FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES

FALL 2017 / WINTER 2018 MAGAZINE

Te (Im)mortality Issue CONCERNSGRAVE We examine one of life’s two certainties. (Hint: We’re not talking taxes.) CONTRIBUTOR

Safiya Sinclair Ph.D. Student in Creative Writing and Literature

Blooming with intense lyricism and fertile imagery, Safiyah Sinclair’s poems confront postcolonial identity as they explore her Jamaican childhood in a strict Rastafarian family, Jamaican history, race relations in America, womanhood, otherness and exile. The prize-winning poet, added another laurel to her literary crown in 2017 by winning the renowned Addison M. Metcalf Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Sinclair received the biennial $10,000 award, “intended to encourage a young writer of great promise,” for her debut collection, Cannibal (University of Nebraska Press, 2016). She will use the award to work on her next book, a memoir of growing up as a young woman in a fiercely patriarchal society. “I feel extremely encouraged by this support and belief in my work,” Sinclair said. “I see this award as another bright spark in the night sky, a signal that I must keep working and continue writing myself into a space that I can finally feel at home in.”

Video: Learn more about Safiya Sinclair at dornsife.usc.edu/safiya.

PHOTO BY MIKE GLIER 2 SINCLAIR PORTRAIT BY WILLY SOMMA FALL 2017 / WINTER 2018 A Transcendent Life 2 From the Dean We humans are prone to think in terms of opposites. Light and dark. High and low. Contents 4 COVER STORY Hot and cold. Each seemingly battles the other. But when we take a closer look, Discover the mythos of the exotic SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN we see that these opposed pairs are, in fact, merely two extremes of a continuum. fruit that inspired our cover. FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES AND COMMUNICATION Dark is simply less light. Low is another level of high. Cold a less energetic form of hot. Lance Ignon This interdependence and interconnectedness is true of almost any pair that we may, 5 SOCIAL DORNSIFE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS / ART DIRECTOR at first, set apart as opposites. Find out how to participate in our Dan Knapp In much the same way, our mortality drives us to seek some kind of immortality. Each first readership survey to give your EDITOR-IN-CHIEF of us strives to extend our mortal lives, to fnd a measure, however small or large, of last- take on USC Dornsife Magazine. Darrin S. Joy ing presence. At USC Dornsife, we see this in the knowledge we hand down through WRITERS AND EDITORS the generations. Our faculty, as teachers and mentors, extend the continuum of progress 6 FROM THE HEART OF USC Susan Bell and insight by training the next generation of scholars. As researchers, they contribute Researchers track emotions to Michelle Boston understand food consumption; Laura Paisley to an ever-evolving process of discovery and a continuously expanding reservoir of human knowledge. Kids test-drive tech; Students put DESIGNERS We also see this in the impact we’re making in our community and the planet at large. Our age-old skills to work; Scientists Letty Avila uncover possible solution to Matthew Savino world-renowned scientists are developing new ways to extend and improve life. Other faculty are working on sustaining the Earth’s natural environment. Still others delve into historical greenhouse gas. VIDEOGRAPHER AND PHOTOGRAPHER research that preserves and adds context to the stories that defne humanity. Mike Glier We have made it our highest value to ask the most difcult questions and to consider the 7 Curriculum COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT perspective of others. By relying on the authority of evidence and ideas, USC Dornsife is Deann Webb making a positive impact on society today that will last long into the future — an impact that 8 Archive CONTRIBUTORS transcends the life of any one individual or any one moment in time. Ian Chafee, Joanna Clay, Emily Gersema, Stephen Koenig, 10 Profle Zen Vuong, Susan L. Wampler, Mira Zimet Amber D. Miller THE (IM)MORTALITY ISSUE USC DORNSIFE ADMINISTRATION Dean of USC Dornsife 13 Lexicon Amber D. Miller, Dean • Stephen Bradforth, Divisional Dean for Natural Anna H. Bing Dean’s Chair 20 Sciences and Mathematics • Steven Finkel, College Dean of Graduate and 14 Te Bench Professional Education • Andrew Lakof, Divisional Dean for Social Sciences • Stephen Mackey, Vice Dean for Administration and Finance • Eddie UMementoSC Dornsife scholars explore Moriour dramatically evolving attitudes toward death and mortality. By Susan Bell 18 Sartin, Senior Associate Dean for Advancement • Andrew Stott, College Our World Dean of Undergraduate Education • Sherry Velasco, Interim Divisional 28 59 Vice Dean for the Humanities Legacy USC DORNSIFE BOARD OF COUNCILORS Immortal. Beloved. 60 DORNSIFE FAMILY Robert D. Beyer, Chair • Wendy Abrams • Robert Alvarado • William Alumna Kathryn Sermak recounts her decade-long association with one of the most celebrated actresses in Three faculty earn Guggenheim By Dan Knapp Barkett • Leslie Berger • Susan Casden • Richard S. Flores • Shane Foley • Hollywood history, and how it helped to shape her career and her ideas about aging and death. Fellowships; Alumna empowers Lisa Goldman • Jana Waring Greer • Pierre Habis • Yossie Hollander • women; Physics grad perfects Janice Bryant Howroyd • Martin Irani • Dan James • Stephen G. Johnson • 36 Suzanne Nora Johnson • Peter YS Kim • Yoon Kim • Samuel King • martial arts skills; Alumna’s Arthur Lev • Robert Osher • Gerald Papazian • Lawrence Piro • Kelly scientific contributions are out Porter • Michael Reilly • Harry Robinson • Stephanie Booth Shafran • AWhats researchers explore Lies ancient fossils Beneath and artifacts, they look to this immortalized record of what once was of this world. Carole Shammas • Glenn A. Sonnenberg • Kumarakulasingam “Suri” to understand the future and how we can act to ensure we remain a part of it. By Laura Paisley Suriyakumar 60 USC DORNSIFE MAGAZINE 44 Faculty Canon Published twice a year by the USC Dornsife Ofce of Communication 61 Faculty News at the University of Southern California. © 2017 USC Dornsife College. Hanging by a Tread? Te diverse opinions expressed in USC Dornsife Magazine do not neces- Nobel Prize–winning economist Angus Deaton has uncovered startling data that show mortality numbers 64 sarily represent the views of the editors, USC Dornsife administration are climbing for certain groups of Americans. How can we buck the trend? By Michelle Boston Alumni Canon or USC. USC Dornsife Magazine welcomes comments from its readers to 66 [email protected] or USC Dornsife Magazine, 1150 S. Olive St. Alumni News T2400, Los Angeles, CA 90015 50 69 Remembering

PHOTO BY DAMON CASAREZ Power to the People Imaginative new approaches to battery technology may give us longer-lasting power in smaller packages. More 70 IN MY OPINION important, they may give renewable energy the charge it needs to fnally succeed on a wide scale. By Darrin S. Joy Youth to Power 54 71 READERSHIP SURVEY

ADyinglumna and radio talk to show Talkhost Dawn Gross aims to revolutionize how we talk about death, hospice and palliative care. Oh, and she also teaches death ed to teenagers. By Susan Bell SOCIAL DORNSIFE

Twitter CLASSICS Readership Survey @USCDornsife @just_quia: I started my

FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES college career in community FRUIT OF THE AGES college and now I’ll be attend-

CoverThe pomegranate is a highly Story SPRING / SUMMER 2012 MAGAZINE FALL 2012 / WINTER 2013 MAGAZINE SPRING / SUMMER 2013 MAGAZINE FALL 2013 / WINTER 2014 MAGAZINE ing USC (my dream school) evocative fruit. With its jewel- in the fall. Beyond grateful.

Te Memory Issue #IGotIntoUSC like seed pods, or arils, it has THISREMEMBER USC Dornsife researchers investigate long been a symbol of fertility how memory works and why we forget. — reaching back to the myth- @DrCarlsHorn: I’m now officially a #newPI @USCDornsife! ology of ancient Greece. #MarineInverts adorn my bldg Te Intersections Issue “In the Greek imagination, VISION door. I think I’m going to like it PUSCERFE Dornsife 2020 daresCT to tackle the problems of the world with rigorous and relevant research. fertility was the form of Te Sustainability Issue here Te Creativity Issue TURNINGTIDE FREE YOUR THEOur researchers are transforming immortality that was available IMAGINATION environmental woes to wins. Experience the originality and flair of USC Dornsife’s masters of ingenuity. to human beings,” explained @nolahtheveil: Recalling Daniel Richter, associate how powerful coordinating the diversity predoctoral professor of classics at FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S O F U S C D A N A A N D D AV I D D O R N S I F E C O L L E G E O F L E T T E R S , A R T S A N D S C I E N C E S institute was last wknd w/ USC Dornsife. @christiangrose & @USCDornsife Pomegranate seeds figure SPRING / SUMMER 2014 MAGAZINE FALL 2014 / WINTER 2015 MAGAZINE SPRING/ SUMMER 2015 MAGAZINE FALL 2015 / WINTER 2016 M A G A Z I N E support. #PhDlife prominently in the mythologi- Te Food Issue FACING THE FORK cal tale of Persephone, which At the crossroads, USC Dornsife @JulesDeep: Congratulations researchers tackle food scarcity and our eating culture. is found within the Homeric to colleague & friend Steve Te Frontiers Issue Finkel fm @USC @deepbiosphere Hymn to Demeter, the goddess POSSIBILITY TRAVERSING Our pioneering scholars link the past and present to a better future. who received @ASMicrobiology of agriculture and fertility. The Te Community Issue research training award! Homeric Hymns are a collection BUILDINGPEOPLE USC Dornsife’s impact begins in Los Angeles #asmicrobe and stretches around the globe. e Reality Issue of 33 anonymous writings from CUTTING THETHR SOTAUGTICH ancient Greece celebrating Exploring the world around (and within) us, USC Dornsife scholars @nathanmasters: Production look for answers. individual gods. Fall 2015 / Winter 2016 1 is underway on #LostLA’s Demeter’s daughter second season. Today we’re interviewing historian Bill Persephone was kidnapped FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF USC DANA AND DAVID DORNSIFE COLLEGE OF LETTERS, ARTS AND SCIENCES Deverell of @HUSC_ICW. by Hades, the god of the

SPRING / SUMMER 2016 MAGAZINE FALL 2016 / WINTER 2017 MAGAZINE SPRING / SUMMER 2017 MAGAZINE underworld, who took her Te Politics Issue @iseehawksinla: Fantastic as his wife. When Demeter OFH E A RNATION T B E A T to hear @viet_t_nguyen USC Dornsife scholars examine the modern political landscape to get a read on the learned of this, her despair country’s pulse. reading from his new book halted the growth of all “The Refugees” tonight at living things. Hades tricked Shakespeare and Co in Paris

Persephone into eating six Te Identity Issue Te Visionaries Issue WHOWHO AREWE AREWE?. SHOOT @parisreview: “You need pomegranate seeds in the From the cell to the pixel, explore how we THE MOON understand ourselves in the modern world. Vision is the driving force behind change. USC Dornsife’s world-class scholars demonstrate the power of vision to make a better community, country and world. to retain a certain confidence underworld. Little did she in order to keep working.” know that anyone who ate —Geoff Dyer or drank while there would be doomed to remain eternally. Luckily, through the interven- The current iteration of USC Dornsife Magazine was launched in 2012 as a way to discuss research and events across disciplines, and to offer tion of Zeus, Persephone got alumni, faculty, staff and friends of USC Dornsife — as well as readers beyond our university — lively and compelling articles and informa- CONNECT WITH USC DORNSIFE off with a lighter sentence, tion covering the breadth of intellectual pursuits at USC Dornsife. Check us out on your favorite social media sites. We welcome spending just six months your posts and tweets for pos- a year in the underworld Please take a few moments to answer some brief questions about USC Dornsife Magazine. Your feedback will be of tremendous help to the sible inclusion in the next issue (a period known as winter). magazine staff as we work to ensure the publication meets your needs and interests. of USC Dornsife Magazine. This mythology led ancient dornsife.usc.edu/facebook Greeks to proffer pomegranate To help compensate for your time, all completed surveys will be entered into a series of random drawings for prizes that include: Become a fan and get updates seeds to Demeter in the hope • 2018 USC football season tickets in your news feed. of receiving fertile land in • An Apple iPad return — and colored their • A library of autographed books by renowned USC Dornsife faculty and alumni dornsife.usc.edu/twitter Follow our tweets for the understanding of seasonal • A USC Bookstore gift certificate

ARTWORK BY IRINA VINNIK latest USC Dornsife news. mortality connected with the • An Apple Watch cycle of growth. —L.P. dornsife.usc.edu/youtube To fill out the survey online visit: Watch the latest videos from the USC Dornsife community.

dornsife.usc.edu/reader-survey dornsife.usc.edu/instagram Follow our feed for snapshots Or you can fill out the survey on pages 71–72 of this issue and mail it to us at the address listed. of the #DornsifeLife.

4 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 5 FROM THE HEART OF USC

Viewpoint GESM 120 EXPERT OPINIONS Curriculum “ … gender-diverse people have in all Mood-FoodA new way to track how you feel when it’s time Connection for a meal could give clues on how to develop eating habits ages been capable of aimed at better health. some mighty remark- By Emily Gersema able things. Like the Many of us lie or can’t remember what we ate when asked Te system uses audio data collected by in-home micro- victorious soldier to reveal our eating habits. Tat makes it difcult for doctors phones, and the researchers developed algorithms to cinaedus, they can and researchers to guide us toward better diets and behav- determine the mood and stress level of study participants and confound expectations iors. But what if there was a way for them to monitor us? their families. Te system also detects eating behaviors based Donna Spruijt-Metz, director of the mHealth Collabo- on signals from a wrist-worn smartwatch. Te device sensors and achieve results ratory at USC Dornsife’s Center for Economic and Social pick up wrist movements to detect a person’s eating behav- in some of the most Research, and her team are testing an innovative approach iors, including when, how long and how fast they eat. extremely adverse to address obesity. Tey are using devices that measure mood Tested on participants — fve female and fve male — the situations.” and eating behaviors rather than focusing on dietary intake. devices can gauge the following moods with high accuracy: THOMAS SAPSFORD, classics Researchers normally measure food intake by asking anger, anxiety, boredom, happiness and sadness. lecturer, in an Aug. 1 op-ed in people to remember what they ate over a three-day period, Spruijt-Metz said that the literature has shown that food The Conversation about the but the method is uncertain. intake and mood go hand in hand. cinaedus — a fabled ancient Roman figure who played a “We really have no idea what people eat because people “Tere is scientifc literature showing that people are stress decisive role in combat but lie,” said Spruijt-Metz, who also is professor (research) of eaters,” she said. “Te culture at home, within the family, whose gender identity raised psychology. “People don’t remember.” can afect how people eat.” concerns in the military similar In 2015, Spruijt-Metz to those in current times. and her colleagues received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study obesity and eating “Book burnings may habits within families be relatively rare through wearable, mobile in modern America, health devices. but eforts to protect Te approach, called M2FED, monitors mood young readers from and food, enabling the ‘dangerous’ texts researchers to detect eating are not.” behaviors and emotional

TRISHA TUCKER, assistant responses of study par- PSYCHO PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES professor (teaching) of writing, ticipants. Te researchers in a June 25 op-ed in The Conversation about the protests aim to develop a real- around the 20th anniversary of time method that could the publication of Harry Potter stop unhealthy behaviors and the Philosopher’s Stone. and reduce obesity, which afects more than one-third of adults and 17 percent of all children and teens in the “North Korea United States, according to DEATH AND GENDER IN Diana Blaine’s freshman semi- Interpreting the concept of understanding the ways that and I find they are hungry federal health statistics. MEDIA AND SOCIETY nar asks, “Why are Americans death, “the ultimate meta- stories and representations in for this, for the permission isn’t unpredictable; Instructor: Diana Blaine, so afraid of death and dying?” phor” since none of us has culture and the media make to have death be a part of the

“As a behaviorist, I began / BETTMANN; BLAINE PHOTO BY MIKE GLIER MIKE BY PHOTO BLAINE BETTMANN; rather, it is the most thinking that we do know professor (teaching) of writing “Death is an inevitable fact yet experienced it ourselves, death comprehensible. human experience.” —L.P. predictable country that behaviors afect eating, and gender studies of life, but what we know allows students to hone their “On a more personal level, on earth.” such as the attitudes around about it comes through the critical thinking skills and, she my class gives students a Tis well-known image of actress DAVID KANG, professor of inter- the table, whether or not stories we tell,” Blaine said. said, cultivate sophistication chance to consider death as Janet Leigh comes from the 1960 national relations, business and you are angry or if you are “These stories have a profound regarding a topic that perme- something more than a mon- Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho. East Asian languages and cultures, depressed or you don’t like influence on our understand- ates the world but goes largely strous thrill or a plotpoint in In one of classic cinema’s most in a July 5 op-ed in The New York ing of what it means to be unexamined. an episode of a crime show,” Times about the ongoing volatile what your mother said,” famous scenes, Leigh’s character, situation in North Korea. Spruijt-Metz said. “We can mortal. And death may be The course looks at death Blaine said. “They get to Marion, is murdered while now reliably measure that objective, but the meanings through the lens of gender, ponder a topic that is so rarely taking a shower — an iconic with sensors. Forget mea- we attach to it are always race, class and sexual orienta- spoken of except in those representation of female death suring dietary intake.” subjective.” tion as students work toward imaginary and artificial ways, in the media.

6 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 7 FROM THE HEART OF USC

ART HISTORY Recognition

THE DESIGNS OF expression and it becomes impossible for the fungus to GUSTAV BEER grow,” Govin said. “Moreover, the fungus is no longer Paris,Archive 1922 Fungal Foe Found virulent when injected into mice.” Flip through recent pages Researchers identify a protein that is critical for the Te challenge for the scientists was fnding a compound of Vogue or Marie Claire and survival of a disease-causing fungus. that shut down the Bdf1 protein without mistakenly the names of iconic European afecting any similar proteins in humans. designers from the 1910s and “Using a technique called X-ray crystallography, we TION BY ILLUSCIENTIA FOR GRENOBLE ALPES UNIVERSITY; PHILLIPS PHOTO COURTESY OF CAROL TT MEINDL; MEEKER PHOTO BY PETER ZHAOYU ZHOU O H Z U Y O A H Z R E T E P Y B O T O H P R E K E E M ; L D N I E M T AT M Y B O T O H P N A D R O J ; S P I L L I H P N LY O R A C F O Y S E T R U O C O T O H P S P I L L I H P ; Y T I S R E V I N U S E P L A E L B O N E R G R O F A I T N E I C S U L L I Y B N O I AT R T S U L L I E O F L A G N U F ’20s abound, demonstrating showed that the fungal Bdf1 protein and corresponding CAROLYN PHILLIPS that style is at once ageless human proteins are very diferent at the atomic level,” Petosa Pew Scholar and ever-evolving. said. Tis means that compounds may inhibit the fungal Phillips, Gabilan Assistant Balenciaga, Chanel and Professor of Biological Sciences, protein without afecting similar human proteins. was named a 2017 Pew scholar Prada are among brands that Te researchers have already identifed one compound in in the biomedical sciences. weathered decades of fickle particular that selectively inhibits Bdf1. Te fnding holds The class of scholars are early- consumer taste and flourished great promise for future drug development. career researchers selected for their commitment to investigat- on into the 21st century. “It shows that a whole new class of antifungal drugs is Not all design houses, how- ing health challenges in the possible,” McKenna said. —E.G. brain as it ages. ever, adapted with the times. Many, like the House of Beer, are now largely forgotten. “Maison Beer was a couture house located in Paris, the center of fashion in the early 20th century,” says Professor of Art History Amy Ogata. “The firm Each year, invasive fungal infections sicken about 2 million specialized in high-end leisure people worldwide and kill nearly 800,000. A team of wear, and although prestigious, international scientists has discovered a new approach for it never had the kind of long- antifungal drug treatment. THOMAS JORDAN term name recognition that its Te scientists found that Bdf1, a gene-regulating protein, Bowie Medalist peers such as Mme Paquin or is critical for the survival of the pathogenic fungus Candida Your Cortex on Comedy Jordan, University Professor, William M. Keck Foundation Jeanne Lanvin enjoyed.” albicans. Neuroscientists pinpoint the regions of the brain that Gustav Beer — a German spark when humor is made. Chair in Geological Sciences, Charles McKenna, professor of chemistry at USC Dornsife, and professor of Earth sci- designer who set up shop in said the protein ofers promise for drug development. “Our ences, received the William 1905 in Paris’ famed Place fndings show that compounds that bind to this target will What is going on in your brain when you come up with a Bowie Medal from the Ameri- Vendôme — was among disrupt the growth of the fungus, opening the way to novel joke? Well, that appears to depend on whether or not you tell can Geophysical Union. The France’s most expensive coutu- award recognizes outstanding drug treatments for fungal disease.” jokes for a living. contributions to fundamental riers. Luxurious fabrics blended C. albicans is an aggressive pathogenic fungus that in Researchers in the Image Understanding Laboratory geophysics. with decadent jewels to outfit healthy people is normally held in check by the immune at USC Dornsife, led by neuroscientist Irving Biederman, the European elite, including system. However, people with a weakened immune system, studied professional and amateur improvisational comedi- Empress Frederick of Germany. including patients who have cancer, HIV or autoimmune ans, as well as non-comedians, in the act of coming up with George Barbier’s illustration diseases, are susceptible to the infection, which can be life- a quip. Participants created both a funny and a mundane of one of Beer’s 1922 designs threatening, McKenna said. caption for a cartoon while functional magnetic resonance appeared in the influential Te team’s fndings may prove timely: Fungal infections imaging machines scanned their brain activity. publication Gazette du Bon are increasingly resistant to drug treatments. Te results showed that two regions of the brain were Ton. It depicts a model draped “When susceptible people develop Candida infections, activated when participants came up with jokes — the in chiffon and lace adorned with the fungus may enter the bloodstream. If treatment is unsuc- medial prefrontal cortex and the temporal association diamonds and pearls. cessful, it has a very high mortality rate — in the 40 percent regions. However, the regions activated were diferent “The stylized phoenix device range,” McKenna said. Few drugs are available to fght the depending on the person’s level of expertise. NATANIA MEEKER with its extravagant, decorated disease, and the fungus is becoming increasingly resistant to “Te amateurs and non-comedians engaged the prefrontal Chevalier dans l’Ordre des wings and long tail feathers Palmes académiques

ILLUSTRATION BY GEORGE BARBIER ILLUSTRATION treatment, raising the need for fresh approaches. cortex, which is a more deliberate attempt at deriving a funny may suggest associations with Meeker, associate professor Many scientists are looking for new treatment methods interpretation of a cartoon,” explained Biederman, Harold of French and comparative exoticized luxury, or even a re- by manipulating gene expression. Te current research is the Dornsife Chair in Neurosciences and professor of psych- literature, was named a cheva- turn to finery after the destruc- frst to prove that this approach is feasible to target fungal ology and computer science. lier, or knight, of the Ordre des tion of World War I,” says infections. Meanwhile the professionals engaged their temporal lobe, Palmes Académiques by the French Ministry of Education. Ogata. “Indeed, it may have sin- French scientists Jérôme Govin and Carlo Petosa which receives sensory information such as sound and vision. gular resonance for a firm that This distinction acknowledges from Grenoble Alpes University co-led the study with It’s also where abstract information, semantic information academics who significantly was shut down during the war McKenna. and remote associations meaningfully converge. contribute to the expansion of because the founder of Maison “Te idea is that if you shut down this specifc protein, Said Biederman: “Te professional improv comedians let French education and culture Beer was German.” —D.K. Bdf1, you totally disrupt the whole process of gene their free associations give them solutions.” —M.B. throughout the world.

