Program Assistant Writing Beyond the Prison

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The USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters Arts and Sciences is seeking a Program Assistant to work with the Dornsife Prison Education Projects Readers Circle. The largest and oldest of the USC schools USC Dornsife functions as the academic core of the university offering courses and advancing knowledge across the humanities social sciences and natural sciences.

Writing Beyond the Prison is an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Digital Justice Grantfunded project led by The Readers Circle the United Black Family Scholarship Foundation and the Herstory Writers Network.

Writing Beyond the Prison (WBP) builds a digital-justice ecosystem through supporting the work of incarcerated writers. The project will prepare a series of manuscripts by writers in custody for editorial mentorship publication and archival addition WBP will produce two digital curricula on trauma-informed writing and cooperative governance to enable incarcerated learners to develop their craft and leadership skills. By integrating humanities education digital access and authorship pathways the project advances equity strengthens academic and community scholarship and centers the intellectual labor of people historically excluded from digital learning.

Writing Beyond the Prison emerged from over two decades of work by incarcerated United Black Family Scholarship Foundation (UBFSF) founder Ivan Kilgore whose workshops and literacy programs were built from the lived experiences of people inside California prisons. The Readers Circle (housed at the University of Southern California as part of the Dornsife Prison Education Project) is a volunteer-based editing network that pairs volunteer readers with incarcerated writers seeking feedback on their creative and non-fiction work. Together UBFSF and The Readers Circle will oversee a series of workshops involving editorial processes to guide submitted manuscripts through compilation editing and feedback publication and digital archiving as part of this Digital Justice grant.

We seek a Program Assistant (part-time fixed-term) to support grant-funded operations for 18 months. Working closely with the project Co-Investigators the Program Assistant will plan and execute three consecutive 16-week-long workshops providing compilation and formatting editing and feedback and publication support on book-length texts submitted by incarcerated writers.

Responsibilities:

• Recruit vet and train incoming volunteer editors for each workshop
• Coordinate incoming and outgoing manuscripts and ensure that volunteer editors adhere to a completion timeline
• Oversee and (where necessary) implement systems and databases for processing storing reviewing and returning manuscripts
• Communicate regularly with authors (via digital prison communication platforms and the mail) and mediate between editors and authors to ensure manuscripts meet author expectations
• Support volunteer editors by offering weekly working groups one-on-one meetings and email Q&A support
• Ensure edited manuscripts are up to publishing standard and meet each authors requirements
• Perform additional editing and formatting when necessary
• Communicate with the Workshop Assistant and correctional facility staff to ensure manuscripts reach authors and mailing requirements are met
• Coordinate and oversee workshop support provided by the Workshop Assistant
• Report to Readers Circle and UBFSF leadership as needed to coordinate the project
  

Preferred qualifications:

• Passionate about the intersection between writing and social justice
• Experience and/or commitment to working with system-impacted communities or individuals
• Organized and detail-oriented with superior time management skills
• Responsive and reliable with excellent written communication skills
• Capable of multitasking and prioritizing projects according to a fluctuating workload
• Happy solving problems independently as well as working collaboratively as needed
• Working knowledge of Google Workspace (Docs Sheets Drive etc.)

Work hours will fluctuate according to workflow of the three workshops (which run alongside USCs academic semesters) averaging 18 hours per week across the 18-month grant period beginning on September 1 2026.

Salary range:The hourly rate range for this position is $25.00 - $26.75. When extending an offer of employment the University of Southern California considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position the candidates work experience education/training key skills internal peer equity federal state and local laws contractual stipulations grant funding as well as external market and organizational considerations.

Performs other related duties as assigned or requested. The university reserves the right to add or change duties at any time.

Required Documents and Additional Information:

• Resume and cover letter required (may be uploaded as one file). Please do not submit your application without these documents.
• Part-time fixed term position.
• Candidates may be local to Los Angeles (preferred) or remote.
• Job openings are posted for a minimum of (5) five business days. This job may be removed from posting boards and filled any time after the minimum posting period has ended so please apply on the same business day if interested.

USC is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin protected veteran status disability or any other characteristic protected by law or USC policy. USC observes affirmative action obligations consistent with state and federal law. USC will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal records in a manner consistent with applicable laws and regulations including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for employers and the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance and with due consideration for patient and student safety. Please refer to theBackground Screening Policy Appendix Dfor specific employment screen implications for the position for which you are applying.

We provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants with questions about access or requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact USC Human Resources by phone at or by email at. Inquiries will be treated as confidential to the extent permitted by law.

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