Staff Spotlight: Meet Polly Brown, Walker Institute

Name: Polly Brown Title: Administrative assistant and conference coordinator Department: Richard L. Walker Institute of International and Area Studies How long have you worked at USC? Since 1973. I started in the psychology department from 1973 to 1980, I was in the history department from 1980 to 1994, and then I came to the Walker Institute. What are your job duties? My major responsibility is to provide administrative duties for Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies, Islamic Studies, Russian Studies and African Studies. I maintain their budgets and their daily administrative activities and I also coordinate conferences, seminars, and events for those six programs. I have just finished working on my sixth conference of the year, an international calligraphy conference that was held in New York City last year. What has happened in your area this year? Dr. Gordon Smith is the new director of Walker Institute and area studies and he has been very supportive of the area studies programs. In March we did a conference in Mexico on the migration of Mexicans to South Carolina. In April, we co-sponsored a conference with Clemson University, and we convened an international conference on democracy in Confucian societies. We also held a conference on the Presidential Election of 2004 and its Aftermath in Taiwan in September. And there will be more conferences and fund raising continuing through the end of the year. What do you like about your job? Each of our areas has so much going on, which is exciting. And these are international conferences that bring in interesting people from around the world. I also get to travel a bit. In July 2002, I was acting principal investigator for a Fulbright group going to South Korea for a month. There were 18 of us, and it was my job to manage the daily budget and activities for 28 days. We visited a lot of national museums, palaces, war memorials, temples, cities, parks, and the Demilitarized Zone along the North Korea-South Korea border. The Korean people were overwhelmingly friendly and inviting. During the trip, I was in a tailor’s shop and on the wall there was a photograph of Walker Institute founder Richard L. Walker—he was ambassador to Seoul for years and he had gotten his clothes made by this tailor. I was proud to be there. Earlier this year, I went to Mexico in March to help with registration and other conference related duties for a Latin American Studies conference. Do you do any traveling on your own? My husband and I travel to New York City a good bit; I love New York and I love the theater. My son David is an actor there. He has been appearing in the play The Exonerated. He is also wrapping up a movie version of The Exonerated, and is producing a documentary about some of his childhood friends. Recently I attended a conference in Caracas, Venezuela, with a group from Benedict College. I was invited by Dr. Norma Jackson, the director of the Institute of International Studies, to a conference on slavery. I did not realize that so much of the population—40 percent—is still black, and these people have maintained their African roots. While I was there, I met President Hugo Chavez and spent the day with him and his Cabinet members. I also met Cuban doctors who were giving free medicine and help to the country. I visited clinics, schools, an oil refinery, and factories where people were being re-trained to make t-shirts for export. It was a very special trip. 10/04