8 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 9 FROM THE HEART OF USC

ANTHONY SPARKS

REACHING FOR THE STARS moving to Chicago in 1968. African-American artist, I knew Studies and Ethnicity under- children, including twins. As a skinny kid growing up There, on her own, she raised that opportunities would be stood the value of the project His secret to keeping so many Profle in a working-class family on Sparks, who discovered an different for me, so I wanted to and supported it.” balls in the air at once? Chicago’s South Side, the early love of language and be prepared for that.” closest Anthony Sparks ever performing while at church. got to television star and “We used to do Easter and CAREERS BLOSSOM media magnate Oprah Winfrey Christmas plays and speeches Once he graduated, Sparks was glimpsing her multimedia for Mother’s Day,” he said. “I moved east, performing at “All the diferent things production company, Harpo loved it. I’d ask if I could recite Massachusetts’ prestigious Studios, through the grimy poems in church.” Williamstown Theatre Festival. I do are driven by this core window of the bus he rode Sparks attended neighbor- He got his Equity Card — home from school. hood schools until testing as attesting to his standing as a belief that the humanities For Sparks, who earned a BFA a gifted student in seventh professional actor — in 1995, from USC School of Dramatic grade earned him a place at after being cast as Cordelia matter. Te arts matter. Arts in 1994 and an M.A. and former First Lady Michelle alongside Viola Davis as Edgar Ph.D. in American studies and Obama’s alma mater, Whitney in a gender-reversed produc- ethnicity from USC Dornsife Young Magnet High School. He tion of King Lear at New York’s Education matters.” in 2009 and 2012, rubbing immersed himself in theatre Public Theater. shoulders with stars is now a and dance, winning numerous Then came STOMP. Sparks But Sparks delayed his enroll- “It’s not easy,” he admits. frequent occurrence. honors, including two golds loved the show and was grate- ment. After five years chasing “I’m a person who tries to use Talent, education, ambition for writing and speech oratory ful for the work, but admits it the dream, he had landed his every minute of every day.” and hard work have propelled and a silver for acting in the was grueling. He suffered two first job as a television writer He also has one guiding him from his humble roots to a NAACP’s prestigious ACT-SO knee injuries that required in 2003 on the CBS drama principle. glittering career as an award- national awards. surgery and lengthy periods The District. Working on that “All the different things I do winning television writer, After receiving offers from of recuperation. show gave him valuable access are driven by this core belief producer, Broadway actor and the nation’s top drama schools, He also had bigger ambi- to aspects of the industry he that the humanities matter. respected academic. Sparks chose the BFA program tions and was frustrated at the wanted to research. He then The arts matter. Education Sparks is a writer and the co- at USC, drawn by the program’s limited roles available to him enrolled and successfully matters.” executive producer on Queen reputation and his mother’s as a young, black actor. So, juggled his doctoral studies In fact, Sparks says there Sugar, Winfrey’s acclaimed wise counsel. even while performing in seven with his career as a television is “no way” he could be the project with director Ava Sparks credits his mother to eight shows a week, he made writer as the latter took off kind of television writer and DuVernay. Earlier this year, he as a major inspiration. “She time to write during the day. with work on Lincoln Heights, producer he wants to be and was nominated for an NAACP always had a larger vision for Then his solo play, Ghetto Undercovers and The Blacklist. a writer on Queen Sugar today Image Award for Outstanding her children — and for me Punch, caught the attention without his USC Dornsife Writing in a Dramatic Series for especially — than she was of NBC executives, who A TROJAN LIFE education, which, he believes, his work on the show, which given the opportunity to live,” optioned him as a writer and USC ended up playing a far made him a more committed airs on Winfrey’s OWN network. he said of Pearl, who passed an actor. When those options larger role in Sparks’ life than artist by turning him into a When he isn’t filming Queen away in May. expired, NBC renewed just one: he ever imagined as an under- scholar. “For me, there is no Sugar in New Orleans or work- “My mom had drilled into as a writer. graduate. After receiving his real separation, it all feeds into ing on other television dramas, me that I should see college as “I went, ‘Aha! Let’s ride this doctorate, he taught American each other,” he said. the former Broadway actor (he an adventure, an opportunity horse in the direction it’s going,’ ” studies and African-American Sparks notes that USC taught also starred in the hit musical to move away from home and Sparks said. “I had to put my studies at USC Dornsife from him to cultivate an educated STOMP for six years) is teaching learn how to grow up. It felt actor’s ego down and say, ‘Is 2012 to 2015. His wife, actress point of view on the world and at California State University, like if I went to USC my horizons writing and producing what you and director Anita Dashiell- on his life — something he says Fullerton, where he is a would be blown open.” want?’ The answer was, ‘Yes.’ ” Sparks, whom he met in New is invaluable for a would-be professor in the Department of His classmates viewed him The idea that moving back to York under the STOMP theatre writer. Cinema and Television Studies. as a driven actor. “What they Los Angeles might allow him to marquee, is now associate “It’s about finding your voice, How did Sparks get here? And didn’t know is that privately I pursue both an entertainment dean of diversity, equity and and the only way to do that equally fascinating, how does was electrified by the literature career and higher education inclusion and associate profes- is to begin to think seriously he juggle it all? and criticism I was being ex- also appealed to him. sor of theatre practice at the about the world,” Sparks said. posed to at USC,” Sparks said. “I wanted to explore how USC School of Dramatic Arts. “Do the work, take the work HUMBLE BEGINNINGS The result? He started to write the production of television “There’s a lot of USC para- seriously and have a point of PHOTO BY MATT GUSH Alumnus Anthony Sparks, Sparks was the first in his again. programs impacts the way we phernalia around our house. view about the work. Find your writer and co-executive family to be born outside “I felt if I had a talent, I was construct our social and racial I’ll just put it that way,” voice. I know it sounds sort of producer on the acclaimed Mississippi. His mother, Pearl, supposed to do something categories in this country,” he Sparks said. cheesy, but I’m a living witness TV drama series Queen Sugar, left school after sixth grade with it. I was never an actor said. “That had really never been In addition to juggling his that it pays dividends eventu- credits USC Dornsife for his to work as a sharecropper who thought that academics done before. USC Dornsife and demanding career, Sparks ally — if you stay at it long successful career. and domestic servant before weren’t important. As an the Department of American is the father of three young enough.” —S.B.

10 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 11 FROM THE HEART OF USC

Word PSYCHOLOGY IN THE NEWS QUOTABLES TRIGGER “You can only be trıgər/ verb / trans 1.1 Cause Lexicon (an event or situation) to smacked in the face happen or exist. 1.3 (especially by evidence so many FirstInner-city grade school Touch students learn about emergingof Techtechnologies, including 3-D printing, drones and virtual of something read, seen, times and not see reality, as part of a Joint Educational Project Young Scientists Program event. By Susan Bell or heard) distress (someone), some kind of pattern.” typically as a result of arous- JULIEN EMILE-GEAY, associate ing feelings or memories professor of Earth sciences, associated with a particular in a July 12 The Independent traumatic experience. noun/ story featuring his research sug- 1.1 An event that is the cause gesting Earth is at its warmest in 2,000 years and supporting of a particular action, process, similar conclusions from a study or situation. published 20 years ago. Origin: Early 17th c: from dialect tricker, from Dutch trekker, from trekken “to pull” “Science should be Usage: In psychology, the term trigger has become part of our culture. widely used since the 1970s ... If it’s not up there to refer to a stimulus such as in our entertainment a smell, sound or sight that alongside everything activates memories or feel- else, we’re the poorer ings associated with previous trauma, such as flashbacks or for it.” overwhelming sadness, anxiety CLIFFORD JOHNSON, professor of physics and astronomy, in or panic. The term is also used a June 12 CBC Radio interview loosely to refer to stimuli that about his consulting work for lead to negative feelings or major superhero films and other unhealthy behaviors, including movies and television programs. substance abuse, anger and depression. The brain mecha- nisms underlying triggers are “When people ask becoming understood through me, ‘What’s the big- research in psychology and gest thing I can do to neuroscience. avoid dementia?’ my answer is ‘exercise.’ ” La Bella Saunders gasped with delight as she took a step At the 3-D printing station, students designed objects toward the giant fuchsia nucleus foating just inches in front in a virtual space using the 3D Slash computer program. MARGARET GATZ, professor of psychology, gerontology, and of her like a surreal planet from a sci-f movie. Reaching out Tis gave them frsthand experience of how architects preventive medicine, in a June in wonder to touch two, oblong, orange mitochondria and and engineers, who work with 3-D concepts, think and 21 Sacramento Bee story on the an electric-blue ball of protein, the ffth-grader then peered design. importance of staying active to through a small nuclear pore in the envelope of the nucleus Students watched an aerial drone demonstration, then prevent the onset of dementia. to spy the DNA at its center. built fan-driven drone cars of their own. Tey created Saunders, a student at Foshay Learning Center near USC’s holograms and learned about erosion by playing with an University Park campus, was exploring human biology using augmented reality sandbox. After experiencing a virtual Laura Baker, professor of “Anything live, a virtual-reality headset that put her right inside a cell. safari, a roller coaster ride and a dive to the depths of the psychology, studies how heredity the government is Te experience was part of a Young Scientists Program ocean, they received virtual reality cardboard headsets to and the environment afect (YSP) after-school workshop on emerging technologies, take home, courtesy of WeLens. individual diferences in U O H Z U Y O A H Z R E T E P Y B O T O H P R E K A B frightened by — held at the inner-city K-12 school. YSP is a STEM learning “I want to show the YSP students what’s possible human behavior, including anything they can’t initiative hosted through USC Dornsife’s Joint Educational and introduce them to potential careers that could spring cognitive abilities, personality control. By the time Project (JEP), one of the most respected service learning from what they’re learning about today,” said JEP STEM and psychopathology. She is institutions in the nation. Program Manager Dieuwertje “DJ” Kast, who organized particularly interested in the they crack down, PHOTO BY MIKE GLIER the damage is done.” In addition to exploring virtual and augmented reality, the workshop. “I also want to help level the playing feld roots of aggression and STANLEY ROSEN, professor the 25 fourth- and ffth-grade participants experienced 3-D by giving them the opportunity to get exposure to this antisocial behavior, and their of political science, in a June printing and drones — most for the frst time. technology now, while they’re young.” underlying social and biological 24 Los Angeles Times article YSP teaching assistants, many of them USC Dornsife risk factors. on China’s censorship of live- Video: Learn more about the Young Scientists program at undergraduates, were on hand to ensure the youngsters had dornsife.usc.edu/JEP-tech. streaming services. fun while also understanding the underlying science.

12 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 13 FROM THE HEART OF USC

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

“It isn’t lost on us that this may hold some really important DIMINUTIVE DANGER “Cells in the brain treat role, sooner or later, in helping mitigate atmospheric CO2,” TTiny particles that pollutee Bench these particles as invaders Oceanic Antacid Berelson said. —I.C. the air — the kind that come and react with inflamma- Scientists crack secrets of undersea chemistry that mainly from power plants tory responses, which, over may reduce a greenhouse gas. and automobiles — may the course of time, appear greatly increase the chance to exacerbate and promote of dementia. This includes Alzheimer’s disease,” he said. Protein Surprise dementia caused by Alzheim- Unexpected structural findings could lead to new er’s disease. FIRST CLUES therapies. Caleb Finch of biological Every 66 seconds66 someone in the United The adverse effects were sciences at USC Dornsife, States develops Alzheimer’s disease. stronger in women who had Scientists have found unexpected properties of a key protein holder of the ARCO/William F. the APOE4 gene, a genetic linked to blood pressure control, nerve growth, pain control Kieschnick Chair in the Neuro- variation that increases the and heart tissue regeneration. Te fndings could lead to new biology of Aging, and a team risk for Alzheimer’s. therapies to control cardiovascular disease and pain. of researchers found that older The study provides the first Vadim Cherezov, professor of chemistry, biological women who live in places scientific evidence showing sciences, and physics and astronomy, Vsevolod Katritch, with fine particulate matter how a critical Alzheimer’s assistant professor of biological sciences and chemistry, exceeding the Environmental risk gene may interact with and their colleagues used X-ray crystallography to visualize Protection Agency’s standard 20Pollution may% be at the root of air particles to accelerate the protein, called AT2. are 81 percent more at risk 1/5 of all dementia cases. brain aging and adds to an Te results showed surprising and signifcant difer- for global cognitive decline emerging body of research ences between AT2 and other similar proteins. and 92 percent more likely to that links air pollution to While noting that further research is needed, Cherezov develop dementia. dementia. and Katritch — both members of the Bridge Institute at If their findings prove to be The researchers analyzed Scientists at USC Dornsife and their colleagues at Caltech the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience — true for the general popula- data from more than 3,600 have accelerated a normally slow, natural chemical reaction said the current discovery is an important frst step both to tion, air pollution could be women ages 65 to 79 from by a factor of 500. Te process could store and neutralize understanding similar proteins and to developing potential responsible for about one-fifth the Women’s Health Initiative carbon in the deepest recesses of the ocean without harming new therapies. of dementia cases, according Memory Study. coral or other organisms. “Te structure gives us the frst clue of what’s happen- to the study. They also exposed female “Tere’s a chemical reaction involving calcium carbonate ing on a molecular level,” Cherezov said. Te information mice carrying the APOE4 gene and carbonic acid that we know about, but people studying then could be used to design selective drugs that specif- to nano-sized air pollution for it before had kind of dismissed it,” said William Berelson, cally target AT2. 15 weeks. They found that mice professor of Earth sciences and environmental studies Tat may be good news for patients coping with chronic 92Older women who% live where predisposed to Alzheimer’s 30+ at USC Dornsife. conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Pollution particles are 2.5 micrometers fine particulates exceed disease accumulated as much “Tis carbonate material that’s all over the ocean foor has pain. —D.S.J. or smaller. Thirty or more can fit government standards are as 60 percent more amyloid been neutralizing ocean CO2 for billions of years. Yet, the across a human hair. 92 percent more likely to plaque — the toxic clusters of uncatalyzed reaction is quite slow. Remarkably, nobody has develop dementia. protein fragments that further quite understood how to speed up this process. Now, we’re the progression of Alzheimer’s beginning to fgure it out.” DIRECT THREAT — than normal mice. Te oceans contain about 50 times more CO2 than the “Microscopic particles gener- atmosphere, causing ocean acidifcation. However, when ated by fossil fuels get into JUST THE BEGINNING acidifed surface waters make their way to deeper parts of our body directly through USC researchers and others the ocean, they are able to react with the calcium carbon- the nose into the brain,” in this field said more research ate in shells of dead organisms like plankton and coral that OCEANIC ANTACID PHOTO COURTESY OF ADAM SUBHAS said Finch, who is University is needed to confirm a causal have settled on the sea foor. Te process neutralizes the extra Professor, professor of ger- relationship and to understand carbon dioxide. ontology at the USC Leonard how air pollution enters and Tis is part of the natural bufering process that allows the Davis School of Gerontology, harms the brain. ocean to hold such a large amount of carbon dioxide safely, and professor of biological 3,600 While this study examined at least in those parts where acidifcation isn’t touching and sciences, anthropology and Researchers analyzed only women and female mice, eroding structures like coral reefs. psychology at USC Dornsife. data of more than 3,600 future research will include “Te dissolution of calcium carbonate in the ocean is what The offending pollutants, women ages 65 to 79. both sexes to determine if men we call in chemistry a bufer. It’s very much like when you known as PM2.5, are fine are affected the same way. take an antacid for an upset stomach because it is neutral- particles with diameters of It will also explore how PM2.5 izing the acid in your tummy,” Berelson said. 2.5 micrometers or less. Rest- interacts with cigarettes and Now, thanks to the USC-Caltech team, the process to ing side by side, more than other pollutants. safely convert CO2 to bicarbonate that would normally take 30 would fit across the width tens of thousands of years can be replicated in a fraction of of a human hair. the time.

14 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 15 FROM THE HEART OF USC FROM THE HEART OF USC

Numbers Spotlight DE-GREENING L.A.

The amount of green cover in Recent studies suggest drugs already approved and on Los Angeles has dropped sharply the market may be benefcial. Among the most promising since 2000, according to a study Alzheimer’s Omen are cholesterol-lowering statins and some blood pressure- by USC Dornsife researchers Stiff vessels and low blood flow in the brain forewarn lowering drugs. Su Jin Lee and Travis Longcore. DiversityWhite families with kids are drawn to Deniedless diverse neighborhoods and schools, possibly leading to negative of Alzheimer’s. Nation said he aims to refne how he measures vascular But why? Much of it is the result effects on future education and employment. of adding square footage to By Emily Gersema resistance. Ten, he will work toward answering the next single-family homes. What’s important question: If vascular resistance can be treated, interesting is that Lee and Long- Scientifc research has will that lower someone’s risk for developing dementia? core found that the decrease in shown that low-income and —M.B. and E.G. greenery affected all neighbor- hoods, regardless of socioeco- minority children who grow nomic status. up in segregated neighbor- hoods and attend segre- SERHAN ULKUMEN ’18 gated schools have worse Computational Neuroscience educational and economic Classic Victory outcomes than children Age-old skills give USC classics students a big win “I end up having to 14%- in more integrated areas, over their contemporaries. schedule my life around she said. High levels of the chemotherapy, and residential segregation have Students from USC Dornsife’s Classics Department recently not just the infusion 55% been linked to lower levels put their knowledge to the test — and came out on top. dates but also the efect Range of green cover that has of income mobility across Te students took on their counterparts from nearby disappeared from L.A.-area generations. universities in the region’s frst Classics Olympia that it’s having on my neighborhoods Neighborhood racial competition. Te students competed in four categories — body after that.” diversity is also infuenced trivia, Greek translation, Latin translation and debate — Diagnosed with Hodgkin lym- by the factors that families, and took home the win in each one. phoma while a USC Dornsife junior, Serhan Ulkumen received Number of land with and without children, “Our strongest point was defnitely the translation,” said biweekly infusions of anticancer cover types consider when selecting Zoie Petrakis, a double major in classics and international drugs over six months. The researchers tracked where to live. Families with A combination of high blood pressure and decreased blood relations. powerful medicines came with for the study debilitating side effects, which including buildings, children appear more con- fow inside the brain may spur the build-up of harmful Te Trojans even took to speaking ancient Greek and he found could interfere with hardscape, swim- cerned about what school plaque and signal the onset of dementia, according to Latin among themselves, which they said seemed to important life events such as ming pools, shade, district their neighborhood Daniel Nation, assistant professor of psychology. throw the competition of a bit. birthdays and weddings. 6 grass, and trees is linked to, and they may Te brain’s blood vessels function as a plumbing system “People can read it really well usually, but once you The experience inspired and shrubs even consider race as a that delivers nutrients and oxygen to feed brain cells and try to speak it, you get kind of tongue-tied,” said Emma Ulkumen and two fellow factor, Owens said. then fushes away waste, which includes protein fragments Dyson, a classics major who started the Spoken Latin students to develop a tool “White parents may be called amyloid. Club last year. for patients like him as part of USC’s inaugural Hack for avoiding school districts Nation explored whether constricted blood fow contrib- Students say the department’s small class sizes and Health. The April event drew White families with children continue to live in largely white where black and Latino children live because they use utes to the buildup of amyloid plaque and, consequently, camaraderie are perhaps its greatest assets. students from USC and other 1.2% neighborhoods, in part to send their children to predomi- racial composition as a proxy for quality of a school and a to the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. He also Te department is very focused on making classics schools to develop techno- logical solutions for cancer Annual decrease in tree and nantly white schools, a new study on racial segregation fnds. neighborhood,” she said. determined a new way to calculate cerebrovascular resistance a discipline of the 21st century. Its courses analyze the patients during a three-day shrub coverage year-to-year “Neighborhood racial segregation has been in decline Minority families may have diferent priorities in — a stifening of the vessels that results from high blood ancient civilizations not simply to understand them but “hackathon.” from 2000 to 2009 since the 1970s, but my fndings show it declined more deciding where to live, Owens suggested as an explanation pressure and low blood fow. also to provide context for analyzing the Western world. Dubbed “Infusion,” the calendar slowly among families with kids,” said Ann Owens, assistant for the diferences between households. Te brain tightens or relaxes its vessels to maintain Mehak Khan took Latin in middle school and high app Ulkumen co-created allows professor of sociology and spatial sciences. She analyzed “Black and Latino families have lower incomes on blood fow as it adjusts for changes in blood pressure. school, but when she began science courses early on at USC, patients to input social events recent United States Census data to examine racial segrega- average than white families, and they face housing market However, the brain vessels in Alzheimer’s patients are stif she found she missed the ancient cultures. She graduated in and treatment dates, as well as side effects and adverse events 984 → tiontrends in 100 major metropolitan areas. discrimination that infuences where they live, regardless and tight, inhibiting blood fow and enabling the sticky May — majoring in neuroscience and minoring in classics. that arise following treatment. As a result, children see less diversity in their neighborhoods of the high value that they may place on school options,” amyloid to accumulate, Nation found. “If anything, I wish I had majored in classics,” Khan It then shows when various than adults do, Owens said. “A lack of diversity could have a Owens said. ULKUMEN PHOTO COURTESY OF SERHAN ULKUMEN “For many diferent reasons, the contracting blood said. “A little bit of regret there.” —J.C. symptoms begin, peak and 2,349 signifcant efect on the development of their racial attitudes When choosing a home, minority families may priori- vessels are resistant to opening up and really letting the subside so patients can plan accordingly. The average square footage of and future education and employment.” tize safety, amenities and the home’s proximity to child blood in,” he said. Ulkumen, who put his studies a single-family home in 1950 Owens also measured “evenness” — how whites, blacks, care and employment over schools or other considerations. Nation developed an index that measures resistance in on hold while undergoing and 2004, respectively Latinos, Asian Americans and others sort across neighbor- “Minority parents also may evaluate schools diferently the brain’s vessels. A high index ranking indicates that treatment, is now a senior, hoods. Both measures of segregation indicate that children than white parents and prefer schools where their children amyloid is building up and that the patient is progressing and his cancer is in remission. are more racially segregated between neighborhoods are not the minority,” Owens wrote. toward dementia. He found creating the app to be a moving experience. than adults. “As long as neighborhoods are demarcated by school Nation found that people with Alzheimer’s disease “I’ve been feeling like my 1 Million School district boundaries are a key factor. Owens found district boundaries limiting enrollment options, had lower blood fow in their brains than people without life has been on standby and Target number of trees the that neighborhood racial segregation across the country parents will take these boundaries into account when dementia. Tese blood fow changes were undetectable in that’s part of the reason I city of L.A. aimed to plant as appeared to be driven largely by white parents with children making residential choices, which may contribute to the earlier stages of disease. wanted to do this hackathon,” part of a campaign launched he said. “I’ve been inspired to choosing, consciously or not, to move to neighborhoods and segregation between white and minority children,” People with Alzheimer’s disease also measured much do something again.” about a decade ago school districts with fewer minorities. Owens wrote. higher on the cerebrovascular resistance index.

