts to assess how Swift's latest album stacks up to poetry.

Allison Adair, a professor who teaches poetry and other literary forms at Boston College, says yes.

“My personal opinion is that if someone writes poems and considers themself a poet, then they’re a poet," she says. “And Swift has demonstrated that she takes it pretty seriously. She's mentioned (Pablo) Neruda in her work before, she has an allusion to (William) Wordsworth, she cites Emily Dickinson as one of her influences.”

She also said her students told her Swift's B-sides — not her radio singles — tend to be her most poetic, which is true of poets, too. “Their most well-known poems are the ones that people lock into the most, that are the clearest, and in a way, don’t always have the mystery of poetry.”

Professor Elizabeth Scala, who teaches a course on Swift’s songbook at the University of Texas at Austin, says “there is something poetical about the way she writes,” adding that her work on “The Tortured Poets Department” references a time before print technology when people sang poems. “In the earliest stages of English poetry, they were inseparable,” she says. “Not absolutely identical, but they have a long and rich history together that is re-energized by Taylor Swift.”

“It's proper to talk about every songwriter as a poet,” says Michael Chasar, a poetry and popular culture professor at Willamette University.

“There are many things musicians and singer-songwriters can do that poetry cannot,” Adair says, citing melisma, or the ability to hold out a single syllable over many notes, as an example. Or the nature of a song with uplifting production and morose lyricism, which can create a confusing and rich texture. “That's something music can do viscerally and poetry has to do in different ways.”

“She might say her works are poetry,” adds Scala. “But I also think the music is so important — kind of poetry-plus.”

As for current U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón? “Poetry and song lyrics aren’t exactly the same (we poets have to make all our music with only words and breath),” she wrote to the AP. "But having an icon like Taylor bring more attention to poetry as a genre is exciting.”

Scala sees Swift's influences on “The Tortured Poets Department” as including Sylvia Plath, a confessional poet she previously drew inspiration from on songs like “Mad Woman” and “Tolerate It.”

“Fortnight” uses enjambed lines (there's no end stop, or punctuation at the end of each line) and Scala points out the dissonance between the music's smoothness and its lyrics, like in the line “My mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February.” “It kind of encapsulates boredom with the ordinary and then she unleashes a kind of tension and anger in the ordinary in those verses," she says. In the verses, she says Swift “explodes the domestic,” and that fights up against the music, which is “literary.”

Swift's lyrics, too, allow for multi-dimensional readings: “I touched you" could be physicality and infidelity in the song, Scala says, or it could mean it emotionally — as in, I moved you.

Swift has long played with rhyme and unexpected rhythm. “She’ll often establish a pattern and won't satisfy it — and that often comes in a moment of emotional ache," says Adair.

On “Fortnight,” it appears in a few ways. Adair points out that the chorus is more syncopated than the rest of the song — which means Swift uses many more syllables for the same beat. “It gives this rushed quality,” she says.

“Rhyming ‘alcoholic’ and ‘aesthetic,’ she plays a lot with assonance. It is technically a vowel-driven repetition of sounds,” she adds. There's a tension, too, in the title “Fortnight,” an archaic term used for a song with contemporary devices. “There’s an allusion to treason, and some of the stuff is hyper romantic, but a lot of it is very much a kind of unapologetic, plain speech. And there's something poetic about that.”

“From the perspective of harnessing particular poetic devices, this kind of trucks in familiar metaphors for one’s emotional state,” Chasar says of “Fortnight.”

He says the speaker is “arrested in the past and a future that could've been," using a dystopic image of American suburbs as a metaphor and “cultivating a sense of numbness, which we hear in the intonation of the lyrics.”

“But the speaker is so overwhelmed by their emotional state that they can’t think of any other associations with politically charged lyrics like ‘treason’ and ‘Florida’ and ‘lost in America’ that many of us would," he says.

The title “Fortnight,” he adds, “is totally poetic. It's also a period of 14 days, or two weeks. For most of us ‘lost in America,’ it means a paycheck."

“She's making references to Greek mythology,” say Scala, like in “Cassandra," which is part of a surprise set of songs Swift dropped Friday.

The title references the daughter of king of Troy, who foretold the city's destruction but had been cursed so that no one believed her.

"She’s the truth teller. No one wants to believe, and no one can believe,” she says.

Swift is “thinking in terms of literary paradigms about truth telling.”

Adair looks to "So Long, London": from the chiming, high school harmonies that open it to a plain first verse, “quiet and domestic,” she says.

“That mismatch is very poetic, because it’s pairing things from two different tonal registers, essentially, and saying they both have value, and they belong together: The kind of high mindedness and the high tradition and the kind of casual every day. That’s something the Beat poets did too, re-redefining the relationship between the sacred and profane.”

AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.

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Suggested search, the program provides dual emphasis in literature & creative writing, culminating in the dissertation, which combines critical analysis with creative originality..

Doctoral candidates not only read and write texts as finished products of scholarship in researching their creative work’s literary and historical milieu, but also consider the text as writers create it, then compose texts as writers, a process that goes to the source of the study of literature and of literature itself.

The program provides dual emphasis in literature and creative writing, culminating in the dissertation, which combines critical analysis with creative originality. Roughly half of the dissertation is based on original research, that is to say, research contributing to knowledge which enriches or changes the field.

This integration of literature and creative writing is reflected in the structure of the dissertation, which introduces creative work within a context of critical inquiry, bringing together the examination and embodiment of the literary act, a new model of scholarship and creative innovation.

Ph.D. in Creative Writing & Literature

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