USC Center for International Studies

Please join us on Wed., May 20 at 11:00 am PDT in SOS B40 and Zoom for a special book talk with Saori N. Katada on her new book, Japan’s Grand Strategy: Liminal Power in an Uncertain World (Oxford University Press). More info. and RSVP at https://forms.gle/uomQxbNxUNHTPt7D9

We are proud to announce that the Third Annual Historical Political Economy (HPE) conference is now accepting proposals. 💻 Deadline for paper proposals is May 30, 2026 ⏰
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeAQnB6oQmGoQ9IgQabZAuu7lxA_KXt7w7s1sl2PhsyS5Rlxw/viewform

Who governs transitional justice—the international regime that aims to deliver truth, justice, and reparations for political violence and guarantees that violence will not be repeated?
Learn more at this book talk by Dr. Kelebogile Zvobgo on April 9 at 10 am. RSVP link in bio. 📚

Who governs transitional justice? Join us on April 9 PDT at 10am on campus or Zoom for a book talk by Dr. Kelebogile Zvobgo: Governing Truth: NGOs and the Politics of Transitional Justice. RSVP through link in bio. 📚

Thank you to Prof. Varun Karekurve-Ramachandra for sharing his working book chapter, Prof. Brett Carter for his discussant remarks, and to all of you for attending our first Comparative Politics Workshop of the academic year today! We look forward to hosting you again next week for an International Relations Workshop. Until then 👋✨

The Gender and Politics in East Asia Conference, organized by Christian Dyogi Phillips () and Jeong Hyun Kim () was a success!!! Two days of scholarship and academic community building. Thank you to .ksi & for cosponsoring.

Stay tuned for more photos from this wonderful conference! 🌏

Practice Conference Talks: APSA Edition complete ✅ Thank you to POIR PhD students and candidates Yeiyoung Choo, Seungjin Han, Damin Jung, and Saran Uthayakumar for giving us a preview of next week’s conference. 👀

Up next: Practice Conference Talks for ISA West 🔜

We had such a blast today at the CIS & POIR End-of-Year Reception! It was wonderful to see everyone come together to celebrate the end of another academic school year. Sally Pratt, Saori Katada, Brian Palmer-Rubin, and Miguel Hijar-Chiapa gave some great remarks highlighting recent accomplishments by the POIR community.

Lastly, we’re wishing Professor Wayne Sandholtz a wonderful retirement and thank him for all of his years of service and mentorship at USC! 💛❤️✌️

And just like that… this academic year’s IR/CP Workshop Series has come to an end! Thank you to everyone who attended our last comparative politics workshop today. We had Prof. Evan Lieberman (also a CIS director!) visit from MIT to present his paper, “Ethnicity and Climate Dissensus in Africa.” Gaea Morales, POIR PhD candidate, gave great discussant remarks. We look forward to seeing you all one last time before summer at next week’s CIS-POIR End-of-Year Reception! 🎉🙌

We had our last international relations workshop of the spring semester today! Daphne Yang, POIR PhD candidate, presented her paper “The Need for De-securitization: Analyzing Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry Development,” which is co-written by Prof. Saori N. Katada. Cindy Li, POIR PhD student, gave some great discussant remarks. We’ll see you all again next week for the last comparative politics workshop! 🎇✨