16 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 17 FROM THE HEART OF USC Our World

STUDENTS Cuba FACULTY Greece STUDENTS Ireland STUDENTS Los Angeles FELLOWS Manchester ALUMNI Bhutan Last summer, USC Dornsife undergraduates traveled to Ireland and Northern Ireland to So Close, Yet So Far explore the politics of language Te Paper Trail Students explore island nation’s culture firsthand. revitalization, learning how Asheesh Siddique is tracing the British Empire’s language impacts cultural and history through its documents. GREECE PHOTO COURTESY OF C.L. NIKIAS;MAX LOS ANGELES PHOTO BY SUSAN BELL national identity. MANUSCRIPT COURTESY OF ASHEESH SIDDIQUE; BHUTAN PHOTO BY BARRY SHAFFER Tok Thompson, associate Maddy Hinck ’17, then a senior, Postdoctoral scholar Asheesh Siddique is investigating professor (teaching) of anthro- sampled mole and pupusas how the British Empire used documents to administer its Jacob Soll’s master work, pology and communication, while touring historic Grand territories in India and the United States in the 1700s. The Reckoning: Financial led the Problems Without Central Market as part of Sarah “I’m interested in what it means to be obedient at a Accountability and the Rise Passports course. Portnoy’s course “Latino Food distance to a sovereign power that’s governing from an and Fall of Nations (Basic The students interviewed Culture in Los Angeles.” imperial capital that you may never really see except for once Books, 2014), cast a stark Irish citizens about differing Portnoy, assistant professor or twice in your life, but nevertheless has an enormous power light on the financial world as attitudes toward the Gaelic (teaching) of Spanish, leads over you, and where records are being used to embody that national economies recovered language, analyzing the innovative courses that teach power,” he explained. from the Great Recession of mixed success of language the language through the lens Siddique has immersed himself in British imperial a few years earlier. The book revitalization efforts in the of Latino food culture and food archives at libraries around the United Kingdom and has now been translated into two countries. justice. Students write food the U.S. to get a better sense of the inner workings of Ivette Gomez, assistant professor (teaching) of Spanish, led Greek, and Soll presented the “I wanted students to look blogs in Spanish while those in the bureaucracy. 21 undergraduates and one graduate student, all from a wide updated version at Greece’s at what works, what doesn’t Portnoy’s “Latino Food Justice” As a member of the USC Society of Fellows in the range of majors, on a two-week stay in her native Cuba. Te National and Kapodistrian work, and how we can bring course intern with local non- Humanities, he receives funding as well as interdisciplinary students immersed themselves in the island’s vibrant culture University of Athens in July. some of those lessons home,” profits. mentorship for his research from an intellectual community With its steady rumble of traffic, Encino’s bustling Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles’ San Fernando as part of the Maymester “Visualizing Cuba: Arts, Politics Soll, professor of history Thompson said. “America “This is an excellent way to of postdoctoral scholars and faculty at USC. Valley could not seem farther removed from the peace, pristine air and sweeping mountain views and Society in Today’s Cuba.” Tey explored Old Havana, and accounting, was joined by is No. 2 in the world for use our Spanish out in the real “It’s been an amazing opportunity in so many ways,” said of the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. rode along the Malecón in vintage American cars and USC President C. L. Max Nikias language loss.” world,” said Hinck, who ma- Siddique. “Te support has enabled me to do a lot of the Alumnus Barry Shaffer, however, feels at home in both these contrasting worlds. After practicing experienced the harmonious beauty of the architecture. Tey as well as Greek scholars, jored in political science with a nitty-gritty, granular work that good historical research dentistry for more than 40 years in Encino, his second career as a photographer is blossoming with also visited Ernest Hemingway’s house, met a female rap government dignitaries and Spanish and business minor. comes from.” the publication of his first major fine-art photography book, Echoes of Bhutan (EBS Editoriale Bortolazzi duo, sang “Amazing Grace” a capella for residents of a senior global business executives. Stei, 2017). The book was launched in May at the prestigious Mountainfilm festival in Telluride, Colo. living facility and discussed Cuba’s upcoming elections with The group discussed the book The photographs featured in the book span a period of 15 years and were selected from more than a Cuban political science professor. and its continuing importance 5,000 taken over the course of three trips Shaffer made to Bhutan. Initially inspired by hearing in a dynamic global economy. renowned Indo-Tibetan-Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman speak at Telluride in 2000, the following Video: Learn more about the Cuba Maymester at dornsife.usc.edu/Cuba. Nikias and Soll also met with year Shaffer flew from L.A. to Bangkok and then on to Bhutan’s tiny Paro Airport, nestled among the Alexis Tsipras, prime minister Himalayas. of Greece. Soll presented Hearing Thurman describe a pure Buddhist culture — a place he portrayed as “the land of the the Greek translation of his thunder dragon” — made it sound like a kind of Shangri-La, said Shaffer, who earned his bachelor’s book to Tsipras, and the trio in history in 1970 and his USC dentistry degree in 1974. discussed Greece’s debt crisis, “Coming off the plane the first time was just like nothing I could have ever thought actually existed,” progress made in recent nego- he said. “It’s a land of ancient monasteries, fluttering prayer flags and unforgettable beauty, where tiations and plans for improving one cannot help but feel a lasting sense of peace.” the country’s economic Shaffer spent weeks camping as he trekked to remote parts of the country to photograph Bhutan’s situation. landscapes and people, returning as a photographer for the Tribal Trust Foundation in 2014 and again in 2015 at the invitation of Bhutan’s government and travel industry — a rare honor. His book features written contributions from illustrious members of Bhutan’s ruling class including its queen mother, fourth king, and prime minister, as well as a foreword by Thurman. All proceeds from sales of the book will benefit the Tarayana Foundation, a nonprofit established by Bhutan’s queen mother.

18 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 19 E MEM NTO

From the Victorians’ morbid fascination with death to the Civil War’s profound infuence on American mourning rituals to our current tendency to ignore or deny the inevitability of our eventual demise, USC Dornsife scholars explore our dramatically evolving attitudes toward death and mortality. By Susan Bell

MORI

20 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 21 n its ornate, gold frame, the 19th-century photograph sister, brother, baby. If a named child died, that name might shows an infant cradled in its mother’s arms, its eyes be given to the next sibling born of the same gender. closed, its lips slightly parted. Te mother’s cheeks blush “Tere’s a fuidity with the personhood of that child, but Irose beneath the smooth, dark wing of her hair. Clothed in an attachment to the name,” Deverell explained. “If you poke gauzy white muslin embellished with lace and blue ribbons, at that, it shows a tragic familiarity with death.” a coral necklace at its throat, the cherished child clasps pink O’Neill suggests that what we fnd morbid today in and cream fowers in a tiny fst. Te infant’s summery clothes Victorian attitudes toward death originates from this very contrast with the heavy, shapeless black cape that envelops familiarity, the acceptance of mortality and the comfort the mother, who gazes, not afectionately at her child or found in keeping the dead within the family fold. even shyly at the photographer, but out and down into space, “Because family is so important to the Victorians, they her deep, empty eyes expressionless. want to include the dead among the living,” O’Neill said. “Look at her shock,” said William Deverell, professor of “Tis translates into wakes held in the parlor while children history at USC Dornsife and director of the Huntington- play around the corpse, picnicking with deceased relatives in USC Institute on California and the West. “A very young the family crypt and wearing locks of [the deceased’s] hair in mother, but that child is no longer alive. lockets or brooches.” “When I show a post-mortem photograph of a child in the arms of its mother, my students hesitate because they of COMPLEX MOURNING RITUALS course want to think that baby is sleeping, but if they look Death rituals previously reserved for the upper classes closer, they begin to notice that something is not quite right,” developed into a complex and widely adopted series of he said. Deverell teaches the popular 19th-century practice mourning rituals. Tis highly choreographed set of protocols as part of his undergraduate course “History of American included lengthy prescribed mourning periods that required Childhood.” widows to wear black for a year and a day while men pinned “Undergraduates are initially shocked that the mother black ribbons to their clothing. Black-edged mourning would hold the dead child in such a loving embrace, but once stationery was used for correspondence, and tresses of the we discuss it, it begins to make sense for them,” he said. deceased’s hair, sometimes twisted and teased into elaborate Post-mortem photography often represented the only sculptures, were framed and displayed in drawing rooms, image of that human being ever taken, he explained. Tis alongside death masks — wax or plaster impressions of their DEARLY BELOVED was especially true for infants and young children. faces made after death. A post-mortem photograph “Te child had to hold still for too long for parents to be Opulent funerals featuring elaborate processions, of a grieving mother with her willing to purchase expensive portraits of their children when ideally led by a glass carriage bearing the cofn and drawn deceased child, taken ca. 1850. they were very young,” Deverell added. “But if the child died, by prancing black stallions, their heads adorned with black there was often a desire to commemorate his or her life, ostrich feathers, became de rigueur. Te more ostentatious or even death, by having a photograph taken.” the funeral, the more it proclaimed the wealth and status As the only visual remembrance of the deceased, post- of the bereaved. Te poor, for their part, joined burial clubs, growing in death, so when the cofn was prized open, it was to prevent royalists from stealing relics and Cromwell’s mortem photographs helped families grieve and were allowing them to buy their own funerals on layaway for a few found to be flled with her coppery hair. Rossetti retrieved his supporters from vandalizing the tomb, Charles’ fnal resting considered among a family’s most precious possessions. pennies each week. poems, although legend has it a worm had burrowed through place was soon forgotten. Undertakers fourished during the Victorian era and death them, leaving many illegible. “Ten years after Charles’ death, among the handful of AN INTIMATE FAMILIARITY WITH DEATH became a business, professionalized and commodifed as “Tere are plenty of cases in the 19th century of people, people who knew his burial place, several had died and the “We always associate the Victorians with morbid, dark, never before. Tis was manifested by the shift away from old who for reasons generally tied to love and not a weird others couldn’t recollect where they had put him,” Tomaini weird attachments to death,” said Lindsay O’Neill, assistant churchyards, viewed as dangerously unsanitary, to the new eeriness, dug up the dead,” Deverell said. “Ralph Waldo said. “Tey knew he was under the nave somewhere, but

professor (teaching) of history. “But it’s not just that the “garden cemeteries.” Tese commercial enterprises began OF THE HUNTINGTON COURTESY PHOTOGRAPH Emerson famously opened up his wife’s cofn because they’d forgotten exactly where. It wasn’t until 1813 that his Victorians were morbid people, it’s that their key values opening in semi-rural suburbs in the frst half of the 19th he missed her so.” body was accidentally discovered by workmen.” are tied up with new conceptions of death that emerged in century in response to mounting concerns over public health. Amid great excitement, the great and good, including the 19th century.” Victorians erroneously blamed what they called “miasma” — USING CORPSES TO INTERPRET A GLORIFIED PAST King George IV, the Prince Regent and their personal physi- Te Victorians’ intimate relationship with death is almost a pestilent stench they associated with decomposing bodies Tea Tomaini’s new book, Te Corpse as Text: Disinterment cian, gathered for the opening of Charles’ cofn. Much to unthinkable to people today. piling up in the old, overcrowded churchyards — for causing and Antiquarian Enquiry, 1700-1900 (Boydell Press, 2017), everyone’s satisfaction, he was found to be in tremendously “For us, the idea of laying out a corpse, attending a wake or epidemics that killed tens of thousands of people in the newly explores the two centuries-long vogue for digging up good condition. seeing a dead body is traumatic,” said O’Neill, a specialist in congested cities of the Industrial Revolution. important historical fgures to “read” their corpses, “His skin was supple, and he looked very good,” Tomaini British history. “We just don’t want to think about it.” “A big fear during London’s 1854 cholera epidemic was as though they were documents describing an idealized recounts. “Tey brought the head up out of the cofn, noting MIRROR MIRROR In the 19th century, people had no choice. Death was an that plague bodies had been uncovered,” O’Neill said. “In past. By “interpreting” the corpses of the historically dead, that it had been sutured back on to the body with black silk Art executed in the vanitas ever-present reality. Death rates soared as a result of increased Britain there is connection to past moments of death because antiquarians attempted to validate English nationalist thread and the mark covered with a black velvet ribbon. And style incorporates symbols of mortality, thereby reminding

urbanization brought about by industrialization. Working- churchyards are flled with graves dating back to the 14th and - ideals and to establish the past as a Golden Age of unim- they picked up the head and passed it around and all agreed USC INSTITUTE ON CALIFORNIA AND THE WEST class parents could expect to lose one in two children at a 15th centuries, many holding victims of the plague.” peachable superiority. that it was him and that the majesty was still clear on the viewers of life’s transience. young age, while middle- and upper-class families lost on Te most famous of the new Victorian garden cemeteries “What’s fascinating about this is that a person of historical king’s face.” average one in fve. was London’s Highgate — the fnal resting place of Karl importance — be they literary, royal, a member of the Tis was immediately politicized to validate the monar- “On any stroll through a 19th-century cemetery, we would Marx, novelist George Eliot, scientist Michael Faraday and church, a politician, or a national hero — remains almost chist argument that royalty was ultimately unassailable. be shocked at the number of gravestones marked ‘baby,’ Elizabeth “Lizzie” Siddal, the Pre-Raphaelite muse and wife as important in death as in life,” said Tomaini, professor With King Henry VIII, whose burial place — also ‘infant’ or ‘child,’ ” Deverell said. of artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. (teaching) of English. “Tere is a continued relevance, not forgotten — was discovered next to Charles, it was a diferent What’s astonishing to modern eyes is that these children Grief-stricken by his young wife’s untimely demise, only for the dead, but for the actual corpse.” story. Inside Henry’s outsized cofn, nothing remained of were buried unnamed. It was not uncommon in the American Rossetti slipped the only manuscript of his poems into her In her book, Tomaini illustrates how “reading” corpses the larger-than-life monarch, notorious for his excessive past, Deverell explained, for parents not to name a child until it cofn before burial. Seven years later, in 1869, he had her was used to support political argument by chronicling and often violent appetites, but a tiny shriveled skeleton had safely passed through a predetermined ‘seasoning period’ cofn exhumed under cover of darkness so he might publish the disinterment of Charles I, the Catholic Stuart king and a few tufts of ginger beard. His less-than-imposing of up to four years, lest they attach personality and person- them. Witnesses reported that the luxuriant auburn locks executed for high treason by Oliver Cromwell in 1649. remains were interpreted as a sign that tyrants never win hood to that child. Until then it would simply be called for which Siddal had been celebrated in life had continued Hastily buried in secret in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, — even in death.

22 ILLUSTRATIONS BY RICHARD MIA FOR USC DORNSIFE MAGAZINE Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 23 DANSE MACABRE Victorians, while tuberculosis, a wasting disease to which For centuries, cemeteries served as a powerful reminder of many young Victorian women succumbed, ofered the the importance of living a morally righteous life. Deverell possibility of an idealized, lingering demise. Romanticized notes that in the 17th and early 18th centuries, Puritan by Victorians as “angels of the home,” such young women parents frightened young children into righteousness by embodied the perfect death. urging them to walk through graveyards, past tombstones carved with skulls and crossbones, to make them understand that death, their inevitable companion, was stalking them. In 15th-century Europe, even more explicit memento “Because family is so important mori (reminders of death), or cadaver tombs, featured transi sculptures showing the body in an advanced state of to the Victorians, they want to include decomposition, often complete with worms or other fesh- eating creatures. Nor were memento mori limited to cemeteries. Another the dead among the living.” example, the danse macabre, shows a dancing grim reaper carrying of rich and poor alike. Chapels constructed from Such gentle ideas about peaceful death were shared in the bones, such as the 16th-century Capela dos Ossos in Evora, U.S. until they were savagely disrupted by the Civil War. Portugal, inscribed with the words, “We bones, lying here More than 700,000 Americans lost their lives, raising the bare, await yours,” served as a silent reminder of mortality. question of how to deal with death on such a massive scale. Paintings executed in the vanitas style featured symbols of “[Te war] helped drive home this tragic, romantic notion mortality such as skulls or, more subtly, a fower losing its of the good death, a brave death, a resigned death, a reli- petals and were meant to remind viewers of the transience gious death, a poignant death, all wrapped up into notions of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. of nobility, chivalric masculinity, patriotism, and flial Public clocks often bore such cheery inscriptions as ultima loyalty to one’s parents, as soldiers die with the names of forsan (perhaps the last [hour]), while people carried their mother and father on their lips, or a picture of their smaller, portable reminders of their own mortality. Mary children pinned to their chest,” Deverell said. Queen of Scots owned a large watch carved in the form of As Americans struggled to cope with traumatic death a silver skull, which counted down the minutes until her stripped of all desired aspects of parlor comfort, they never- beheading on Feb. 8, 1587. theless clung to the idea of the idealized death, striving to stage it wherever possible, even in Civil War hospitals. Tere, THE GENTLE GOODNIGHT nurses — among them poet Walt Whitman, whose Civil Victorian cemeteries, however, were less about morbid remin- War nursing diaries are preserved at the Huntington Library ders of mortality and more about reunions, O’Neill notes. — play a critical role in recreating this almost romantic view While we might fnd it slightly macabre to take a Sunday of death, of being present at the moment of passing, walk, much less stop for a picnic, in a graveyard, in the late of tenderness, the kiss on the cheek and the gentle goodbye. 18th and early 19th centuries, American cemeteries were regarded as parks, places to relax and repose in nature. EMBALMING LINCOLN In Britain, a similar story unfolded. At Highgate, families If any single death can be considered to have most deeply — children included — dressed in their Sunday best to take afected Americans’ view of mortality, it is the assassination tea with their dear departed in the family crypt. of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. “Victorians start to emphasize less the previous personal “Regarded both as a sacrifcial Christian martyr and a battle for the soul and more the loss of a cherished individual republican hero who gave his life for the people, Lincoln came to the family unit,” O’Neill said. Heaven for Victorians no to stand for all of the dead of the Civil War,” said Richard longer represented only the place where they would be united Fox, professor of history and author of Lincoln’s Body (W.W. with God, but also the place where they would be reunited Norton & Company, 2015). “Americans identifed personally with their family after death. Victorians found comfort in the with his death as if he were a family member, sometimes even idea of having a crypt where their family would visit them, leaving a symbolic empty chair at the dinner table they called thus perpetuating beyond the grave that sense of inclusion ‘Lincoln’s place.’ ” PRESENT ARMS and continuity that the family personifed to them so strongly. In response to public demand, the funeral train bearing More than 700,000 Americans As the connection with the church lessened, paintings of Lincoln’s body traveled 1,654 miles, through seven states perished in the Civil War, trans- the period depicting death scenes showed doctors and fami- and 180 cities from Washington, D.C., to Springfeld, Ill. forming the nation’s experience lies in attendance, rather than priests. Twelve cities held public viewings of his body. of death. “A strange separation of death and church is taking place, “It’s estimated that a million people saw his body and and what replaces church is family,” O’Neill said. “Victorians another six million saw the train — more than a quarter of aren’t becoming less religious, but the nature of their religion the Northern population,” Fox said. “Even in cities that only is changing. ... Te vengeful God of previous centuries is obtained a stop in the middle of the night, thousands turned replaced by a more forgiving God and death is sentimen- out, dressed in their Sunday best, while women decorated talized as a smooth, sweet passage, a homecoming.” the train with garlands of fowers to show their respect.” Highly valued, this idealized concept of a “good death” All this was made possible by the embalming of Lincoln’s meant dying peacefully surrounded by family and friends, body. Tis process — brought from France — became popu- with time to say goodbye and doctors in attendance to lar during the Civil War because it allowed grieving families ease any pain. It was a time of acceptance, family bonding to bring the bodies of their fallen sons home to recreate the and meaningful last words. Unexpected, messy and idealized deathbed experience. uncontrollable, cholera represented the worst kind of death to STORY CONTINUES ON PAGE 27.

24 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 25 “In Lincoln’s case, it didn’t work out as perfectly as the away in retirement homes, and at the other, children embalmers predicted because his body was jostled too much are sheltered from death by well-meaning parents who and too much dust descended upon it during the trip,” believe their ofspring need protecting from the reality of Fox said. “But, for two weeks it looked very presentable. mortality. Tat doesn’t happen in Mexico, Vallejo says, Only in the third week did it start to turn in ways that where beliefs and practices about death are integrated into by Susan Bell were unpleasant for viewers.” everyday life. Scary Monsters and Super Creeps By the turn of the 20th century, embalming was WHAT DOES OUR ENDURING LOVE OF GHOSTS, ZOMBIES late 1880s, it is one of several doppelganger figures — people so popular in the U.S. that it enabled the funeral home AND VAMPIRES REVEAL ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH with double lives or double selves — that reflects the more com- to replace the home as the place where people grieved, MORTALITY? USC DORNSIFE’S RESIDENT MONSTER EXPERT plex, late Victorian view of human psychology. This is rendered Fox said. As a result, death became increasingly LEO BRAUDY EXPLAINS. not necessarily in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis or depth commercialized as it was taken out of the domestic “People always have death on their mind, psychology, but in terms of fears of the monstrousness of one’s setting and put into into a commercial one. Almost 35 years have passed since otherwise repressed self. This psychological monster-from-within After the Civil War, a movement grew to rebury in whether they admit it or not.” a ragtag troupe of gyrating zombies nevertheless coincides with Freud’s early development of his marked graves those hastily laid to rest on the battlefeld. first captivated audiences worldwide, theories of psychology and the inner self. Led in the South by private associations of women, helping to propel Michael Jackson’s Finally, there is the monster from the past that arrives to take in the North this push constituted the largest federal “Kids attend funerals from the time that they are 1983 hit “Thriller” to the coveted position of revenge on us and our modern cult of progress, improvement government initiative of its time. What started as a young children. Te novena — a prayer ritual practiced by greatest music video of all time. Our appetite for all and change. reburial movement for soldiers grew to provide care for Mexican Catholics — is held for nine consecutive days, things associated with the undead has only grown more “Dracula, who comes out of a very distant, even pre-Christian their widows and orphans, then spread to the general often in a family member’s home, where relatives and pronounced since. past, is a prime example,” Braudy noted. “He promises immortality.” population, thus sowing the seeds for the birth of the friends mourn and pray. It’s just part of life,” she explained. World War Z, The Twilight Saga, The Walking Dead, welfare state and the New Deal. “Te U.S. is generally a death-denying society and we are True Blood, the White Walkers from VAMPIRES AND ZOMBIES failing to see that the dying and the dead have a legacy to Game of Thrones — our Our modern-day enthusiasm for vampires stems from our desire to AN AMERICAN TABOO? ofer — connection to our past, to our roots, not just our current obsession with avoid confronting our own mortality, Braudy believes. “Vampires Today, better health care, lower infant mortality and family, but our community, our society.” monsters seems to be have lived for thousands of years, have survived history, so they are longer life expectancy mean that death has receded in If death is a taboo subject in the U.S., Vallejo says, at an all-time high as we simultaneously feared but admired, because they represent, for the familiarity for everyone except the very ill and very old. that doesn’t mean Americans aren’t fascinated with it. binge on a raft of popular moment, a liberation from mortality.” Does that modern lack of experience with death translate All you have to do, she says, is look at entertainment. movies and TV series dedicated On the other hand, the current zombie craze, Braudy argues, into our unwillingness to talk about it or accept it? “We live in a society that’s obsessed with violent death to vampires and zombies. In to- reflects our present-day fear of groups. This is an era where “Death is more removed from our daily experience than in movies, TV shows and video games, but that doesn’t really day’s youth-obsessed culture we’re less afraid of James Bond-type villains — those descen- it was in the past,” Deverell noted. “While it once had acknowledge death and mortality except in these fantastical in which we are reluctant to dants of Hitler and Mussolini who want to rule the world — and its chin on the shoulder of people as they walked through ways,” she said, referring to the current wave of vampire even acknowledge our own more afraid of the faceless, shadowy, anonymous groups we life, death is now, for the lucky majority, a step behind us. and zombie dramas. mortality, much less discuss can’t pin down. It’s only when we think about those among us who are “We are constantly confronted with death in American it, does this fascination with mon- “What’s really different about the zombie and what separates elderly or ill, that we then start to see death take a step society. However, it’s present in ways that aren’t discussed sters signal a need to confront our fear of death? it from most of the classic monsters is that it’s part of a collective, forward.” or that allow people to actually think about their own First, there is nothing new in our love of monsters, while other monsters are individuals,” Braudy said. “There’s no O’Neill argues that behind falling mortality rates and mortality in a spiritual or contemplative way that could notes Leo Braudy, University Professor and Leo S. Bing Chair in hierarchy in the zombie world, no ‘king zombie,’ so fear of zombies increased secularization lies a growing faith in science and help them make sense of their own lives and the world English and American Literature. “We have told each other scary represents a modern fear of groups. They might be Islamic funda- our ability to control and even cheat death. around them.” stories since the beginning of time. Ghosts, for instance, have mentalists, immigrants, Republicans, Democrats — you name it, “Previously death was inevitable. It was more about Vallejo believes that the growing popularity in broader been around since the start of civilization,” he said. whatever group frightens you.” how you died, whereas now we’re much more interested in American society of Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos (Day of Braudy, professor of English, art history, film and history, is a prolonging life,” O’Neill said. “When death happens now, the Dead) — a celebration to remember and honor the monster expert and the author of Haunted: On Ghosts, Witches, A REVEALING OBSESSION it’s a recognition of the limits of our abilities to control dead — is partly rooted in how it allows people to think Vampires, Zombies, and Other Monsters of the Natural and Our love of monsters is revealing, Braudy argues, showing us how life. Death becomes perceived as a failure, feeding into the about death in ways made difcult by their own culture. Supernatural Worlds (Yale University Press, 2016). preoccupied we are with death and mortality. Our obsession with taboo that we don’t really want to talk about it or recog- In Los Angeles alone, some 40,000 people attend Our fascination with monsters, he says, begins in childhood monsters provides the counterbalance to our own change in funer- nize it.” the annual Dia de los Muertos celebrations at Hollywood with the fairy tales we hear at our mother’s knee. ary practices as described in Jessica Mitford’s celebrated book The Te fact that we often characterize Victorian attitudes Forever cemetery. “Children love fairy tales for the same reasons we all love American Way of Death — medicalized, sanitized death that now to death as morbid and obsessive ofers telling insights “You see Dia de los Muertos celebrations and symbolism frightening stories — because they allow us a kind of mastery,” takes place mostly in hospitals, far removed from our daily lives. into our own often uncomfortable relationship with mor- everywhere in the U.S. now,” said Vallejo, commenting on he said. “They’re comforting, but also titillating, certainly for “What horror does,” Braudy said, “is keep our mortality squarely tality. It’s a relationship that Jody Vallejo, for one, doesn’t the prevalence of Dia de Los Muertos folk art, costumes, adults. It’s that idea of ‘you escaped.’ ” in front of us.” consider any healthier. tattoos and skateboarder imagery. “It’s yet another example Popular culture, he argues, essentially allows us to indulge our “Tere’s an obsession in America with not acknowledg- of how death inevitably becomes commercialized in RECOGNIZING THE FOUR CATEGORIES OF MONSTERS fears and desires without penalty, and that explains the pleasure ing mortality or aging,” observed Vallejo. Te associate American society. Even Walmart sells sugar skulls. But it’s In Haunted, Braudy divides monsters into four categories. First, we currently derive from watching films or TV shows featuring mon- professor of sociology and American studies and ethnicity also emblematic of the ways in which immigrants help to “the monster from nature” embodies our fear of an uncontrol- sters, including zombies and vampires. researches immigrant integration with a particular focus remake societies.” lable natural world. Examples fall into two groups: mysterious, “Popular culture is, to a certain extent, emotionally compensa- on the Mexican-origin middle class in the U.S. “Since Death rituals difer across time and cultures, between elusive but ultimately less threatening monsters like Sasquatch, tory,” Braudy said. “It allows us to indulge those fears and desires the 1960s, there’s been a national obsession with looking classes and races, but all are endlessly interesting in terms the Yeti or the Loch Ness Monster; and more menacing speci- that medical science has deprived us of by de-sentimentalizing or youthful, refected by the surging demand for plastic of narrative, drama, poignancy, love, faith, grief, goodbyes mens, like Godzilla or King Kong, that embody the fear that de-emotionalizing death.” surgery and Botox,” she added. and loss, Deverell noted. nature will take her revenge for our transgressions against her. “Scary monsters, super creeps / keep me running, running In the meantime, death in America has mostly been “People always have death on their mind, whether they The second type of monster is associated with the fear of sci- scared,” David Bowie sang on his hit from the 1980 Scary Monsters removed from public view, taken out of the familiar and admit it or not,” he said. “I fnd comfort as a historian ence. Frankenstein is an example of this kind of monster, created (And Super Creeps) album. His words still ring true today and, intimate confnes of the home and transferred into the in the river of humanity and mortality that we’re all in. purposefully by a scientist whose hubris leads him to believe he according to Braudy, will likely continue to do so for generations antiseptic, sterile environment of the hospital, where it is No one gets out of it, and there are lessons to be learned can rival God’s creativity to bring to life an unprecedented being. to come. managed by medical professionals. and inspirations to be gathered from those that came Third, comes the Jekyll and Hyde monster. Appearing in the “Our fascination with monsters,” Braudy said, “is perpetual.” At one end of the spectrum, the elderly are hidden before us for all kinds of reasons.”

