"Learning Has No Boundaries"
Basement Yields a World of Discovery
In the middle stood Lynn Swartz Dodd, the lab’s curator. Though there was a whirlwind of activity swirling around her, Dodd was clearly at ease, cracking jokes with her students.
“See this sealing?” Dodd asked, pointing to a Roman-era signet of what appeared to be a Trojan warrior. “This is the oldest Trojan on campus.”
Dodd is caretaker of one of the most important fact-finding centers on campus. The archaeology lab in the basement of Taper Hall is home to thousands of ancient artifacts that line the room’s walls, floors and tables, threatening to burst into the classroom next door. Students working in the lab are struck by the historical knowledge that can be gleaned from some of the undeciphered inscriptions – one of the inscriptions may hold a key to the ancient world.
Sophomore Brett Strom is actively looking for such a key. He received a grant from the PEW Charitable Trust to examine 600 previously unseen mud sealings. The sealings originally were used to represent papyrus documents. When they were found, they were sold through the antiquities market and then forgotten. Strom is trying to reconstruct a plausible scenario for where they originated and perhaps uncover ancient secrets within their carvings.
“I’m holding 2,600-year-old objects in my hand, and I’m getting paid to do it,” Strom said. “What more do you need to know?”
The archaeology lab sponsors digs for undergraduate and graduate students in such exotic locales as Israel and Turkey. If a student volunteers to go for a whole digging season, USC will pay airfare, as well as room and board.
USC invests in students who gain hands-on experience with first-century artifacts. If the past can open a window to the future, the investment is well worth it.
“Archaeology is about nothing if not about discovery,” Dodd said. “You never know what you’re going to find.”
Do you know of someone who takes learning beyond classroom walls? If so, e-mail the Academic Culture Initiative (ACI) at aci@usc.edu to suggest a feature for this column. ACI is sponsored by the provost and directed by Mark Kann, professor of political science. It aims to promote a thriving intellectual environment and an engaged student culture at USC. Sophomore Sarah Levy is a print journalism and political science major.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
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