USC Fulbright Faculty Mentors

The role of a Fulbright faculty mentor is to provide advice on the feasibility of your proposed project.  Ideally, a mentor has expertise in your academic field and/or host country and is willing meet to review your Statement of Grant Purpose to provide feedback. Mentor/mentee roles are created informally and are not required to apply for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program through USC, but are strongly encouraged.

The faculty listed below are willing to be contacted to mentor USC Fulbright applicants.  We recommend that you reach out to a mentor once you have a working draft of your statements. Students are encouraged to connect with faculty mentors during the summer months (May through August), as availability may become limited once the Fall semester begins. Planning ahead is highly recommended to ensure you have ample time to receive thoughtful feedback.

Applicants are also welcome to work with mentors not listed here.  Other ways to find a mentor include:

USC Experts Directory
Search USC faculty experts by name or topic.

Fulbright Scholar Directory
Search faculty and professionals globally by institution and field who have won a Fulbright grant.

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Anthropology

Professor Nancy Lutkehaus | lutkehau@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: Globalization, Transpacific cultures, art, material culture, documentary film, cultural heritage, ethnography, qualitative research methods, visual studies
Region of Expertise: Open to all, worked in Europe, Mexico, Peru, Africa, and Oceania (Indonesia, Melanesia, Polynesia)
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Professor Tok Thompson | tokthomp@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: Folklore, language revitalization, mythology, cyber culture, posthumanism
Region of Expertise: Ireland, Ethiopia, Native America
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Area Studies

Professor Clayton Dube | cdube@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: China, US-China relations, Taiwan; Chinese history, China media
Region of Expertise: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Professor Ivette Gomez | igomez@usc.edu  
Field of Expertise: Latin American literature and cultures, with emphasis in Caribbean cultural studies, Cuba history, US-Cuba relations
Region of Expertise: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Art

Professor Haven Lin-Kirk | linkirk@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: design, art (painting, drawing, printmaking, installations), design theory
Region of Expertise: China, Japan, UK, Croatia, Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Professor Alexis Zoto | weidig@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: Art (sculpture, installation, printmaking, drawing, fiber), Design (2D & 3D)
Region of Expertise: Balkans, especially Albania and Albanian diaspora
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Biological Sciences

Professor Carly Kenkel | ckenkel@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: Marine Environmental Biology
Region of Expertise: Southeast Asia, Australia, other island nations in the Pacific and Indian oceans
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Cinematic Arts

Professor Laura Isabel Serna | lserna@cinema.usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: Cinema and Media Studies, Cultural History
Region of Expertise: Mexico, Latin America
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Communication

Professor Nick Cull | cull@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: Media history, Communication aspects of international relations, public diplomacy
Region of Expertise: Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Professor Colleen Keough | keough@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: Organizational communication, Conflict management
Region of Expertise: Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Comparative Literature

Professor Natania Meeker | nmeeker@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: French literature and philosophy; eighteenth-century culture and society; ecocritique
Region of Expertise: France, Europe
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Education

Professor Alan Green | alangree@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: Counseling psychology, Mental Health Education
Region of Expertise: Caribbean, Guyana, Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Professor Emmy Min | emmymin@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: English Education, Language Education
Region of Expertise: Korea
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Engineering

Professor Urbashi Mitra | ubli@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: Electrical & Computer Engineering, wireless communications, signal processing, information theory
Region of Expertise: United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Professor Antonio Ortega | aortega@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: Signal Processing, Image and video processing, Graphs, Compression 
Region of Expertise: Open to all, I have worked in Europe, Japan and Australia 
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Environmental Studies

Professor David Ginsburg | dginsbur@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: organization and dynamics of natural communities, fields of physiology, chemistry, ecology, as well as environmental policy and management
Region of Expertise: Open to all coastal areas (but have specific expertise in the Antarctic, Indo-West Pacific and Caribbean)
Mentor for: Study/Research only

International Relations

Professor Megan Becker | meganbec@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: International relations, security issues, natural resource politics
Region of Expertise: Africa
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Professor Iva Bozovic | bozovic@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: International political economy, development, economics
Region of Expertise: Eastern Europe, Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Linguistics

Professor Elsi Kaiser |emkaiser@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: Linguistics, psycholinguistics, adult language processing
Region of Expertise: Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Medicine

Professor Laura Ferguson | laura.ferguson@med.usc.edu
Field of Expertise: Global Health, global governance, health and human rights, law and policy
Region of Expertise: Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Professor Win May | winmay@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: Medical Education
Region of Expertise: Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Music

Professor Adam Knight Gilbert | akgilber@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: Music; musicology; performance practice, composition, and improvisation from ca. 1400-ca. 1750; European folk music; Musical symbolism, historical dance poetry and music. Performance of early music (recorder, shawm, bagpipes).
Region of Expertise: Western Europe (Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, UK), some knowledge of Brazil and New World music, Israel.
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Religion

Professor David Albertson | dalberts@usc.edu 
Field of expertise: Religious studies, medieval studies, intellectual history
Region of Expertise: Germany; more generally Europe and UK
Mentor for: Study/Research only

Teaching English as a Second Language

Professor Eric Roth | ericroth@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: Persuasive writing, second language error correction, and fluency-focused communicative activities
Region of Expertise: Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Japan, China, France, Spain, Open to all
Mentor for: ETA only

The Writing Program

Professor Tamara Black | tamarabl@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: Sociology, Gender, Culture, Pedagogy, Economic Sociology, Economics, Social Sciences, Qualitative Research Methods, Ethnography, In-depth Interviewing
Region of Expertise: Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Professor Ryan Boyd | ryanaboy@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: Literature, pedagogy, higher education studies, politics and culture, environmental humanities
Region of Expertise: North America, the UK, Caribbean, Latin America
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Professor Elizabeth Durst | edurst@usc.edu
Field of Expertise: literature, visual arts
Region of Expertise: Russia, Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA

Professor Amanda Hobmeier | hobmeier@usc.edu 
Field of Expertise: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Linguistics, Rhetoric and Composition, Professional Writing, Science Writing, Grant Writing, Teacher Education
Region of Expertise: Indonesia, India, The Philippines, Switzerland, France, England, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico, Open to all
Mentor for: Study/Research and ETA