26 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 27 Kathryn Sermak ’77 recounts her decade-long association with one of the most celebrated actresses in Hollywood, and how it helped to shape her career and her ideas about aging and death.

By Dan Knapp Immortal. Beloved. Her hair is Harlow gold Her lips sweet surprise … I’m in the middle of an ’80s fashback. Her hands are never cold PHOTO BY JAMES - DANIEL RADICHES; ALL OTHER PHOTOS COURTESY OF KATHRYN SERMAK UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED OTHERWISE UNLESS SERMAK KATHRYN OF COURTESY PHOTOS OTHER ALL RADICHES; DANIEL She’s got Bette Davis eyes.

Singer Kim Carnes’ 1981 smash echoes through my mind. And why not? I’m surrounded by mementos from Bette Davis’ life and flm career. On the wall of Kathryn Sermak’s home ofce hangs a pastel illustration of Davis, star of such Hollywood classics as A PARTING GLANCE Dark Victory, Jezebel and All About Eve, a personal favorite Photographer James-Daniel of mine since flm school. (I often shamelessly appropri- Radiches photographed ate razor-sharp quips from the flm.) Drawn by an ardent Kathryn Sermak and her devotee, the portrait arrived at Sermak’s mailbox three mentor and friend Bette Davis months after the star succumbed to cancer in October 1989. at the Hôtel Plaza Athéneé in Te eyes seem to follow me throughout the room, as if a New York City in April 1989. villain in some Scooby-Doo cartoon was hiding behind the It was Davis’s last formal artwork, watching my every move. Davis’ omnipresence is portrait sitting. impossible to avoid. Sermak seems comforted by it.

28 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 29 After all, most of Sermak’s adult life has been caught up More than anything, though, Davis nurtured in Sermak in the star’s gravitational pull. an unwavering sense of devotion and perseverance. Sermak was student, Girl Friday (a term Davis preferred “Tat frst year was what I call boot camp — and it was to secretary), personal assistant, friend, confdant, caretaker, very difcult because she kept testing me,” Sermak says. “A and heir to the movie queen. Following Davis’ death, she lot of people would have quit; a lot of people would have said, was charged with preserving the actress’ legacy, both by co- ‘I’ve had enough.’ But if you can persevere and go beyond, you founding and serving on the board of directors of the Bette succeed, and that’s basically what she taught me.” Davis Foundation and, more recently, publishing a memoir of Sermak retrieves her reading glasses for the third — her relationship with “Miss D.” perhaps fourth — time during our interview. She jokes Miss D & Me: Life with the Invincible Bette Davis about how she is always misplacing them as she scrutinizes (Hachette, 2017) is the fulfllment of a promise the photograph I hand her. Sermak made to her friend and sometime employer three In the photo, a woman with cascading chestnut tresses decades ago. and luminous eyes stands next to Davis. Although she has worked with other noted, infuen- “I was never happy with how I looked back then,” tial people throughout her career as a personal assistant, Sermak says. “But now, I don’t know ... .” She trails of for Sermak’s loyalties clearly remain with Davis. Every room an instant as she refects on the image. “I can’t imagine of her West Los Angeles home contains some memento what I was thinking.” of her career with the actress — a career that might Te picture was captured in New York City in April not have happened, she believes, had it not been for her 1989 — the last professional image of the screen icon. USC Dornsife education. Tis photo — along with the portrait in Sermak’s ofce with the watchful eyes — appears on the book jacket for “FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS …” Miss D & Me. Certainly, though, Sermak had seemingly unlim- Te year was 1979. Sermak had graduated from USC with ited options from which to choose: Her small but remarkably a bachelor’s degree in psychology two years prior. As she organized ofce contains thousands of photographs — both contemplated enrolling in graduate school, she accepted loose and in scrapbooks. a job in Beverly Hills as a personal assistant to Princess As we thumb through her photo albums, most of which Shams Pahlavi, eldest sister of the last Shah of Iran, are bursting at the seams with a mix of professional portraits Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. When the princess relocated and amateur shots, I’m in disbelief over the multitude of to Acapulco, Mexico, Sermak, a self-described surfer girl Polaroids she’s retained. Instant cameras, it turns out, were from San Bernardino, Calif., chose to stay behind and crucial to her ability to properly assist her employers through- parlay her recent prestigious experience and education into out the years. a job interview with Davis. Whenever there was a personal appearance to be “One of the reasons [Davis] hired me was because I was made, Sermak would use her camera to map the route to able to state on my résumé my extensive foreign travel — where Davis would make her entrance so that the aging all of it through USC study abroad language programs star would be familiar with the location. I imagine how — which made her think I was a sophisticated, multilingual formidable Sermak would have been if she’d had an young lady,” Sermak explains, running her fngers through iPhone back then. her hair as she speaks. Mixed among the photos are other treasured possessions She says that when she accepted the job at age 23, she that guided Sermak as she wrote her book. She has saved had no idea she would learn a lifetime of lessons during numerous diaries and notebooks, yellowing newspaper the following 10 years. clippings and birthday cards. Tere are audio recordings “Miss D taught me everything,” Sermak says. She she and Davis made for one another over the years. Sermak begins speaking at an increasingly rapid pace, clearly exuber- started taping messages to her family and friends as a USC ant about the attention Davis devoted to her. “Yes, I learned a student studying in Spain because telephoning home was MOMENTS IN TIME lot about flm, but I learned more about life.” prohibitively expensive. Te habit stuck. Clockwise from top left: Davis instructed her pupil on how to dress, how to eat, Other one-of-a-kind items include a recently digitized Kathryn Sermak today; Bette how to interact with people — both privately and publicly. video of an interview Sermak conducted with Davis Davis checking out motorcycles When Davis thought Sermak’s handshake was lacking, toward the end of her life. Sermak hopes to one day edit the in the Loire Valley, France; she grabbed her hand and insisted that her employee of footage and have it appear on television. Tose recordings Davis at a French roadside cafe; two days practice until it was perfect. She expected lie on the bookshelf, directly beneath her prized antique Sermak and Davis arrive at the meticulous attention to detail from Sermak. She even dictionary, given to her by Davis, naturally. San Sebastian film festival; suggested that Sermak alter the spelling of her given frst Perhaps aided by the dictionary, Sermak jokes that she is Davis with friend and fashion name, Catherine. seldom at a loss for words. So when we fnally sit down in her designer Patrick Kelly; the “If you spell it K-A-T-H-R-Y-N, it’s more distinctive,” home — a refuge she calls Casa Bella — to discuss her book, USC Trojan Marching Band Davis counseled Sermak. “Te way your parents chose to she begins to answer questions even before I’ve had a chance flanks Davis on her 76th spell it is so much like everyone else in the world. I want to ask them. birthday; Sermak and Davis sun to advise you that one of the big battles in life is to stand “Miss D. was furious — she loved her dining room themselves in Biarritz, France. out from the crowd.” table,” Sermak says as she sees me glimpse a rough knife As if directly taken out of a script for My Fair Lady carving in the table top. It reads, “Bette + Sherry 1945.” – with Davis assuming the Henry Higgins role and It was etched by Davis’ third husband, William Grant Sherry. Sermak as Eliza Doolittle – Davis gave her protégé les- I notice the blue-and-white chaise in her living room. sons on how to walk and how to speak. Davis even fned Sermak mentions that it was custom made for Davis back Sermak a quarter each time she responded to a request when she was working at Warner Bros. and simultaneously with a “low-class ‘okay.’ ” flming two movies at the studio.

30 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 31 Sermak details how Davis’ will bequeathed to her spe- faltered. Whenever Davis needed anything, Sermak was cifc pieces of furniture — like the table and chaise — and promptly on a jet back to the United States. She helped how she left explicit instructions on how they should be Davis through a litany of health issues, assisted with the cleaned and arranged. Tink of it as interior decorating publication of Davis’ second autobiography, Tis ’n Tat from beyond the grave. (Putnam Publishing Group, 1987), and escorted the legend to important public engagements. “… A BUMPY NIGHT” “Miss Davis might have been 71, but let me tell you, ... she could run circles around me, and I had a lot of energy,” says Sermak, describing her frst years with the screen legend. “… if you can persevere and go beyond, “She could run circles around four people in their 20s.” Davis and Sermak are not dissimilar in that regard. you succeed, and that’s basically what Nearly four decades since she went to work for Davis, Sermak still thrums with energy. She is the proverbial [Davis] taught me.” whirling dervish throughout our conversation, frequently ascending the stairs to her second foor ofce to retrieve more mementos of her career. Sermak says that Davis only slowed down when she was However, in 1985, when Davis’ daughter Barbara Davis felled by a stroke nine days after a mastectomy to treat her “B.D.” Hyman published a scathing tell-all book about breast cancer in 1983. It was in Davis’ New York City hospital her mother that deeply afected Davis, Sermak suggested room that Sermak says the dynamic shifted between the duo. Davis instead join her. “Tose frst fve years, I was young, kind of weak,” “Tat’s when I said she needed to come to France,” Sermak Sermak explains. “She was the one who taught me how to says. “I’d work on the [Tis ’n Tat] galleys and then we’d take walk and talk.” But following the stroke, they switched roles, this motor trip from Biarritz to Paris.” with Sermak helping Davis relearn how to use her body. It is about this trip abroad that Davis — still reeling “It’s almost like a life reversal,” Sermak says. from Hyman’s character assassination — insisted Sermak Sermak played an integral role in Davis’ recovery, oversee- write a book. During their four-day excursion, Sermak ing every aspect of it, from diet to doctor’s appointments to unknowingly accepted the role of de facto daughter as their making sure the star balanced rest and activity. Although it bond strengthened along the way to the City of Lights. was months before Davis returned to her apartment in West Te duo sunned themselves by the pool at the historic Hollywood, and still more months before she ventured out in Hôtel du Palais on the Bay of Biscay and shaded them- public, she eventually resurfaced with the help of Sermak — selves under a café umbrella at a roadside restaurant. and the USC Trojan Marching Band. Sermak says Davis smiled at the fact that the umbrella was Producing photos of Davis in a USC sweater with a emblazoned with the Coca-Cola logo. color-coordinated hat, Sermak excitedly explains how she Sermak recalls Davis saying, “Ah, if Joan Crawford and Davis’ attorney arranged for the band to serenade the could see me. She’d be so angry,” alluding to the pair’s bitter icon on her 76th birthday. rivalry and the late Crawford’s ownership stake in the rival Te entire neighborhood came out to see the band march soft drink Pepsi. (Some feuds simmer long after death.) down Havenhurst Drive in West Hollywood, Calif., Davis donned a head-to-toe leather ensemble and checked to Davis’ residence at the landmark Colonial House build- out motorcycles in the Loire Valley, to the enthusiastic cheers ing. Sermak and Davis looked on from their terrace. When of local onlookers. Sermak shares these and other Polaroid the band fnished playing, Davis blew the band members memories of their trip. kisses from the balcony and despite having impaired Te jaunt was not all fun and games; it also allowed the mobility due to the stroke, asked Sermak to take her two time to discuss hard subjects. Each shared what they OUTGOING ’TIL THE END outside. wanted to happen upon their respective demises. Clockwise: Sermak assists BOOK SIGNING PHOTO COURTESY IMAGESOF GETTY “She yelled down to the band from the fourth foor, ‘You “Whichever of us dies frst, the other will see to it that Davis at a book signing for stay right there. I’m coming down,’ ” says Sermak. “She we look beautiful at the last,” Sermak recalls Davis saying. This ’n That in February 1988; went down and she shook everyone’s hands, thanking them. Many years before Davis had purchased her sarcophagus the last snapshot ever taken And it was the frst time, really, that she came out [following which overlooks Warner Bros studios at the Forest Lawn of Davis, mere days before her the stroke].” Hollywood Hills cemetery; she would be buried beside death; Sermak, Elizabeth Taylor her mother and sister Bobby. Davis had told Sermak she and Roddy McDowell along with “WE’RE ALL BUSY LITTLE BEES …” wanted the burial to take place at 4 a.m. when there would other friends surround Davis As Davis recovered, Sermak went to France as the actress’ be less chance of paparazzi skulking around. at her birthday party in 1987. emissary, and wound up falling in love with a young law- Another of the directives Davis made was for her own yer. Sensing that her protégé needed to experience a life memorial: She forbade a hoard of celebrities ofering outside of Hollywood, Davis encouraged Sermak to leave insincere tributes. her employ and move to Paris. “Miss D knew Hollywood,” Sermak says. “Somebody /

TIME & LIFE PICTURES & LIFE TIME “Miss D said, ‘You’ve got to go. You’ve got to go see this passes and all of a sudden they’re doing these memorials, man in his own country. I don’t think he’s right for you, and all these people come up and they start talking about but you need to get it out of your system.’ ” how they were best friends. Davis told Sermak, ‘Tey’re all “As it happened, she was right on both counts,” Sermak doing that because they need work, and they all want to be laughs. seen. And don’t you dare allow this to happen.’ ” While in France, Sermak worked for politician and Sermak would fnd herself following through on her journalist Pierre Salinger, but her loyalty to Davis never friend’s request four years later.

32 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 33 “SLOW CURTAIN, THE END” In the early fall of 1989, Davis lay dying in a hospital on the outskirts of Paris, her frail body ravaged by cancer. Only a select few — including Sermak — had been aware “People often ask me if I miss her, that Davis had been undergoing radiation treatment; no one expected her health to deteriorate so quickly. and I say that I still feel her presence “Tere was no way in the world we ever thought she was going to pass,” says Sermak as she holds up a faded Polaroid, around me.” shot in Spain, of Davis and herself — the last photo of Davis ever taken. “She looked the best I had ever seen her back then. It’s just like she blossomed.” When the time came, Sermak volunteered to relay the Sermak says she was bombarded with requests to write grim prognosis to Davis that there was nothing more the a tell-all. doctors could do. “Tat’s cashing in. Tey wanted scandal ... and that is A physician later came to Davis’ room to check on her. not who I am; that is not who Miss Davis was; that’s not Instead of pleading for some last reel miracle that might how I was trained.” have appeared in one of her flms, Davis’ celebrated eyes As our interview concludes, Sermak ofers me a red and stoically fxed their gaze on the doctor. yellow bloom — one of her USC roses. It’s a classy gesture “She apologized to him for having to put him in that — one seemingly plucked from Davis’ instruction manual. situation — his hospital,” Sermak says. “She knew who she I rush to my car, throw back the top, and scramble to fnd was. She knew the amount of press that was going to be my long-forgotten Time Life Sounds of the Eighties CD. there and how it was going to swarm. He was in tears. Her hair is Harlow gold … He had to leave the room.” At the end, it was just Davis and Sermak; the actress wanted only the person who had become her closest friend and confdant to be with her when she died. Sermak remembers placing farewell phone calls to family and friends for Davis, but the dying star did not want them to make the trip to France. Sermak says that Davis did not want their last memory of her to be, as Davis described it, “a bedraggled body and the look of death” reasoning that “they don’t see me every day like you do, Kath.” Sermak took care of the funeral arrangements for the star. She selected a black evening dress and matching black fur hat created by designer and friend Patrick Kelly in which to bury Davis. Sermak made sure that Davis’ tomb at the cemetery was inscribed exactly as the actress explicitly requested: “She did it the hard way.” Sermak ofers that she does not profess to know what happens when someone dies, but she does feel that Davis’ spirit is still watching over her all these years later. “People often ask me if I miss her, and I say that I still feel her presence around me.”

“A GIRL OF SO MANY RARE QUALITIES …” After Davis’ death, Sermak continued her career, working for a who’s who of famous faces: astronaut Buzz Aldrin, actress Isabelle Adjani, music impresario Berry Gordy Jr., and Michael Gornall, the creative director of the Where’s Waldo television series. But it is her relationship with Davis that continues to defne TO THE POINT her career. Up until now, with the exception of an appearance (Opposite page) Sermak in the award-winning Spanish documentary El Último Adiós records her segments for de Bette Davis, Sermak has been reluctant to discuss her work the Spanish documentary with Davis, despite numerous inquiries. El Último Adiós de Bette Davis “Being a personal assistant and to have the respect that (Bette Davis’ Last Goodbye). I do, you never gossip, you never say anything,” Sermak Released in 2014, it chronicles says. “I see behind a lot of doors, but it stays with me. Te Davis’ final public appearance only time it didn’t is for this book because [Davis] told me, at the 1989 San Sebastian film ‘You need to set the record straight. And, more importantly, festival. The documentary was it’s a great story and one day would make a great flm.’ ” nominated for a Goya Award, Sermak felt unready to write the book, citing a need Spain’s equivalent to an Oscar. to reach a certain level of maturity before diving into the Video: Learn more about Kathryn Sermak project. Immediately after Davis’ passing, in particular, at dornsife.usc.edu/sermak.

34 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 35 Beneath our very feet — and below the vast oceans — the past lies preserved, waiting for its dormant wisdom to be unearthed once again. As USC Dornsife researchers explore ancient fossils and artifacts, they look to this immortalized record of what once was to understand the future and how we can act to ensure we remain a part of it. By Laura Paisley Tere’s a philosophical dimension to looking at the very unearthed a tiny sponge fossil that was determined to be distant past. It gives us an opportunity to reevaluate our 600 million years old. Roughly the size of a grain of sand, relative signifcance in the grand scheme of life. In terms the fossil proved that the animal’s evolution began millions of the Earth’s entire history, humans have inhabited this of years earlier than previously thought, imparting an ancient planet for barely a moment. Te vast stretches of time that lesson that sheds new light for today’s scientists on how preceded us were flled by other forms of life, and their evolution takes place in organisms. existence — and the clues their remnants hold — ofer valuable insight into our current circumstances. ‘THE EXPERIMENT HAS BEEN RUN’ For USC Dornsife scientist David Bottjer, who, as a young Over the course of its long history, Earth has experienced student, was as much interested in history as natural sciences, a number of dramatic climatic shifts. Teir impact on the the clues within the fossil record can provide a foundational evolution of plants and animals can be traced through the fossil lesson on how we came to be. record. Diferent climates gave rise to diferent environments “[Paleobiology] is not learning about the British Empire, and living organisms. However, periods of rapid warming but in a lot of ways it’s the same kind of thing,” he said. due to natural phenomena such as intense volcanism some- “Why did life succeed or fail? How did it evolve and times resulted in mass extinctions. A growing body of change? Just like a lot of the questions you might ask about scientifc evidence suggests that we are headed toward another human history.” mass extinction, this one caused by human activity, including Te answers may foretell the many possible futures that human-induced climate change. await us, and the impact our choices today will have on each. Bottjer and his USC colleagues, thanks to a $1 million But there’s more to it than that. Beyond the past’s National Science Foundation grant, have spent the last few potential to inform us of what may lie ahead, Lynn Dodd years looking at a mass extinction that took place 250 million of USC Dornsife’s archaeology program sees another kind years ago, on the border of the Triassic and Jurassic periods. of value in studying remnants of history — an intrinsic Te supercontinent Pangea was breaking apart along tectonic signifcance that speaks to the heart of humanity. lines, resulting in a time of intense volcanic activity. Tis led “If we live without any sense of our past — the richness to a dramatic increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases and a and diversity and possibility of how we lived — we’re impov- corresponding warming efect. erished,” she said. “We’re adding to the richness in our own USC Dornsife faculty and graduate researchers have been mental treasure chests by investigating and trying to answer studying this period at sites high in the Andes Mountains in questions about the past and the people who lived in it.” Peru. Within the layers of sedimentary rock in that region, SPONGE FOR THE AGES limestones contain fossils whose age can be determined by This ancient Doushantuo IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE measuring radioactive decay in adjacent volcanic ash beds. sponge, only half a millimeter “Ancient” means something diferent to everyone. For some, Tis allows scientists to observe the impact of the warming across, is among the fossils it’s anything pre-internet. For others, it conjures Roman on ancient ecology, portending possible challenges ahead for studied by David Bottjer at aqueducts or the pyramids. humanity. the Weng’an site in China. When Bottjer says “ancient,” he’s talking 600 million Researchers are interested in the Triassic-Jurassic At 600 million years old, years ago. extinction in particular because the rapid climate change it may be the world’s oldest As a paleobiologist — the newer, more interdisciplinary and dramatic rise of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere sponge. After the organism version of a paleontologist — and professor of Earth sciences, during that period are quite similar to what is happening died, phosphate replaced its biological sciences and environmental studies, he knows it today. Teir research addresses pressing questions about tissues cell by cell, creating can be difcult for people to get their heads around time on how climate change might afect our planet in the very near a perfectly preserved relic. this scale. future. “Te Earth is 4.5 billion years old, but life has been on “Right now is the fastest the temperature has ever Earth for about three and a half billion years,” he said. increased in geological time,” Bottjer said. “We want to “So 600 million is actually not that far back.” see if [the Triassic-Jurassic extinction] can help us learn DIGGING FOR DATA It was around this time, he said, that the frst animals — about what’s happening today, because the experiment has (Previous page) USC Dornsife simple ones like sponges — began to evolve. already been run. So, we’d like to think that we can at PAGE OF DAVIDPREVIOUS PHOTO IMAGE AND COURTESY SPONGE BOTTJER Earth sciences graduate A record of fossilized life forms spanning several billion least provide some general predictions about where things students conduct field research years — a mind-boggling timeframe referred to as might be going.” in Nevada, analyzing fossils “geological” or “deep” time — lies buried beneath our feet from the era of the Triassic- within layers of sedimentary rock. Bottjer likens these OUTPACING EVOLUTION Jurassic mass extinction, which layers to the teetering stacks of paper on his ofce desk, In that ancient experiment, Earth got hot quickly — over the occurred more than 200 million explaining that within them are clues about what Earth’s course of less than 10,000 years — killing of about half of years ago. environment was like in the past, and how conditions have the Earth’s species. Among the frst to die were the ocean’s changed over millions of years — the blink of an eye in coral reefs — often thought of as the canary in the coal mine AT THE SOURCE geological time. due to their sensitivity to climate shifts — which all but (Opposite page) Lynn Dodd, Bottjer has been doing paleobiology research in China for disappeared for roughly 400,000 years. Eventually the Earth right, and her students map nearly 20 years. He works with scientists from the Nanjing cooled down and animals began to repopulate, though in this PHOTO BY DAMON CASAREZ a recently reappeared catch Institute of Geology and Paleontology, part of the Chinese context, “eventually” means 700,000 years later. basin on Catalina Island this Academy of Sciences, and elsewhere at the Weng’an site in Now history is repeating itself. Te Great Barrier Reef of past summer by recording GPS the Guizhou province of southern China. Tey study some of the coast of Australia, the largest living organism on Earth, data and collecting hydrology the oldest known animal fossils on Earth. has been ravaged by rising ocean temperatures in recent years. measurements of the water. “If you want to know about how animals evolved on Earth,” Normally hubs of biodiversity, these coral reefs have experi- he said, “this site is the most important one we know of.” enced unprecedented episodes of mass bleaching for the past Two years ago, Bottjer and international colleagues two consecutive years.

