Todd Boyd
Associate professor of critical studies at the USC
School of Cinema-Television, Todd Boyd is a leading expert
on popular culture. He has written pioneering works on race,
media, sports and hip hop culture, including Young, Black,
Rich and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion and
the Transformation of American Culture (2003) and Am
I Black Enough for You? Popular Culture from the ’Hood
and Beyond (1997). Boyd is a frequent commentator on National
Public Radio and national TV news programs.
T.C. Boyle
Distinguished Professor of English at
USC
College, T.C. Boyle established the creative writing program
at USC. He is the celebrated author of 19 works of fiction, including Drop
City (2003), cited as one of the 10 Best Books of the Year
by the New York Times Book Review, and World’s
End (1988), winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Boyle’s 1995 novel, The Tortilla Curtain, has
become a modern classic, taught in many U.S. high schools and
universities. His latest novel is After the Plague (2001).
Antonio Damasio
Holder of the David Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience, Antonio Damasio
is a professor of psychology and neurology.
He is also co-founder and director of the
Brain and Creativity Institute at USC
College. Internationally recognized for his work in neuroscience,
Damasio helped determine the neural basis for the emotions and
demonstrated that emotions play a central role in social cognition
and decision-making. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine
of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences.
Midori Goto
Chair of the strings department at the
USC
Thornton School of Music, and holder of the Jascha Heifetz
Chair in Violin, Midori Goto is an internationally renowned violinist.
Her dazzling technique, lustrous tone and authoritative interpretations
are acclaimed by critics worldwide. At USC, she founded the Midori
Center for Community Engagement, which trains music students
to engage audiences beyond the concert hall. Her interdisciplinary
approach combines instrumental instruction with an emphasis on
students’ development as human beings and musicians.
Velina Hasu Houston
Professor, director of dramatic writing
and associate dean of faculty at the
USC School of Theatre, Velina Hasu Houston is a specialist
in Pan-Asian American feminist dramatic literature. Her plays,
including the critically acclaimed Tea, have been produced
at leading theatres in the United States and Japan. Houston is
also a poet and essayist, and the editor of two anthologies of
plays by Asian Americans. Her awards include two Rockefeller
Foundation Playwriting Fellowships and three James H. Zumberge
Research and Innovation Fund grants.
Steven L. Lamy
Professor of international relations at
USC College, Lamy specializes in analysis of the foreign
policy of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Western Europe,
and the moral dimensions of international relations. Recipient
of many teaching awards, he founded the Teaching International
Relations Program, which provides opportunities for undergraduates
to broaden the global awareness of local high school students.
Lamy has served as a consultant to the National Security Education
Program–U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of
Education.
Maja Matarić
Professor of computer science and neuroscience, Matarić is
founding director of the Center
for Robotics and Embedded Systems at USC
Viterbi School of Engineering. Her current projects include
robots that can assist elderly, convalescent and disabled individuals,
and multi-robot systems that can provide emergency assistance.
She is also developing robotics curricula for grades K–12.
Recipient of many prestigious honors, including the National
Science Foundation Career Award, Matarić is featured in Me & Isaac
Newton, a documentary about seven of the world’s leading
scientists.
Judy Muller
Associate professor of journalism at the
USC Annenberg School for Communication, Judy Muller offers
students insights gleaned from more than two decades of radio
and television reporting. As a member of ABC’s Nightline team,
she won an Emmy Award for coverage of the O.J. Simpson case.
In the 1980s, she was a CBS News correspondent and an anchor
on CBS News Radio. A frequent contributor to National Public
Radio’s Morning Edition, she is the author of Now
This: Radio, Television...and the Real World (2000).
Nandini Rajagopalan
Professor of management and organization at the USC
Marshall School of Business, Rajagopalan holds the Capt.
Henry W. Simonson Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship. Her research,
focuses on CEO succession and compensation systems, strategic
change and decision-making processes, and corporate governance
in emerging economies. Winner of several Marshall School awards,
Rajagopalan is a Distinguished Faculty Fellow at USC’s
Center for Excellence in Teaching. She is also director of research
at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.
George Sanchez
Professor of history and of American studies and ethnicity at USC
College, Sanchez researches historical and contemporary topics
related to race, gender, ethnicity, labor and immigration. His
groundbreaking 1993 book, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity,
Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900–1945 received
numerous awards. Two forthcoming books deal with the impact of
Mexican migration on late 20th-century Los Angeles culture and
the history of ethnic interaction in East Los Angeles. A renowned
mentor, Sanchez directs the USC Center for Diversity and Democracy.