38 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 39 Ideally, changes in climate occur at a rate that allows life population growth and introduced new, invasive species. FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TO THE ARCTIC on Earth to adapt to the changing conditions. Domesticated animals like cattle, sheep and pigs grazed the In addition to fossil discoveries made on land, the planet’s “We know that when climate change goes really fast, evolu- native plants. Ranching and fshing activities eventually led oceans also have a rich past to reveal. tion can’t keep up,” Bottjer said. “If it goes slowly, evolution is to the extinction of certain native species. Long before earning a Ph.D. in geology in 1973, a process that can make adjustments, and animals and plants And yet, she points out, this is not an irreversible process. USC Dornsife alumnus Lou Marincovich remembers can sort of manage and not go extinct. But if it goes faster than Most of the Channel Islands are now national park land, receiving a children’s book from his mother called All evolution can chase it, that leads to a mass extinction.” managed by federal agencies and conservation groups. About Dinosaurs that ignited his fascination with fossils. Obviously we’re powerless to prevent rapid climate In 1975, Philip Wrigley and his sister Dorothy Wrigley Eventually, though, growing up next to the ocean in San change caused by processes such as volcanic eruptions. Ofeld donated 42,000 acres to the Catalina Island Pedro, Calif., caused his focus to shift. But, Bottjer said, since humans are expediting the process Conservancy to promote conservation over development and “My boyish enthusiasm switched from dinosaurs to sea- of climate change, and given the serious consequences, we to house USC Dornsife’s Wrigley Marine Science Center shells over time because I could actually collect fossilized and should acknowledge that in this case we can potentially do on the island. In recent decades, there has been signifcant modern shells in my neighborhood,” Marincovich said. something about it. progress in restoring native ecosystems. His abiding interest in ancient life led him to attend Tis is part of what motivates Bottjer in his research. And “When [grazing animals] were removed from the Channel graduate school in the late 1960s. To earn money for as a professor, he is sharing this important motivation with Islands, the denuded landscape started to rebound,” Dodd said. tuition, he spent eight months working on ofshore oil the next generation. “And if you go to Catalina, you can see that playing out now — drilling platforms in Alaska and was captivated by the “Maybe we won’t get ourselves into such a jam again if we native plants being allowed to fourish again — and that’s a really far north. As a newly minted Ph.D., he got a job at the study how this happened in the past,” he said. “Tis stuf will exciting and informative result.” oil company Texaco and was dispatched to a tent camp in be the biggest challenge for the lives of the students we are northern Alaska. currently educating.” INTO THE BLUE “We camped out for months in absolute wilderness while In trying to understand the island’s human history, Dodd I looked for fossils and collected rocks for oil company TAKING A LONG VIEW and several student researchers are looking at the key resource purposes,” Marincovich said. “I was in hog heaven; I was Along with the histories of ancient animals on Earth, early required to sustain life: water. When people frst arrived on fnally studying fossils in the wilderness, which I had humans and the ways of life they adopted thousands of years Catalina Island at least eight millennia ago, the sea level was dreamed of as a boy.” ago also ofer us wisdom today. several hundred feet lower than it is today. It was the beginning of a fruitful career in paleontology Te USC Archaeology Research Center houses an impres- Historically, Catalina had more freshwater sources than it that took him from Alaska to Siberia and the Canadian sive collection of artifacts, and ofers opportunities for stu- currently does, because some of them are now submerged Arctic Archipelago, near the North Pole. After his stint dents to get frsthand feldwork and research experience in beneath the sea. Te apparent dearth of water today is with Texaco, his research for the U.S. Geological Los Angeles and other parts of the world. proving a challenge to present-day island residents and Survey and the California Academy of Sciences documented “Looking to the past, we can learn some very interest- businesses, and overcoming that challenge is the focus the changing climate of the Arctic over 60 million years, ing things that give us a long-term perspective on problems of signifcant study and conservation eforts at the based on the migration patterns of mollusks between Asia we continue to face,” said Dodd, associate professor of the USC Wrigley Institute. and North America. practice of religion and curator of the collection. “As an Dodd and the student researchers, for their part, are cre- archaeologist, I tend to look at things with a long view, and ating maps that show where water has fowed in the past. TROPICAL PARADISE IN THE ARCTIC that’s 1,000 or 10,000 years in the past. But it’s also 1,000 or An interdisciplinary team can gather clues by digging soil Marincovich specializes in the Cenozoic Era, which began 10,000 years into the future.” core samples in ancient lakes and beneath old and existing about 65 million years ago, following the demise of the Dodd directs the interdisciplinary archaeology program at streams. Tey use hydrological measurements and GPS data, dinosaurs. USC Dornsife. She is fascinated by holy land, sacred territory and look for evidence of water-loving plants like cattails. Tey “At that time you started seeing modern types of animals and the persistent question of why the past matters today. also note where freshwater fows out into the ocean. proliferate, such as mammals and seashells, that look like the Right now, the focus of her archaeology research is ones you could fnd on the beach of Santa Monica instead of Santa Catalina Island, located 22 miles of the Southern SEEKING ADAPTIVE SOLUTIONS weird-looking things that look really ancient,” he said. California coast. Te land is sacred territory for the Tongva, It’s worth noting that those sea levels are still rising — Marincovich’s research examines how today’s seashell or Gabrielino, Native Americans, who have a history there and quickly — as a result of climate change. faunas have evolved over millions of years, which also NORTHERLY FOSSILS stretching back at least 8,000 years and who today often refer A lot of creative thinking is required to tackle this prob- helps scientists interpret historical climate shifts. Studying Geologist Lou Marincovich to the location by its traditional name: Pimu or Pimunga. lem. Having a good understanding of how past humans have Arctic fossils has helped him identify notable cycles of spent his career researching “Catalina is compelling because it’s a place where we can successfully adapted — what kinds of systems and thinking warming and cooling in the far north. fossils in the wilds of Alaska. see the early peopling of this continent and the ways that motivated and sustained them over thousands of years — “At times in the past, the seas in southern Alaska that He recently documented inhabitants adapted to a coastal lifestyle in the region,” Dodd should not be overlooked. are frigid today were subtropical,” Marincovich said. Marincovich’s research also helped him determine the his experiences in a memoir, said. “We want to know, how did they live in a way that For example, the Tongva relied upon a diverse resource “[Trough the fossil record] you can see the shells migrat- age of the Bering Strait, the last of the Earth’s seaways True North: Hunting Fossils enabled them to sustain that way of life for thousands upon base in addition to cooperation and alliances between difer- ing up the west coast of North America, and also coming to be defnitively dated. Scientists had grappled with Under the Midnight Sun (Bering thousands of years? Are there lessons we can learn from that?” ent social groups, which created other options to fall back on over from Japan and Siberia, and meeting in Alaska.” the question for a century. He fortuitously discovered an Press, 2017). in times of drought or disease. Periods of warmer climate in the Arctic region are Alaskan fossil clam, a specimen of the genus Astarte. Te CHANGING THE COURSE OF HISTORY “Tese are lessons that are extremely important to teach corroborated by terrestrial fossil evidence. age and the location of the fossil helped him solve the

Dodd and her students are studying how humans interact- people and give them an opportunity to think about,” Dodd H C I V O C N I R A M U O L F O Y S E T R U O C O T O H P “Fifty million years ago there were a lot of animals and mystery: Te strait is 5.5 million years old. ed with the natural ecosystem when they frst came to the emphasized. plants living on land that couldn’t have lived there if it was Te discovery allows evolutionary biologists to calculate island. She’s also intrigued by how the arrival of other groups She acknowledges that there is not a direct analogue the frozen waste that it is today,” he said. “Fossils provide rates of evolution for mammals and plants on both sides of of humans can afect, or even erase, ecosystems and ways of between a highly industrialized, urbanized society and the the only record of what really happens when nature shifts the strait since the populations were separated into Asia life that had persisted for millennia. way of life of a band of hunter-gatherers. Nonetheless, there one way or the other.” and North America. For Marincovich, it’s just another Teir archaeology work on Catalina helps bring to life are still valuable lessons we can learn from people in the past. Analyzing oceanic fossils and tracing temperature shifts in example of the wisdom we can glean from the Earth’s past a portrait of how people lived in that environment for “[Tis research] highlights the concept that we as a commu- the environment allow scientists to map climate conditions — and the implications for its future — if we listen more generations in a largely sustainable way. According to Dodd, nity have the capacity to live in a sustainable way, much more for that part of the world, which they can then correlate with closely to the soothsayers right beneath our feet. everything changed in the 17th century, when Spanish set- than we do now,” she said. “And also, that we can efect change lower-latitude places like California, Mexico or Japan. In this “We have to piece together the history,” he said. “Te tlers arrived on Catalina and the Channel Islands to the to incorporate those principles and ways of thinking that will way, scientists like Marincovich are helping to put the puzzle shells were mortal, but their value as messengers of the north. Tey set the environment on a new course toward beneft us not only now, but for generations into the future.” pieces of climate history in place. past is immortal.”

40 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 41 Assembling the Puzzle By Laura Paisley so magnificent with their muted, earthy colors, it’s almost like THE WORLD IS YOUR CLASSROOM a painted background on the set of a play. Paterson’s primary goal for the class was getting students out to do real geology research. A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF VOLCANIC SYSTEMS “They get all this class learning, but it’s so different to be out Most of the team’s research focused on the approximately in the real world and have to apply it,” he said. “Watching them 470 million-year-old Famatinian Arc, once a chain of volcanoes grow intellectually when they’re having to use their skills is really that formed above a subduction zone where an oceanic tectonic rewarding.” plate is sliding under a continental one. The interplay of heat, Learning how to work together and function smoothly as a gases and fluids in this dynamic environment literally melts rock, scientific team, as opposed to working independently in a lab, creating magma — melted rock with crystals in it — that eventu- was another important goal for the students. While doing so they ally moves up through the crust. Sometimes the magma solidifies also had the opportunity to interact with student scientists from while it is still deep, forming masses called plutons, and some- another culture, who spoke a different language, which added an times it emerges at the Earth’s surface in the form of volcanoes. extra layer to the learning experience. The students studied this underground “plumbing” system of And then there was the location. molten rock, from the source deep below the Earth’s crust all the “I honestly marveled at the things we saw, the beautiful views way to the surface. The Argentina sites are ideal because there and incredible structures,” Pratt said. “[In our academic careers] are different depths of the crust exposed, said Professor of Earth we don’t have a chance to marvel very often at this incredible Sciences Scott Paterson, who co-led the trip. world that we live in and the amazing stuff we are learning. At one site you can see the roots of old volcanoes just below In Argentina, we did it on a daily basis.” the Earth’s surface and the plutonic plumbing systems that were feeding them. At the other site, a deeper plutonic section has been uplifted and exposed so that it is now visible to scientists. “We want to understand the long-term history and evolution of our planet,” Paterson said. “This helps us learn about past “We want to under- activities, but it also allows us to understand modern systems stand the long-term where volcanoes are forming and erupting.” history and evolution Reconstructing the history of these geological landscapes of our planet. Tis helps requires hundreds of careful measurements, an abundance of meticulous notes, hours of drafting maps and the collection us learn about past of dozens of rock samples. activities, but it also At one site, students took structural measurements of folded allows us to understand rocks, which were once below the sea, to investigate whether modern systems where collision with a neighboring micro-continent caused the folding. volcanoes are forming “We were also treated to spectacular views of more recent and erupting.” geology in the high Andes, like the black lava flows and basalt SCOTT PATERSON, professor dome-volcanoes,” said Tarryn Cawood, a Ph.D. student in Earth of Earth sciences YOUR ALARM WAKES YOU WELL BEFORE SUNRISE, AND IT’S students traveled to Argentina for three weeks of hands-on sciences. COLD WHEN YOU ROLL OUT OF BED. YOU’RE IN THE SOUTHERN geology research. Field days varied in character depending on the elevation and HEMISPHERE, ARGENTINA TO BE EXACT, AND IT IS WINTER. Working on two primary sites, they were collecting field data weather conditions. Most days were chilly, and one morning YOU HEAD TO WHERE BREAKFAST IS BEING SERVED AND EAT to help them create geologic maps related to the structure of the group worked through a mountain snowstorm, “complete FRENCH BREAD WITH DULCE DE LECHE, A CARAMEL-LIKE the region. Their home base was a research center in Anillaco, with eerie winter scenery and icicles in our hair,” Cawood said. SPREAD THAT IS TRADITIONAL IN THE REGION. a town of some 1,600 souls in northwestern Argentina known, There was also the sand-blasting wind. On the very first day of among other things, for its proximity to a boulder that locals say mapping, senior Taleen Mahseredjian lost her smart phone when CLUES FROM AN ANCIENT SEA FROZEN IN TIME You pack a simple sack lunch and gather your compass, resembles the profile of Jesus Christ. strong gusts blew it out of her backpack pocket. (She never Students take structural Although the Argentina GPS device, field notebook and water — at least two liters of it. Senior Madelina Pratt, originally a biomedical engineering found it.) measurements on folded rocks, researchers had comfortably Next comes the bus ride, which can take up to two hours depending major, recently shifted her focus and enrolled in the progressive The researchers gathered data at elevations ranging from which were once below the chilly weather for most of on which site you’re working at that day. Luckily, the views are master’s degree program in environmental engineering. She said 8,000 to 12,000 feet, and the students hiked up and down many sea, to investigate whether

the trip, one day they encoun- spectacular. Once you arrive at your destination, seven to eight she chose this class “for the joy of learning geology.” PHOTOS BY TARRYN CAWOOD hills and across ridges and flat land. After a day of data collection, the rocks’ collision with a tered a localized mountain hours of hiking across varied terrain while taking measurements “We had nine field days and we went out to this rugged, the group would reassemble back at home base to examine the neighboring micro-continent snowstorm, “complete with and plotting them on a map awaits. untouched terrain,” she said. “It was fun to hike through the day’s findings and plot them on a collective map. caused the folding. eerie winter scenery and This represents a typical field day for a geologist studying volcanic beautiful Argentine countryside and look down at what we were “We’d have all these puzzle pieces and the group would put icicles in our hair,” according arcs in Argentina. USC Dornsife students got to experience this standing on, trying to understand the history of the area and the them together at the end of the day,” said Mahseredjian, a double to one student. life firsthand last summer as part of the Maymester course composition of all the things we were walking across.” major in geology and neuroscience. Relatively new to geologic “Geological History of the Argentina Andes.” After preparatory The terrain is indeed rugged, with giant rocks sprinkled over field work, she said she was blown away by how much she coursework at USC, 10 undergraduates and three doctoral open plains right up to the base of distant mountains that look learned in three weeks.

42 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 43 Why are middle-aged white Americans dying at increasing rates? Nobel Prize–winning economist Angus Deaton has uncovered startling data that show mortality numbers are climbing for this group. How can we buck the trend?

By Michelle Boston

Start tugging at a thread and you never know what will What was going on? unravel. First, let’s step back 250 years. Economists Angus Deaton and Anne Case understand Deaton, who is known for his research into poverty, this all too well. Tree years ago, they began pulling statistics inequality, health and well-being, argues that around for a study on happiness. Te two researchers were curious to 1750, the world began to get better for almost everyone. see how data about people’s happiness lined up with instances In his book Te Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the of suicide. Surprisingly, they found that suicides for middle- Origins of Inequality (Princeton University Press, 2013), aged men and women were on the rise. So they plucked on Deaton traces the upward trajectory of society from a time the thread a little harder. when poverty and low life expectancy were pervasive, to the Deaton, a Nobel Prize winner and Presidential Professor present, when most people lead healthier and wealthier lives. of Economics at USC Dornsife, and Case of Princeton Specifcally, Deaton pinpoints the Enlightenment as a University gathered data from the Centers for Disease watershed after which people sought out ways to improve Control and Prevention on all-cause mortality rates, aiming their lives by gaining a better understanding of the world for a broader picture. Tey made another startling discovery: around them. Tis led to the development of medicines Since the late 1990s, the death rate for white, non-Hispanic and other treatments for diseases, and eventually vaccines men and women in their 40s and 50s was climbing, reversing for common deadly ailments. Tose, plus safer medical TROUBLING TREND a century-long downward trend. Te bulk of cases were from practices, readily available nutritious foods, clean water For the first time in a century, drug overdoses, suicides and alcohol-related liver disease and improved sanitation, resulted in longer lifespans. the death rate for midlife — “deaths of despair” as the researchers came to call them “So you can imagine how surprised I certainly was white Americans without a — and not the usual suspects like cancer and heart disease. by this recent turnaround, which seemed like a long-term college degree is on the rise, Te mortality rates were highest and rising most rapidly for reversal,” Deaton said. but the usual suspects like those with a high school degree or less. In truth, the numbers had been hiding in plain sight for heart disease and cancer From 1978 to 1998, the mortality rate for white men and some time. Te CDC had been reporting on the uptick in are not to blame. Instead, women age 45 to 54 fell on average by 2 percent each year. deaths for this group, but those reports were released piece- drug overdoses, suicides and Tat matched the average decreases in mortality rates for meal as data became available. It wasn’t until Deaton and alcohol-related liver disease Hispanic and black Americans, as well as those of residents of Case went searching for all-cause mortality numbers that are causing these “deaths other wealthy countries such as France, Germany, the United they put the puzzle pieces together and shared their fndings. of despair.” Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Sweden. Ten, in 1998, “Te New York Times was calling us every day asking, the mortality rate began to veer upward for midlife white ‘Can we put your chart on the front page?’ And we said not American men and women without a college degree. until we get it published somewhere,” Deaton said.

44 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 45 a panic attack that forced him to leave his post on a GM Te stress of life not turning out as planned combined with assembly line mid-shift. additional hardships for this group have led to risky behaviors Hamper’s plight is recounted in Roger and Me, Michael that have put many on the path to alcohol and drug use, with Moore’s 1989 documentary flm chronicling Moore’s severe consequences. attempts to meet with GM’s then-CEO Roger Smith, who “Today a person dies from prescription opioid poisoning had closed a number of auto plants in Flint, Mich., laying of DULLING THE PAIN thousands of employees. In the course of their research, Deaton and Case also Hamper, who meets with Moore on-camera at a mental discovered that the increasing mortality for white men and every 29 minutes. Annual opioid sales are enough health facility where he is receiving treatment, describes women age 45 to 54 was matched by increasing illness. how he retreated to his car during the panic attack. Buoyant Beginning in the mid-1990s, middle-aged whites began to keep every American on opioids around the clock for one month.” lyrics from the Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” rang to report more incidences of pain — joint pain, neck pain, from his speakers: Maybe if we think and wish and hope and sciatica, it runs the gamut — as well as more mental distress, pray it might come true. Baby, then there wouldn’t be a single according to the CDC. thing we couldn’t do. Around the same time, opioids became a popular way But in that moment, without prospects for the future, for doctors to treat pain, explains behavioral scientist Joan any optimism Hamper had was gone. “I was just trying to Broderick, associate director of the Center for Self-Report rationalize with those lyrics, just trying to think ‘Wouldn’t Science at USC Dornsife’s Center for Economic and Social it be nice?’ and it just wasn’t working,” he told Moore. Research. For much of the 20th century, the best blue-collar jobs Previously, chronic pain was primarily treated by teams ofered a steady and secure route to the middle class. People of occupational and physical therapists, social workers, who entered the labor force out of high school could expect physicians and psychologists. Treatments would take place to fnd well-paying jobs with a clear path for advancement. over several months and they would be tailored to a patient’s “Tey belonged to a union, they had pay raises ahead of needs, using diferent therapies such as exercise, biofeedback them. Tey could build a middle-class life, have a home, and stress reduction. a car. Tey could get married and have kids,” Deaton said. While that model was efective, it was also expensive. But now those jobs exist in far fewer numbers. Working- Doctors shifted toward pharmaceutical therapies, which class wages hit a pinnacle in the 1970s, explained Deaton, were quicker to administer and showed promising results for but that marked the beginning of the end of the “blue- palliative care patients in hospice. Te problem was that these collar aristocracy.” Jobs have been moving overseas, wages physicians failed to observe any dependence on these highly are declining and, above all, automation is replacing workers, addictive medicines — mostly because their patients did not meaning fewer job opportunities and increased poverty. live long enough to exhibit any. “So what’s happened is that life has come up hard, “Tey wanted to be merciful and bring the same treat- especially for those who don’t have a university degree,” ment to patients who had chronic pain and perhaps many said Deaton. more years of life ahead them,” Broderick said. “So it was all For middle-aged white Americans, those economic with good intentions, but there was insufcient evidence to hardships translate to instability in other areas of their lives. support it.” Lower wages for men, for instance, make them less In recent years, the U.S. opioid epidemic has ballooned. desirable marriage partners. As a result, they are less likely “Today a person dies from prescription opioid poisoning to marry and instead cohabitate with their partners. every 29 minutes,” Broderick said. “Annual opioid sales are Meanwhile, evolving mores have made it more socially enough to keep every American on opioids around the clock acceptable for unmarried couples to have children. However, for one month.” cohabitating relationships are less stable than marriages and And unfortunately, many people who sufer from pain are often do not last. turning to the streets, where drugs like heroin are readily “One statistic that really blew me away was that the available and cheaper than prescription medications. Some majority of white mothers in America had at least one child patients also turn to alcohol or even suicide. out of wedlock,” Deaton said. “And then you get children Broderick, who studies pain management techniques, who have had three or four diferent ‘dads’ by the time they’re ofers a path toward pill-free pain treatments. She has teenagers. developed the Pain Coping Skills Training program, “So you can imagine, you’re a working-class guy with a a special regimen of strategies that health practitioners teach high school degree but no university degree. And instead of their chronic pain patients. With this approach they coach getting the nice union job in the steelworks that your dad or patients on progressive-muscular relaxation methods, guided Teir initial fndings were published in a brief but infuential and job prospects have dwindled. Meanwhile, they report grandfather had, you’ve moved around from one short-term imagery, activity pacing, distraction techniques and other paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Soon higher prevalence of physical pain and mental health prob- job to another. You’ve had a couple of kids, but you don’t problem-solving strategies patients can use both to stave of after, they did land that cover story in the Times). lems, as well as fewer ties to supportive social structures such know them anymore because they live with another guy. fare ups and deal with them when they happen. PILL-FREE PAIN REDUCTION Just a few weeks prior to the paper’s publication, Deaton as religion and marriage. Teir challenges are further fueled You’ve never settled down to a stable marriage or a stable job. USC Dornsife’s Joan Broderick was named the 2015 Nobel laureate in economic sciences by the escalating opioid epidemic in the United States. And as you get into your mid-50s, life looks pretty bleak.” A MATTER OF CHOICE AND CONTROL has developed a protocol to for his work studying consumption, poverty and welfare. “Life has not been so good for these people for the last John Monterosso, associate professor of psychology at Another common thread for white Americans dying in help patients manage their Deaton’s prestigious accolade and the powerful study 40 years or so,” Deaton said. USC Dornsife, studies decision making and addiction. As midlife is their level of education. More often than not, chronic pain without the use fndings garnered an avalanche of media attention. he explains it, being part of a community is an important they have achieved, at most, an associate degree from a of drugs. While it’s still unclear exactly why mortality rates are on THE DEATH OF THE BLUE-COLLAR ARISTOCRACY factor in our well-being. People need others to depend on community college. Could their rising mortality rates the rise for midlife white Americans without a college educa- In the 1980s, fourth-generation autoworker Ben Hamper them whether it is to show up and do a job or as part of somehow be connected? tion, Deaton and Case have found a thread connecting their was in his 30s. He had been laid of from General Motors a relationship. People with more education tend to earn more mon- experiences. Tis group has seen their economic and social manufacturing jobs fve times in fve years. Expecting to be “People need obligations and purpose,” Monterosso said. ey and have more power to shape their lives while those well-being diminish. Teir median earnings have decreased laid of again due to the company’s downsizing, he sufered Tey give people meaning and structure in their lives. who earn less have less control, said Daphna Oyserman,

46 ILLUSTRATIONS BY JON REINFURT FOR USC DORNSIFE MAGAZINE Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 47 Dean’s Professor of Psychology, and professor of psycho- Withholding or providing health care communicates an logy, education, and communication. idea about a person’s future and his or her potential worth “So, for instance, if you work hourly and you don’t have that has both an economic and a psychological impact, a set schedule, that makes it harder for you to manage your she explained. budget and your family. Tat sense of uncertainty then “Someone saying, ‘I’m going to invest in you because trickles down to your kids. It’s also harder to invest in a I think you have a future’ is quite powerful.” long-term strategy for yourself and your family when the long term is highly uncertain.” PROGRESS AND INEQUALITY In Te Great Escape, Deaton explains that with progress comes greater divides in society. Te Industrial Revolution, for example, delivered technologies like the railroads, “If solutions are going to get mining and agriculture to the West while the East fell far behind, though that’s no longer entirely the case. Today’s into schools, the medical community global inequality, Deaton argues, is, to a large extent, the result of modern economic growth. With more technology, and elsewhere then it’s going to advances in health care and other breakthroughs, the distri- bution of goods is less evenly meted out. So as certain groups escape material deprivation, others are left behind. Tat is have to come from the grassroots up.” part of the challenge for midlife whites. Te collapse of the white working class after its heyday in the 1970s, compounded by social and health challenges, Low levels of education can also infuence successive contributes to the deaths of despair that he and Case have generations. Oyserman, who co-directs the USC Dornsife been tracking. Mind and Society Center, notes that a mother’s education So how can we overcome the pain, drug use, alcoholism is a predictor of the level of education her child will achieve, and suicides that are swelling mortality rates of middle- which in turn afects her child’s potential income. Societies aged whites? with higher levels of education are also typically better Deaton says there is not one solution. But, he sees power functioning, and are associated with more civic engage- in eforts that begin at the community level. ment, less crime and more stable families, Oyserman said. “If solutions are going to get into schools, the medical Oyserman’s research focuses on how small shifts in a community and elsewhere,” Deaton said, “then it’s going person’s mindset can have a meaningful infuence on their to have to come from the grassroots up.” behaviors. Specifcally, she studies ways to close racial, ethnic Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for instance, made and social-class gaps in academic achievement and health. huge strides changing laws that sharply curbed deaths Her 12-week School-to-Jobs program helps disadvan- caused by drunken driving. Public health campaigns taged students create plans to accomplish their goals and dramatically reduced the number of deaths from cigarette to help them accept and believe that “someone like me” smoking. And, interventions like Broderick’s drug-free can reach their target. Tey are guided to form a mental regimen to alleviate pain and Oyserman’s School-to-Jobs image of adulthood, identify concrete steps to achieve program are approaches that are already beginning to see their objectives and discuss any concerns they might have. positive results. So far, the program has been successfully implemented Deaton believes getting more people to achieve higher in Detroit and Chicago middle schools as well as schools levels of education may not necessarily be the solution in Singapore. Students who participated in School-to-Jobs on its own, as not all people aspire to it. But in addition earned better grades, were less likely to have unexcused to helping those who do want more education, he suggests absences, saw their standardized test scores rise and reported focusing on training people for the 21st century labor that they spent more time on homework. Oyserman is now force. A WAY FORWARD scaling up the program in other U.S. schools through teacher He and Case are sharing their fndings and expertise Community efforts, coupled training programs and by developing websites and other far and wide to ensure that as many people who can help, with action from policymakers digital platforms to deliver the intervention. such as policymakers and practitioners, understand what and practitioners, will be key She has also proposed health-care interventions that tap may be contributing to the problem and what they can do. to stopping the rising rates of into a person’s identity to tackle the health issues that are For instance, Deaton recently testifed before a joint midlife mortality of middle- plaguing midlife white Americans. congressional panel examining the opioid crisis and other class white Americans with In the journal Behavioral Science & Policy, she lays out forms of drug abuse, and their possible relationship to less than a college degree, recommendations that include designing public health economic factors. argues study co-author Angus campaigns that target a person’s identity, tailoring health And while Deaton and Case are still far from a smoking Deaton. treatments to individuals and making sure doctors and gun, they intend to continue exploring the underlying causes nurses explain how the information they gather from of these deaths of despair in more depth. How policymakers patients will help them. To incentivize these techniques, and practitioners act now will determine how quickly we can she suggests insurance companies reimburse doctors for reverse the trend. using them. But over the long term, Deaton is optimistic. Society, Beyond creating interventions and public health on the whole, is still on an upward trajectory, he said. campaigns, Oyserman says that public policies can also have But while there has mostly been exponential progress a powerful efect on well-being. Tis is especially signifcant since 1750, there have also been periods of regression. right now as politicians in the U.S. debate how to deliver Te current situation, he hopes and believes, is just health care, for instance. another of these periods.

48 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 49 Imaginative new approaches to battery technology may give us longer-lasting power in smaller packages. More important, they may give renewable energy the charge it needs to finally succeed on a wide scale.

By Darrin S. Joy

POWER In Edmond Hamilton’s 1940 novella Revolt On Te Tenth “USC has been very good because I have good students, World, the science fction author describes “solid power … I have good support from the faculty and it’s a very collabora- the most super-valuable substance in the Solar System.” Solid tive environment,” he said. power is “compressed energy ‘frozen’ by temporary transfor- Among other pursuits, Narayan is working on a way to mation into artifcial atoms. Trillions of units of power … bring lithium-sulfur batteries into widespread use. Tese bat- compressed thus into an inch-square cube.” teries pack two to three times more energy than their lithi- Hamilton and other sci-f writers throughout the life of the um-ion counterparts. Tey’re also less prone to overheating, genre have fantasized about similar compact energy sources. which means they don’t need the complex control systems By Darrin S. Joy Tey’ve had to. What else could make their starships fy, their that keep lithium-ion batteries from exhibiting one of their laser guns blast and their communicators buzz? more inconvenient tendencies — erupting in fame when Te closest we come to these powerhouses in reality are overcharged or overtaxed. Increased safety, and the fact that rechargeable batteries. Our “communicators” — cell phones, sulfur is abundant and cheap, means lithium-sulfur power tablets, laptop computers and similar devices — rely on the packs would be much less expensive to produce than lithium- “solid power” in these batteries to keep us connected. Simi- ion batteries. larly, hybrid and electric vehicles use much larger versions to Unfortunately, lithium-sulfur batteries don’t hold a charge TO transport their occupants to far-of destinations — or at least or withstand recharging worth a hoot. across town. “Lithium-sulfur, today, is at a hundred cycles. Tat’s all. Currently, lithium-ion batteries represent the most It’s pathetic,” Narayan said. Given that most people charge energy-dense batteries available for practical use, storing their phones daily, this means replacing the battery within hours of electricity for most devices in a relatively compact, three months. Lithium-ion batteries generally last two to lightweight size. But Sri Narayan, professor of chemistry three years, and sometimes more. at USC Dornsife and co-director of the USC Loker Te short life of the lithium-sulfur batteries stems from Hydrocarbon Research Institute, wants to do better. the tendency for sulfur ions, called sulfdes, to cling to one another and then escape from the positive electrode (the POWER UP cathode). Te polysulfde ions fee to the negative electrode ENERGY EXTENSION First inspired to pursue chemistry by a high school teacher, (the anode), where they grab electrons and head back to the USC Dornsife scientists are Narayan went on to attend graduate school in India, where he cathode. In this “polysulfde shuttle,” many of the sulfde developing unique ways to began studying power cells based on magnesium, an element ions react with lithium ions to form lithium-sulfde, which is extend battery life and increase that is readily available from sea water. insoluble and utterly useless to the battery. Both discharging the amount of power they After earning his Ph.D., he wanted to continue his work and recharging the battery accelerate this shuttling process, can deliver. THE with batteries, but by then lithium-based technology was degrading the cathode and anode until the battery goes kaput. emerging. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was hot on this Narayan and Ph.D. student Derek Moy, however, trend, since lithium could provide a great deal of power while developed a way to overcome the polysulfde shuttle and give adding little weight to a spacecraft (a dream come true for sci- these batteries longer lives. Teir solution is called a “mixed f enthusiasts and scientists alike). Narayan joined JPL in 1992 conduction membrane,” or MCM. Tis thin, nonporous and spent nearly 20 years advancing various types of batteries material conducts lithium ions but blocks the polysulfde and fuel cells, including the lithium-ion battery technology reactions that degrade the battery. Batteries with the MCM used on the Mars Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers. lasted through as many as 500 cycles with no loss of charge He came to USC Dornsife in 2010 to expand his work on capacity, Narayan said. He thinks that may be enough for cell batteries into new areas. phones, at least. PEOPLE50 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 51 “Every couple of years you’re probably going to get a new ubiquitous, virtually eliminating political concerns. And it phone anyway,” he said. “Five hundred cycles is plenty.” won’t foul up the local landfll. While Narayan cautions that the technology is in its It so happens that Narayan is working on a couple of infancy and needs more research before they gain popular battery solutions addressing safety and cost, one of which use, he thinks the advantages of lithium-sulfur — produces electricity through the oxidation of iron in the inexpensive, abundant materials and more energy per unit presence of air. Aside from reducing costs signifcantly, weight — could soon beneft handheld electronics and these iron-air batteries would be much safer, containing no eventually vehicles. corrosive or fammable solvents or dangerous heavy metals. “Lithium-sulfur will probably fnd its place in cell phones Iron-air batteries have been around for decades, before it makes it into cars. Tat’s a natural projection,” he said. but they sufered from extreme inefciency, losing half But there’s another level of need when it comes to their power to a side reaction that produces hydrogen. batteries — something on a much larger scale. Narayan and his colleagues managed to reduce the loss to just 4 percent, bringing the technology much closer to practical use. Tat technology is now in the hands of a company that aims to bring it to market.

“[NARAYAN’S] STUFF, I THINK, IS GO WITH THE FLOW Narayan has also been working on a radical idea called GOING TO BE THE ANSWER …” a redox fow battery. Like their iron-air cousins, fow batteries have been under investigation for decades. GRIDLOCK Narayan, however, has been taking a new angle, working to Just of Interstate 15, about fve miles west of the California- fnd and use materials that will improve both the efciency Nevada border in the far northeast reaches of San Bernardino and stability of these systems while using safer materials. County, thousands of mirrors glitter in the dry desert heat, In redox fow batteries, electrons move from a tank of focusing the day’s unrelenting sunshine onto three colossal electrochemical solution, through the load (a washing towers in their midst. Te focused light and heat converts machine or light bulb) to another tank of solution. One thousands of gallons of water within the monolithic struc- advantage is that the batteries don’t age the way solid tures to steam. Tat steam drives a turbine that produces — in batteries do; there are no electrodes to break down over time. theory, at least — an average of about 2.5 billion watt-hours Perhaps more important, though, is the system’s fexibility: of renewable electricity for power-hungry customers each day. Te solutions can undergo recharging — by a renewable At night it produces nothing. energy source, for instance — or they can simply be replaced Solar energy farms throughout the country — and across with fresh, fully charged solutions. the globe — face this issue. When the sun disappears at night Concentrating on sustainability, Narayan has focused or slips behind dark clouds, the felds of solar collectors have on developing fow batteries that use water-soluble organic little or no light energy to gather and convert to heat or elec- compounds commonly found in plants. tricity. Te same is true for wind farms, which rely on the “Tese compounds are essentially nontoxic and won’t motion of air moving through enormous windmill blades to catch fre the way solvents in lithium batteries can,” keep the electricity fowing into the electrical grid. When the he said. Tey’re also simple and inexpensive, and they’re winds calm, the blades stop, and the electrons stop moving. efcient, lasting a very long time. Batteries may provide a solution, storing excess renew- Professor and Chair of Chemistry G. K. Surya Prakash able energy and feeding it to the grid when needed. Te idea collaborates with Narayan in identifying and synthesizing has been around for years, but it remains problematic for a the water-soluble, electroactive organic compounds for the number of reasons. For Brent Melot, assistant professor of fow batteries. Director of the Loker Hydrocarbon Research chemistry, it boils down to materials science — fnding the Institute and holder of the George A. and Judith A. Olah resources that can fulfll the need safely and at reasonable cost. Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry, Prakash Like Narayan, Melot focuses much of his research on touts the Earth-friendly nature of Narayan’s fow batteries. advancing battery technology, developing efciency and life “Water-based organic fow batteries are game changers,” for lithium-based units. Prakash said. “Tey use very little or no metal, the organic Current lithium-ion batteries, he said, could store enough materials used are easily derived from earth-abundant, carbon- power in a reasonable amount of space, but there are safety based resources, and they can also be made from recycled carbon SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS concerns. Batteries large enough to store enough energy to dioxide, making them renewable.” Professor of Chemistry supply the grid would require sophisticated (read “expensive”) While redox fow batteries haven’t yet progressed the way Sri Narayan has a unique systems to ensure they don’t overheat or malfunction. iron-air batteries have, Melot puts his money on them as take on batteries — using Also, they contain cobalt and nickel, which are exorbi- a solution for large-scale use. “[Narayan’s] stuf, I think, compounds found in plants tantly costly. Oh, and both are toxic. is going to be the answer for grid level. It’s really innocuous, to hold and deliver charge. “Cobalt ore right now costs about $46,000 per metric ton,” scales very easily and does the job,” he said. Melot said. Nickel rings up at about $10,000 per metric ton. Whether iron-air or redox fow technology, Narayan Lithium itself is about the same. In addition, these metals are believes that sustainable energy storage with batteries will be available from limited locations on the planet, making their the key to the ultimate success of renewable energy. availability vulnerable to changes in the geopolitical climate. “It’s just not possible to do anything that isn’t sustainable,” Ideally, Melot suggests, more abundant and readily he said, “and I view the feld of electro-chemistry as being accessible materials would be ideal — something like iron. pivotal in ... the future use of renewable energy. Make chemi- “If we can fnd chemistries that are actually based on iron, cals; make electrons from chemicals; store the electrons. iron ore is $90 per metric ton,” he said. It’s also nearly All these are possible with electro-chemistry.”

52 PHOTOS BY JOHN LIVZEY FOR USC DORNSIFE MAGAZINE Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 53 dying to

The host of a radio show that aims to revolutionize how we talk about death, hospice and palliative care physician Dawn Gross ’89 is transforming end-of-life conversations from dread to discovery by explaining TALKhow mortality is the gift that allows us to live our lives more profoundly. Oh, and she also teaches death ed to teenagers. By Susan Bell

54 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 55 Te 14-year-old high school boy picked the wild card. “When Teaching this to children is particularly valuable, Gross I die, I’d love nothing more than to be fying a model air- says, because the younger we are, the more capable we are of “When my father plane, then keel over,” he confded. “Tat would be perfect.” using our mortality to create a template for how to live our became terminally “Do you hear what he’s saying?” Dawn Gross asked the lives when well. ill, I began wearing class. “Tis isn’t about dying. It’s actually about what he a particular coat to loves doing most in life.” Gross was teaching the teenager and his classmates to each of his medical play Go Wish, a game designed to facilitate conversations appointments. The coat around death by encouraging players to identify what would “Our mortality is a gift be most important to them if they had a limited time to live. fully had wings embroidered It’s a game Gross fnds immensely helpful when talking to that allows us to on the back. the terminally ill patients she cares for as a San Francisco I felt a hospice and palliative care physician. experience life, that makes Players are asked to prioritize 36 cards, 35 of which need for reinforce- describe things people often say are very important to them more deeply, ment, strength when they’re dying. Te 36th is a wild card. Gross says us live — an embrace, if you adults she plays with mostly don’t know what to do with will — as I witnessed that and set it aside. Children, however, instinctively know more profoundly.” what it is and how to use it. my father’s suffering, Before attending Gross’ death education course, none of the teen’s classmates knew about his passion for fying “ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE” so I could remain model aircraft. Instead of saying, “Oh, it’s another Tuesday,” think “Oh “What a gift that he suddenly had this sense of permis- my God, I just got another Tuesday, what am I going to present to hear his sion to share something so intimate, while at the same time do with it?” Gross suggests. She quotes a favorite line from greatest joy and so integral,” Gross said. “Tis is what’s so potent, what’s so poet Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with love. After he died powerful and possible when we have these conversations.” your one wild and precious life?” and I eventually Gross knows how to talk about death in a way that replaces “Our mortality is a gift that allows us to fully expe- fear and dread with honesty, hope and meaning. In addition rience life, that makes us live more deeply, more profoundly,” reinvented myself to her role as a palliative care physician, she’s also the host of Gross said. “I’ve asked hundreds of terminally ill patients, as a hospice and Dying to Talk, a radio show that aims to revolutionize how we ‘If I had a magic wand, what would you wish for?’ And discuss what to many is still the last great taboo. not one of them has ever answered, ‘Cure me,’ which is palliative medicine “People are averse to talking about death, but I’ve noticed staggering to me.” doctor, that once you give them permission to do so, they really are Instead, patients respond by asking for something that I knew dying to talk,” she said with a seriousness that belies the brings them closer to who they truly are, she said, whether I needed to create underlying warmth and delightful sense of humor that it’s being with family or spending time in their gardens. bubbles beneath her words, often rising to the surface at “People at the end of life have no problem answering those same wings unexpected moments. “It’s exciting to try and make this that question, whereas for most of us, it’s very difcult on the back of my conversation accessible to people in an unintimidating to answer.” format that can also provide anonymity.” Gross, who earned her bachelor’s in psychology and white doctor’s coat. Now she’s taking her expertise on this difcult sub- neuroscience from USC Dornsife in 1989, has years of And while I do hear ject into the classroom. “It’s like sex ed, but about death,” experience supporting patients with life-threatening people call after chuckled Gross, who has experience teaching both. illnesses. Her frst job, she said, is to listen. me in the hospital, LIGHT-BULB MOMENT “People have a hard time articulating or even knowing saying things like, Te death ed course, which Gross co-created with Jessica what is most important to them when they’re struggling Zitter, a Bay Area critical and palliative care physician, has with uncontrolled symptoms, whether it’s nausea, difculty ‘Tere goes my been tested in several Northern California schools. It is vol- breathing or pain,” she said. untary, but has been welcomed with open arms by students, Once those symptoms are brought under control, she helps angel doctor,’ teachers and parents alike. patients plan their goals of care and helps them identify I am clear, the wings

“It was this light-bulb moment for everyone,” Gross said and realize what they really want to do with the time left PHOTOS BYINDICATED OTHERWISE GURUSURYA UNLESS on the back aren’t mine. of the reaction when she suggested it. “How could we not to them. be doing this? Children are not immune to death and aren’t Tey are a visible spared the grief. Tey just haven’t necessarily been given the IMMENSE GRATITUDE permission or the tools to talk about it.” Gross said she’s profoundly grateful for the opportunity to reminder of every- Te classes may seem to be all about dying, but, Gross practice her chosen specialty. one I have had the stresses, they’re actually a wonderful opportunity to focus “It’s not depressing,” she said. “It is sad, and I think to on what makes life worth living right now. untangle the two is important for people to do. But what honor of serving, “We actually don’t want you to wait until you’re on your we do — being with people and supporting them in the including my father. death bed to fgure that out,” she said. “We want you to live things that matter most in their lives — is a gift. I fall Every time I meet a new your whole life that way.” in love with people immediately, so when they die, am I Gross talks about fnding hope and beauty in death, sad that they die? You’d better believe it. But what I’m patient and family, noting that death is a way of embracing life. Being able to face left with is immense gratitude for having gotten to know I am never alone. I know our mortality and talk about death is the secret to fnding our them and be part of their lives, and hopefully for helping own very personal, intimate, deep meaning in life, she argues. to make their lives the way they wanted.” who’s got my back.”

56 PHYSICAL EDUCATION BUILDING, 1930

Sometimes it seems that the Legacy filming of movies, television programs and commercials on campus is as ubiquitous as traffic on the 405 Freeway. After all, the best film school in the world just happens to be located at USC. So when familiar buildings or places pop up in a favorite television show or theatrical blockbuster, there is a shared sense of pride in seeing one’s alma mater immortalized on film. Although the Bovard Administration Building, Doheny Memorial Library and the Mudd Hall of Philosophy for years have been USC’s star Hollywood backdrops, the Physical Education Building on Watt Way has been in the spotlight with ever greater frequency. Built in 1930 and designed by the firm Parkinson & Parkinson, Her major inspiration was her father, who had always A FAIRY GODMOTHER the architectural icon has been clear he wouldn’t seek aggressive, curative therapies Born in Northern California, Gross spent her adolescence appeared in movies like Love FROM DREAD TO DISCOVERY to prolong his life. When he became terminally ill, in Portland, Ore. At age 16, already a high school senior, and Basketball, What Women Dawn Gross interviewing her he questioned traditional care options, asking, “Why is no she joined her brother at USC as a resident honors scholar. Want and Semi-Tough. first mentor, Jeffrey Mandel, one asking me what I want?” Gross recalled. She was intrigued by science but hated the sight of blood. More recently, though, the a hospice and palliative Although he was eventually able to die in his own home However, after taking “Introduction to Neuroscience: Man, building has played the role of medicine doctor practicing under hospice care, Gross said he taught her to want to ask Mind and Machine,” taught by now Professor Emeritus of a much-visited edifice on the in the Bay Area, during the those questions and to help the rest of the family try to Biological Sciences William McClure, she was hooked. fictional Middleton University January 2016 launch of her listen to what he needed. Admitted into the psychology honors program, Gross campus of ABC Television’s radio show, Dying to Talk. “Watching how my family learned to accompany him focused on neuroscience research, helping map the circuitry How to Get Away with Murder. on his journey was eye-opening and made me more of memory. She did a post-baccalaureate pre-med program Other series such as Shame- curious about how to support patients and families at at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., and an M.D., Ph.D. less and Scandal have also such times.” at Tufts University in Boston. featured the building’s Roman- Carin van Zyl, section head of palliative medicine “I wanted to be a scientist,” she said, “but medicine snuck esque Revival façade. at Keck School of Medicine of USC and director of up on me. It wasn’t until I was in a fellowship at Stanford, When it is not co-starring in Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center Adult and training in hematology and bone marrow transplants, that some Tinseltown production, Pediatric Palliative Care, identifes what makes her former I realized I loved being a physician because I loved having the Physical Education Build- colleague so inspirational. Gross was her boss when the end-of-life conversations. Tat was something completely ing serves as home to USC’s two worked at City of Hope in Duarte, Calif., and van Zyl unexpected, and it shaped my decision to go into hospice and ROTC, numerous dance classes describes Gross as “a polestar.” palliative care.” and administrative offices for USC Dornsife. —D.K.

“Dawn fnds a way of communicating real joy when End-of-life conversations are something that many OF DAWNPHOTO COURTESY GROSS meeting and connecting with people and listening to their doctors — trained to heal, not discuss death — fnd difcult. stories,” van Zyl said. “She’s eager to help in a way that Why does Gross cherish the experience? Te setting sun illuminates

doesn’t feel too somber, nor inappropriately light, and “In my USC admission essay, I talked about wanting PHOTO BY JOHN LIVZEY the exterior of the Physical she’s really good at being genuinely hopeful in a way that to major in psychology and inspire people to reach their Education Building, one of isn’t trite. Whatever that inefable quality about her is, it’s highest dreams and then reach higher still,” she recalls. “Now, USC’s oldest buildings and the contagious. that’s all I do every day. I see myself as a fairy godmother. home of exercise science and “She uses the language of gratitude a lot, which isn’t When you’re facing your own mortality, what becomes kinesiology laboratories. rare in the feld, but Dawn truly is grateful every day that essential rises to the top and everything else melts away. this is where she ended up.” It’s an extraordinary conversation to get to be a part of.”

58 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 59 DORNSIFE FAMILY

FACULTY CANON HONORS Richard Flory, research scientist the history of health preparedness in Writing Public Sociology Faculty News at the Center for Religion and Civic from its beginnings in Cold War Routledge / Professor (Teaching) Culture, argues that social changes civil defense to the early 21st cen- of Sociology Karen Sternheimer GIAN-MARIA ANNOVI, Setting a High Bar such as the digital revolution have tury, when health authorities carved offers social scientists a step-by- associate professor of Italian Three USC Dornsife faculty members named to given advantages to religious out a global space for governing step guide to get started, stay and gender studies, received prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships. groups organized as networks in- potential outbreaks. motivated and complete writing the Flaiano Prize (Premi Flaiano) stead of traditional congregations. projects for public audiences. for his book Pier Paolo Pasolini: USC Dornsife faculty Viet Tanh Nguyen, Cheryl Performing Authorship (Columbia Mattingly and Daniel Lidar were selected by the John University Press, 2017). Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to receive Guggenheim Fellowships. WATCHFUL Omnidawn / MEGAN BECKER, lecturer in “Te Guggenheim has long been recognized as one of Forsaking the names of creatures, international relations, received the nation’s premier fellowships, and it’s a tremendous Associate Professor (Teaching) the Craig L. Brians Award for honor to be included in this group of writers and schol- of English Molly Bendall returns Excellence in Undergraduate ars,” said Nguyen, Aerol Arnold Chair of English and to a painted habitat of swamps Research and Mentoring from professor of English, American studies and ethnicity and and savannahs, of captivity and the American Political Science comparative literature. display, to bear witness to the Association. Nguyen is working on Te Committed, a sequel to his late and sorrowful pact between ‘AND’: Conjunction Reduction Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Te Sympathizer (Grove predator and prey. THE AGE OF ANALOGY: Redux MIT Press / Professor of THE LAST TROUBADOUR: Writing the South Seas: Imagin- Press, 2015). Science and Literature Linguistics Barry Schein argues New and Selected Poems Ecco / ing the Nanyang in Chinese and Professor of Anthropology Mattingly’s research is Between the Darwins Johns that the word “and” is always the University Professor of English and Southeast Asian Postcolonial focused on disability, family care and health disparities Hopkins University Press / sentential logical connective with Comparative Literature David Literature (University of Wash- for minority populations. Her fellowship will enable Nazi symbols could be spotted all over downtown Los Angeles in the 1930s. Here, a swastika hangs above the street outside a furniture Assistant Professor of English the same, one, meaning. St. John investigates both the ington Press, 2015) by BRIAN store on South Broadway. her to concentrate on her new book, Category Trouble: Devin Griffiths explores the darkest and the most inspiring BERNARDS, assistant profes- Stigma as Moral Experience. critical role analogies play within parts of being human — the small sor of East Asian languages Mattingly, who holds historical and scientific thinking. moments between friends and and cultures, was selected as a joint appointment at lovers as well as the groundswells an Outstanding Academic Title USC Chan Division of Foiling Fascists that alter lives. for 2016 by Choice: Current Occupational Science and Historian Steve Ross reveals how a 1930s amateur spymaster recruited civilians Reviews for Academic Libraries, Occupational Terapy, said to do what J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI would not. a publication of the Association she felt a special connection THE RELIVE BOX AND OTHER of College and Research Libraries. to the honor. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, a clan- STORIES Ecco / Distinguished “Tere is deep signif- destine war by Japan’s Axis ally, Germany, had already been Professor Emeritus of English DANIELA BLEICHMAR, cance for me in receiving a underway against the United States for nearly a decade. Te and Writer in Residence Emeritus associate professor of art Guggenheim because of the T.C. Boyle delivers a raucous NEW PEOPLE: A Novel history and history and

battleground was Los Angeles, and the soldiers were Nazis S N O I AT L E R A I D E M C S U D N A LY G N I T AT M L Y R E H C , N E Y U G N H N A H T T E I V F O Y S E T R U O C S O T O H P program’s long history as a collection, from the title story — Riverhead Books / Set against the associate provost for faculty Viet Thanh Nguyen and fascists. DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE ROSS; ROSS PHOTO BY MIKE GLIER supporter of innovation and Te government widely ignored the growing danger, but one featuring a box that allows users backdrop of the late 20th century and student initiatives in the creativity, especially in the man paid attention. Leon Lewis was Jewish — and among the to experience anew almost any A PASSION ACCORDING and the first dot-com boom, arts and humanities, received arts and humanities.” frst Americans to recognize the burgeoning threat. moment from their past — to TO GREEN New Issues Poetry a newlywed’s fantasy escalates a Frederick Burkhardt Residential Professor of Electrical Steve Ross, professor of history, tells the story of Lewis and “The Five-Pound Burrito,” in which & Prose / Associate Professor of to fixation, threatening to unravel THE CORPSE AS TEXT: Fellowship for Recently Tenured Engineering Systems, his fellow patriots in the new book Hitler in Los Angeles: How a man aims to build the biggest English Mark Irwin explores star- her very persona in the latest sub- Disinterment and Antiquarian Scholars from the American Chemistry, and Physics and Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America (Blooms- burrito in town. tling marvels and terrible losses versive novel on race, class and Enquiry, 1700-1900 Boydell Council of Learned Societies. Astronomy Daniel Lidar bury Publishing, 2017). in his latest collection of poetry. manners in contemporary America Press / Professor (Teaching) of was recognized for his work “My parents are both [Holocaust] survivors,” said Ross. While a youth hearing about their by Associate Professor English Thea Tomaini explores JOSEPH BOONE, professor in quantum information horrifc experiences, he wondered why Jews didn’t do more to stop the Nazis. of English Danzy Senna. the cooperation of ideology and of English, comparative lit- science. He was the only can- Years later, while conducting research for another book, Ross realized that Jewish inaction aesthetic, the paradox of allure erature, and gender studies, didate selected this year in against the Nazis before World War II was, in fact, a false narrative. Many Jews did try to do and revulsion, and the uncanny has been awarded a Bogliasco Cheryl Mattingly the engineering category. something, he said. attraction to death. Foundation Residency Fellow- For Lidar, who has Lewis recruited a civilian spy ring that included men and women from humble back- ship at the foundation’s study a joint appointment at grounds. center near Genoa, Italy. Boone USC Viterbi School of “Over the next 12 years, he discovered plots for sabotage, destruction, mass murder and exe- will use the fellowship to work on Engineering, the fellow- cution by hanging of famous Hollywood fgures and their Christian sympathizers,” Ross said. his project “The Melville Effect,” ship afrms a lifetime of Hitler in Los Angeles is the story of the brave men and women, both Jewish and gentile, who about the importance of Ameri- achievement and dedication “were fghting to protect American democracy and for equality for all,” he added. THE RISE OF NETWORK can author Herman Melville. to cutting-edge science. For decades, their story went untold. With his latest book, Ross rectifes this in riveting CHRISTIANITY: How Indepen- UNPREPARED: Global Health “I am humbled and deeply detail. —S.W. dent Leaders Are Changing the in a Time of Emergency University Continued on page 62. honored to be receiving Video: To learn more about Steve Ross’ latest research, Religious Landscape Oxford of California Press / Professor of THE SOCIAL SCIENTIST’S a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow- visit dornsife.usc.edu/ross-book. University Press / Co-author Sociology Andrew Lakoff traces SOAPBOX: Adventures Daniel Lidar ship.” —S.B.

60 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 61 TROJANALITY TROJANALITY

WILLIAM DEVERELL, recipients of the semester-long Jews and Muslims in Modern the Vengeful Female Ghost professor of history, and fellowship in Berlin awarded an- Morocco (Yale University Press, (Columbia University Press, DARRYL HOLTER, adjunct nually by the American Academy 2016). 2016) by SATOKO SHIMAZAKI, From Hobbes to Hamburgers associate professor of history, in Berlin to top-tier scholars, associate professor of East Paying Her Education Forward Robert Suzuki ’07 calls his humanities degree “the perfect tool” in his career were awarded gold medals in the writers, composers and artists JOHN “JACK” MCARDLE, Asian languages and cultures, Rachel Jones ’15 took advantage of every learning opportunity at USC Dornsife. as co-owner of a gourmet hamburger restaurant chain. category of Performing Arts and from the United States who professor of psychology and was selected as an Outstand- Now she’s building a solid academic foundation for her first-grade students. Music (Adult Nonfiction) in the represent “the highest standards gerontology, received the Saul ing Academic Title for 2016 by It was 2008, the midst of the Great Recession. In a retail 19th annual Foreword Reviews of excellence in their fields.” B. Sells Award for Distinguished Choice: Current Reviews for space in Redlands, Calif., the third family in a row had given Book of the Year Awards for their Multivariate Research from the Academic Libraries, a publica- up trying to breathe life into a fast-food chicken franchise. book Woody Guthrie L.A. 1937 ANDREW LAKOFF, professor Society of Multivariate Experi- tion of the Association of College Robert Suzuki and his real estate group, which was leasing to 1941 (Angel City Press, 2016). of sociology, received the 2017 mental Psychology. It is the sec- and Research Libraries. the retail space, were about to lose it to the lender. Deverell also received a 2017 David Edge Prize for an article ond time McArdle has received “What about opening a burger restaurant?” suggested one California Writers Residency he co-authored titled “Vital the award — an unprecedented JACOB SOLL, professor of his- of Suzuki’s partners. Burger joints were the only ones making through the Yefe Nof Residency Systems Security: Reflexive honor — in recognition of his tory and accounting, received good money and paying rent consistently at the time. and the literary journal 1888. Biopolitics and the Government advancement of longitudinal a National Endowment for the “So we opened Eureka! with all that in mind in 2009,” of Emergency,” published in The- methodology and statistics Humanities Public Scholar grant said Suzuki, a native of Portland, Ore., who graduated from MOH EL-NAGGAR, Robert D. ory, Culture & Society. Lakoff was throughout his career. to support him in writing a non- USC Dornsife with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. “It was Beyer (’81) Early Career Chair also awarded a visiting fellowship fiction book on his research for a the start of the microbrewery movement in Southern California and our restaurant hap- in Natural Sciences and to the Max Planck Sciences Po VIET THANH NGUYEN, Aerol general audience. Soll will author pened to be next to a new craft brewery.” associate professor of Center on Coping with Instability Arnold Chair of English and A History of the Free Market from Tat proximity helped the restaurateurs build their concept as a gourmet hamburger physics, biological sciences in Market Societies in Paris for his professor of English, Ameri- the 16th to the 20th Century. restaurant serving all-craft beer from their neighbor. Even today, Eureka! carries only and chemistry, was a finalist project “Ecological Knowledge can studies and ethnicity and microbrews and small-batch whiskies, and everything in the kitchen is made from for the 2017 Blavatnik National and Infrastructure Planning in an Comparative LIterature, was DAVID TREUER, professor of scratch. Te concept is clearly resonating: In the last seven years the group has Awards for Young Scientists in Age of Environmental Crisis.” named a “Great Immigrant” by English, received the 2017 Blue expanded to 21 restaurants all along the West Coast and in Idaho, Colorado and Texas. the life sciences category. Carnegie Corporation of New Metropolis First Peoples Prize for Te transition from philosophy to restaurant management may seem like a stretch, but NAOMI LEVINE, Gabilan York, the country’s oldest grant- his novel Prudence (Riverhead according to Suzuki — who, as the company’s chief people ofcer, works in the realms of ANDREW HIRES, assistant Assistant Professor of Bio- making foundation, established Books, 2015). human resources, business law and insurance — his philosophy degree was “the perfect tool.” professor of biological sciences, logical Sciences and Earth by Scottish immigrant Andrew Rachel Jones arrived at USC from the Queens borough of New York City as a Posse “Much of my work is legal and policy review,” he said. “It’s a lot of reading and writing, received a 2017 NIH Director’s Sciences, received a Simons Carnegie in 1911. He also received ARIEH WARSHEL, Distin- Scholar in 2011. Te program identifes and fosters the talent of underrepresented students and in philosophy that’s all we do.” New Innovator Award. The award Early Career Investigator in the 2017 John G. Cawelti Award guished Professor of Chem- and gives them opportunities to pursue higher education. Jones was awarded full college He said his academic training has served him well, and he wouldn’t hesitate to encour- is part of the High-Risk, High- Marine Microbial Ecology and for Best Textbook/Primer from istry, Biological Sciences, tuition and was connected with a faculty mentor and a group of students — her “posse” — age a would-be philosophy major concerned about job prospects later on. Reward Research program, Evolution Award for her research the Popular Culture Association/ Biochemistry, and Chemical for support. Suzuki got hooked on philosophy during an introductory class as a freshman. But which supports exceptionally into the role of marine microbial American Culture Association for Engineering and Materials “At 17, I already understood the value of that,” she said. “I knew people were investing he heeded the department’s advice to its students to go out and try many courses and creative early career investiga- plasticity in evolution and bio- his nonfiction work Nothing Ever Science, and Dana and David their time and energy in me.” disciplines. He took classes in economics as well as philosophy, and he eventually studied tors who propose innovative, geochemistry. Dies: Vietnam and the Memory Dornsife Chair in Chemistry, Jones’ professors encouraged her to stretch beyond her classes to take on research abroad at Queen Mary University of London. high-impact projects. of War (Harvard University Press, was honored by the Chinese opportunities and study abroad. She studied an endangered language in Taiwan and “I absolutely loved my college experience,” he said. —L.P. BRIE LOSKOTA, executive 2016). University of Hong Kong, which took part in an archaeological dig in Guatemala. She spent another semester studying in SUZANNE HUDSON, associ- director of the Center for named an institute after him. New Zealand. ate professor of art history Religion and Civic Culture, OLU ORANGE, adjunct as- The Arieh Warshel Institute of She also traveled to South Africa as a USC Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow for an and fine arts and director was selected as a Young Global sistant professor of political Computational Biology is in international conference on issues of race and inequality in Cape Town. of graduate studies in art Leader of the World Economic science, received a California Shenzhen, China. Tese experiences, combined with her coursework at USC Dornsife, shaped Jones’ history, received an Andrew W. Forum. Lawyer Attorney of the Year way of understanding the world. Mellon Foundation New Direc- Award from California Lawyer ELLEN WAYLAND-SMITH, “My research experiences have shown me that there are systems of oppression that are tions Fellowship for her research Professor Emeritus of Inter- magazine. assistant professor (teaching) all around me,” she said. “By learning more about them, we can fnd ways to dismantle into the practical applications of national Relations ABRAHAM of writing, received a National them.” art making. LOWENTHAL received the G. K. SURYA PRAKASH, Endowment for the Humanities For her exceptional academic achievements at USC, Jones was named a 2015 Steven Orden El Sol del Perú (Order of George A. and Judith A. Public Scholar grant to support and Kathryn Sample USC Renaissance Scholar. She earned her bachelor’s degree in DANA JOHNSON, associate the Sun of Perú) at a ceremony Olah Nobel Laureate Chair her in writing a nonfiction book, political science with a minor in archaeology that year and decided to return to New York

professor of English and held at the Foreign Ministry in OF JONES RACHEL PHOTO COURTESY in Hydrocarbon Chemistry based on her research, for a gen- to pursue a career as teacher. American studies and ethnicity, Lima, Perú. and professor of chemistry, eral audience. Wayland-Smith Now, teaching frst-graders at Success Academy in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood received the 2017 McElderry received a 2018 Arthur C. Cope will pen Jean Wade Rindlaub of Brooklyn, she aims to get her students just as excited about learning as she was and help Fellowship from USC Dornsife’s JESSICA MARGLIN, Ruth Late Career Scholar Award for his and the History of Advertising to them succeed in school — and beyond. R E I L G E K I M Y B O T O H P Department of English. Ziegler Early Career Chair in major contributions to the field American Women. “I really want to make a diference in their lives,” she said. Jewish Studies and assistant of synthetic and mechanistic She also knows that, because her school comprises proportionately higher numbers of JOSH KUN, professor of professor of religion, was organic chemistry. children of color, they will encounter some of the same roadblocks that she studied as an communication and American awarded the 2016 Norris and Continued on page 66. undergraduate. studies and ethnicity, received Carol Hundley Award for her Edo Kabuki in Transition: From “A lot of the things that I’ve learned while at USC have prepared me to dedicate myself

the Berlin Prize. Kun is among 22 book, Across Legal Lines: the Worlds of the Samurai to to my work and do my best every single day to make sure they do well.” —M.B.

62 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 63 DORNSIFE FAMILY

ALUMNI AND STUDENT CANON

BABBAGE’S DREAM Sundress / RAPUNZEL’S BRAID Five AFRO-ATLANTIC FLIGHT: HISTORY OF WOLVES: A Novel EMPIRE WASTED: Poems THE BEAR WHO BROKE THE TULA: Poems Milkweed / EMPIRE OF GLASS Ig Publishing / Neil Aitken (Ph.D., creative writing Oaks Press / Beau Boudreaux Speculative Returns and the Atlantic Monthly Press / Emily Bloof Books / Through poetry, WORLD Wheeler Street Press / Inspired by the experiences Kaitlin Solimine (M.A., East Asian and literature, ’15) transposes the (B.A., English/creative writing, ’94) Black Fantastic Duke University Fridlund (Ph.D., creative writing Becca Klaver (B.A., English/ The debut novel by Justin of the “blood stranger”— the studies, ’06) investigates the work- dreams of machines and humans takes readers through the thunder Press / Michelle D. Commander and literature , ’14) confronts creative writing, ’03) fashions McFarr (MPW, ’11) plumbs the second-generation immigrant ings of human memory and the ve- into musical, sonically deft lyrics afternoons of southern desire (Ph.D., American studies and eth- the consequences of the things a tapestry of digital upheaval, depths of childhood in Berkeley who does not fully acquire racity of oral history that chronicles that sing songs of creation, vision, all the way to the mornings of nicity, ’10) traces how some black people do — and fail to do — dystopian feminism and political during the summer of 1976, when the language of his parents — the seismic changes in China over possibility and futurity. fatherhood. Americans envision literal and for the people they love. theatre. two brothers struggle to protect Chris Santiago (Ph.D., the last half century through the figurative flight back to Africa as a Also by Emily Fridlund themselves from the adult dan- creative writing and literature, ’15) lens of one family’s experiences. means by which to heal the dispos- CATAPULT / Sarabande gers that surround them. paints the portrait of a mythic Te Hit Factory session caused by the slave trade. homeland that is part ghostly Marie Lu ’06 abandoned ambitions in law and medi- underworld, part unknowable cine to pursue video gaming and writing. paradise. Lauded by critics as “a hit factory,” New York Times best-selling novel- ist Marie Lu is an established star of young adult fction. Author of the “Legend” and “Young Elites” series, Lu’s eagerly awaited new novel, MAKING MY PITCH: A Woman’s NOT CONSTANTINOPLE THE APPOINTMENT Vine Leaves Warcross (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books Baseball Odyssey University Dzanc Books / The debut novel Press / In his eighth book, SO FAMOUS AND SO GAY: for Young Readers, 2017), hit book of Nebraska Press / Co-author by creative writing and literature DEAD GIRLS AND OTHER Mike Maggio (M.A., linguistics, RELEASE HarperTeen / Inspired The Fabulous Potency of Truman stands in September to widespread Jean Hastings Ardell (MPW, doctoral student Nicholas Bredie THE LAIRD OF DUNCAIRN City STORIES Dzanc Books / Creative ’80) pens a story where the anti- by Judy Blume’s Forever and Capote and Gertrude Stein acclaim. Set in a futuristic Tokyo, ’95) tells the story of Ila Jane captures the privileged aimless- Owl Press / Craig Comer (B.A., writing and literature doctoral hero finds himself lost in a world Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, University of Minnesota Press / it explores the world of online gaming through Warcross — Borders, who became a Little ness and corrupted romanti- history, ’99; MPW, ’04) introduces student Emily Geminder weaves that seems uncanny and unfor- Patrick Ness (B.A., English, ’93) MISS D AND ME: Life with Jeff Solomon (Ph.D., English, a global phenomenon. League prodigy, MVP of her other- cism of the contemporary white the reader to Effie, the only hope gender, geopolitics and the giving, searching for answers from tackles the topics of teenage the Invincible Bette Davis ’08) paints a vivid portrait of two “For the millions who log in everyday, Warcross isn’t just wise all-male school teams, and American expatriate. for stopping the eldritch evil dreamlike worlds of characters people he cannot find. relationships, self-acceptance and Hachette Publishing / Writing landmark literary personalities a game — it’s a way of life,” Lu said of her fctional creation. the first woman to pitch and win a spreading throughout the struggling to find hope and rea- what happens when the walls we with Danielle Morton, Kathryn who expressed homosexuality and Lu’s hero, teenage hacker Emika Chen, works as a bounty complete men’s collegiate game. Scottish Highlands. son within their near apocalypses. build start coming down. Sermak (B.A., psychology, ’77) negotiated homophobia through hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. provides an intimate view of a the fleeting depiction of what could Struggling to make ends meet, Chen hacks into the Interna- screen legend’s harrowing but not be directly written. tional Warcross Championships, only to accidentally glitch inspiring final years. herself into the action and become an overnight sensation. Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Chen is shocked when instead she is engaged as a spy by the game’s elusive creator. Born in China, Lu immigrated to the United States as a young child. While at college, she tried to get her writing published, but rejections from publishers proved so disheart- ening that she stopped writing. It wasn’t until she started LISTENING TO KATHY Big TRUE NORTH: Hunting working in the gaming industry as a concept artist that she Jacaranda Books / Jo Scott- Fossils Under the Midnight Sun began writing again. BLACK JESUS AND OTHER Coe (B.A., English, ’91) provides ON AIR: Insider Secrets to THE WAR POWER IN AN Bering Press / Lou Marincovich FAMINE IRISH AND THE

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARIE LU PHOTO COURTESY She fnds her ability to support herself by doing some- SUPERHEROES University a glimpse into the life of Kathy Attract the Media and Get AGE OF TERRORISM Palgrave (Ph.D., geological science, ’73) AMERICAN RACIAL STATE thing creative immensely satisfying. of Nebraska Press / Venita Leissner, who was murdered by Free Publicity HenschelHAUS / Macmillan / Co-author Michael A. documented faunal and climate Routledge / Peter O’Neill ECHOES OF BHUTAN USE OF FORCE Atria / Emily “I can’t exaggerate how much I love writing and creat- Blackburn (B.A., English/ her husband, Charles Whitman, Katrina Cravy (B.A., political Genovese (Ph.D., political science, changes in the Arctic, solved (Ph.D., English, ’10) uses an array EBS Editoriale Bortolazzi Stei / Bestler Books / The CIA taps an ing stories,” she said. “To know that I can entertain people creative writing, ’04) chronicles hours before he committed the science and broadcast journal- ’79) examines the issue of whether the mystery of the Bering Strait’s of cultural artifacts to explore the Barry Shaffer (B.A., history, ’70; unorthodox source to get answers or make them happy, even for a few hours, with something ordinary people achieving vivid first televised shooting rampage ism, ’92) makes it easy for public the United States Constitution age, survived a helicopter crash, state’s role in the Americaniza- DDS, ’74) captures the beauty of — Navy SEAL turned covert coun- I have made, is really gratifying.” —S.B. extrasensory perception while in in U.S. history. relations novices to gain needed remains adequate to the national and saved his own life by tion of the Irish and the Irish role “the land of the thunder dragon” terterrorism operative Scot Harvath TELL US ABOUT YOUR BOOK Write to USC Dornsife Magazine, extreme pain in her Prairie Schooner Also by Jo Scott-Coe insights and garner media recog- security challenges in contempo- shooting a charging grizzly with in the development of U.S. state with photographs taken over a — in the latest thriller by Brad 1150 S. Olive Street T2400, Los Angeles, CA 90015 or Book Prize-winning fiction. MASS / Writ Large Press nition for their businesses. rary America. his last bullet. institutions. 14-year period. Thor (B.A., creative writing, ’92). [email protected]

64 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 65 DORNSIFE FAMILY

TROJANALITY TROJANALITY USC Dornsife welcomed more MALGORZATA SWITEK 1980s 2010s than 40 new faculty members (economics); JONATHAN DARLEEN PRYDS (B.A., his- LEENA DANPOUR (B.A., polit- A Sisterhood of Leaders in the 2017–18 academic year. TARBOX (psychology); tory, ’83; M.A., history, ’85) ical science, ’17) was a member Gina Clayton ’06 helps women with relatives in prison harness the power of their Hailing from universities around GREGORY TREVERTON has filmed two instructional of the summer 2017 White House Mission to Mars voices to support themselves and their communities. the world, the scholars were (international relations); courses, The Spirituality of Dying Internship Program in the Office Christine Geosling ’77 has put her talents to use helping develop key components introduced at a reception on LE TRINH (biological scienc- and Death (2015) and The Chris- of Public Liaison. used in space exploration and other types of navigation. Sept. 12 at Town & Gown on USC’s es); BENJAMIN UCHIYAMA tian Life: Exploring Lay Spiritual University Park campus.The (history); JOHN VIDALE Practices (2016). EMILY FRIDLUND (Ph.D., When chemist Christine Geosling frst began working for new faculty include JORGE (Earth sciences); ALEXIS literature and creative writ- the global aerospace and defense frm Northrop Grumman, BARRAZA (psychology); WELLWOOD (philosophy); GREG STEININGER (B.A., ing, ’14) was named to The Man she was part of a team of scientists developing a ring laser VITTORIO BASSI (economics); and KERIM YASAR (East Asian international relations, ’83) was Booker Prize 2017 long list for gyroscope. Te instrument makes up a vital element of the CHRISTOPHER BEAM (psy- languages and cultures). appointed the national vice presi- her first novel, History of Wolves inertial navigation system for aircraft, ships and spacecraft. chology); NATALIE BELISLE dent of communities by 5 Bars, a (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2017). Her main focus was to improve one of the mechanisms that (Spanish); MARK CHAISSON wireless technology company. was destroying the mirrors in the unit. As it turned out, what (biological sciences); ROBIN Alumni News PETER GUEKGUEZIAN (Ph.D., was killing the mirrors was a chemical reaction. COSTE LEWIS (writer-in- 1990s linguistics, ’17) not only made “I was able to identify it, do the experiments to verify it and residence); YASMEEN 1970s CHRISTOPHER CLEMENTS it a “true daily double,” he was suggest a solution,” Geosling said. DAIFALLAH (Middle East TOM CARTER (B.A., political (B.A., political science, ’92) the top contestant three days in Her work increased the lifetimes and performance of the instruments that were being studies); MARK DAVIS (chem- science, ’76) received the Federal was named to the board of direc- a row on Jeopardy!, taking home used in space missions. Tat challenge, and her subsequent work for the company on the ical engineering and materials Trade Commission’s Robert Pitofsky tors at Boulder Crest Retreat for more than $44,000 in winnings. laser gyroscope and fber optic gyroscope, earned Geosling a prestigious 2013 Resnik science, chemistry, and Lifetime Achievement Award. Military and Veteran Wellness. Challenger Medal. Te award, presented by the Society of Women Engineers, honors medicine); ANGUS DEATON ALEEK SHERIKIAN (B.A., visionary contributions to space exploration. (economics); WILLIAM FRANK DOROTHY CHEN-MAYNARD The American Institute for international relations, ’14) “It’s a great honor and it also refects well on Northrop Grumman and the work we do (Earth sciences); REIGHAN (B.S., biological sciences, ’78) Medical and Biological Engineering was appointed coordinator of and the quality of the products we produce,” Geosling said. GILLAM (anthropology); was named Outstanding Dietitian announced the pending induc- Armenian Relief Society Inc. Geosling, who holds 14 United States patents and two trade secrets, earned her Ph.D. in MARC HOYOIS (mathemat- of the Year by the California Acad- tion of NI NADINE DING activities at the United Nations. chemistry from USC Dornsife in 1977. ics); ZAKIYYAH JACKSON emy of Nutrition and Dietetics. (Ph.D., chemistry, ’90) to its She currently works as an engineering program manager for the LN-200 line of inertial (English); JEFFERY JENKINS College of Fellows. NATALIE STROM (B.A., politi- measurement units, which provide critical information for NASA’s Mars Rovers. (public policy, political SALPI GHAZARIAN (B.A., his- cal science, ’14) was appointed “I’m probably one of the few that can say, ‘I have touched something that’s now on Mars,’ ” science and law); CARLY tory, ’77) was recognized by the ROGER LYNCH (B.S., physics, assistant press secretary at the Geosling said. —M.B.

KENKEL (biological sciences); California State Assembly “for NASA OF COURTESY PHOTO ROVER MARS GEOSLING; CHRISTINE OF COURTESY PHOTO GEOSLING ’93) was named CEO and presi- White House. KURT KWAST (biological her remarkable record of accom- dent, as well as a member of the sciences); MEREDITH LEPLEY plishments and the exemplary board of directors, of music com- (psychology); ELI LEVENSON- leadership she has provided pany Pandora. Marriages and FALK (physics); MENGJUN for organizations, institutions Births LI (East Asian languages and and publications whose scope President Donald J. Trump cultures); ENRIQUE encompasses, broadly, Armenia nominated JEFF TIEN HAN PON BONNIE C. BRADY (B.A., Gina Clayton doesn’t just want to help the women she works with. She wants them to MARTINEZ CELAYA (human- and the Armenian Diaspora.” (B.A., psychology, ’92) as di- biological sciences, ’63) married become advocates. ities and arts); ANDREW rector of the Office of Personnel Paul Donaldson in Palm Desert, CA. As founder of the Essie Justice Group, Clayton helps women with incarcerated loved ones MARX (spatial sciences); DAVID R. MOORE (B.A., Management on Sept. 1, 2017. deal with the seemingly insurmountable difculties they face. Many of those she works with MAYA MASKARINEC (his- speech communication, ’75) SHAUNA CARTER (B.A., struggle to make ends meet while a relative is behind bars. Tey often face eviction and tory); RONALD MENDOZA- was sworn in by the chief justice St. Patrick’s Seminary & University psychology, ’06) and John possible homelessness. DE JESUS (Spanish); LYDIE of the California Supreme Court in Menlo Park, Calif., celebrated Washington welcomed a son, Clayton, who earned her bachelor’s in American studies and ethnicity before pursuing a ESTHER MOUDILENO (French); as a member of the board of the installation of Rev. GEORGE E. Jaxon Pierce Carter Washington. law degree from Harvard Law School, frst became aware of these challenges as a housing SRI NARAYAN (chemistry); directors for the Conference of SCHULTZE, SJ (Ph.D., religion lawyer in Harlem, New York City. MAGGIE NELSON (English); California Bar Associations. and ethics, ’98) as the institu- ALLISON ELLIOTT (B.S., human In 2014, she founded Essie Justice Group, named for her great-grandmother who grew up MELISSA RAUTERKUS (Eng- tion’s 17th President-Rector on biology, ’15) married Zachary on a sharecropper farm in Louisiana. lish); KELSEY RUBIN-DETLEV WILLIAM “BILL” YOUNGLOVE Aug. 21, 2017. Tudhope on June 24, 2017, (Slavic languages and litera- (M.A., American studies, in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Te program’s nine-week curriculum focuses on healing the efects of trauma and building N O T AY L C A N I G F O Y S E T R U O C O T O H P each woman’s voice as an advocate. Initially located in Oakland, Essie now ofers sessions in tures); BEATRICE SANFORD ’73) received the Distinguished 2000s three other Californa locations — Vallejo, San Jose and Los Angeles. (English); LINDSEY SCHIER Service Award from the California JESSICA HUANG (B.A., psy- JEAN TAYLOR ELLIS (B.A., Tis year, Clayton received the Grinnell College Young Innovator for Social Justice Prize (biological sciences); DANIEL Association of Teachers of English chology, ’06) was inducted into environmental studies and for her work efecting positive social change in an innovative way. SCHRAGE (sociology); DANZY for outstanding contributions the San Francisco Prep Hall of biology, ’98; M.S., geography, A former NAACP chapter president at USC, Clayton said her undergraduate studies SENNA (English); STEPHANIE to the profession of teaching Fame for her athletic achievements ’01) and James Joseph Tedesco / informed the lens through which she approaches her work seeking out and lifting up the SHIH (linguistics); CHALEE English and language arts. JPL in swimming. IV were married July 26, 2016, at - stories of marginalized people to build a better world. RILEY SNORTON (American CALTECH Sachuest Beach in Middletown, RI. Essie, she said, is not a charity but a place to help women fnd their value. “We are building studies and ethnicity); an organization of women leaders.” —M.B. ANDREW STOTT (English); Continued on page 68.

66 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 67 DORNSIFE FAMILY

TROJANALITY REMEMBERING

ELLEN FREEDMAN (B.A., history, ’49) Dana Point, CA nuclear test site, northwest of His broad academic interests international relations, ’11) and (3/14/17) at age 91; member of Las Vegas; co-owner of Riverside included French-Spanish 18th- Ethan Robert Baron were married Dana Harbor Yacht Club and El Fireman’s Fund Insurance and century intellectual relations, Te physics of fghting Aug. 20, 2016, in Philadelphia, PA. Niguel Country Club; member Surety Company; charter member Hispanism, Nietzsche in Spain, Jason Thalken ’06 uses his science to help martial artists of South Orange County Bridge with Federation of Fly Fisherman. the philosopher Unamuno’s exis- perfect their fighting skills. KRISTINA MONET GALLEGOS Center; achieved rank of gold life tentialism, Surrealism, Futurism, (B.A., English, ’03) married master in the game of bridge. JOHN “JACK” PESCHONG the literary grotesque, his original SHAUN MICHAEL DIXON (B.A., political science, ’52) concept of “inner exile,” and the (B.A., cinematic arts, ’07) in ROBERT GERALD CAMERON San Luis Obispo, CA (6/15/17) at painter Goya. June 2016 and welcomed a son, (B.S., history, ’50) Englewood, age 88; retired vice president and “A truly eminent scholar of Quincy Theodore, in June 2017. NJ (7/31/17) at age 92; served as stockbroker with Merrill Lynch; Spanish and European literary executive director of research member of King David’s Masonic and cultural history, we are proud JOSÉ GALVAN (B.A., Spanish, and development for The College Lodge No. 209. of Paul’s legacy to USC and our ’04) married Candice Cabral on Board; worked as a state volun- Emeritus Professor of Earth various fields,” said Roberto June 10, 2017, in Quintana Roo, teer ombudsman at the Lillian JAMES LEO PRAGER (B.A., Sciences ALFRED “AL” FISCHER, Ignacio Díaz, associate profes- Mexico. Booth Actors Equity House for psychology, ’60) St. Helena, a globally prominent sedimentary sor of Spanish and comparative more than two decades. CA (7/11/17) at age 84; served geologist, died July 2. He was 96. literature. KARINA GODOY (B.A., history, as a corpsman in the U.S. Navy; Fischer joined USC Dornsife ’06) married VIKRAM K. MARY WIKOFF FISHER (B.A., worked as an insurance agent in 1984, making major contribu- SRIDHARAN (B.S., aerospace history, ’40) La Jolla, CA and served as president of the tions to the understanding of engineering, ’09) on June 16, (3/7/17) at age 98; member of Orange County Insurance Agents; environmental cyclicity, charac- 2017, in Pasadena, CA. the League of Women Voters; founder of Prager Winery & Port terized by repetitive patterns of enjoyed reading, travel and her Works in Napa Valley. different rock layers in the Earth. HILLARY KERR (B.A., English, beloved Chicago Cubs. A member of the United States ’00) and Jonathan Leahy were RACHEL REINSVOLD (B.A., National Academy of Sciences, married on Dec. 10, 2016, at SPENCER JOHNSON (B.A., psychology and sociology, he was also a senior fellow of the the Colony Palms Hotel in Palm psychology, ’63) San Diego, ’02) Albuquerque, NM (8/23/17) American Association for the Springs, CA. CA (7/3/17) at age 78; physician at age 36; graduate of Boston Advancement of Science and a and author of 13 New York Times College of Law; volunteered with fellow of the Geological Society DEUEL ROSS (B.A., political best-selling books, including the Innocence Project, where of America. In the mid-1990s, actor and kung fu legend Jackie science and English, ’05) and Who Moved My Cheese? (G. P. she worked to overturn convic- Describing Fischer as a renais- Chan starred in his American breakout flm Rumble Nicolle Quintero were married at Putnam’s Sons, 1998); co-author tions of those wrongly accused sance scholar, William Berelson, Professor Emeritus of History, the Midtown Loft and Terrace in of The One Minute Manager of crimes; employed with Riley, professor of Earth sciences and JOHN “JACK” WILLS JR., in the Bronx. Te movie mixed comedy with tightly BENDER, FISCHER AND WILLS PHOTOS BY IRENE FERTIK; ILIE PHOTO COURTESY OF MARIE choreographed, awe-inspiring martial arts sequences. New York City on Aug. 11, 2017. (William Morrow, 2003) and Shane & Keller in Albuquerque; environmental studies and chair died Jan. 13. He was 80. Alumnus Jason Talken, who was a teen at the time, The New One Minute Manager created the Alveolar Soft Part of Earth sciences, said, “The Wills spent nearly four decades was hooked. (William Morrow, 2015). Sarcoma support group to serve breadth of Al’s influence spans illuminating Chinese history and “I went to see that movie in the theatre something like In Memoriam as a vital source of information generations and is global. The global early modern history. seven times,” he said. MARCIA ECK LASSWELL and support for people affected Earth sciences community has Wills’ legacy includes his Films like Chan’s inspired Talken, who had been taking ARNOLD P. BALLANTYNE (M.A., psychology, ’55) Los by the incurable disease. Activist Scholar lost an icon.” integral role in shaping the taekwondo classes. Over the years, he began studying other (B.A., ethnic studies, ’52) Angeles, CA (6/16/17) at age 89; In his 31 years teaching at USC Dornsife, Gerald “Jerry” Bender’s passion for his university’s East Asian studies fghting styles to build up his abilities: kenpo, judo, wushu, Colorado Springs, CO (7/5/17) at professor emerita at California KENNETH RONALD SILK (B.A., work and for southern Africa changed many lives worldwide. curriculum, which did not exist muay thai, eskrima — the list goes on. age 88; former U.S. Air Force pilot State Polytechnic University, political science, ’58; LLB, when he arrived in 1965. He In addition to the discipline and physical exercise, martial of the Convair B-36 Peacekeeper Pomona; clinical professor in law, ’61) Encino, CA (7/16/17) at Associate Professor Emeritus of International Relations Gerald “Jerry” Bender died on helped found the East Asian arts appealed to his technical side. Talken, who earned and the Lockheed T-33 Shooting the Marriage and Family Therapy age 79; served as a staff sergeant May 22. He was 75. Studies Center in 1975 and went his Ph.D. in physics from USC Dornsife in 2006, began Star; professor emeritus of eco- Graduate Program at USC; in the U.S. Air Force Reserve; Bender’s career was dedicated to the study of Angola and southern Africa generally, with on to direct the center from 1990 thinking about the ways that skills such as punching and nomics at the University of Colo- fellow, past president and board practiced law for 40 years; a particular interest in United States foreign policy toward the region. to 94. He also served as acting kicking could be improved if fghters better understood rado at Colorado Springs, where of directors member of the founder of the Sherman Oaks He served as a consultant for the U.S. Department of State, United Nations, World chair of the Department of East their scientifc properties. he served as dean of the College American Association of Marriage Neighborhood Council. Bank, National Security Council, think tanks and several multinational corporations. Asian Languages and Cultures He wrote a few chapters explaining how fghters could of Letters, Arts and Sciences and and Family Therapy; named 2010 N E K L A H T N O S A J F O Y S E T R U O C O T O H P He also mediated arguments among diferent African politicians and parties. from 1987 to 89. hone their techniques by understanding energy, momentum as chair of the economics de- Woman of the Year by the Los LILLIAN MAY STEVENS (B.A., “Jerry Bender liked to say that he was an activist scholar,” said Professor Emeritus of Wills retired from USC Dornsife and the center of mass, and sent them of for consideration partment; served as an interna- Angeles City Club. Spanish/planning and urban International Relations John Odell. in 2004. Two years later he to a publisher of martial arts books. Te publisher came tional consultant for the Russian studies, ’51; LLB, law, ’54) Laurie Brand, Robert Grandford Wright Professor of International Relations and donated $50,000 to endow back to him with a note asking for a completed manuscript. Academy of Economic Science RICHARD LLOYD LEESON Glendale, CA (3/17/17) at age 87; Middle East Studies, was hired by Bender. a scholarship for graduate Fight Like a Physicist: Te Incredible Science Behind Martial in Moscow and with Sumy State (B.A., history, ’47) Riverside, co-founded the law firm Stegman “Te love of what he studied and the degree of expertise he acquired over decades of Professor Emeritus of Spanish students in the field of East Asian

University in Ukraine. CA (4/21/17) at age 95; served & Stegman; served as a Pasadena - and Comparative Literature PAUL studies. Arts (YMAA) was published in 2015. LAURE ILIE research in and on Africa … was one of the things that made him such an amazing He is currently working on two new scientifc martial in the U.S. Army in the Counter city prosecutor; appointed to the colleague and a great gift that he always sought to share with his students,” she said. ILIE died on July 18. He was 84. Wills received a USC Faculty arts publications — a deep dive into the science of punching CONSUELO “CONNEE” Intelligence Corps and as a bench and served as a Superior Bender received seven teaching awards during his career, including the USC Associates Ilie joined USC in 1982 and taught Lifetime Achievement Award and a look at the scientifc study of martial arts. —M.B. MENDENHALL BROGAN (B.A., first lieutenant at the Nevada Court judge for more than 19 years. Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1985. for 15 years before retiring in 1997. in 2013.

68 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 69 IN MY OPINION 2017 USC DORNSIFE READERSHIP SURVEY

The current iteration of USC Dornsife Magazine was launched in 2012 to offer alumni, faculty, staff and friends of USC Dornsife — as well as readers beyond our university — lively articles and information covering the breadth of intellectual pursuits at USC Dornsife.

their parents and subjected to a harsh system of cultural Please take a few moments to answer some brief questions about USC Dornsife Magazine. Your feedback will be of tremendous help assimilation. Tis happened to 150,000 children from to the magazine staff as we work to ensure the publication meets your needs and interests. the 1870s to 1996, when the last school closed. Teirs was a childhood of complex trauma that continues to afect To help compensate for your time, all completed surveys will be entered into a series of random drawings for prizes that include: multiple generations. autographed faculty and alumni books, 2018 USC football tickets and an Apple iPad, among other incentives. Canada’s indigenous peoples face deprivation on all fronts: hunger, food insecurity, lack of clean water, inadequate You may fill out the survey online at dornsife.usc.edu/readership-survey or use a pen to fill out the paper survey that begins below, housing, dilapidated infrastructure, unemployment, isola- and mail it to us at the address listed at the end. Although we do request a first name for the drawings, your personal information tion, and so on. In sum, it is a situation that structurally and will not be tied to your answers, so please provide your honest feedback. relentlessly instills profound despair and misery. Not surprisingly, suicide rates among indigenous Canadians are far higher than among nonindigenous How much time do you typically spend reading an issue of USC Dornsife Magazine? Canadians. Rates for Inuit youth are among the highest 60 minutes or more 45 to 59 minutes 30 to 44 minutes 15 to 29 minutes 1 to 14 minutes Do not read it in the world, at fve to 25 times the national average. Indig- enous peoples are hugely overrepresented among children in How often do you typically read USC Dornsife Magazine? foster care, the imprisoned and the homeless. And women Every issue Most issues Occasional issues Never read an issue are worse of — on almost every count. Te human spirit, however, remains invincible; the youth, How much of USC Dornsife Magazine do you typically read? in particular, manage to chart a path against all odds. Every word Most of it I skim through it I just look at the pictures I rarely/never open it As Attawapiskat declared an emergency following the multiple suicides, several young leaders in the community How do you prefer to read USC Dornsife Magazine? established a Youth Committee to help ignite a sense of In print Online Via the USC Dornsife Magazine app hope and belonging. Jack Linklater Jr., a 17-year-old member of this commit- Do you share USC Dornsife Magazine with others after you read it? tee, organized and led a suicide awareness walk with friends Yes No in neighboring reservations. Tey strode through frozen country for two days in minus 25 degrees Celsius weather to Please indicate your agreement with this statement: foster conversations among youth in despair. “USC Dornsife Magazine strengthens my personal connection to the College.” Ruth Kaviok, 19, president of the National Inuit Youth Strongly Council, is another such leader. “I know we are scarred for Strongly agree Agree Disagree disagree No opinion life,” she said, “but we must keep going ... not let [the past] go, but keep going.” Attawapiskat is the birthplace of Shannen’s Dream, a movement started by Shannen Koostachin, an elementary Youth toEducator Power Ananya Mukherjee-Reed ’95 sees hope spring school student. Koostachin inspired thousands of children Has USC Dornsife Magazine inspired you to: (Check all that apply.) from Canada’s First Nations tragedy. to join her campaign for “safe and comfy schools” and Attend an alumni or school function Consider a USC Dornsife education for your children equity in education for all children. Indeed, the inequality in Create internship/job opportunities for current students Get involved/volunteer with USC Dornsife programming or events Canada is kind to immigrants like me. Canada’s citizens have educational opportunities is staggering. In 2004, the auditor Make a contribution to the school Submit an update about your life for the alumni news section fought hard, and successfully, to acquire a rich repertoire of general of Canada estimated that it would take almost three Reconnect with classmates, past faculty or staff Seek additional education (either at USC or another educational institution) social and economic rights. We have universal health care, decades to close the education gap between First Nations Recommend USC Dornsife to others free public schooling, a respect for diversity and much more. people living on reservations and Canadians as a whole. And yet, there is one incredible failing that Canada is Koostachin, who was nominated for the International Please rate the quality of the current issue of USC Dornsife Magazine on the following: just beginning to confront: the oppression of its indigenous Children’s Peace Prize in 2009, died in a car accident at peoples. Tis oppression manifests itself in myriad ways, 15. But she laid the foundations for a new school in her Extremely Somewhat Neither satisfied Somewhat Extremely the most unbearable of which is the epidemic of suicide community, which opened in 2014. satisfied Satisfied satisfied nor dissatisfied Dissatisfied Dissatisfied dissatisfied among children and youth. Canada, unfortunately, is not the only country where As I write this piece, a spate of suicides has gripped injustices exist for native populations. In August, we celebra- Writing Pikangikum and Wapekeka, two First Nations communities ted the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration in Ontario. Tis year has already seen 20 take their own on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Now is an opportune Story topics lives; the youngest of them was only 10 years old. moment for each of us, as global citizens, to begin to act — In April 2016, Attawapiskat declared a state of emergency wherever we are, in whatever way we can — for justice. Cover after 100 people, including children, attempted suicide during the preceding seven months. Ananya Mukherjee-Reed earned a Ph.D. in political economy Illustrations Why would young people in a country like Canada feel and public policy from USC Dornsife in 1995. She currently the need to take their own lives? is dean of the faculty of liberal arts and professional studies, Photography Te answers lie in the enduring efects of settler colo- and professor of political science at York University in Toronto, nialism and racism. Take for example the residential school Canada, serving 22,000 students at the country’s third largest system, where indigenous children were separated from university.

70 Fall 2017 / Winter 2018 71 2017 USC DORNSIFE READERSHIP SURVEY(continued)

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Thank you for participating in the USC Dornsife Magazine readership survey. Your input will help us publish the kind of magazine you and other readers will value and enjoy. Please mail your response to: Making Its Mark USC Dornsife Magazine USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences USC Village, the university’s monumental development at the corner of Hoover Street and Jefferson 1150 S. Olive Street, T2400 Los Angeles, CA 90015-2400 Boulevard, officially opened to the Trojan community Aug. 17. The $700 million project is the largest development in the university’s history, and the largest South Los Angeles has ever seen. Residential college suites comprise the upper floors, with retail stores bedecking the ground level. Fountains, sculptures, outdoor terraces and a Hogwarts-like, A-framed dining hall, with custom stained-glass windows and gothic-style seating, round out this landmark, student-centered complex.

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University of Southern California 1150 S. Olive Street, T2400 Los Angeles, California 90015

Life Moment BARRY SHAFFER ’70 ( SEE PAGE 19) PHOTO BY JIGME REEGYAL